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Business and Environment Research Initiative |
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One priority of the
The mandate
of the B&E program at 
standpoints and highlight holistic
and cross-disciplinary perspectives on sustainability. While we are concerned with conventional
corporate social responsibility (CSR), business ethics, and environmental
management, we also want to call attention to the expanding realms of social
and environmental enterprise that constitute more fundamental alternatives to
business-as-usual. This includes not
only grassroots green enterprise in agriculture, energy, manufacturing, and
waste; but also the economic environment and regulatory infrastructure to
support this enterprise. This entails
going beyond mainstream environmentalism and CSR to questions of economic
democracy, human potential, social justice and community development.
The
Suitable
topics for B&E Research can be derived from many different sources,
spanning from traditional CSR to more cutting-edge social- and
eco-development. For the time being, we
will be emphasizing several core (and overlapping) realms:
- “Living Economy” support
research
- Green Product research
- Alternative Valuation /
Sustainability Indicators research
Living Economy Research
The “Living Economy,”
is a concept that is increasingly being used to highlight the interconnection
between social and environmental dimensions of sustainability, and to focus
attention on the most important purposes and processes of the economy. While critical of many established
relationships, it is unremittingly positive, emphasizing the potential of
community-oriented green development. 
This
research realm includes many different areas, from green market creation to new
business models, from socially-responsible investment strategies to ecological
tax shifting. Because of its emphasis on
practice, however, it takes its most important cues from emerging “local living
economy” business networks which are trying to implement these practices.
See the
webpage for the new Toronto Business Alliance
for a Local Living Economy (
There are
many other dimensions to creating living economies, many of which are specific
to the economic sector or specific region involved. In every sector there are cutting-edge
enterprises expanding the boundaries of regenerative (and not simply
“sustainable’) development, and both social and ecological potentials which are
becoming manifest in community-development and green-economic visions. Research is essential to revealing and
actualizing these potentials. And it
must take place on many levels.
One major
concern, even when there is a vision of green development, is finance. How can we get capital and necessary
resources to the activities we know must take place?
An equally basic question about
regenerative development is how can we shape the many forms of incentives, disincentives and
driving forces to encourage positive forms of production, consumption
and exchange? It is not a simply a
matter of state vs. markets, public vs. private, “command and control” vs.
voluntarism. The very nature of both
markets and regulation must change.
Initiatives in some cities include the reform and redesign of the tax
system to “level the playing field” for eco-enterprise. See, e,g.
Wayne
Roberts, Making Taxes
Sexy: Green gurus say we should use city taxes to punish ugliness and reward sustainability,
NOW magazine, vol. 24, no. 52,
Another realm that can transform
both markets and regulation—particularly for large corporations that cannot
avoid putting the economic bottom line first—is Extended
Producer Responsibility (EPR) based on a life-cycle approach to
production and consumption. EPR is
associated in the public mind with “take-back” legislation (as with “bottle
return” measures) but EPR is actually a more fundamental principle of green
economics—that can
and must take many different forms depending on the product and
circumstances. Local First campaigns
that mobilize consumer power, for example, can be seen as forms of
“informational EPR” that can have a similar effect in “closing the loops” as
take-back legislation. EPR is all about
finding the systemic
mechanisms of stewardship—building
social & ecological value into everyday production and exchange.
Key domains of research for living
economies include:
- business models for regenerative enterprise in agriculture, energy,
recycling, etc.
- possibilities for business and community networks (e.g.
eco-industrial and bioregional economic development)
- survey of technologies
for regenerative enterprise in agriculture, energy, recycling, etc.
- possibilities for innovation in financing strategies for green and
community enterprise.
- assessment of potentials
for self-reliance and localization in key sectors.
- design of monetary
systems to encourage both social equity and sustainable
production.
- and more.
Green Product Research
Green product research is a topic
which can be considered a vital part of both living economy research (research
topic #1) and alternative valuation systems (research topic #3). But because of its centrality to green market
campaigns, eco-industrial product design, and to the many levels of alternative
valuation, it deserves a special focus of its own.
The central project of this focus
will be a Green Products Catalog. This will take time to build, but the goal
will be to provide a single web-based
Some of the social and environmental benefits of such a catalogue are so
obvious that we might wonder why such a directory—or website linking various products—does
not already exist. Even many committed
environmentalists are often totally clueless about where the products they use
come from, what they’re made of, and what the respective social, economic and
environmental impacts of these products are. Since birth, we have been immersed in a mass
cultural sea of deliberate misinformation and propaganda: advertising. The cultivation of increasingly
sophisticated, easily-understood product knowledge is both one of the most
subversive—and one of the most regenerative--contributions to eco-literacy that
can be made today.
Such product knowledge is obviously
a tremendous service to consumer decision-making. But it also has much greater
implications. It can be an important lever
in transforming local economies in social and ecological directions. While privatized green consumerism can be a
diversion from real change, combining consumption choices on the community
level can exert major economic power. It
can create large green markets; influence government policy and
procurement; support local development;
influence both product design and product-service delivery systems; spur
eco-industrial development; shape extended producer responsibility (EPR)
relationships; support community- and regenerative- business; encourage social justice, fair trade and fair
wages; and create green jobs and right livelihood. Here at
There are many levels on which this
research can take place. Those with a
scientific or engineering bent will find plenty to interest them in specialized
technical realms of life-cycle assessment (LCA). But generally, our research at
Some students may want to explore
products in one sector—like building materials (which represent maybe 40
percent of our economy’s resource throughput); or household products; or
electronic equipment; or art supplies.
Some researchers may want to explore toxic chemical substitution. Others may want to explore market potentials
for green products. Others may want to
design community economic development strategies made possible by the
database.
As with our work in green taxation,
EPR, socially-responsible investment, soft energy, etc., green product research
can find an almost immediate use by emerging green economic networks. BALLE’s Local First
campaigns can be enriched significantly by green product directories that can
help make “local” ever more environmental and socially-just. One of continental BALLE’s
pioneering new initiatives, currently in development, is the BALLE Marketplace. It will be a listing of all BALLE businesses
in
It’s important to emphasize that we
do not see our green products emphasis as competing with other similar
projects. We don’t want to reinvent the
wheel or deflate the efforts of others.
We can work to harmonize efforts.
The point is that this region needs a central website where people
(individual consumers, designers, retailers, etc.) can go to get information on
almost any product category—and to find out where to purchase these products
and/or services. At the moment, we are
still far from this situation, and thus at the mercy of ignorance in the
marketplace. Our concern is not who can
remedy this situation, or who gets the credit, but that it gets done.
How we go
about this work depends on the time and resources available. Some of the work involved for a directory
dovetails with interests that many B&Eers already
have—in EPR, or green market creation, etc.
Some of the work may also depend on related efforts outside
Alternative
Valuation / Sustainability Indicators research
Under the radar of mass media, and largely hidden by dominant trends of
globalization, a value revolution is taking place in virtually every sector of
the economy. Despite the apparent power
of capitalist markets geared to accumulation and profit maximization, the
failure of these markets to reflect the full (and growing) social and
environmental costs of production and exchange has spawned movements for
“market transformation” in building, food, energy, manufacturing and other
sectors.
Some of
these efforts at market transformation focus on incorporating social and
environmental costs into market 
prices. But some insist on the integrity of social
and ecological values in themselves—rather than having them
translated into dollars. They constitute
new kinds of accounting systems prioritizing qualitative rather than monetary
wealth. David Korten
uses the term “mindful markets” to describe the goals
of grassroots efforts to build social and ecological values into everyday
exchange.
Commonly
called “sustainability indicators,” these tools range from rigorous life-cycle
assessment (LCA) to eco-footprints to community indicators.
Very often they are associated with labeling and third-party
certification systems: for organic food, green building assessment (e.g. LEED),
green energy, sustainably-harvested wood, etc.
The fact is
that third-party certification is one of the most significant and
rapidly-growing areas of green economics and community development. In less than a decade, many current MES
students will be working as experts in this area of third-party certification. These valuation systems are the basis on
which EPR and green tax systems are being designed, and they are the underlying
assessment tools for green product labeling.
These valuation systems tend to be incorporated into green market
creation schemes, which are simultaneously (1) forms of market creation, (2)
systems of qualitative valuation, and (3) rigorous modes of civil society-based
economic regulation, often outside the realm of government. Some of these systems are very early in
their development. Others—like organic
food certification and LEED building assessment—are exploding into the
mainstream, generating new controversies and alliances.
Here in the
B&E program, students are encouraged to look closely at these developments
and understand the opportunities for their own involvement. Research in this area can not only provide
students with useful and increasingly relevant skills, but also make a tangible
contribution to eco-development in this region.
We intend to extend and build our connections with local groups involved
in these valuation systems, as well as call attention to
Research Topics
A priority
for establishing these new research efforts depends upon MESers
discovering areas that excite them, where they can meet their MES learning
goals while contributing useful information to green and community economic
development. This site will provide
some general lists of relevant research areas, including specific suggestions
from individuals and organizations involved with either
practical business and economic development, or with research already
underway in these areas.
Watch for the Research Topics Page!
to
Business & Environment Collective Website