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The tide has turned to green business.
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There are many sides to any examination of green and environmental issues (or any issue for that matter) in Seattle. The general perception – mostly created by the media – is that Seattle is a liberal bastion where environmentalists rule the land.
There have been many likely sources for this perception over the years, but the latest wave may have gotten its start in some interesting rulings made by the Seattle City Council over the last few years that got media attention. For example, in 2000, the council voted on a number of initiatives that got national media attention and convinced the nation that we were quite liberal:
- They voted to ban circus animals within the city limits. While this brought to light the long-standing claims that circus animals are mistreated, the way they went about it made the city look silly.
- The council passed a resolution asking Congress and the president to reduce the threat of nuclear weapon proliferation and urging nuclear vessels to steer clear of community celebrations.
- The council passed a resolution favoring partial removal of four Snake River dams to restore salmon runs. The costs would have been huge.
At this same time, the San Francisco city council was considering changing the term "pet owner" to "pet guardian" in all city documents. It is human nature for people to make sweeping judgments about any city from reports like these. But making such judgments overlooks the complex dynamics and diversity of opinion present in any city.
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Port of Seattle (Courtesy "Under Consideration")
In a 2005 study done by the Center for Voting Research in Berkeley, California, US cities were ranked as liberal or conservative based on their voting patterns in the 2004 elections. Seattle ranked 16th on the liberal cities list (Detroit was #1). San Francisco ranked ninth. But how a city votes doesn’t tell the whole story. Seattle often appears on the nations ten best cities lists, but it ranks 27 on the nations 50 cleanest cities list. The air quality around port cities is the most toxic in Washington due to all the ocean-going, diesel fueled ships that have minimal air pollution controls.
Like any other city, Seattle is an amalgam, a collection of diverse and often divergent points of view. There are billionaires (Bill Gates is now the world’s richest man once again), there is the boating community, the lumber industry, the high-tech industry, and everything in-between. There is a strong conservative base, largely due to, I think, the “rugged individualist” mentality common throughout the Northwest. A number of national environmental organizations don’t have offices in Seattle. It is actually pretty difficult to get significant numbers of people to get involved in direct activism.
Seattle began in 1851 when a party of settlers arrived with the intention of building a city in anticipation of the arrival of the transcontinental railroad. The 17 Native American villages that existed in the area at the time soon were absorbed and the inhabitants scattered. To this day, Native Americans struggle for identity, acknowledgment, and their very lives in Seattle. It has been a region that has been business-focused from day one.
Seattle from Space Needle Observation Deck
Its location though, nestled among the islands and waters of the beautiful Puget Sound, encourages everyone, liberal, conservative, young, old, native or transplant to, at some time during their day or week or month, consider the natural wonders of the Earth. You don’t have to be an environmental professional to look at all that beauty and to realize that the hundreds of thousands of people that surround it must be having an impact.
While the effects of pollution are not always visible and it is much easier on the psyche to pretend to not think about it, most of us carry around the awareness that driving, boating, flying, manufacturing, and consumption of any kind releases potentially harmful substances into our earth, air, and water. You know that driving a car releases lots of pollution. You know that although your trash gets carried away each week, it still has to go somewhere. But you have to get to work and put your garbage out.
What to do about it all is not so clear.
We have all heard phrases like lessening impact, reducing our footprint, sustainable practices, etc., but how do we factor those concepts into our daily lives? And if you practice sustainable living at home, what good has it done if you buy things from businesses that recklessly pollute? We are all grappling with these questions.
In their June 12, 2006 edition, the Puget Sound Business Journal declared “'Green' business practices enter the mainstream.” The story citied the example of how orders for the fuel-efficient Boeing 787 rose from only 56 in 2004 to 235 in 2005, during the time when oil prices soared to record levels. The story also cited Wal-Mart, who got “high marks for repackaging a brand of China-made toys in a way that saves 497 fewer cargo container trips, 3,800 trees and 1,000 barrels of oil a year.”
Clearly the times had begun to shift. Parade Magazine, in their May 21, 2006 edition, invited homeowners to enjoy "less financial stress, less maintenance, more freedom and more comfort in fewer square feet.” The article suggested four reasons to downsize, to reduce the "Street of Dreams" mentality.
Also that year, industry sustainability forums in Seattle and Portland brought many business leaders together to discuss the new trends toward sustainability. At the forum, Eric Schooler, CEO of the Collins Companies Inc., spoke. Collins, a 150-year-old family forest products firm based in Portland has practiced sustained yield forestry since 1943. They have been reducing their “footprint” since 1996. They increased production of finished lumber by 18 percent while reducing environmental impacts by 9 percent. Schooler's conclusion seems to be the new mantra of the green business trends: "Sustainability increases profitability."
More and more people are realizing that being “green” – reducing resource and energy use, recycling, and more – isn’t a liberal or conservative cause. You don’t have to be a member of any particular political party. Whether you are doing it because you want to reduce your impact on the Earth or reduce your expenses, it doesn’t matter. The outcome is the same. The planet, all of us, and our children, may live a little longer.
See Seattle Times article about city council rulings in 2000.
If you enjoyed this article, you might be interested in my other articles:
Organic food business is booming.
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