Sustainability taking root?

A recent column in our local Harrisburg newpaper pointed to new trends in sustainability as offering hope for the future of Pennsylvania. The author, John Dernbach, points to six areas of improvement that give him hope. Here is number 5:

Sustainable business practices have gone from being just a "movement" to the mainstream of the market. It is increasingly clear to business that the triple bottom line--economic, social and environmental -- provides many profitable opportunities.

The question for energypreneurs is how do we flesh out more clearly how sustainability is profitable and how can it become a key business model for moving a company a step above the competition?

Two thoughts here. First, that sustainability is profitable most directly through energy efficiency and conservation. Businesses that takes steps in the next three to seven years to mitigate their energy costs, conserve energy, and put energy costs and carbon emissions as part of the bottomline will be leaps and bounds ahead of the competition that will be forced to "react" to a changing political and business landscape as energy and climate change come to drive more of our everyday actions.

Second thought: Dernbach suggests in the article that "hundreds" of companies are engaged in recycling, brownfield mitigation, and clean energy production.  Hundreds? Yes, actually thousands.  But quantity does not equal quality here. For example, thousands of small companies running borough to borough or city to city to collect items for recycling may never reach the economy of scale necessary to help their businesses take root and really push recycling rates in Pennsylvania beyond it's meager 35% rate. And it's only that high because PA DEP started counting heavier items in the total tonage calculations in 1996 using the EPA model.  And does that take into account the thousands of tons of trash Pennsylvania imports as the #1 state trash importer every year? Probably not.

There continues to be a disjointed and ridiculous consumption driven approach to waste management, energy, and land use in Pennsylvania as well as other states. Nonprofits have worked for decades to get to the bottom of these matters, but increasinly I am coming to believe business will be ultimate change agent when it comes to behaviors. We need more businesses that can get to the bottom of how to improve these "systems" to be more efficient, actually promote conserving energy and resources, and be profitable ventures with good green jobs for the workers.