Week 1: Research

Research:

https://sustainable.org.nz/sustainable-certifications/

What is a sustainable business?

Sustainable business, or a green business, is an enterprise that has minimal negative impact on the global or local environment, community, society, or economy.

A business is described as green if it matches the following four criteria:

1. It incorporates principles of sustainability into each of its business decisions.
2. It supplies environmentally friendly products or services that replaces demand for non-green products and/or services.
3. It is greener than traditional competition.
4. It has made an enduring commitment to environmental principles in its business operations.

Triple Bottom Line;

The Triple Bottom Line is a framework with three parts: social, environmental (or ecological) and financial. 

The people, social equity, or human capital bottom line pertains to fair and beneficial business practices toward labour and the community and region in which a corporation conducts its business. In concrete terms, a TBL business would not use child labour and monitor all contracted companies for child labour exploitation, would pay fair salaries to its workers, would maintain a safe work environment and tolerable working hours, and would not otherwise exploit a community or its labour force. A TBL business also typically seeks to "give back" by contributing to the strength and growth of its community with such things as health care and education.
The planet, environmental bottom line, or natural capital bottom line refers to sustainable environmental practices. A TBL company endeavors to benefit the natural order as much as possible or at the least do no harm and minimize environmental impact. A TBL endeavour reduces its ecological footprint by, among other things, carefully managing its consumption of energy and non-renewables and reducing manufacturing waste as well as rendering waste less toxic before disposing of it in a safe and legal manner. 
The profit or economic bottom line deals with the economic value created by the organization after deducting the cost of all inputs, including the cost of the capital tied up.

Cradle to Cradle;

The Cradle-to-Cradle system is what the world, our consumerism, and environment should be; it describes a process in which our garments and other belongings don’t have to end up costing the environment. In the Cradle2Cradle Reggs Design Video they discuss how soon there will be a ‘resource scarcity’ due to our companies currently using a ‘take, make, waste’ industrial system’- throwing away things without thinking of the environmental impact.


The Cradle2Cradle video discusses two strategies in order to positively improve our current lifecycle, but one is the most effective. The first is minimising. They say that it is important to minimise both energy and resources- ‘use less energy because of more energy efficient technologies, and with that reduce the carbon footprint’. However, this would be seen as the approach that most consumers are currently aware of- reduce, re-use and recycle. This is a lot better, but it is only ‘less bad’, it is really just delaying the inevitable. 

This brings us to step two, the Cradle2Cradle certified step that gives back to the environment- rethinking. The rethink strategy is what Cradle2Cradle is; developed by Michael Braungart and William McDonough, their plan is to use resources effectively and turning waste into food. This is essentially giving right back to the environment and being ‘100% good’. The main steps of Cradle2Cradle (C2C) are to ensure that the materials are used in a continuous cycle, the use of renewable energy is stimulated and diversity is celebrated. 

Design innovation needs to be used in order to fulfill the needs- both of the customer and how to use the materials so they are reused or returned to the environment. ‘Every part of the product is designed with the intention of bringing it back in the technical cycle, or biological cycle’. The materials are simply borrowed, and waste no longer exists; they are either reused by disassembly or returned by decomposition to the environment. Renewable energy, for example from the sun (which radiates more energy that the world has used since time began) should be used as it does not end and we can take as much as we want without their being any environment impacts. Finally, by celebrating diversity in nature, for example flora and fauna that adapt to their locations, companies can make money with ‘100% good stuff’. 

The fashion industry is the second largest waste contributor, according to The True Cost; imagine what it would be like if every designer followed this system, and every consumer was aware of it when they shopped.

The Story Of Stuff;

The development of a garment goes through five main stages- extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal. For most companies and designers this cycle is linear- after distribution it stops and then it goes back to extraction where new resources are obtained and taken from the environment and not sourced from the old ones. 

The main focus is money- how to make more money, how to please the consumers to get them to spend and continue consuming; the actual process of where these resources come from and the impacts of it are ignored. People continue to consume and consume (after all it is said to be a consumerist society) with a perhaps naïve and oblivious knowledge as to where their products come from, and particularly at what cost to the environment. 

There are many flaws in this lifecycle, mainly the fact that the system is linear and not cyclic, which Annie Leonard addresses in the Story of Stuff Project. Check out her video to hear more. 

Precedence; Global Reporting Initiative, CERES, Institute 4 Sustainability