This morning I attended the BEST (Businesses for an Environmentally Sustainable Tomorrow) Awards, handed out by the city’s Office of Sustainable Development to businesses “demonstrating an extraordinary commitment to sustainability”.
Mayor Tom Potter began the crack-of-dawn ceremony with what I believe is his first speech devoted to the topic of sustainability. He led a round of applause for the OSD and announced that over the next five years, all city offices will convert to renewable energy. Potter also asserted that Portland’s standards for greenhouse gas emissions will exceed that called for in the Kyoto treaty. And he called upon businesses and environmental advocates to continue a spirit of collaboration and partnership, saying “That’s what sustainability is all about.” (The mayor later ducked out mid-ceremony.)
Next came a keynote address from author Bill McKibbon, who has written several books on the environment including The End of Nature, Hundred Dollar Holiday, and Hope, Human and Wild: True Stories of Living Lightly on the Earth. “What a pleasure it is to be in a city that gets what it’s all about,” McKibbon told the audience.
The author went on to describe how collaboration between business and environmentalists is a key to curbing global warming and other ecological challenges. He noted that fifteen years ago business had a more all-encompassing belief in the invisible hand of economics, but “that sense of how things will look in twenty or thirty years is precisely what the invisible hand can’t account for.” Because of dangerous climate change, he said, “we need other forces” in the form of regulations like Kyoto.
And increasingly industries have learned that these environmentally conscious moves such as reducing carbon emissions actually can enhance business opportunities. Regulation works hand-in-hand with the free market. “If you want a wind turbine, you don’t go looking for it in the US,” McKibbon said by way of example. “You go to Denmark.”
Finally came the awards themselves, handed out by commissioners Erik Sten and Dan Saltzman. Every category seemed to include some recurring nominees: SERA Architects’ sustainable office, a Toyota Motor Sales facility, and PDC’s Lloyd Crossing plan. The actual awards, to name a few, went to projects and organizations like the Portland State University Office of Transportation and Parking for encouraging alternative commuting options; the Fanno Creek Clinic for a remodel that focuses on renewable energy and energy efficiency; the Sustainable Industries Journal for regional coverage of sustainability; Intel and Bon Appetit catering for transforming the Intel in-house cafeteria (which serves 20,000 people a day) to using locally grown and organic foods; the Station Place condos, and two PSU buildings, Broadway housing and Epler Hall, for stormwater management.
Despite the early timeframe, it was very inspiring to hear and see evidence of the good work being done by businesses here to leave a lighter ecological footprint—not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it makes good economic sense too. It’s just too bad what’s happening in Portland is so different from what’s happening in Washington DC.
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