The Natural Step

I watched a documentation last night titles "A passion for sustainability". It's about a dozen businesses in Portland, Oregon, "the most sustainable city in the US". Ah! Already learned something new. As a matter of fact the footage of Portland was not bad, I almost want to go there but since it's in the US (security mania) I will not bother. The documentation introduced very different companies and how they turned their business practices into sustainable practices, considering the impact on planet Earth all along. At the same time these companies apparently increased their bottom line as well. 

There was a fashion designer (Anna Cohen) who designs clothing from soya, seaweed, hemp, and organic cotton fabrics; the pizza shop (Hotlips) that sources the ingredients locally, some even grown within city limits; an auto repair shop (Hawthorne Auto), a builder (Neil Kelly) that constructs attractive energy and material efficient house; a city developer; a water provider (Tualatin Valley Water District); a wood company (The Collins Companies) that manages its own forests, sawmills, produces particle boards etc; an architecture's office that designed an affordable housing project; a cleaning company (Terra Clean) that runs its trucks and vacuum cleaners on used kitchen oils that they collect from local restaurants; an organic winery; a carpentry that produced high end furniture, and  an engineering consultant (PAE). Last but not least it included NIKE that has a large, posh "campus" in Portland. I suppose that's the headquarters and where the designers sit, it's certainly not where the gear is produced which put me off a little. 

These, and more, companies follow the principles of The Natural Step, a NGO found about 20 years ago by Swedish Dr Karl-Henrik Robert. Although it was interesting to watch at the end the documentation became a kind of advertisement for The Natural Step. They way these business owners talked about it was a bit too "up-scale" for me though. I also could not follow the interview with Dr. Robert. Maybe, doctors and business owners are so terribly smart, educated, experienced, ... that they have to sound so sophisticated but hey when it comes to the environment, aka our planet, we are all in the same boat so keep it simple please. My hubby said it sounds like a "cult" they are talking about. But yes, I'm glad they do something. These businesses are leaders in what they do and hopefully pass on the bug to others. No, I would not shop at these businesses because they serve people with considerably higher incomes. (Considering we statistically belong to low-income-families in Canada I assume there's plenty of people out there who can afford the services or products of these businesses.) 

Products that are manufactured sustainably do not fall into the category of "affordable for everyone" something that I am not sure about will ever change. To a certain degree I don't think it can or should be changed. After all, what would be mass-produced, single-use/ throw-away items that are sustainable? Sounds like an antithesis to me. 

But organisations like The Natural Step bring us one step closer to a better future.  

http://www.thenaturalstep.org/en/canada
http://www.naturalstepusa.org/