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Spill Baby, Spill
There are dueling offshore energy stories in the news this week. The first is about an oil platform exploding and sinking in the Gulf of Mexico. Eleven workers are dead and every day, 5,000 barrels of light sweet crude are pouring into the ocean. The second is the approval of the Cape Wind project, which may start providing 420 megawatts of emissions-free energy as soon as 2012.
These stories come on the heels of a deadly coal mine accident and highlight the contrasting visions of America’s energy future. Opponents of Cape Wind (including the late Senator Kennedy) claim that the view of the 130 proposed windmills could harm tourism and that the project might have unforeseen environmental impacts. Meanwhile, West Virginia and Louisiana struggle with environmental impacts that they know all too well.
Opponents of renewable energy point out that it is not yet as cost effective as other more conventional sources. Where these calculations fall short is in accounting for lasting damage to ecosystems caused by disasters like the recent oil spill. It has been more than twenty years since the Exxon Valdez breached its hull off the coast of Alaska, and fishing there has still not recovered. Unfortunately, modern economics does not yet have an accepted method for valuing ecosystem services (instead we assign value to the impact on industries that rely on those ecosystems). Until we reach an agreement on how to account for our dwindling natural wealth, we are likely to go on treating it as if it has no value.
The opposition to Cape Wind goes beyond not-in-my-back-yard sentiment. There are legitimate concerns about ecological impacts of the project and cultural objections from Native Americans. For them, an unobstructed view of the sunrise is one more part of their culture threatened by our exploitation of natural resources. Still, if given a choice between looking at windmills, looking at a barren mountaintop removal site, or looking at the inferno of an oil slick set ablaze to keep it off their shores, I think I know what most Cape Cod residents would pick.
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If you like this then please subscribe to the Boston Shines… and Rocks!
Today Tech Networks of Boston participated in the annual Boston Shines event and cleaned up our neighborhood. Several of our staff took a mid-day break, broke out the brooms, rakes and shovels, and went to work. The first crew cleaned up and down Dexter st, around the Andrew T stop. A local resident even saw our hard work and came out to help us clear the weeds around the station. It was a great opportunity to show our South Boston Pride while getting some sun and fresh air!
Coal: Mostly Harmless and Someone Else’s Problem.
There’s a well-known series of science fiction books with a cult following called The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. In it, a man from Earth named Arthur Dent escapes from his home planet mere seconds before it is unceremoniously demolished to make way for an inter-stellar bypass. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is named after an encyclopedia-like book that features prominently in the story of Arthur Dent. The Guide offers sage advice, including the inscription on its cover: “Don’t Panic.” The Guide has this to say about pre-demolition Earth: “Mostly harmless.” Later in the series, The Hitchhiker’s Guide explains that a space ship remains invisible to sports fans as it floats over a packed cricket match by using an S.E.P. field. The S.E.P. field is the most powerful cloaking device in the known universe – it simply makes the object to be hidden appear to be Someone Else’s Problem.
You don’t need to read science fiction to know how a problem becomes invisible when it’s someone else’s responsibility. Most people these days have enough problems of their own. After your home, bills, kids, school, cars, jobs, and schedules, other peoples’ trouble just isn’t a big concern. Unfortunately, the real problem here is that other peoples’ problems can become my problems… or your problems… or everyone’s problems.
Take Roane County, Tennessee, site of the largest fly ash release in United States history. Fly ash is a byproduct of coal combustion. Following the spill, the spokesman for the Tennessee Valley Authority, Gil Francis Jr. said that the TVA was “taking steps to stabilize runoff from this incident.” In response to a video that showed dead fish on the Clinch River, which had received runoff from the spill, he stated “in terms of toxicity, until an analysis comes in, you can’t call it toxic.” He continued by saying that “it does have some heavy metals within it, but it’s not toxic or anything.” At the time, his organization was hard at work on mitigation, but his statement clearly showed it wasn’t really his problem.
Prior to 1 a.m. on Monday December 22, 2008, the ash lagoon wasn’t the problem of the people down stream of it either. They didn’t have to keep it, inspect it, treat it – they didn’t have to do anything but ignore it. For most of us, even after the spill, it’s still not our problem. The mountains that were leveled to get the coal, the pollution from the power plant that burned it and the disaster that resulted from its disposal can all be safely ignored by the majority of Americans. For most of us, these gory details of our electricity production remain someone else’s problems and are mostly harmless.
… Mostly. Have you ever heard that pregnant women shouldn’t eat tuna fish? Really, expectant mothers need to avoid all predatory fish because of the large amounts of mercury they have accumulated from eating other smaller fish who have in turn absorbed mercury from the water. Where does this mercury come from? At least some of it comes from coal-fired power plants. The truth is there is no such thing as someone else’s problem. No matter how far away that someone else is, there is no “away” that is far enough to make us safe.
The point is that today’s environmental problems have global impacts; once they get to this stage, there is no longer someone else to handle it for us.
What’s the difference between a socialist and a social entrepreneur?
[This is the text of the speech I gave on 3/31/10 at the Simmons College series on Enterprising Women. The title of the seminar was: Entrepreneur CEOs Working their Social Mission]
What’s the difference between a socialist and a social entrepreneur?
Neither one was familiar to John Adams when he wrote the Massachusetts constitution in 1780, but he was familiar with the idea of social responsibility. He believed that both public and private institutions have a mandate “to countenance and inculcate the principles of humanity and general benevolence, public and private charity, industry and economy, honesty and punctuality, sincerity, sobriety, and all social affections, and generous sentiments, among the people.”
One key difference between the socialist and social entrepreneur stems from private companies’ freedom to create flexible economic models for social programs. The socialist relies on compulsory taxpayer contributions to finance social programs while the social entrepreneur entices the customer to purchase goods and services where a portion of the revenues fund social programs.
It was in the spirit of John Adams’ call for social responsibility that TNB founded the Hutan Project. We partner with Orangutan Foundation International for the conservation of the world’s fastest disappearing rain forest. The United Nations Environmental Programme projects only 2 percent of the Indonesian rain forest will remain in 2022. Our partnership helps preserve 1,800 square miles of rain forest and protect the habitat of 6,000 orangutans – the largest protected population left in the wild.
For the first year of a new service contract, we contribute 20 percent of the total fee to OFI. Our goal is to contribute $50,000 annually to OFI to be used to acquire threatened rain forest in Indonesia, to repair damaged rain forest, and to support patrols to preserve the habitat of 6,000 orangutans. Implementing this project replaced our sales program, meaning we eliminated two sales positions. Since then, we have added three engineers and a sustainable services coordinator to help administer our social ventures.
Prior to implementation, we created 3 ground rules for The Hutan Project and other major social ventures at TNB:
Rule 1 – The customer cannot bear the cost for the program. My staff was especially concerned about this, but it has not been a problem. Our pricing remains competitive, and our credibility allows us to promote the program without causing clients to worry about increased costs.
Rule 2 – There must be a tangible business benefit. This is not cause-related marketing; in a business to business market, cause-related marketing is not a good option. Hutan has become an emblem of our social responsibility programs and a symbol of our sincere dedication. It helps us retain customers and, more importantly, recruit and keep talented employees.
Rule 3 – In looking beyond the Hutan Project, we must develop business mechanisms that promote social responsibility. We promote the idea that nonprofits and businesses can build social responsibility into their purchasing decisions. Wal-Mart has become a leader in promoting this idea as well with the introduction of their supplier sustainability assessment. Our efforts to assess our suppliers’ sustainability only became successful when we started mailing reminders with check payments.
So what is the difference between a socialist and a social entrepreneur?
The socialist builds electoral consensus that the government should create a more just distribution of society’s resources.
The Social entrepreneur builds a consensus in the marketplace that it is the role of business to build economies that are local, green, and fair.
I know that John Adams may never have heard the phrase “social enterprise.” But in days when the tea party is alive and well, perhaps it is our answer for building a great society.
The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
In 1779, John Adams wrote the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Today, it is the oldest constitution still in continuous use.
Although this document served as a model for all of the constitutions to come, it places a unique emphasis on education that is not reflected in its more famous successor, the U.S. Constitution. For John Adams, the success of democracy depends on the general education of the populace. In the fifth chapter, he singles out Harvard College as one of the key institutions of the Commonwealth, just as necessary to good government as the legislature or the judiciary.
In addition to traditional subjects such as arts, sciences, commerce, and agriculture, part of the educational mandate is to “…countenance and inculcate the principles of humanity and general benevolence, public and private charity, industry and frugality, honesty and punctuality in their dealings; sincerity, good humor, and all social affections, and generous sentiments among the people.”
Most importantly, our constitution does not limit responsibility for education to the government and schools. All public and private institutions are asked to participate in the task of shaping an electorate that is wise, knowledgeable and virtuous. It seems that the ultimate mandate for Tech Networks’ corporate social responsibility program lies in these words written by John Adams over 200 years ago:
Chapter V, Section II.
The Encouragement of Literature, etc.
Wisdom, and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of the people, being necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties; and as these depend on spreading the opportunities and advantages of education in the various parts of the country, and among the different orders of the people, it shall be the duty of legislatures and magistrates, in all future periods of this commonwealth, to cherish the interests of literature and the sciences, and all seminaries of them; especially the university at Cambridge, public schools and grammar schools in the towns; to encourage private societies and public institutions, rewards and immunities, for the promotion of agriculture, arts, sciences, commerce, trades, manufactures, and a natural history of the country; to countenance and inculcate the principles of humanity and general benevolence, public and private charity, industry and frugality, honesty and punctuality in their dealings; sincerity, good humor, and all social affections, and generous sentiments among the people.
This blog post was inspired by David McCullough’s 2003 Jefferson Lecture, The Course of Human Events