Bright green future
Home » Magazine » Good, issue 3 » The goods » Bright green futureA factory that emits oxygen, purifies water and nurtures birdlife—why not? The world's leading 'bright green' environmentalists are taking a fresh approach to solving modern business problems. Vincent Heeringa finds out their advice for New Zealand
Here’s a dilemma that’s hard to resolve. As an entrepreneur and natural-born enthusiast my inclination is towards abundance in all things: more food, more travel, more money, more fun, more love, more kids, and more staff in our office making more of everything. Nothing exceeds like excess, as William Blake once said.
At the same time, the earth is groaning under the pressure of unsustainable greed. I know that I must reduce my carbon footprint, stop unnecessary travel and offset that which I cannot eliminate. I need to curtail, reduce, minimise and restrain myself. I must stop being who I am.
You see the dilemma.
Who would have thought that a German industrial chemist might have the solution? Michael Braungart, former Greenpeace activist and author of the best-selling Cradle to Cradle (North Point Press 2002) suggests abandoning the dilemma altogether. He posits a new kind of question: how can we turn our actions from damaging to beneficial?
“We need a new philosophy of abundance—like nature itself. A tree is generous in the way it grows, absorbing the sun’s energy, throwing out oxygen, purifying water, and nurturing birds and insects. Our factories must do the same.
“In fact, all of our activity needs to be beneficial—not ‘less bad’. We must stop apologising for being who we are: active, intelligent, creative human beings. The problem is not that we are alive, the problem is that we are being stupid about it.”
Think of a car that cleans air as it drives; a laundry powder that acts as compost for your garden; a TV that can be entirely recycled into another product, not just once but 200 times. Nice idea? Actually, all of these already exist.
Michael is spearheading a movement dubbed Bright Green, a second generation of environmentalists who argue the traditional approach is insufficient to fix our environmental crisis. These traditionalists include ‘dark greens’ who, say the bright greens, rely on government regulation and ‘name and shame’ activism. Dark greens want a return to nature and are suspicious of technology, since it got us here in the first place.
‘Sustainable Design for the Bottom Line’, a business conference held in September by NZTE’s Better By Design, hosted international bright green leaders. All brought with them the optimistic message that it’s not too late for business to undergo a sustainability revolution. Here are four key ideas that came from the conference.
Optimism rules
Alex Steffen, a former environment journalist, gave up journalism to “embrace the politics of optimism”. Steffen is the founder of Worldchanging, a website and book (HNA Books 2008) that catalogues sustainable innovations.
From top: Michael Braungart, Alex Steffen and Janine Benyus
He says it’s no accident that despair is being encouraged by the powers that be. “The wealthiest and most powerful want to delay a shift to a non-oil economy. But solving the climate crisis is a possibility.” Steffen’s advice for New Zealand: “You have a rare opportunity to prove that it can be done in an OECD country. Get going now!”
Nature’s best
Intelligent, sustainable design is easy to find: it’s in your garden. Janine Benyus is the author of Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature (Harper Perennial 2002), a book showing how mimicking the design of nature can lead to breakthrough science: from spider-silk steel, to concrete from molluscs, to miracle drugs from sea urchins. “New Zealand and Australia are already at the forefront of this trend: keep investing in your science.”
It’s been done
Ray Anderson of global carpet maker Interface experienced a life-changing moment aged 61, when he was asked what he was doing about the environment. The answer was nothing. But reading Paul Hawken’s The Ecology of Commerce (Collins Business 1994) sent Anderson on quest to a zero-waste, zero-emission business.
Fourteen years later, Interface is a leader in sustainability, with key environmental metrics down between 65 and 90 percent and profits doubled. And the lesson: “I challenge people now who say ‘why should we?’ with ‘why wouldn’t you?’ The best proof that it can be done is that it is being done. If we can, you can.”
We’ve only just begun
In case you thought sustainability for was a fad, consider the revolution that Michael Braungart advises. What we currently call corporate social responsibility and sustainability is a shabby way-station on a long, hard journey.
“It’s not enough to say ‘I have stopped bashing my child by 20 percent’. But that’s what we call sustainable. Nor is it good to say ‘this product is sugar-free’ when sugar has been replaced with a toxic chlorinated hydrocarbon, as you find in Coke Zero. Instead of being ‘less bad’ and ‘free from’, we need to being doing good. It’s not even about sustainability. It’s really about human rights.”
