Sustainable Business Ideas
Consumerism is Out - Zero Waste Is In

Sustainability has become a business buzz word worn out by misuse.  What most businesses do in the good name of sustainability really amounts to nothing more than working to reduce in various and sundry ways their level of un-sustainability.

Real sustainability is more than the opposite of un-sustainability.  Real sustainability is about the idea that humans and other life on the planet will go on forever in a balanced closed-loop system which is our biosphere.  Sustainability is about life in a functioning system where everything is in balance with everything else - homeostasis.  To quote Teresa Heinz, we need to "... start seeing ourselves as part of the natural world and to replicate the joyful, productive and intelligent practice of life itself."

I don't want to achieve immortality through my work.
I want to achieve it through not dying.
- Woody Allen

Un-sustainability is about slowing down the environmental degradation that is throwing our closed- loop system out of balance.  Slowing down is not a bad thing.  But, if you want to go to Los Angeles when you are actually driving toward New York, slowing down will not help.  When you are headed in wrong direction, you have to turn around to go the other way.

“Business simply cannot function if ecosystems and the services they deliver –
like water, biodiversity, food, fibre and climate regulation – are degraded or out of balance.”
- Björn Stigson, President, WBCSD

If you are looking for a sustainable business idea, you need to look for an opportunity that is headed in the right direction rather than just slowing down the process of heading in the wrong direction.  As consumers, we buy and use too much.  Green products are better than un-green products.  But it is very challenging for most of us to discern the difference.  There is a lot of greenwash in the world.  Read more about my truthful green marketing ideas here.

Earthwatch Institute (Europe), The World Conservation Union, World Business Council for Sustainable Development – WBCSD and the World Resources Institute – WRI released in November 2006 a report about the sustainability challenges business faces in the 21st century.  Read Business and Ecosystems.

World renowned architect and sustainability guru William McDonnough has written extensively about sustainable design, one of his best works being The Hannover Principles written in 1993 and revised in 2003.  The key tenets are:

1. Insist on the right of humanity and nature to co-exist in a healthy, supportive, diverse and sustainable condition.

2. Recognize interdependence. The elements of human design interact with and depend upon the natural world, with broad and diverse implications at every scale. Expand design considerations to recognize even distant effects.

3. Respect relationships between spirit and matter. Consider all aspects of human settlement, including community, dwelling, industry and trade, in terms of existing and evolving connections between spiritual and material consciousness.

4. Accept responsibility for the consequences of design decisions upon human well being, the viability of natural systems and their right to co-exist.

5. Create safe objects of long-term value. Do not burden future generations with requirements for maintenance or vigilant administration of potential dangers due to the careless creation of products, processes or standards.

6. Eliminate the concept of waste. Evaluate and optimize the full life cycle of products and processes to approach the state of natural systems, in which there is no waste.

7. Rely on natural energy flows. Human designs should, like the living world, derive their creative force from perpetual solar income. Incorporate this energy efficiently and safely for responsible use.

8. Understand the limitations of design. No human creation lasts forever, and design does not solve all problems. Those who create and plan should practice humility in the face of nature. Treat nature as a model and mentor, not as an inconvenience to be evaded or controlled.

9. Seek constant improvement by the sharing of knowledge. Encourage direct and open communication between colleagues, patrons, manufacturers and users to link long-term sustainable considerations with ethical responsibility and to reestablish the integral relationship between natural processes and human activity.

The Hannover Principles should be seen as a living document committed to transformation and growth in the understanding of our interdependence with nature so that they may be adapted as our knowledge of the world evolves.

EcoCover is a sustainable business idea with strong and solid prospects for the future for several reasons.

• We take waste paper (up to 87% by product volume) and make a paper mulch mat product that helps plants grow faster and stronger, conserves water and controls weeds without chemicals.
   
• We create zero waste in our manufacturing processes.
   
• Manufacturing EcoCover creates no toxins and no harmful emissions, just a little heat and a little water vapor.
   
• EcoCover has outperformed unsustainable plastic in every independently conducted research trial all around the world.  We offer tangible benefits for agriculture and plant growth with claims based on independently conducted research.
   
• The end result of EcoCover is tilled into the soil, adding food for earthworms and micro organisms and a little additional organic matter.
   
• Agricultural land loss due to over-population, rising seas from global warming and desertification advances in many parts of the world makes increased agricultural productivity imperative for the future.
   
• There is no "away".  The idea of "throwing away" over 30 million acres (12 million hectares) of agricultural plastic mulch every year is unsustainable.  In all parts of the world where plastic is used as mulch, land filling and disposal is a major problem.  EcoCover is zero waste - till it in and replant.  Read Lester Brown's Throw Away Economy In Trouble.
   
• Agriculture is presently heavily dependent on fossil fuel inputs which will rise in prices and increase in scarcity.  Look to your right at Lester Brown's book "Outgrowing the Earth" for sound research based projections about the future of agriculture.  Read about my ideas on agriculture future trends.
   
• EcoCover is a distributed rather than centralized manufacturing business.  The idea is to have many manufacturing plants using local waste paper that would typically go to landfill and manufacturing products that benefit local agriculture.  Read about new initiatives to localize economies such as the January 2007 effort to Localize the Bay Area Economy.
   
• EcoCover is profitable.

The future is EcoCover.

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