Portland entrepreneurs

After coming back from Portland I realize what impressed me the most was the entrepreneurial spirit from some of the people we met in the visit and their businesses both normal and social entrepreneurism. Among the most inspiring were Portland Purple Water, Hot Lips Pizza, and The Rebuilding center.

It was amusing how this people had the courage to materialize their ideas and watch them grow. Like a plant that you water, take care, and give love too and watch it

become something beautiful. In the case of Portland Purple Water the owner and founder Jason Garvey strongly believes water is part of the main issues to solve in moving towards sustainable living. Therefore he decided to dedicate his efforts to resolving this issue by founding his own company dedicated to design and install rainwater harvesting systems, aquaponics systems, water-wise landscaping, water efficient irrigation systems, and water purification systems. Facilitating this technology to people and taking his concepts to the market place and making it available to everyone who is interested in them. The second part of his business is giving lectures on water, and teaching the public more about water and the impacts of their water usage as well as the managemen t of hydroponics and aquaponics systems that allow people to grow food virtually anywhere; teaching people how to do it their selves.

Another interesting entrepreneur was David Yudkin owner of Hot Lips Pizza. Hot lips is not an ordinary pizzeria, it’s a family project in witch his owner has taken sustainability as big issue and has incorporate deeply into its business model. But it didn’t do this as publicity stunt or as a differentiation strategy, Yudkin really believes sustainability is just the right way in which business should be done. He works and collaborates with his suppliers, tries to make menus based on seasonal produce, he tries to make his business more efficient even on technical and minimize waste. In fact he has incorporated a heat recovery system into his ovens to recover heat and using it to heat up water.   Although he acknowledges taking his business to a 100% sustainable scope is something still difficult due to consumer demands he tries to get as close as he can as consumers are willing.

The last day of visits we also met one of the most interesting social entrepreneurial initiatives of the whole trip to Portland The Rebuilding Center, which consists in a center, that gathers/collects used furniture and building materials from donors. Giving this material a second cycle of life instead of ending up in a landfill. They gather all this materials and separate them by categories and put a price tag on them depending on their condition and article they are. Although the donated materials are re-sold they are priced 50-90% less than the ordinary retail price making in it a great deal for people on tight budget and donors can get a tax reducible receipt making it a win-win deal. Another service they provide is deconstruction services so instead of demolishing an old structure you can call them and they’ll show and salvage up to 85% of the buildings major components and leave them ready for reuse. By making all if this and providing other services such as classes and workshops they are also helping to consolidate community feeling in the area.

I believe courage is the common denominator in all of these stories. Courage to actually believe in your idea and getting it through. As well as considering the interpersonal relationships that are involved in making business, making your business part of your community, making business more than just about money and giving a purpose to it.

Comments Off on Portland entrepreneurs / 26 Mar 2012 por Javier Solano Palacios
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