Sustainable Business and Job Development Publications

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/1794/13134

Resource Innovations work in sustainable business and job development is focused on building public education and communication, local and regional business and job economic impact assessments as well as projects related to sustainable food systems and sustainable mobility systems.

Browse

Browsing Sustainable Business and Job Development Publications by Author "Doppelt, Bob"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Establishing environmentally sustainable and economically efficient economies: from waste management towards zero waste
    (Center for Watershed and Community Health, Mark O. Hatfield School of Government, Portland State University, 1999-10) Doppelt, Bob; Dowling-Wu, Lynda
    This document recommends establishing zero waste goals and policies in Oregon and the Northwest and suggests a number of steps that can be phased-in to achieve this. To aim towards zero waste, the region must move from an existing dominant focus on waste management to a new focus on preventing waste as it is currently defined, redesigning the waste management infrastructure, and on generating income and jobs through waste-based economic development. These steps will be good for the economy and environment. We believe that it is possible to move towards zero waste in Oregon and the Northwest through an interconnected three-part strategy: 1) develop "extended producer responsibility" goals and policies which require that manufacturers develop take-back strategies for all products that currently end up in landfills or incinerators. These policies are intended to force the emphasis "upstream" to stimulate new product designs and material selections which facilitate the reuse and recycling of products; 2) improve the "downstream" reuse and recycling of end-of-product-life materials through improved waste management infrastructure, waste exchange programs, recycled material market development and other steps; and 3) foster and support waste-based businesses as economic development and jobs creation opportunities, especially in low income rural communities or urban neighborhoods.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Extended producer responsibility and product take-back: applications for the Pacific Northwest
    (Center for Watershed and Community Health, Mark O. Hatfield School of Government, Portland State University, 2001-03) Doppelt, Bob; Nelson, Hal
    This report examines the principles, practices and policies of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and "product take-back" programs, and their potential application to the Pacific Northwest. EPR is an emerging principle for sustainable development that encourages producers to design their consumer products and delivery systems to keep waste and hazardous materials out of the waste stream. At its core, EPR focuses on the responsibility that producers have for the waste and environmental impacts their products generate at the end of their life-cycle. We have examined EPR to determine the degree to which product take-back policies and practices can contribute to the development of an environmentally sustainable regional economy. The search for new approaches to sustainability is driven, in part, by the fact that the region is struggling to conserve energy and water while restoring endangered salmon and other ecological systems at the same time that pollution and waste are growing at, or above, the rate of economic and population growth. We begin this assessment by discussing the principles and practices associated with EPR and product take-back. We then examine a number of policy approaches and instruments that have been used to promote EPR. This is followed by case studies of selected take-back programs established voluntarily by major U.S. corporations. We conclude with an analysis of the key issues that must be addressed to develop effective EPR policies and programs in the Pacific Northwest. The appendix includes the information generated from our case studies of both voluntary and mandated take-back programs in nine countries, covering five major industries.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    "Just plain good business": the economic and environmental benefits of sustainability as exemplified by one hundred sixty case examples
    (Center for Watershed and Community Health, Mark O. Hatfield School of Government, Portland State University, 2000) Doppelt, Bob; Watson, Lisa
    This report describes how over 160 companies and organizations have adopted practices and programs that generated savings of over $55 million annually while dramatically reducing their environment impacts. It follows the release of an earlier report, Saving Salmon, Saving Money: Innovative Business Leadership in the Pacific Northwest (Goodstein, Doppelt and Sable, 1999), which found data on 137 firms that had saved over $42 million from 1992-1999 taking steps to improve their environmental management. Saving Salmon, Saving Money was an analytical report that provided few actual descriptions of what the137 firms did to achieve the cost savings and environmental benefits. Since its release, we have continually received requests for actual case examples of how firms and organizations save money while improving the environment. This report is intended to fill this need.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    News release: PSU Waste to Work Partnership finds thousands of new jobs can be created in Oregon and Washington by "upsizing" waste materials
    (Center for Watershed and Community Health, Mark O. Hatfield School of Government, Portland State University, 2002-04-01) Garcia, Diane; Doppelt, Bob
    The Waste to Work Partnership, a program of the Center for Watershed and Community Health at Portland State University, today released a report that concludes that thousands of new jobs could be created in the Northwest by expanding and starting businesses that add economic value to waste materials through reuse, remanufacture and recycling. Entitled Making Waste Work, the report is based on a survey of Northwest businesses that reuse or manufacture products using waste materials. The report says that a more intensive approach to waste management, called Waste-based Economic Development, would change our concept of waste entirely. Waste-based economic development focuses on adding economic value to materials once considered “waste,” thereby creating new businesses, products and jobs Two-thirds of the waste generated in Oregon and Washington is currently being incinerated or sent to landfills. If all this waste material were collected and manufactured into new products and services, 22,000 new jobs could be created. The report also found that waste-based businesses could help revitalize distressed communities and neighborhoods by providing family wage jobs and job opportunities.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Saving salmon, saving money: innovative business leadership in the Pacific Northwest
    (Center for Watershed and Community Health, Mark O. Hatfield School of Government, Portland State University, 2000-01) Goodstein, Eban S., 1960-; Doppelt, Bob; Sable, Karin
    This report documents that 375 businesses and other organizations in the Pacific Northwest, through aggressive pursuit of environmental efficiency opportunities, have substantially reduced water, energy, hazardous materials and other inputs, reducing pressure on stream habitats and the environment while at the same time saving millions of dollars. These firms are at the leading edge of a movement referred to as "eco-efficiency", creating a more economically and environmentally efficient economy through incremental improvements in resource use and environmental impact. They demonstrate that while there will always be initial investment costs, in both the short and the long term there are often much larger economic savings from efforts to reduce environmental impacts to conserve streams, salmon, and the environment. In sum, taking steps to restore regional environmental quality can produce significant economic benefits—not major costs—to companies, communities and the region.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Saving salmon, sustaining agriculture: opportunities to conserve the environment while improving the economic well-being of farms in the Northwest
    (Center for Watershed and Community Health, Mark O. Hatfield School of Government, Portland State University, 2000) Sable, Karin; Doppelt, Bob
    This report explores the validity of these concerns. It poses the question: do the costs of adopting more environmentally sustainable and salmon friendly agricultural practices outweigh the economic benefits? The result of our research suggests that this is not the case. To the contrary, we assessed the costs and benefits of changes in supply side and demand side farming practices and found that, at a minimum, adopting more environmentally sustainable practices may, at a minimum, have a neutral economic impact on most farms, and may, at best, save many farmers money, lead to increased market share, and for those who market their products as organic or sustainably grown, even increase price margins by 5%-30% or more.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Sustainability and the financial sector
    (Center for Watershed and Community Health, Mark O. Hatfield School of Government, Portland State University, 2000-04-10) Doppelt, Bob
    This document outlines some of the challenges facing the region’s financial community regarding its contribution to "sustainable development." Strategies and practices which reduce the pressures that economic and community development activities place on the environment in a manner which maintains or enhances economic well-being are often called sustainable development or sustainability programs. The financial sector may have two overall roles to play in promoting sustainable development. First, it could apply principles of sustainability to its internal operations and develop policies and programs to reduce its pollution and waste. Second, it could develop products and services which encourage environmentally sustainable investments and business practices.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Sustainable practices, jobs, and distressed communities in the Pacific Northwest: an overview
    (Center for Watershed and Community Health, Mark O. Hatfield School of Government, Portland State University, 2001) Niemi, Ernest G.; Doppelt, Bob
    This paper provides an overview of how the adoption of sustainable practices by businesses, communities and governments can affect employment and economic opportunities for distressed communities in the Pacific Northwest. “Sustainable practices” reduce waste in the use of energy, water and other raw materials (especially toxins), and curtail harmful environmental impacts. “Distressed communities” include places, such as low-income urban neighborhoods and rural towns, as well as groups, such as low-skill workers, that exhibit high levels of unemployment or poverty. Understanding the relationships among sustainable practices, jobs, and distressed communities is especially important because businesses, communities, and governmental agencies are accelerating their adoption of sustainable practices to lower costs for energy, materials, and waste clean-up, and to comply with legal obligations that require reduced environmental impacts. Furthermore, to compete effectively in many regional, national, and global markets, businesses increasingly must satisfy sustainability standards. In some industrial sectors, global demand for goods and services associated with sustainable practices is growing, and businesses in the Pacific Northwest are striving to become market leaders. In sum, the adoption of sustainable practices is growing and many forces exist that suggest that the trend will continue and grow. Workers and distressed communities need to know what to expect so they can prepare themselves to take advantage of new, sustainable jobs and be prepared when jobs associated with unsustainable practices are lost.