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A Sunshine Coaster was recently selected to represent Canada on two International Organization for Standardization (ISO) committees dealing with sustainability.

Erich Schwartz, president of Greenomics, will be lending his expertise to a committee on sustainable development in communities, as well as a subcommittee focused on smart urban infrastructure metrics.

“I’m delighted. I feel honoured and am very much looking forward to contributing,” Schwartz said. “It’s a big team, internationally probably about 120 of us. It’s an honour to be selected and hopefully I can add my two cents to it.”

Schwartz is a consultant who helps organizations meet their sustainability goals. His company, Greenomics, has an office in Gibsons.

ISO is a developer and publisher of international standards, recognized in as many as 163 countries. The non-government organization is headquartered in Geneva and it organizes committees composed of experts to set the standards for which it is known.

A referral and nomination process had Schwartz appointed to the Canadian committee. Once they complete their business, an elected chair will represent the nation in Europe along with other chairs from around the world.

“It’s kind of cool because ISO, as you know, has a huge breadth. But having said that, it will probably take about two years,” Schwartz said of the process.

The committees will work to set recognizable standards in the area of sustainable development.

“For example, Gibsons is the most sustainable community, but if you look at the criteria for getting that designation it’s more ‘did you fill out the form’ and ‘did you talk to the right people and make them feel good?’” he added.

Standardization will help to make comparisons of sustainability in communities a more measured process, an effort starting from scratch that will be tackled by around 20 experts from across the country.

Schwartz will likely join experts from areas like engineering and management, as well as professors from universities.

Whoever else might have been chosen to sit on the committee remains a mystery, however.

“Unfortunately, according to corporate policy, we do not make membership information publicly available unless the ISO standard is eventually adopted by a Canadian standards development organization,” wrote a spokesperson from the Standards Council of Canada.

Gibsons Recycling Depot is internationally recognized as leaders in Zero Waste. In operation since 2001, and employing 13 people in their community, Gibsons Recycling has created the first Resource Recovery Center in BC that looks at waste as a resource, generating new revenue streams by picking, scavenging and recovering the perfectly good things that others have thrown away.

Congratulations Buddy and Barb!

Not so long ago, companies adopted sustainable practices if they promised economic payback. More and more, though, businesses are finding other reasons to value the planet’s limited resources. “I got a call out of the blue from a construction company. The guy said, ‘We don’t know much about sustainability – actually we don’t know anything about it – but we think it’s important. How do we get our arms around that?’” Erich Schwartz, president of Greenomics Corp., receives such calls with increasing regularity.

The Vancouver-based business works with companies that want to lower their environmental impact. “We sit down and establish baselines. Start off with a sustainability assessment – everything from greenhouse gasses to resources to energy use.”

Greenomics looks at the client’s culture and knowledge. “Then we make recommendations. Usually 80 per cent of the business is fine, and 20 per cent is where the culprits are. Some of it is behavioural, and some of it is physical or operational. And we say, ‘Here’s where the big scary things are, and here’s what you can do to address them in a cost-effective manner, and here’s the return on your investment.’ Our company focuses on how to make it affordable.” The surprising part? “They nearly always think it’s going to cost them money, but we usually figure out a way that they can become more profitable. “Sustainability is fundamentally just good common business sense,” Schwartz says. “Once companies understand that, they say, ‘Well, that’s obvious. Let’s do that.’

Schwartz wouldn’t get an argument from Cenovus Energy Inc., an Alberta company formed early this year when natural gas giant Encana Corp. divided….
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The debate over building and managing properties sustainably is over, and the opportunity to get on the train before it leaves the station is coming to an end. The key is to take a leadership role by developing innovative solutions that meet the new demands by businesses, people, and governments. So, what are the changes that need to be addressed, and is there money on the table?

Sustainability is being embraced by businesses to address concerns over rising energy and waste costs that will impact future profitability. The retail giant WalMart has stated its three broad sustainability goals include using 100% renewable energy, eliminating all waste to landfill, and creating sustainable supply chains. Part of the strategy to achieve these goals is to develop highly energy efficient buildings and complexes. This is not a passing trend to placate current public concerns over climate change. This is strategic thinking to ensure WalMart maintains its competitive edge by mitigating fluctuating costs.

Federal, Provincial/State, and municipal governments around the world are embracing sustainability. In British Columbia, the provincial and municipal governments representing every major city and town are pushing for sustainable development and to become greenhouse gas neutral. The BC Government wants to be carbon neutral by 2010. The town of Whistler wants to be 100% sustainable by 2020. The City of Vancouver wants to be the Greenest City in the world by 2020 with 20,000 green tech jobs. The City of Surrey has also developed comprehensive plans to build sustainable centres interconnected with public transit. The push for the low-carbon economy is happening at every level of government around the world, and awareness has been heightened by the oil spill catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico. Serious thought is being put into getting off our dependency on oil.

Individuals also want “green” places to live and work for both health and economic reasons. The perceived health benefits from living and working in green spaces has been quantified in a study done by the University of San Diego. Nearly half of public companies assessed agreed that a sustainable building provides a healthier indoor environment and that favourable amenities improved employee retention. Further, 55% agreed that productivity increased after moving to “greener” facilities and there were fewer sick days vs. their previous location. The economic factor is easily quantified too. The cost of energy continues to rise, and in the past 20 years there have been several periods when utility costs became prohibitive. People on fixed or low incomes are concerned about their ability to pay energy costs in the future, and are very interested in homes that have low energy requirements.

This has become a perfect storm wherein businesses, individuals, and governments are demanding green. Leadership is needed to address these changes in demands, and this starts by focusing on solutions with minimum or no environmental impact. Specifically use renewable resources to promote and preserve natural biological processes, and use non-toxic and biodegradable materials to prevent the progressive build-up of toxic substances. As well, build consensus among citizens, government, and the private sector which help to identify the right blend of interconnected, pedestrian friendly, resource efficient, mixed-use districts that offer a wider range of goods, services, and experiences in one location.

This approach not only leads to better solutions, it leads to greater profitability. Businesses, governments, and people are now more willing to pay up front for future benefits.. In 2002 GlobeScan Inc. estimated that 22% of consumers in the G7 countries were green consumers willing to pay a premium for ethical products. Further studies, even during the economic downturn in 2008, show continued willingness to pay more. Companies wanting to implement positive environmental and social strategies into their business model will further validate their ethical commitment by running their operations from a green building. Often these buildings and their exemplar tenants receive positive media exposure, the best kind of promotion available. This induces a positive reputation and brand image that can lead to greater customer loyalty, product differentiation, and higher sales. This approach is further supported by an independent real estate study conducted by the University of San Diego. It found that “green” commercial office space has on average higher than market rates for both occupancy and rental.

But what about existing “non-green” properties? Again leadership and innovation can find answers here too. For example, implementing separate metering can lead to significant savings in electricity and fuels. Separately metered buildings saved an average $.42 PSF/year over comparable non-separately metered buildings – green or not.

The business case for building sustainably continues to gain strength, but of course at some point the market will shift and sustainable buildings will become the norm, possibly reducing the competitive edge. But this is not just about business and profit. Building green provides intangible benefits to the owner/operator such as pride in craftsmanship, pleasure in contributing to healthy communities, and wisdom in leaving a legacy of forward thinking.
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The conference concluded with a record attendance topping 1200 delegates from 77 countries made up of executives and senior managers from major international firms, governments, NGO’s and others. The GRI’s mission is to make reporting on environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects of performance as normal and as important as financial reporting. The GRI presented some very ambitious goals including having all medium and large sized companies, totalling 80,000 firms, issue ESG reports by 2015, or explain “why not”. As well, GRI intends to set the standard for integrated reporting (a combination of sustainability and financial reports) by 2020. Of note, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is targeted as a prime case study for the type of content that should be required in a truly transparent sustainability report. For example, detailed safety data would need to be included, since it was stated that BP released an exceptional sustainability report, and yet the disaster still unfolded.
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Erich Schwartz, a former science teacher who now consults on the business of sustainability, has a lesson for real estate developers and others still sitting on the green fence. “It’s time to stop talking.” said Schwartz, who heads Vancouver based Greenomics. “it is time to take action.”

Schwartz, who has dutifully sat through the apparently endless seminars, workshops, study sessions and conferences that frame so much of the green movement, said the evidence is in, and the bottom-line benefits are too positive to ignore.

Those developers and contractors who are not building energy savings, recycling and sustainability into their projects, he said, are simply cheating the eventual owner and tenants. It will become increasingly expensive to own, live or work in a non-green building, he explained.

Schwartz was reacting to reports that, in the face of an economic downturn, some real estate developers seem ready to jettison green construction techniques in favour of lower costs. The study, Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2009 by PricewaterhouseCoopers notes that, “Portfolio problems, the construction stall-out and increasing angst could distract from the push to reduce buildings’ carbon footprints and install green technologuies.”

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This article reprinted with permission from Western Investor magazine. Visit www.westerninvestor.com to find an outlet near you.

Assessing the Assessors: Sustainability Consultants can help you learn the lay of the land as you try to save the planet – By Corey Van’t Haaff

Make no mistake: the field of sustainability is big business, but who exactly is throwing a hat into the ring? The line between green and greenwashing isn’t always obvious, and education might be the only clear answer. The question is, Who do you turn to in order to get that education?

The problem might be pretty simple to some: we are using too much energy and creating too many greenhouse gases (GHGs). But the means to deal with the problem aren’t always as easy. The low hanging fruit – the easy fixes – will help the environment a bit, but in the long term, you need to develop a strategy to accomplish greater goals.

You can do it for humanitarian reasons, to be socially responsible, and that may be enough for some, but not for everybody. From a business perspective, the debate also has to centre around a reduction in costs. Together, cost-savings, social responsibility and environmental protection are a three-pronged approach that will work.

“The issue is not about saving the planet. It’s about saving yourself and creating a sustainable world where people flourish,” according to Erich Schwartz, president of Greenomics, a consultancy company focused on the business of sustainability.

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“This article reprinted from Green Space magazine, delivered free with Business in Vancouver newspaper. Visit www.biv.com to subscribe.”

• the progressive buildup of substances extracted from our Earth’s crust
• the progressive buildup of toxic chemicals and compounds
• the progressive physical degradation of our natural environment; and
• conditions that undermine people’s capacity to meet their basic human needs

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