Is Waste Essential to Sustainability?

Elephant ears in the fryer

Recently, I visited Portland's Oregon Zoo with my wife and daughter.  Besides enjoying the animals, especially Samudra, the now not-so-small baby elephant, we made some purchases.  First were two elephant ears for my wife and daughter: tasty, zoo-themed slabs of fried dough slathered with butter and sugar.  At the end of our visit, we stopped in the gift shop, where my ten-year-old daughter got a stuffed animal.  In the gift shop, a sign announced an upcoming renovation that would enhance the shop's sustainability, with new bamboo shelves and paints with low levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

The sign got me thinking.  Certainly, the zoo's activities embody sustainability: education about the precious diversity of life; breeding and sometimes even releasing endangered species; and contributing to the economic well-being of the Portland metropolitan area.  But the concession stands and gift stores sell a lot of junk food that isn't good for us and souvenirs that we don't really need, like plastic toys, stuffed animals and T-shirts.

But everyone likes souvenirs, and they contribute to the economic viability of the zoo.   So, are they a good thing?   It seems that unnecessary consumption is an essential fundraising tool for even the worthiest of causes.   Consider the charity auctions and galas that consume significant resources just to get people to come and donate.  Why not just donate everything directly to the charity?  But I imagine that just asking people to write a check doesn't work as well.

"The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization" Guides Leaders of all Stripes

We expect organizations to be corrupt and dysfunctional, requiring watchdogs to keep them on track. We expect their leaders to be venal and short-sighted, on the verge of being uncovered by investigators. Peter Senge, however, in the 2006 revision of this 1990 management classic, provides a convincing and inspiring guide for building successful organizations that adapt to change while nurturing their members.  Learning organizations see their members, operations and surroundings as a connected whole, and use each of their members to continually sense, interpret and adapt to change. A learning organization must continually engage in five disciplines:

1. Personal Mastery,  in which individuals develop personal visions while seeing the world exactly as it is.    They harness the resulting "creative tension" to focus their efforts on realizing these visions.
2. Mental Models, which are ways of consciously and unconsciously perceiving the world.  All models are simplifications and therefore limiting.  Many are useful, but often we are not conscious of the models we embrace and the limits they impose.  Therefore we can achieve new levels of success by becoming conscious of these models and deliberately evolving them.  

"Inventing Niagara" Tells Unique History of Cultural Icon

My parents honeymooned at Niagara Falls in 1955.  I visited once in the early 1980s.  I've always thought of it as a natural attraction surrounded by lots of tourist traps in a region struggling with its post-industrial economic fate.   Ginger Strand's "Inventing Niagara:  Beauty, Power and Lies"  gave me a comprehensive tour, including the seventeenth-century discovery of the falls by LaSalle and Hennepin, treaties and conflict with Native Americans, early landownership, tourist development, hydro-power development, massive industrial contamination, and contemporary economic renewal efforts.

Today, Niagara Falls, while still beautiful and popular, is at the beck and call of hydro-power operators.  Half to three-quarters of the Niagara River is diverted for electrical power generation, but the falls have been rebuilt so that they still appear vigorous and full.  They are actually turned up each morning during the peak tourist season and turned down each night to capture more water to generate electricity.

"The Ghost Map" Portrays a Triumph of Science over Stubborn Ignorance

 A variant of Dr. Snow's map, showing 1854 cholera cases in London
clustered around the Broad Street pump (click to enlarge)

Steven Johnson's 2006 book, selected for Portland's Everybody Reads 2010 program, is a gripping and rigorous work of historical nonfiction and interdisciplinary analysis.  It shares many urban concepts with Jeb Brugmann's Welcome to the Urban Revolution and David Owen's Green Metropolis, but approaches them differently.  "The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World"chronicles the 1854 cholera epidemic that struck London, a vast city  overwhelmed by accumulations of human waste.  City leaders and physicians, deeply convinced of the notion that miasmas, or foul smells, cause cholera despite clear evidence to the contrary,  were ineffective and often counterproductive in combating the disease.   "The Ghost Map" tells the story of physician John Snow and cleric Henry Whitehead, who traced the source of disease to a neighborhood pump contaminated by seepage from an adjacent cesspool.    

"Welcome to the Urban Revolution" Navigates the Essentials of Successful Cities

By 2050, 70% of the world’s people will reside in cities, and the world’s population will likely peak at over 9 billion.    While people have been migrating to cities since the advent of agriculture the final phase of this migration will occur in the coming decades.  During this final phase, the world is organizing into networks of increasingly interconnected cities that are challenging nation-states for world influence.  By the middle of this century,  Jeb Brugmann envisions an interconnected Global City, which he explains in "Welcome to the Urban Revolution: How Cities are Changing the World".  

What makes cities successful and migration from rural to urban areas so inevitable?   Brugmann identifies four urban advantages that attract migrants and drive prosperity:  density, scale, association and extension.  Urban enterprises that involve large numbers of people or goods in close proximity benefit from cities' density and scale.    Similarly, urbanites migrants have the opportunity to associate with a greater volume and variety of people relative to their rural counterparts.   The final urban advantage, extension, hinges on the superior urban communications and transportation infrastructure, along with familial and communal  relationships that persist through diasporas.  

City residents can combine the four urban advantages very powerfully through the organic or intentional practice of urbanism.   The citysystems that result are tightly coupled value networks that nurture and exploit the economic, social and cultural assets of urban residents.   Brugmann describes the migration of rural cattle herders to Dharavi, a suburb of Mumbai.   Urban migrants and their descendants use their familial and communal connections  to procure hides from the countryside. Dharavi leather industry workers produce high-quality goods in the dense, multipurpose neighborhoods in which they live and work, often in mixed use structures.  Their finished leather  goods find markets in the upscale stores of Mumbai, but are also distributed globally through Mumbai’s port facilities.  While this example of urbanism is organic, or unplanned, Brugmann sees intentional urbanism as critical to sustainable urban futures, and his book serves as a primer to aspiring urbanists.

Citysystems are robust, durable and adaptable, since they are owned, nurtured and governed by their residents.  But if the local establishment denies its communities

Where We're Headed

I have been blogging for about five months now, and my typical end-of-year vacation has given me some time to think about where this blog is headed.  I've decided to focus on helping readers understand and exploit economic, social, environmental and technological developments for the sake of their careers, organizations and communities.

The "Urban Age" is upon us, with more than half of us, since 2008, living in cities or towns (first video). By 2050 nearly 70% of the world's 9 billion people will live in urban areas. Nearly all growth from now until then will occur in poorer countries. By 2050, 90% of the world's 1.2 billion youth (aged 15 to 24) will live in developing countries, and over 80% will live in Africa or Asia. Even these statistics presume increased adoption of family planning in developing countries.

Nine billion of us will have to face the effects of climate change.  It is very likely that increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere resulting largely from human activity will contribute to increased average temperatures and rising sea levels.  These conditions could displace hundreds of millions of  people from their homes and are leading to conflicts as ethnic, religious, and political divisions are exacerbated by contention for agricultural land and water.

On the other hand, computing and communications technologies and the media that exploit them may be able to provide some relief.  For those with access, the Internet of the future will enable virtual experiences, as well as information sharing and recombination (mashups) that we can barely imagine today  (second video).  Increasingly, we are exchanging information remotely in order to operate global value networks that reduce risk and increase efficiency.  Even warfighting is becoming virtual, with drone pilots at a US base flying missions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

San Franciscan Praises Portland's Green Streets

Matthew Roth profiles Portland, Oregon's atreet designs that combine stormwater treatment with safety and convenience for cyclists and pedestrians on sf.streetsblog.org,   Like many cities with older sewer systems, Portland is subject to combined sewer overflow (CSO), in which precipitation combines with sewage to overwhelm the sewage treatment system, resulting in unsanitary discharges into the Willamette River and the Columbia Slough.  Portland is addressing this problem through a twenty-year program to construct tunnels and pipes  which will transport stormwater to wastewater treatment facilities, eliminating the vast majority of CSO volume.  Interested readers can follow Rosie the Tunnel-Boring Machine on Twitter!

In addition to these massive investments, Portland places swales, planters and rain gardens on streets to absorb and filter stormwater before it reaches storm sewers.

For bicyclists, Portland provides bike lanes and bike boxes, which help prevent collisions, particularly between cyclists going straight and motorists turning right.  Portland's first bike track on SW Broadway gives cyclists an entire car-width lane that is separated from the motorized traffic by a line of parked cars.  For pedestrians, there are sidewalks and bulbouts, which extend curbs to calm traffic and improve visibility for both pedestrians and drivers.

All in all, Portland has much to be proud of in its efforts to make streets safe, accessible and sustainable.  What do you think?  What else could Portland be doing to improve its streets?

Clean Tech Courses Offer Unusual Opportunity to Local Professionals

I have been volunteering with the Clean Tech Advisory Group sponsored by Worksystems, Inc. and the Oregon Training Network. In order to empower professionals who live or work in Multnomah or Washington counties, we have designed a series of world-class local courses at bargain prices thanks to federal subsidies. The theme is sustainability: best practices for improving the financial, social and environmental results of your organization.   Explore the courses that interest you, and be sure to sign up right away!

Integrating Sustainability Into Your Business Practices  November 18-19.  Learn how and why organizations embrace sustainability, and how it benefits them.  Develop a sustainability plan for an aspect of your own organization.  This course is led by business consultant Phil Berry who, as director of footwear sustainability at Nike, was one of the leaders that built the best corporate environmental program in the United States" according to Business Ethics Magazine (2006).  Register Now


Managing Virtual Teams December 1-2.  Learn how to establish, lead and manage teams that cannot regularly work face-to-face.  Develop plans for improving your organization's virtual work environment. Instructor Mark Molau has held senior management positions at Hewlett-Packard, Price Waterhouse and Microsoft, and has  developed and led a variety of multinational organizations and strategies.  Register Now

Taking Advantage Of Externally Hosted Platforms And Applications  December 7-8.   Learn to evaluate IT solution hosting options from dedicated hardware to cloud computing and optimize your organization's hosting investment.  Among their myriad IT leadership experiences, instructors Manoj Garg and Jackie Baretta are former CIOs of WebEx Communications and Con-way respectively.   Register Now

Understanding Energy Management and Measurement for Your Company  December 14-15.    Learn how to measure and reduce your organization's energy consumption.   By the end of this course, you will develop an opportunity to enhance one of your organization's product or services by reducing energy consumption.    Instructor Phil Berry was chosen by Vice President Al Gore as one of 1,000 people trained to deliver his climate change presentation.  Register Now

Missouri DOT Video Illustrates How Highways Deteriorate Over Time

Damage from heavy traffic, trucks and water seepage lead to a
huge reconstruction cost, despite repeated resurfacing.
Video illustrates fifty years of wear in just two minutes.

"Trucking Country" Navigates a Web of Cheap Food, Low Wages, and Agribusiness

It is a frequent contention of political liberals that working-class people that support unbridled "free market" competition have somehow been duped into voting against their own economic interests. But Shane Hamilton paints a darker picture in Trucking Country: the road to America's Wal-Mart economy: an alliance between big business, consumers and their political patrons that leaves the working class devoid of powerful allies. What's more, the University of Georgia history professor from a Wisconsin farming family traces some of the cause to the organized actions of the workers themselves.

The story begins with the "farm problem": How do we maintain a steady supply of food coupled with low prices for workers. One approach pursued by the US government has been to encourage farms to be larger and more efficient agribusinesses. This policy, along with generations of struggling farmers selling out to their neighbors, has led to larger, specialized farms. As farms got bigger, the remaining farmers had to focus on running them, rather than taking their increasing volume of produce to market. So, beginning in the 1920s, former farmers and others looking for work in rural areas went into trucking.

In 1935, Congress regulated interstate trucking, but exempted haulers of unprocessed and some minimally processed food products. The trucking industry as a whole was regulated by the Interstate Commerce Commission, which put up regulatory barriers that stabilized freight prices and fostered the ascendancy of large, unionized trucking firms. These firms along with the membership of the Teamsters Union benefited from government investment in the trucking industry and infrastructure such as the Interstate Highway System.

Over time, government-subsidized agribusiness got even larger and more powerful, and the power of the Teamsters union peaked and began to erode. At the same time, individual owner operators and owners of smaller trucking firms grew increasingly resentful about the regulatory barriers that prevented them from competing in much of the trucking marketplace. The 1973-74 OPEC oil embargo intensified independent truckers' dissatisfaction, and radicalized elments of a rebellious, freedom-loving trucking culture. Finally, the a confluence of political forces--neopopulist truckers, free-market advocates from across the political spectrum, neoconservatives, and even Ralph Nader--led to the passage of the Motor Carrier Act of 1980, which deregulated the trucking industry.

While deregulation provided more opportunities for truckers and fostered some entrepreneurial successes, it ultimately led to consolidation of large, low-cost transportation providers; massive, rural factory farms and slaughterhouses served by low-cost trucking; lower prices for consumers; and lower wages and poorer conditions for all workers in the food supply chain. But truckers agitated for deregulation. Were they hoodwinked into advocating against their own economic interests? Hamilton contends that they were not, arguing that deregulation was the best deal that they could get in a world shaped by powerful business interests and their political patrons.

This is an absorbing and sobering book. It nicely complements the work of Michael Pollan, who has focused on the ecological, health and social consequences of industrial food production.

"Big Rig" Shows Need for Sustainable National Logistics

I recently happened on the DVD "Big Rig", a 2007 documentary by Doug Pray on the transportation shelves of my local library. And I'm glad I did. The film spans the US with interviews with truckers and those who serve them. It is beautifully and movingly filmed, with panoramas of cities, mountains, and plains providing a visual counterpoint to many interviews within the confines of a moving cab. The soundtrack is an unusually catchy mix of eclectic hip-hop-, blues-, and country-influenced songs by Buck 65, with a smattering of old country trucker ballads thrown in.

Certainly, as many other reviewers have said, "Big Rig" vividly and convincingly portrays the courage, perseverance, dedication, camaraderie, and faith of those that drive trailer trucks across our country, carrying rivers of consumer goods and raw materials that are critical to our economy and lifestyles. But it also portrays the destructive and tragic side of long-haul trucking. The scenes of smoggy cities girdled with truck-clogged freeways make a clear case for policies that encourage intermodal transport, consumption of local products, and less consumption overall.

The toll on truckers is apparent also. The majority appear haggard and unhealthy, and talk of failed marriages and other casualties of spending most of their lives on the road. Many of the interviewees have achieved financial stability along with a sense of autonomy and self-worth through trucking, and enjoy their work. But some have also become reactionary and resentful, railing against a federal government that suppressed Native Americans and built railways, irrigation projects, and highways so the entire country could be traversed, settled and farmed. The same government uses its treasure, influence, and military might to secure much of the oil necessary to fuel the trucks they drive and power.

This film tells us that sustainable logistics could help heal not only our planet, but also the fabric of individuals and communities that comprise our nation.

Could encouraging telework discourage mobile phone use while driving?

Driving while texting or talking on mobile phones is a major safety hazard that many people dismiss. It turns out that the US National Highway Traffic Safety administration studied the risks in 2002-2003, but saw them as too insignificant to justify regulation, and did not release their internal reports.

I have taken many direct or conference calls over the years where one of the participants, often someone in sales or consulting has been driving. In addition, I have used a mobile phone while driving in the past, but have gradually weaned myself from the practice.

At the beginning of next year, handheld cellphone usage--but not other forms, which experts say are equally hazardous--will likely be against the law in Oregon. Some experts advocate a blanket ban on all mobile phone usage while driving, since the safety impacts of this practice have been shown to be as serious as drunk driving.

What's really happening here is that people are teleworking while they are driving. Phasing in such a ban while encouraging employers to support telework could have a number of positive effects.

• Productivity. Workers who need to make a lot of phone calls could begin and end their workdays at home, where they could use a PC at the same time, and either commute more efficiently between rush hours, or just work at home a few days a week.
• High-tech business growth. Unified communications and team collaboration technology makes it easier to find and connect with people wherever they are, and PC desktop sharing and videoconferencing is becoming a reality for many people. A ban on mobile phone use while driving would make these technologies more attractive.
• Work-life integration. With wider acceptance of work-anywhere practices and tools, people with a variety of obligations and interests outside of work could support themselves while living true to their values.
• Reduced environmental impact. Less commuting, or just less commuting during peak hours could reduce carbon emissions and transportation-related consumption.

In fact, legislation is not the only solution. Prohibitions could be phased through the policies of socially responsible employers or the guidelines of industry groups, since many behind-the-wheel conversations take place on phones paid for by employers.

Do you text or talk on the phone while driving? What could get you to stop? Do you think that legislators or employers should prohibit this practice? If you need some inspiration before posting a comment, check out this widely circulated video of a bus driver texting and then crashing.