Sharpening the eco-edge
The green advantage is Oregon’s to lose.
By Christina
Williams
The drumbeat of green business is getting louder. Consider:
Green building — suddenly a $7 billion per year national
business — has gone mainstream. Clean energy alternatives
have become sexy money magnets for private investors looking
for the next big thing. Al Gore, the once wooden presidential
candidate, has ridden a PowerPoint presentation and some scary
facts about global warming to celebrity status.
The clincher? Even Wal-Mart, the retail giant that lefties
love to hate, is going green.
Sustainable business practices have moved in from the fringes
and up the corporate agenda, creating an opportunity for Oregon
— a place known globewide for its green trees and green
cred — to claim leadership, export its expertise and
carve out a lucrative niche.
But Oregon can no longer just skate along on its reputation
while the rest of the business world greens itself up.
John Emrick, chairman of catalog retailer Norm Thompson and
green apostle to his industry, puts it this way: “We have
the opportunity to own something that would put Oregon and
Portland on the map. People just assume that we’re the
experts. Do we want to own it?”
Sustainability is maturing into a real market opportunity. The
demand for clean energy alternatives is projected to build a
$100 billion worldwide industry within the next decade. Organic
products continue to find favor with customers, hitting $30
billion in annual global sales and growing at a rate of nearly
10% per year. And companies that are cluing into green-friendly
practices are realizing their own savings in costs such as
energy and transportation, not to mention the goodwill they
curry with ever more savvy consumers.
Oregon is home to some of the brightest minds in green
business, but does anybody know it? Unless there is a concerted
effort to market the state’s expertise, its green edge
will quickly dull.
THE URGENCY IS NOT LOST on some of the state’s leaders.
This month’s Oregon Business Plan summit is assembling
its faithful under the slogan “Gaining Sustainable
Advantage” and will examine ways to leverage
sustainability as a competitive wedge.
The governor-appointed Oregon Innovation Council’s $38
million economic development plan for the 2007 Legislature
includes a proposal for a signature research center focused on
developing innovations for the green marketplace and a bid to
build a commercial-grade wave energy park.
And there is a smattering of other initiatives in the works.
On Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s agenda are a number of green
initiatives, most significantly a plan to provide public
support for renewable energy. The Department of Agriculture is
working with growers cooperative NORPAC and a group of other
partners to create the Oregon Sustainable Agriculture Research
Center. At the University of Oregon’s Lundquist College
of Business, there’s a push to build a first of its kind
research center and MBA concentration on sustainable supply
chain management. The Oregon Forest Resources Institute is
spearheading an initiative to exploit the state’s ample
woody biomass as a source for alternative energy.
The people behind these efforts refer back to last
year’s Oregon Business Plan summit and the frank lecture
by economist Michael Porter, who called Oregon out on having
fallen short in developing an innovation-based economy. Porter
urged business leaders to focus on the state’s strengths
and singled out sustainability and an innate advantage around
natural resources as a good place to start.
Efforts such as the Bio-Economy and Sustainable Technologies
(or, snappily, BEST) Center proposed by the innovation council
play to the research strengths at the state’s
universities — including the Oregon Institute of
Technology, with its established Oregon Renewable Energy
Center, along with the big dogs of PSU, OSU and U of O —
and would position the state to get more national funding to
explore the potential of renewable energy.
“We’ve never, ever, ever made this kind of focused
investment in economic development in this state,” says
Gail Achterman, director of the Institute for Natural Resources
at Oregon State University. “This is the sea change and
it’s happening around sustainability.”
Whether or not there’s enough in the works to bolster
the state’s reputation beyond vaguely green to the
authority on how to develop a thriving economy laced with green
businesses remains to be seen.
IN A WILSONVILLE INDUSTRIAL PARK a low-profile janitorial
chemical and supply company has planted a big, green stake in
the ground. Coastwide Laboratories’ biodiesel-powered
delivery vans are parked outside the warehouse. In the lab, a
suite of environmentally friendly chemicals is put through its
paces.
Strategists take note: Coastwide is a business that has taken
the green advantage and made it pay.
Four years ago, Coastwide introduced a line of cleaners under
the Sustainable Earth brand that is selling like gangbusters
— president Grant Watkinson reports an average of 50% per
year sales growth for the last three years. Watkinson says the
150-employee company has a strong commitment to doing
what’s right — but Sustainable Earth also allows
the company to differentiate itself in a tough business
climate.
“We have a commodity product. How do we create real
value in our supply chain?” poses Rick Woodward,
corporate director of sustainability for Coastwide.
“Indoor air quality is a value, it’s something that
the customer — hospitals, offices, schools — can
relate to. It’s something that makes them feel
good.”
And it’s something that raised Coastwide’s stature
in the industry, leading to a deal in May for the 70-year-old
company to be acquired by Corporate Express, a Colorado-based
office supply company with a keen interest in taking the
Sustainable Earth line national.
Coastwide is just one of a passel of companies grabbing
attention for their sustainable practices — from
architects Gerding Edlen, internationally known for green
building prowess, to catalog retailer Norm Thompson, which is
in the process of disseminating its sustainable practices
throughout its new parent company, Catalog Holdings. Even
technology giants Intel and Hewlett Packard continue to
develop environmental stewardship programs as a way to
polish their corporate citizenship, keep ahead of federal and
international regulations and, oh yes, reduce costs by cutting
down on waste, designing more efficient packaging and making
the company’s stock more appealing to socially conscious
investors.
And the green vibe is starting to pull in other businesses.
When Jason Graham-Nye started looking for a place to start
their environmentally correct flushable diaper company,
gDiapers, he first thought of California. “They’re
probably more green,” he says. “But it’s the
most expensive place to start a business.” He started
looking closer at Portland and discovered a talented creative
community and lots of green-friendly businesses. “Now
investors are all saying that Portland is a hub for interesting
small companies.”
Plenty of entrepreneurial minds are plotting their next moves
around a green advantage — one of the more ambitious is
Nau, a Portland outerwear startup (see story on p. 21) —
and may be looking for a place to set up shop. But unless
they happen to catch wind of Oregon’s nascent
strengths they’re likely to head elsewhere.
THAT’S WHERE MARKETING COMES IN. Aggressive
marketing.
In a gallery space in downtown Denver, on the eve of the 2006
Greenbuild International Conference in November, 500 people
crowded into something called the PDX Lounge to sip vodka
cocktails, nosh local, organic food and ogle the reclaimed and
sustainably produced furnishings. It was purposefully more
hipster scene than tradeshow bland and the exclusive
invitations promised to put visitors in a Portland state of
mind.
In partnership with some 30 green building-related firms, the
lounge was the work of Portland’s Office of Sustainable
Development, which was looking to distinguish the Portland
contingent at a trade show of 10,000 people.
“This is a first,” says Stephanie Swanson,
spokeswoman for OSD. “We’re making sustainability a
priority economic development strategy.”
Portland is also looking to distinguish itself from other
cities — Chicago, San Francisco, Austin — that are
starting to get press for their own green building cred.
“There’s a lot of friendly competition between the
cities. But people have a long way to go to catch up to what
Portland established 30 years ago. We’ve got three
decades of land use and transportation planning behind us and
all that is part of sustainable development,” Swanson
says.
The drumbeat of green business is getting louder. Consider:
Green building — suddenly a $7 billion per year national
business — has gone mainstream. Clean energy alternatives
have become sexy money magnets for private investors looking
for the next big thing. Al Gore, the once wooden presidential
candidate, has ridden a PowerPoint presentation and some scary
facts about global warming to celebrity status.
The clincher? Even Wal-Mart, the retail giant that lefties
love to hate, is going green.
Sustainable business practices have moved in from the fringes
and up the corporate agenda, creating an opportunity for Oregon
— a place known globewide for its green trees and green
cred — to claim leadership, export its expertise and
carve out a lucrative niche.
But Oregon can no longer just skate along on its reputation
while the rest of the business world greens itself up.
John Emrick, chairman of catalog retailer Norm Thompson and
green apostle to his industry, puts it this way: “We have
the opportunity to own something that would put Oregon and
Portland on the map. People just assume that we’re the
experts. Do we want to own it?”
Sustainability is maturing into a real market opportunity. The
demand for clean energy alternatives is projected to build a
$100 billion worldwide industry within the next decade. Organic
products continue to find favor with customers, hitting $30
billion in annual global sales and growing at a rate of nearly
10% per year. And companies that are cluing into green-friendly
practices are realizing their own savings in costs such as
energy and transportation, not to mention the goodwill they
curry with ever more savvy consumers.
Oregon is home to some of the brightest minds in green
business, but does anybody know it? Unless there is a concerted
effort to market the state’s expertise, its green edge
will quickly dull.
THE URGENCY IS NOT LOST on some of the state’s leaders.
This month’s Oregon Business Plan summit is assembling
its faithful under the slogan “Gaining Sustainable
Advantage” and will examine ways to leverage
sustainability as a competitive wedge.
The governor-appointed Oregon Innovation Council’s $38
million economic development plan for the 2007 Legislature
includes a proposal for a signature research center focused on
developing innovations for the green marketplace and a bid to
build a commercial-grade wave energy park.
And there is a smattering of other initiatives in the works.
On Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s agenda are a number of green
initiatives, most significantly a plan to provide public
support for renewable energy. The Department of Agriculture is
working with growers cooperative NORPAC and a group of other
partners to create the Oregon Sustainable Agriculture Research
Center. At the University of Oregon’s Lundquist College
of Business, there’s a push to build a first of its kind
research center and MBA concentration on sustainable supply
chain management. The Oregon Forest Resources Institute is
spearheading an initiative to exploit the state’s ample
woody biomass as a source for alternative energy.
The people behind these efforts refer back to last
year’s Oregon Business Plan summit and the frank lecture
by economist Michael Porter, who called Oregon out on having
fallen short in developing an innovation-based economy. Porter
urged business leaders to focus on the state’s strengths
and singled out sustainability and an innate advantage around
natural resources as a good place to start.
Efforts such as the Bio-Economy and Sustainable Technologies
(or, snappily, BEST) Center proposed by the innovation council
play to the research strengths at the state’s
universities — including the Oregon Institute of
Technology, with its established Oregon Renewable Energy
Center, along with the big dogs of PSU, OSU and U of O —
and would position the state to get more national funding to
explore the potential of renewable energy.
“We’ve never, ever, ever made this kind of focused
investment in economic development in this state,” says
Gail Achterman, director of the Institute for Natural Resources
at Oregon State University. “This is the sea change and
it’s happening around sustainability.”
Whether or not there’s enough in the works to bolster
the state’s reputation beyond vaguely green to the
authority on how to develop a thriving economy laced with green
businesses remains to be seen.
IN A WILSONVILLE INDUSTRIAL PARK a low-profile janitorial
chemical and supply company has planted a big, green stake in
the ground. Coastwide Laboratories’ biodiesel-powered
delivery vans are parked outside the warehouse. In the lab, a
suite of environmentally friendly chemicals is put through its
paces.
Strategists take note: Coastwide is a business that has taken
the green advantage and made it pay.
Green ambition
The time is right for Oregon to establish and exploit its
expertise in sustainable business in a big way.
Here’s a sampling of ways the experts are going
about it:
Oregon Business
Plan
Business leaders gather in January to check in on the
plan and will consider specific action items and policy
recommendations to back that will bolster the
state’s competitive positioning in
sustainability.
Oregon Innovation
Council’s 2006 Innovation Plan
The Oregon Innovation Plan will be presented to the
Legislature as a package of funding recommendations
including $5.2 million to build a commercial-scale wave
energy park in the country and $3 million to launch the
Bio-economy and Sustainable Technologies (BEST) signature
research center. Both efforts draw heft from their intent
to pull university research into green industry.
Oregon Sustainable
Agriculture Resource Center
A much-needed clearinghouse for education, information
and technical support for farmers and others in the ag
world who want to operate with a focus on sustainability
and certify their products for sale under an
earth-friendly label. Should give Oregon ag products a
leg up in the marketplace.
Gov. Ted
Kulongoski’s Energy Independence Agenda
Emboldened by a Democratic majority in the Legislature,
Gov. Kulongoski is marching forward with plans to
introduce a bundle of bills to encourage the
state’s foray into alternative energy sources with
such initiatives as requiring 25% of the state’s
energy to come from renewable sources by 2025 and
establishing tax incentives for expanding the biofuels
business and using renewable energy. It’s important
from the perspective that every green-friendly policy
adopted by the state sends a message to the world that
Oregon is open for green business.
Sustainable Supply
Chain Management Center, University of Oregon’s
Lundquist College of Business
The state’s top-ranked business school is
embracing sustainability with the stated goal of becoming
a world leader in research and practices for a supply
chain managed for environmental improvement. This
first-of-its kind center will be marketed aggressively by
Dean James Bean, who plans to forge links to export
Oregon’s green know-how to China and beyond.
|
Four years ago, Coastwide introduced a line of cleaners under
the Sustainable Earth brand that is selling like gangbusters
— president Grant Watkinson reports an average of 50% per
year sales growth for the last three years. Watkinson says the
150-employee company has a strong commitment to doing
what’s right — but Sustainable Earth also allows
the company to differentiate itself in a tough business
climate.
“We have a commodity product. How do we create real
value in our supply chain?” poses Rick Woodward,
corporate director of sustainability for Coastwide.
“Indoor air quality is a value, it’s something that
the customer — hospitals, offices, schools — can
relate to. It’s something that makes them feel
good.”
And it’s something that raised Coastwide’s stature
in the industry, leading to a deal in May for the 70-year-old
company to be acquired by Corporate Express, a Colorado-based
office supply company with a keen interest in taking the
Sustainable Earth line national.
Coastwide is just one of a passel of companies grabbing
attention for their sustainable practices — from
architects Gerding Edlen, internationally known for green
building prowess, to catalog retailer Norm Thompson, which is
in the process of disseminating its sustainable practices
throughout its new parent company, Catalog Holdings. Even
technology giants Intel and Hewlett Packard continue to
develop environmental stewardship programs as a way to
polish their corporate citizenship, keep ahead of federal and
international regulations and, oh yes, reduce costs by cutting
down on waste, designing more efficient packaging and making
the company’s stock more appealing to socially conscious
investors.
And the green vibe is starting to pull in other businesses.
When Jason Graham-Nye started looking for a place to start
their environmentally correct flushable diaper company,
gDiapers, he first thought of California. “They’re
probably more green,” he says. “But it’s the
most expensive place to start a business.” He started
looking closer at Portland and discovered a talented creative
community and lots of green-friendly businesses. “Now
investors are all saying that Portland is a hub for interesting
small companies.”
Plenty of entrepreneurial minds are plotting their next moves
around a green advantage — one of the more ambitious is
Nau, a Portland outerwear startup (see story on p. 21) —
and may be looking for a place to set up shop. But unless
they happen to catch wind of Oregon’s nascent
strengths they’re likely to head elsewhere.
THAT’S WHERE MARKETING COMES IN. Aggressive
marketing.
In a gallery space in downtown Denver, on the eve of the 2006
Greenbuild International Conference in November, 500 people
crowded into something called the PDX Lounge to sip vodka
cocktails, nosh local, organic food and ogle the reclaimed and
sustainably produced furnishings. It was purposefully more
hipster scene than tradeshow bland and the exclusive
invitations promised to put visitors in a Portland state of
mind.
In partnership with some 30 green building-related firms, the
lounge was the work of Portland’s Office of Sustainable
Development, which was looking to distinguish the Portland
contingent at a trade show of 10,000 people.
“This is a first,” says Stephanie Swanson,
spokeswoman for OSD. “We’re making sustainability a
priority economic development strategy.”
Portland is also looking to distinguish itself from other
cities — Chicago, San Francisco, Austin — that are
starting to get press for their own green building cred.
“There’s a lot of friendly competition between the
cities. But people have a long way to go to catch up to what
Portland established 30 years ago. We’ve got three
decades of land use and transportation planning behind us and
all that is part of sustainable development,” Swanson
says.
In the green building world where Oregon’s leadership
shouldn’t be in question, this kind of marketing —
only more of it — is exactly what Oregon should be doing,
leaders say.
Mike Russo, sustainable management wiz at the U of O’s
Lundquist College of Business, recommends emphasizing the
hard-nosed, bottom-line need for doing business in a
sustainable way. “People are starting to say,
‘We’ve known about sustainability but there’s
this whole other side to this that can be used to grow my
business,’” he says. “This is ground zero for
this kind of work.”
The key to marketing that expertise, he says, is honing the
message — summing up Oregon’s strengths in green
business and sustainable practices — and repeating it.
“Part of the message is differentiation,” he says.
“It’s about positioning.”
Kirby Dyess, a former Intel executive and member of the Oregon
State Board of Higher Education, compares Oregon’s
opportunity to lead in green business to Japan’s focus on
quality to seize the electronics industry in the
‘70s.
“Japan took the electronics industry to the
cleaners,” Dyess says. “I see sustainable business
in the same vein as the whole quality initiative.”
Certification of Oregon’s exports — Forest
Stewardship Council-certified wood products and certified
organic foods — is part of the picture, and the ag and
forestry sectors are imminently savvy, leading the country in
applying sustainability to everything from raising cattle to
managing forests.
Oregon has been proactive in keeping up with the
sustainability standards of the rest of the world, certifying
its produce to meet Europe’s EurepGAP and copying the
public transportation strategies of foreign capitals. But to
truly capitalize on the global opportunity, the region will
have to market its green reputation in a new way. The point is
not to sell the image of a state with clean water, wide-open
spaces and a predilection for clean energy, green buildings and
sustainable practices, but to promote — and ultimately
export — the minds that engineered it.
“If we (Oregon) want this to be a strategy, we better
put the pedal to the metal, and make this a priority.”
says Darcy Hitchcock, president of Portland-based Axis
Performance Advisors and co-author of a new book, The Business Guide to
Sustainability. “The rest of the world is catching
up and parts of the world are already ahead.”
Green ambition
The time is right for Oregon to establish and exploit its
expertise in sustainable business in a big way. Here’s a
sampling of ways the experts are going about it:
Oregon Business
Plan
Business leaders gather in January to check in on the plan and
will consider specific action items and policy recommendations
to back that will bolster the state’s competitive
positioning in sustainability.
Oregon Innovation
Council’s 2006 Innovation Plan
The Oregon Innovation Plan will be presented to the
Legislature as a package of funding recommendations including
$5.2 million to build a commercial-scale wave energy park in
the country and $3 million to launch the Bio-economy and
Sustainable Technologies (BEST) signature research center. Both
efforts draw heft from their intent to pull university research
into green industry.
Oregon Sustainable
Agriculture Resource Center
A much-needed clearinghouse for education, information and
technical support for farmers and others in the ag world who
want to operate with a focus on sustainability and certify
their products for sale under an earth-friendly label. Should
give Oregon ag products a leg up in the marketplace.
Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s
Energy Independence Agenda
Emboldened by a Democratic majority in the Legislature, Gov.
Kulongoski is marching forward with plans to introduce a bundle
of bills to encourage the state’s foray into alternative
energy sources with such initiatives as requiring 25% of the
state’s energy to come from renewable sources by 2025 and
establishing tax incentives for expanding the biofuels business
and using renewable energy. It’s important from the
perspective that every green-friendly policy adopted by the
state sends a message to the world that Oregon is open for
green business.
Sustainable Supply Chain
Management Center, University of Oregon’s Lundquist
College of Business
The state’s top-ranked business school is embracing
sustainability with the stated goal of becoming a world leader
in research and practices for a supply chain managed for
environmental improvement. This first-of-its kind center will
be marketed aggressively by Dean James Bean, who plans to forge
links to export Oregon’s green know-how to China and
beyond.
Have an opinion?
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