Portland experience #2

To connect my two posts I will give you an example of a social program done by Columbia Sportswear, one of the big

Gert Boyle. Founder and CEO of Columbia Sportswear

companies we have visited. We were told that an average kid in America spends only 15 minutes outdoors per day!! 15 minutes is the time you spend to get from your house to your car and than to school. The program they have developed consists of making the kids want to go out and actually know what to do outdoors. In my opinion it is a great way that combines their business improvement (outdoor gear) with an action that may change the society’s behavior.

Unfortunately I was a little bit disappointed at the end of the presentation that was given to us. Yearly Columbia spends around $10 million to social and sustainability purposes. Sounds good! The only problem is, that we should look at those $10 million out of $1.4 billion of their profits. It is really a scarce amount. The same kind of presentation we heard at Nike. We were listening for 3 hours about all the projects that Nike have developed and the numbers where even more disappointing. I am not saying that big companies actions are bad. I am just stating a very important fact that there is a lot of space for improvement in the CSR and sustainability field as far as big players are concerned. The biggest problem is that big companies will always be mostly focused on profits and as far as the social problems are concerned it is very hard to convince the corporations to do something in that field on a larger scale. It is just widely considered unprofitable.

We have also visited some smaller enterprises that not only are great business ideas, but also have a great positive impact on the environment. It was really inspiring, because in Europe there are less people that try to take things into their hands. In

Our visit to Portland Purple Water

America the individual initiative, innovation of entrepreneurs and leadership make it somehow easier to implement a lot of ideas into practice. One of the places we have visited was called Portland Purple Water. Jason Gravey is selling a rainwater harvest system with filters to use it in homes. In addition to that, he also provides an aquaponic plant growing system. It is a combination of hydroponics with aquaculture. In this closed cycle fish filter the water and provide nutrients for the plants to grow. Basically it is a simple way to become self-sufficient in both water and food supply.

The next brilliant idea was the Rebuilding Center. It is a place, where people donate old furniture or any building material that then is sold for a relatively low price. Not only the not wanted items are avoiding the landfill, but it has also become a place where architects or designers look for inspiration. One of the best parts of the center is that all of the items come with a history, what makes them so much more valuable.

Another business model I really liked was the Hot Lips Pizza. It is a small pizzeria that tries to follow where all of the ingredients for their pizza come from. The pizzeria itself is also designed in a sustainable way, so as little of energy as possible

Hot Lips pizza

is used. Such practices become really expensive, but this is how business should be done.

One of the most important things I understood is that, if one wants to have a sustainable and socially responsible business, one has to dedicate almost all his time and effort. It may sound too much, but what all of the speakers we met told us is that it is totally worth it. The satisfaction of making “the thing” right is incomparable to the amount of time and effort you give to it. The bottom line is that everybody should understand that sometimes it is actually pleasant to put more work and time, because at the end of the day we end up happy!!

3 comentarios / 13 Mar 2012 por Piotr Adam Lubiewa-Wielezynski
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