Boulder, 7 March 2006

Hunter Lovins to speak on
"IMPLEMENTING NATURAL CAPITALISM:
FINDING THE COMPETITIVE EDGE"

A world facing climate change and deteriorating natural systems is a challenging place to do business. Hunter Lovins, argues that in today’s world the best way to achieve true competitive advantage is exactly the sort of behavior that will solve the problems facing us. She will describe a new approach to business, Natural Capitalism, which enables communities, companies and universities to gain this competitive advantage, both now and far into the future.

Hunter will describe how using resources more productively, redesigning products and processes in the way that nature does business, and managing institutions to be restorative can enhance every aspect of shareholder value. Such increases in sustainable business behavior improves profitability, attracts and retains the best workers, reduces risk and makes business more fun. Hunter will present real-life applications of Natural Capitalism in a business and university context.

This talk is free and open to the public, and will take place on Tuesday, March 7, at 6:00 PM in the Glenn Miller Ballroom, located in the University Memorial Center on the CU campus in Boulder (umc.colorado.edu).

This event is sponsored by: Natural Capitalism Solutions (natcapsolutions.org), the CU Environmental Center (colorado.edu/cuenvironmentalcenter/), and the Boulder Green Building Guild (bgbg.org).

[Click Here] to read the full Press Release for this event

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Online, 17 April 2006

The first Natural Capitalism Solutions’-sponsored “webinar” will take place online 17 April 2006…more information coming soon.

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Additional information is available at natcapsolutions.org,
Stephen Self (303-554-6550 / sself@natcapsolutions.org).

A note from Hunter 

Spring in the Rockies! I know it is still officially Winter, but the thermometer’s reading 70°! Our new bull terrier puppy, Wrangler, is panting as he sprawls in the sun.

I’d sure love to just join him, but we’re busier than ever. Since returning from Serbia, I’ve been to California twice and to South Carolina to keynote the National Textiles Conference. It’s still a luxury to sleep in my own bed.

NCS has also been active in our local community. Two weeks ago, I spoke at a Colorado state legislative briefing and I will be giving a public talk on behalf of the Environmental Center at the University of Colorado next week. Last month, I met with local energy consultants and began a campaign to engage local activists in putting forward a vision of a sustainable Boulder Valley. I was also named to the Denver Mayor’s Taskforce on Sustainability.

This local work will dovetail nicely with what we are doing for communities around the world. Working with Gwendolyn Hallsmith of Community Global Initiatives (CGI) we will, this spring, finish the LASER workbook (Local Action for Sustainable Economic Renewal). This grew out of the work we did in Serbia for America’s Development Foundation. Watch this space for more information on this exciting project.

The students at Presidio School of Management continue to inspire me (read below about DriveNeutral’s successes). It was a real honor, if humbling, to meet the incoming class, the fourth cohort, this January, and to begin to engage with them on defining what sustainability is—see the new "sustainability" page on our web site that grew from this exercise—and how business can play a critical role in achieving it.

With Walter Link (Chair of Natural Capitalism’s original institutional host, Global Academy) I wrote a chapter for a forthcoming book on leadership for sustainability. We’ll sure let you know when you can peek at an advance copy of that text.

Meanwhile the great NCS staff both in CA and CO keeps me energized. Paul and Pablo in California and Christopher and Brianna in Colorado are doing great work with Clif Bar (see the article in our next e-lert). Christopher continues to spearhead our work at Ft Carson in Colorado Springs and PortionPac in Chicago (see articles below). And in the interests of keeping me home more, Stephen has lined up our first in-house webinar to take place April 17th. For those of you who sign up, I will be presenting the Natural Capitalism message live over your computer, while sitting here in Eldorado Springs. No running for airplanes, no unknown beds in an anonymous hotel. I love it. I hope that you will too. We did our first webinar a few days ago for an audience of college personnel, courtesy of a group called Innovative Educators. Stephen figured if they can do it, well, so can we. So stay tuned for more information.

And for those of you who can’t get enough of Natural Capitalism that way, we are also accepting applications for volunteer internships. If you’d like to spend the summer with us in Eldorado, check out our web site and send us your resume today.

I remain deeply indebted to you that you take the time to read this, and that you care enough to implement more sustainable practices in your own life. Whatever good we may be doing here at Natural Capitalism, it is nothing if you’re not a part of it.

Many thanks,

- H L

Christopher Juniper is leading the NCS team helping PortionPac Chemical Corporation enhance its competitiveness through the NCS Management Helix for sustainability. A small commercial-building cleaning system provider located in Chicago’s inner-westside, PortionPac’s pioneering sustainability strategy has already helped it land major state government contracts for prison systems.

In partnership with Karen Wan of the Chicago Manufacturing Center (CMC) and NCS, PortionPac is now six months into using the Helix—which provides a whole-system strategic approach to the company’s business development and its sustainability performance. Key Helix projects initiated so far include integrating sustainability into marketing systems, exploring adoption of a “Sustainable Environmental Management System,”and membership in the Chicago Climate Exchange.

PortionPac has been developing healthy cleaning systems since Syd Weisberg founded it in 1964. The PortionPac Helix team is led by its co-owner and CEO Marvin Klein, co-owner Warren Weisberg and COO Burt Klein.

PortionPac is the first in its industry to employ a LEED Accredited Professional: their Education Director, Mark Samios. His programs support the education of cleaning personnel so they can provide the most benefit with the least use of materials. The PortionPac cleaning system further enhances sustainability performance with its precisely measured and highly concentrated products that minimize the carbon footprint for the performance achieved. The company is also well along the path towards all of its cleaning formulas meeting GreenSeal standards.

The CMC adopted the NCS Management Helix as the basis of its Sustainable Leadership Program for small manufacturing firms in 2004. In the Fall of 2005, PortionPac was selected to implement the Helix in partnership with CMC and NCS.

The project was recently featured in a Chicago Tribune feature article on 27 February 2006: “Cleaning up on concept of sustainability” Later this spring NCS, in partnership with CMC and PortionPac, will announce a sustainable cleaning model for buildings.

Stay tuned!

Ft. Carson is pursuing some of the most rigorous sustainability goals in the U.S., including 100% renewable energy and zero waste by 2027, along with a 40% reduction in vehicle traffic from present levels. At the same time, the Army Post is scheduled to expand by about 50% in the next three years—making sustainable growth planning an urgent priority.

With a majority of Ft. Carson soldiers and civilian staff living off base, sustainable transportation is a major focus of its efforts. It is not lost on these soldiers, many of whom are headed for Iraq, that what they do to reduce oil use on the base can help their mission overseas. Given the state of oil production and consumption, it is clear the U.S. needs a more holistic approach to energy planning. Alternative fuels and indeed alternative systems for transportation are necessities.

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) are seen as one of the most sustainable near term vehicle technologies (see Solar Today, Nov/Dec 2005). Their widespread adoption will put electric utilities in the vehicle fueling business. A plug-in hybrid substitutes larger batteries for gasoline engine size, allowing the vehicle to run only on batteries for about 90% of its use. Recharging would be primarily from the electric grid at night during off-peak hours, usually providing energy at the equivalent of less than one dollar per gallon of gasoline. According to the lifecycle analysis of green cars by Roel Hammerschlag of the Institute for Lifecycle Environmental Assessment, PHEVs may be “the best ultimate goal for sustainable transportation since the 100 mile electric-only range would mean petroleum/biodiesel fueling only a few times per year.” Meanwhile, here in Colorado biodiesel use and production is rapidly expanding. This has implications for agriculture and land use (See our paper on Sustainable Agriculture available for download from our website).

Ft. Carson is the first U.S. example of a military base leading sustainability planning in its host region. The Pikes Peak Sustainability Indicators Project (PPSIP), led by NCS’ Christopher Juniper and Anne Oatman-Gardner, has completed its first phase of proposing regional sustainability indicators. For copies of the Phase I reports, contact us.

In partnership with Ft. Carson Mountain Post near Colorado Springs, CO, Natural Capitalism’s Christopher Juniper is leading a public/private effort to initiate a sustainable regional energy plan in 2006 that will help Fort Carson and all other businesses and military institutions obtain more sustainable energy—both for vehicles and for facilities.

(www.DriveNeutral.org)

[Click Here] to see a segment on DriveNeutral on ABC

You may remember DriveNeutral from our last E-lert. Created by enterprising MBA students, and some dedicated Board members at Presidio School of Management, DriveNeutral grew out of a class project in 2004 that Hunter assigned in which students constructed an argument why the school should join the Chicago Climate Exchange. Here are a few of DriveNeutral’s successes:

• DriveNeutral now has roughly 800 participants and has retired 3,000 metric tons of CO2 in its first six months of operations. It has been covered in Christian Science Monitor, USA Today and Air America radio via Betsy Rosenberg's Eco-Talk program.
   

• Walter Link of the Global Academy got it adopted by the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies of New York for all participants in their courses.
   

• DuPont’s Director of Sustainable Development read about DriveNeutral in our last E-lert and wrote: “Hunter, I hope that all is well with you this year. I wanted to let you know that the following [Drive Neutral] story is running today in the DuPont News for employees. Hopefully there will be a lot of additional people purchasing decals to offset the carbon emissions for their automobiles. We picked the story up from your recent newsletter and will continue to communicate these type of things to help extend environmental stewardship to actions that all of our employees can take. Thanks for helping us hear about project.”

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[Click Here] to read about upcoming Nat Cap Events in California, Boston, Canada and the Ukraine and on the World Wide Web.

David Schaller, the Sustainable Development Coordinator of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 8’s Sustainable Practices and State Partnerships Program in Denver, publishes about three “Sustainable Practices every month in an email and on the following two web sites: (federalsustainability.org and aprscp.org). You can contact David directly at Schaller.David@epamail.epa.gov if you ‘d like to receive them via email

Hunter says “David’s emails, Grist, Planet Ark, and Greenbiz are her favorite sources of examples of what is going right.”

 

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