Sustainable Money

It has been two months since the last blog. The bad news is…it’s been two months and I had planned on weekly blogs. The good news is that two people complained that I haven’t blogged! OK, so they are friends of mine, but still, SOMEBODY read this aside from me. Thank you! Please come back.

Since the last blog I quit my job at a large commercial radio broadcast company to offer myself up as a consultant to companies, social enterprises and mission driven businesses. I do believe that these sustainable start ups and mid-course non-profits need business acumen to scale up and not sell out on their mission. Why me? (OK, so this is a pitch…but it will give you background on why I am blogging on these topics in the first place)

Nutshell: Always loved the outdoors and felt that relentless business growth at any price did not make sense. Two years ago I read Cradle to Cradle , (McDonough, Braungart) and Raising the Bar, the story of Clif Bar. Then I signed up for a year of graduate school at a place called Bainbridge Graduate Institute or BGI. They infuse sustainability into every course. I took a year, 9 credits…and I got religion, as they say.

Here is a link to a video, a naked plea for support from one of the founders, Gifford Pinchot. If there is any school that will make the world a better place and should be the recipient of a huge endowment (or your donation in any amount I am sure they would say) it is BGI. BGI is training the leaders of the sustainable economy. BGI is inventing the way to train the leaders of the sustainable economy. Look at it this way. When JFK announced that the US would go to the moon within 10 years many of the engineers and scientists that actually did all the work were like 18 years – 25 years old. So, that age group, now that Obama is in office and is doing the things he is doing, will be amongst the people that get the US back on track, that turn us into a net energy exporter (maybe), that redesign our filth-spewing economic engine.

http://www.bgiedu.org/content/view/90/86/

Here is the topic I was going to write about: Local and environmental effects of monetary policy. Last time I wrote about the Treasury Department and the World Bank. How does what they do affect the way money is obtained from banks and who can get it?

When I say monetary policy I am talking about interest rates. I am certain there are other facets to it, but interest rates and access to money is my topic. Interest rates would affect the housing industry and loans of all sorts. But how can monetary policy affect sustainability? Is money agnostic in that regard? If one can get it, they get it? If they can’t, they can’t? Does it just take money to make money? If true, this is the “old fashioned” way the credit and debt markets have worked…and something has to change.

How can monetary policy foster a more egalitarian society? How can monetary policy facilitate better environmental and social performance? How can it keep more money in local economies?

Let’s look at loans, specifically, the cost of loans.

So, What if the criterion for a commercial loan was sustainability? What if there were questions on the form asking about social responsibility, social justice, environmental justice, environmental stewardship, as well as economic viability?

And the MORE these things were LINKED, the more points you get, the better the terms of the loan, the better the chance of even getting the loan.

So, for example, a manufacturer who gives 1% of profits to a charity might get 5 points…a manufacturer who produces benign effluent, reduces their carbon emissions by (insert correct amount here), engages the underserved populations, provides more opportunity to the disadvantaged in the way of, say, job training or contributes to the creation and stewardship of workforce housing (if that’s a LOCAL need) then that business would get 25 points instead of just 5. Keeping more money inside the local economy would also garner more points.

I am confident that Barack Obama will lead us in this direction. But I think these ideas need to be included now in the laws that will pass in the coming weeks, months and over the coming year as a part of the economic stimulus package. Now is not the time to say “we can’t afford to be green”. In all seriousness, we cannot afford NOT to make these changes to the very foundation of all the rest of the economic decisions. I think two important disciplines that need to change are Money and Energy. Almost all else is connected to these two. Let’s do what we can now to make sustainable choices.

Am I missing something? Help me out here.