Sustainable Business Operating Principles

Operating Principles

1. NATURAL CAPITALISM

This approach to producing goods and offering services is the cutting edge of sustainable business practices. It has many names including eco-effectiveness and natural capitalism. Some have heralded it as the Next Industrial Revolution. It is based on the belief that natural resources and ecological systems are becoming scarce while human capital (people and all their energy and skills) is becoming greater.

A shift in business practices that follow the principles of whole system design consistent with the design principles outlined below can provide profitable opportunities and, at the same time, drastically reduce destructive pressures on the environment. It should also allow leaders and their employees to feel better about how they work.

System Design Principles
(based on principles outlined in "The New Industrial Revolution" by William McDonough and Michael Braungart (The Atlantic Monthly, October 1998)

Late 1800s
(Industrial Revolution) Late 1900s
Eco-efficiency) Early 21^st Century
(Whole System Design)

Put billions of pounds of toxic materials annually into air, water and soil Release fewer pounds of toxic material into the air, water, and soil every year Introduce no hazardous materials into the air, water, or soil

Measure prosperity by activity not legacy Measure prosperity by less activity Measure prosperity by how much natural capital we can accrue in productive ways

Require thousands of complex regulations to keep people and natural systems from being poisoned too quickly Meet or exceed the stipulations of thousands of complex regulations that aim to keep people and natural systems from being poisoned too quickly

Does not require regulations whose purpose is to stop us from killing ourselves too quickly

Produce materials so dangerous they will require constant vigilance from future generations Produces fewer dangerous materials that will require constant vigilance from future generations Produces nothing that will require future generations to maintain vigilance

Create gigantic amounts of waste Results in smaller amounts of waste Measure progress by how many buildings have no smokestacks or dangerous effluents

Put valuable materials in holes all over the planet, where they can never be retrieved Put fewer valuable materials in holes all over the planet, where they can never be retrieved Measure productivity by how many people are gainfully and meaningfully employed

Erode the diversity of biological species and cultural practices Standardize and homogenize biological species and cultural practices Celebrate the abundance of biological and cultural diversity and solar income

2. THE CERES PRINCIPLES

The Coaltion for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES) is a coalition of investors, public pension funds, foundation, labour unions and environmental, religious and public interest groups, working in partnership with companies toward the common goal of corporate environmental responsbility.

By adopting the CERES Principles companies publicly affirm their belief that corporations must conduct all aspects of their business as responsible stewards of the environment by operating in a manner that protects the Earth.

They also pledge to update their practices constantly in light of advances in technology and new understandings in health and environmental science.

The CERES Principles include statements on:

Protection of the Biosphere
Sustainable Use of Natural Resources
Reduction and Disposal of Wastes
Energy Conservation
Risk Reduction
Safe Products and Services
Environmental Restoration
Informing the Public
Management Commitment
Audits and Reports

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Natural Capitalism - Creating the Next Industrial Revolution

McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry

"In the spring of 1912 one of the largest moving objects ever created by human beings left Southampton and began gliding toward New York. It was the epitome of its industrial age -- a potent representation of technology, prosperity, luxury, and progress. It weighed 66,000 tons. Its steel hull stretched the length of four city blocks. Each of its steam engines was the size of a townhouse. And it was headed for a disastrous encounter with the natural world.

This vessel, of course, was the Titanic -- a brute of a ship, seemingly impervious to the details of nature. In the minds of the captain, the crew, and many of the passengers, nothing could sink it. One might say that the infrastructure created by the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century resembles such a steamship. It is powered by fossil fuels, nuclear reactors, and chemicals. It is pouring waste into the water and smoke into the sky. It is attempting to work by its own rules, contrary to those of the natural world. And although it may seem invincible, its fundamental design flaws presage disaster. Yet many people still believe that with a few minor alterations, this infrastructure can take us safely and prosperously into the future."

From The New Industrial Revolution by William McDonough and Michael Braungart.