The notion of sustainability gains almost daily in importance. Even those suspicious of its tenets declare themselves for it. A kind of Rubicon has been crossed in Grand Rapids, where the word “sustainability” has been bandied about since the early 1990’s, with an ever-increasing audience of believers and adherents. There is no more argument. Now, everyone who’s anyone will participate in the movement. Nothing is lacking – except, possibly, a common understanding of what it is we are talking about.
When Mayor Heartwell stood up for the State of the City address in 2005 and vowed that Grand Rapids would be a sustainable city, none of us (and probably not Heartwell himself) could know fully what that meant. We still don’t.
We know that it has to do with a concept called the “triple bottom line,” which basically asserts that environmental, economic, and social objectives must be coordinated and balanced if we are to prosper. It says that we must count environmental and social objectives as “bottom-line” achievements. Sustainability compares human economic activity to a three-legged stool, and suggests that as we cut any of the legs too short, we upset the whole stool.
We know that it is a bipartisan concept, neither exclusively progressive nor conservative. If you want to pick a fight with someone, the philosophy of sustainability is not your arena. Try religion or President Bush instead. Sustainability is a lovefest.
We know that sustainability was introduced locally as a business strategy, led by a few manufacturers with good environmental records and an interest in outpacing both the regulators and the competition.
Uniting Enviros, Executives, and Activists
As executive director of the West Michigan Environmental Action Council, I came to the sustainability conversation from the environmentalist/conservationist point of view. I saw sustainability as a way to resolve some of the issues that stymie progress towards environmental objectives – like the “Jobs vs. Environment” mythology, or the way business externalizes environmental costs such as pollution. Sustainability seemed to have the potential to turn corporate leaders and industry into environmental partners, rather than the Enemies of our past battles.
I feel like I understand it all better than most people. And yet, I stumble to characterize sustainability. Part of the problem is that we still need to define a local manifestation for the concept, so that we can begin to translate it into practical terms.
The desire to become sustainable implies that we are not so now. This is another thing about which most local people can agree. Environmentalists see the progressive damage and depletion of those natural resources that define the livability of our region. Economists see the decline of manufacturing, and fear the outmigration of the young and talented. They ponder the Small Business Tax and wonder how we can compete with other places. Others recognize instantly how problems of race, poverty, public education, and reduced social equity hobble us at every step.
Clarity of Purpose
Books remain to be written about all these issues, but a few key points are becoming clear:
First, it is now apparent that we must sustain ourselves not just as a downtown, but as a city; and not just as a city but as a region. Half an hour north of downtown is black bear habitat. Half an hour south, the southernmost nesting pair of common loons on the North American continent. Drive in any direction you please and find world-class trout streams. More than eighteen percent of the accessible fresh water in the world is here.
Drive a quarter hour in any direction you please and find the state’s most productive agricultural land: apples, cherries, blueberries, nursery plants, wine country, beef and dairy farms, maple syrup. Some of the country’s best organic growers thrive on small family farms here. If you are not sensitive to the presence of such industries, then you are missing part of what makes us an outstanding human habitat – not merely livable, but unique.
The reemergence of downtown as a desirable place to spend time, and even as an attractive cultural and financial instrument, still does not begin to guarantee the future of a city that will rise or fall by the strength of the whole region in which it resides. Downtown, however thriving, is a necessary, but not a sufficient, means to that end.
Second, we have established an early lead in some aspects of the sustainability revolution, which with effort we can put to account. For example, Grand Rapids is the nation’s leader in green building per capita, according to the US Green Building Council. Energy-conserving, water-saving, toxics-avoiding commercial and industrial floor space abounds here like no where else.
Grand Rapids also leads in the design of products with 'sustainable' characteristics ---- made from local materials, recoverable, compostable, recyclable, and safe. We need to keep those designers, as well as the trained workers who build from their designs. The whole world is beginning to compete in the design and development of triple-bottom-line products and techniques. One of my big fears is that we will decide we are too clever to be part of it all.
Third, West Michigan will not become a sustainable human habitat, by any realistic definition, unless and until Grand Rapids somehow manages to raise taxes. Heresy? Pie-in-the-sky? Spare me.
There are certain kinds of investments that cannot and will not be made privately. You need a public strategy with the money to back it up. We will not scrimp and pinch our way to a fabulous future. People who want successful cities invest in them. As Birgit Klohs of the Right Place Program has pointed out, if low taxes were sufficient to economic success, then Mississippi would be the place to beat.
We should talk instead about how we would spend the money if it were there, if we had it. People, and companies, gravitate toward an exciting vision. So does money. Sustainability may be a dull word, but it is a creative vision. Much of our failure over the past generation has been a failure of creativity above all else. Beyond that, it’s mostly a matter of failing to invest in our most powerful assets. I’m tired of people saying it can’t be done.
Photographs Copyright Brian Kelly - All Rights Reserved
Image captions top to bottom:
The Rogue River is a quality trout stream 10 minutes from downtown Grand Rapids.
Mayor George Heartwell is pushing Grand Rapids toward sustainability.
Clean waterfront enhances the quality of life in Grand Rapids.
Robinette's Orchard is a family operated farm just 15 minutes from downtown Grand Rapids.
Tom Leonard at home in Cherry Hill Historic District.