Natural Capitalism - Sarasota

The Sarasota Natural Capitalism seminar featured speakers from the Rocky Mountain Institute It was put together by the Sarasota County Economic Development Corporation and the Florida West Coast Resource Conservation and Development Council which I think is a good indicator of how "cool" Sarasota is ...

The theme was: Synchronizing Business, Community & Environment It was just a little suprising that there were over 175 registered people attending. Some websites mentioned include:

• liveablecity.org
• Civic Economics
• Sarasota County Forestry Dept
• Sarasota Green Connection
• Florida West Coast Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) Council,
• Florida House Institute for Sustainable Development

What Participants Said:

Compilation of Sticky-note suggestions

Compiled by Laura Morton, laura.morton@fl.usda.gov

download .pdf (available soon)

We spent time on February 22, 2006 during the Natural Capitalism Seminar developing ideas on the following two topics:

1) Ideas for implementing natural capitalism in communities

2) Ideas for implementing natural capitalism in businesses

The following is a list, arranged loosely by topic, of all the sticky-note ideas generated during the seminar. They are not split up between "business" and "community" because it was difficult to discern which was intended. That may be an important point!

These are ideas submitted by attendees - hopefully they will be seeds of ideas or fertilizer for existing efforts as we work toward a "natural capitalism" community.

Waste/reuse/recycling

• Incentives for locally-harvested wood to be provided for local markets (current method for fire prevention = trees removed and burned)
• Downed trees as a resource
• Bacteria digester for ethanol
• Re-building waste utilization, i.e. markets for recycled structural materials.
• Landclearing waste = on site landscaping and mulch
• Waste resource exchange (also a network solution)
• Waste website exchange (mentioned by another group)
• Internet posting board of production and waste to match people (third mention by a third group)
• Create a building salvage program and incentives
• Identify shared waste stream partners
• Recycling - trackable reuse
• Build financial incentives for "take-back" programs for products
• Give people a chance to remove resources from houses - resave ahead of bulldozers
• Conversion of fish and seaweed into usable products.
• Collect data on input and products and by-products (a.k.a. waste) as part of the permitting process.
• Mulch - tree companies deliver to individuals or companies rather than pay at the landfill (lower the use of cypress mulch)
• Create a waste/by-product database to stimulate an impact on the community (fourth mention by a separate group).
• Molecularization of waste into salable gases.
• Co-locate landfill sites and businesses that could utilize its waste recycle (zero-waste intent)
• Ask developers of forested land to stockpile mulched biomass for later use by home buyers and landscaping of common areas in that development.
• Local database for waste products (5^th mention -see below on networks)
• Composting initiative

Historical Preservation/Sense of Place

• Sense of place - recognize historical preservation and the eclectic nature of our community.
• Recognize the economic/business case for historical preservation
• Branding public transportation - memorable and unique
• Do "authentic theming" such as "authentic Sarasota" (tourism - also economic/business)

Natural Environment - Ecosystem Services

• Encourage the use of pervious asphalt and concrete if we must pave.
• Integration of tree-scapes into commercial, industrial, education and business districts
• Increase density (1/2) and increase protected lands (1/2)
• Roof-top gardening (also buildings/structural)
• Storm water capture
• Rainwater recovery
• More use of solar energy
• Using new technology such as a forestry mower to cut trees down and grind - no pesticides - and do everything on site with mulch by-product.
• How can we design our communities to minimize the building footprint and maximize natural spaces? (natural - not lawn)
• Conserving living resources
• Stockpile valuable trees (tree spade) oaks, cabbage palms, etc., and replant on-site or nearby.

Transportation

• Bike lanes-safe, save gas/less emissions, healthy, less traffic
• Moped transportation - change the style, less gas/emissions, saves space, other transportation (besides cars) awareness will be increased
• Mass public transit from/to hub sites (airport, barrier islands, North Port, large subdivisions)
• Electric golf carts, scooters for island transportation
• Light rail from SRQ to TPA
• Zip cars and boats
• Shuttle systems to parks and parking garages
• Zip car model applied to boats
• Input/output model for transportation
• Promote transit-oriented development

Community-wide PR/Education

• "green" hotels on Lido and Siesta
• Need group dialogues on where is "away" (as in what is thrown away)
• Raise awareness
• Use the Sarasota County Fruitville Corridor Initiative as a major showcase for Natural Capitalism
• Change business dress code to be weather appropriate
• Publicize the success of how businesses can benefit from the natural capitalism approach.
• Apply "lean practices" to all sectors (manufacturing, government, service sector)
• Educate consumers and producers on the shift from short-term cost to long-term value
• Education among various stakeholders
• Have a focused ½ day workshop on specific topics (for various stakeholders)
• Community education on small agriculture
• Promote sunshine energy

Networks

• Community database for waste by-products sponsored by Sarasota County-sponsored (6^th mention)
• More communication to integrate resource allocation
• Create connections and relationships among businesses to explore and identify opportunities for natural capitalism collaborations
• Green builder's directory
• More clusters, and catalyzed by professional organizations
• Networks that utilize existing databases for using waste = technical nutrients (7^th mention)
• Organize stakeholder meetings for natural capitalism networking with a website to encourage and connect the inventory of waste users and producers, local and regional, then foster connections (8^th mention of web-based exchange for waste products)

Buildings/Structures

• Use more skylights and bundled photic cables
• Build more gardens and plants on top of buildings downtown to cut down on CO2 and other harmful pollutants in the air
• Calculate the value of a sustainable built environment (Florida House Model)
• Hospital and nursing home assessment and redesign
• Rethink building systems - how to design pilings and maintain and understory.
• Development industry (buildings) systems/innovation (S/PS)
• Encourage green resident building to include Florida Yards and Neighborhood landscapes. Include owner manual to educate owners on cost and environmental benefits.
• Turn-key retrofitting kit for residential and commercial
• Trees cannot live on fill - build on stilts. Gets rid of termites because they do not like light.
• Implement a local currency system to support local and sustainable economic development

Economics/business

• Each business should adopt core values that specifically empower their employees creativity and health
• Spare capacity sharing
• Business incentives for car pooling - reduces traffic, saves gas (we've all been in 41 for rush hour)
• Have local chamber and others promote a "buy local" program
• Open space/open view work spaces
• Locally-crafted furniture
• Focused efforts to stimulate the County's biggest employers (i.e. County government, school board, hospitals)
• Office waste stream efficiency changes - internal assessment and policy changes.
• Match venture capitalists groups with natural capitalism and biomimicry for product service and development
• Increase the value of manual labor
• Create relationships among businesses (also a network)
• Value local artisans
• Nature-based (AD-VENTURE CAPITALISM) and agricultural-based tourism (AG-VENTURE CAPITALISM) - get people who go to the Ritz or Disney to take an extra day and do an eco-tourism day
• Low-cost design assistance team for business/industry having waste regulation problems
• Develop eco-industrial business location at the landfill site

Community culture/social

• Sarasota is progressive - publicize and it will work
• Too many egos in the way. Everyone wants to take credit for what is happening. Folks need to grow up!
• We need non-adversarial cross fertilization, esp. across clusters
• Local communities organize to demand change
• Capitalism is a turn off.
• Competitiveness in Sarasota is not allowing all the efforts to join and look at multiple benefits.
• Include our local immigrant and migrant community in the economy - Greenspan says the economy will collapse without them yet natural capitalism seems to reach the business world
• Stop duplicating efforts and capitalize on multiple uses.
• Sarasota - grow up! (immature competitive behavior)

Neighborhood Suggestions/Initiatives

• Neighborhood learning centers
• Yard delivery of mulch
• Neighborhood report cards
• Map recycling centers
• Give awards for neighborhood report cards (grade recycling, watering, preserved areas, reduced driving), i.e. "no neighborhood left behind"

Government Sector/Regulations/Growth Management

• Innovative thinking among regulators - become advisors toward green vs. enforcers and punishers
• Standards - how do they allow innovation?
• Assessments of existing conditions - identify deficiencies, set goals, and methods to achieve.
• Change the codes and permitting to allow with reuse
• Holistic assessment of regulations
• Self-examination of development regulations (look comprehensively vs. departmental)
• Future growth should incorporate all in the community
• County has a zero-waste goal - emulate other closed loop examples. Inventory what is the waste stream - how can it be a resource, and help from our specialty manufacturers.
• Provide incentives for the incorporation of a Florida Friendly yard with a discount on the county stormwater utility fee (say a 25-50% discount on the monthly fee). This would work for commercial landscaping as well.
• Let the government stop being afraid to promote green business.
• Use the County Comprehensive Plan Evaluation and Appraisal process, five-year update as a community tool to communicate natural capitalism goals and successes (demonstrations) among environmental, industry, and governmental groups (who now work in semi-isolation).
• City and County planning boards - establish process for recycling and reuse of waste/product streams for buildings
• Develop low impact design standards (avoid clearcutting/filling)
• New regulations/zoning to allow for these green ideas (composting toilets, cisterns, homes & business)
• Mimic the Cashier, NC project -- buy property, deed restrict its development then resell the property to fund the next purchase. Can change land use without doing whole-scale zoning change. Fund with a % of tourist tax, but funds are for startup, property sales fund the ongoing program.
• Government should adopt best practices as practiced by businesses
• The 2050 Plan
• Ensure staff is in place for environmental management in local government
• Assess human capital in County government and look for misplaced/unused talent

Local Food and Agriculture

• Become a "farm-friendly" community that promotes local agricultural development
• Input-output model for food and agriculture
• Make land available (affordable) for farming
• Educate consumers about buying local ag products
• Financial assistance for start-up farmers
• Local food sources for quality organics
• Create policies, economic incentives, etc. that support local ag development
• Find a buyer for seaweed from red tide
• Waste = food (red tide fish collected and composted; not landfilled)
• Promote agri-tourism
• Change state regulations on food waste so that producers have the opportunity to pay farmers to take this waste for composting and amending soil (new business opportunity for farmers, decreased cost to waste producers if fees to farmers are less than landfill fees, economic benefit for farmers since they would be paid for accepting fertilizer)
• Have landscape companies pay farmers, instead of the landfill, to take yardwaste for composting and use as a soil amendment (organic farmers would in turn require non-toxic yard waste, which could help influence the use/sale of organic lawncare products)
• Fish by-products for fertlizer
• Expanded food to schools program to nursing homes, hospitals, universities, etc.
• Commercial food reuse and recycling (restaurants)
• Fruitville initiative - link small ag outputs and inputs (zero-waste ag), with an organic restaurant to demonstrate urban-rural compliment vs.competition