An Unpacking Sustainability Journey:
Natural Step Framework to the Win-Win-Win
The Design Guys firm designed Neenah Paper to address sustainability issues, using recycled paper for Neenah's Environment Paper line. They went one step further and allowed for extended use, as the wrap paper folds into a fun stargazing device.
by Terry Gips
In 1980 and 1981 I worked and traveled around the world for a year and a half documenting that we could feed every person on the planet without destroying it in the process. We could create a sustainable agriculture and even a sustainable society that would be ecologically sound, economically viable, socially just, and humane.
However, that is not the path we were choosing. Though it was almost 20 years since Rachel Carson's Silent Spring began to raise awareness of what pesticides were doing to whole eco-systems, and more than 10 years since Earth Day celebrations brought environmental awareness into communities everywhere, I was depressed to find that people still weren't willing to change their lifestyle or buy organic.
In 1986 I was invited to give a talk to a University of Minnesota Ecology class. People sat with tears in their eyes as I showed how conventional agricultural was destroying the planet. I then shared inspiring images of cost-effective organic agriculture and how it could turn things around, but we weren't choosing to buy it. I concluded by saying we had very little time to change our path or face devastating environmental and health consequences.
At the end of the talk, an attractive man walked up and said he agreed with everything I mentioned and that he wanted to support my efforts to turn things around. He was Horst Rechelbacher, founder and CEO of the Aveda Corporation, the world's largest manufacturer of natural personal care products. He was taking the class to learn what he could do to shift Aveda towards supporting a more sustainable future.
From the depths of no hope, one person came and helped lift me out. He invited me to speak to a gathering of Aveda's 600 staff and distributors. This led to the commitment of Aveda to go organic, work in partnership with my nonprofit Alliance for Sustainability, and ultimately, to be the first company to sign the CERES Principles for corporate environmental responsibility (www.ceres.org).
From outside in: Aveda's challenges
Many years later, in 1994, I had lunch with Horst and he asked if I'd become director of ecological affairs and sustainability for Aveda. He gave me two responsibilities: First, to report to the Earth, not to him - to make sure everything we did was right for the Earth; Second, to talk with every CEO possible to get them to do the same. How could I refuse?
One of the first things I had to address was Horst's desire to re-examine their packaging. With few exceptions, such as shampoo and other hair care bottles made from 40% post-consumer recycled plastic, Aveda's products were packaged primarily in glass. Glass was thought to be more aesthetic, handle essential oils better, eliminate leaching, avoid hazardous plastics production, and be more recyclable than plastics, which had limited recycling.
To assess our options, we examined "cradle to grave" life cycle assessments (LCA) of plastic, glass, and other packaging. As an economist, I knew LCAs provide good quantitative indications of many impacts, such as energy and pollutants, but they are not a complete picture in that they cannot quantify qualitative factors like aesthetics, well-being, or consumer perception.
I was stunned by the results that pointed to plastics as far outperforming glass in tangible ways that were hard to ignore. The results were due mostly to weight, with glass using tremendous amounts of fossil fuel at all points of the package's life, from manufacturing to transportation and even recycling pick-up. As a person partial to glass because it is not a petroleum product and can be recycled in nearly every market in the world, I had to reconcile these impacts. We ultimately switched most of Aveda's product packaging to plastic although we continued to question what other intangibles, or less apparent impacts, were not being considered.
Beyond life cycle assessments
After the experience of choosing packaging based on a fairly limited set of criteria, I wanted to find a way to better judge true impacts and long term costs. An overall framework for sustainability was needed—one that could act as a tool to guide us through the maze of challenges—both tangible and intangible—apparent and yet to become apparent.
During my travels I had heard about a powerful approach to sustainability called the Natural Step Framework (NSF)—developed in Sweden in 1989. The NSF was established to develop and share a common framework composed of four easily understood, scientifically based principles that serve as a compass to guide society toward a just and sustainable future (see sidebar).
I learned how the NSF was used to help overcome the polarization between Swedish conventional and organic farmers to find a shared sustainability solution. Since then, hundreds of businesses, government agencies, communities, and nonprofits in the U.S. and around the world have used the NSF to save money, improve performance, and become environmentally and socially responsible, including:
- IKEA, Electrolux, Interface, Starbucks, McDonalds, Home Depot, Nike, Bank of America, and Baltix Sustainable Furniture;
- The State of Oregon, U.S. Army and Navy, religious institutions, hospitals, more than 70 municipalities from Stockholm to Santa Monica and;
- More than 500,000 young people through the Swedish Youth Parliament for Sustainability.
The end of one journey, the beginning of the next...
I was so impressed with what I saw about the NSF that I ultimately left Aveda (now well established as a leader in the move toward sustainable business in practice) and became a certified, independent NSF instructor in 1996. Since then I've had the opportunity to share it with a range of businesses, communities, and organizations across the country. It's gratifying to see how diverse employees of even the most challenged businesses are able to develop a shared understanding, vision, and action plan for sustainability in just one day. Frustration and battles are replaced by aligned teams, success, and savings. It gives me hope that we can change the course of every institution and create a sustainable society.
Terry Gips is an author (Breaking the Pesticide Habit and The Humane Consumer and Producer Guide), economist, ecologist, independent NSF instructor, volunteer president of the Alliance for Sustainability, and CEO of Sustainability Associates, an environmental consulting firm offering eco-auditing, training, and sustainability services. He can be reached at 612-374-4765 or www.sustainabilityassociates.us.
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COMPASS is an online software tool for packaging designers and engineers to compare the environmental impacts of their package designs.
