 |
|
Solutions for Generations
Deanna Batdorff models the 21st century art of moving gracefully in two different worlds. She owns and operates Dhyana Therapeutics, a tranquil center for Ayurveda and Aromatherapy on a restored farmhouse property in Sebastopol, California. Though she spends most of her time there, at the moment, Batdorff is on her way to volunteer at a women’s health clinic, a two-hour drive. The long trip gives her an opportunity to talk to me at length by phone. Her excitement about Restorative Technologies, which supplies products that are indispensable to her business, is obvious.
Water is Batdorff’s top concern, as her line of work demands the purest and most vital water possible for therapeutic treatments. She’s thrilled with the living water system that Restorative Technologies installed for Dhyana Therapeutics. It not only eliminated decades of accumulated mineral deposits from the pipes and thoroughly cleansed the heating element and insides of the old water heater; it also infuses the water with properties that are beneficial to health. The new water system is a continuous cause for celebration, and Batdorff is a grateful member of a burgeoning market for eco-technologies.
Eco-Trends
The 2006 edition of Worldwatch Institute’s annual report, State of the World, asserts that eco-businesses will make huge profits in the future. As evidence, it notes that in 2003, 52 studies of U.S. businesses and regulations revealed a positive relationship between financial, social and environmental performance. State of the World 2006 also reports that after 30 years of operation a 3M program prevented an estimated million pounds of waste from polluting the environment. First-year savings alone for the 5,600 projects that were part of the program over that period amounted to almost $1 billion.
In addition to recognizing that eco-technology is profitable, major corporations are joining forces with environmental organizations and thereby embracing a new cooperative model that’s firmly grounded in ecological awareness. For example, Rainforest Action Network persuaded J.P. Morgan, Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corporation to account for pollution costs in their loan underwriting process. Also, Dow Chemical Company and Jean-Michel Cousteau's Ocean Futures Society are offering educational programs and television series that help children understand the impact of their behaviors on the oceans. The credibility and respectability that such efforts lend to environmentalism is priceless.
As the drama featuring ecologically-aware and ecologically-oblivious global giants unfolds, small enterprises with a passion for restoring balance and health to ecosystems are taking center stage. In the critical role of innovators, their goal is to create and disseminate new eco-technologies by mimicking nature. One such enterprise is Restorative Technologies.
The Revolutionary New Business Model: Nature
Tom Boyd and Deana Dennard co-founded Restorative Technologies in 2001. By then, socially- and ecologically-responsible products and services were ready for the marketplace but weren’t effectively getting there. What was lacking was a restorative business that could market and distribute them, design and engineer the next generations of eco-products and services and set up innovative models for manufacturing them. What was lacking was a restorative business that could market and distribute existing eco-products and services, and also apply innovative models for designing, engineering and manufacturing new eco-products and services.
Restorative Technologies began test marketing existing ecologically restorative technologies and quickly realized the importance of using natural models to guide business development as well. “We follow nature’s lead in all aspects of business and technology development and represent only products and services that bring quality to the elements of living that all beings on earth share,” says Boyd. “The results we see are rich soil/earth, clear breathable air, clean renewable energy, fresh, vital water and finally, healthful personal ecology healthy and happy children.”
The company’s motto, Solutions for Generations, captures the essence of Restorative Technologies, which creates and distributes products that are designed and manufactured so well that they can be effective for generations, and services that are the solutions for the basic issues for personal to planetary health and well-being. The company’s motto, Solutions for Generations, captures the essence of Restorative Technologies, which creates and distributes products that are designed and manufactured so well that they can be effective for decades to come, and services that solve basic issues of personal and planetary health and well-being.
Having completed a significant amount of study, research and experimentation into unlocking nature’s secrets, Boyd has made discoveries that can empower human society. But that’s not the end of it. Through a combination of continuing education and outreach, he’s honing his company’s ability to design and manufacture the next generation of ecologically restorative technologies. To hone his company’s ability to design and manufacture the next generation of ecologically restorative technologies, Boyd decided to combine continuing education and outreach. The 2006 Biomimicry Intensive in Costa Rica, under the guidance of biomimicry experts Janine Benyus and Dayna Baumiester, provided this fertile combination.
Along with an international group of designers, architects, industrial designers and biologists, Boyd seized the opportunity the intensive offered to explore core eco-design challenges. Breaking into interdisciplinary teams, the participants watched spellbound as tropical species executed sublimely simple and profound solutions to common human challenges: wastewater treatment, packaging, healing, housing and more. “Tom’s biomimicry training has greatly enhanced our understanding of how we want to shape our organization,” says Dennard. “It has also increased his abilities as a systems and technology designer. We now have the language and ability to back up what we know with proof from the natural world.”
Company and Organizational Principles
“We now use Nature’s Trinity as a lens to inspect every aspect of our organization—product lines we’re considering representing, operating our organization and of course in our design work,” says Boyd. “Every product we sell or design must have Nature’s Trinity built in. This is the promise we make to our customers, their children, and their children’s children.”
In keeping with this promise, Restorative Technologies considers the entire lifecycle of a product before representing it. Key considerations include where it comes from, how it’s made and who makes it, how it’s packaged and shipped, what it does for users, and where it goes when it’s functional life has ended. For example, the plastic housings in Restorative Technologies’ water filters can be recycled, and the materials inside the filters are valuable—they enhance the environment if they are sprinkled in a pond or other water way. “Nothing in our products causes harm to the environment,” says Boyd.
Similarly, Restorative Technologies and other genuine eco-companies treat both their customers and their employees well. Sweatshops and other means of exploiting workers are contrary to Nature’s Trinity, and companies that violate Nature’s Trinity at every turn may claim to be green, but they’re not. WalMart, which recently committed to providing organic foods to its customers, is a prime example of a fake eco-company. It treats employees unjustly, intentionally skimps on quality and drives other companies out of business with bargain-basement prices. Unfortunately, green consumers that do business with fake eco-companies get what they pay for.
In the same vein, the April 2006 installment of The Evolving Corporation, an article by Worldwatch researcher Erik Assadourian, points out that it’s not enough for corporations to reduce pollution by becoming more efficient. "Eco-efficiency (sustainability, per Boyd) will simply delay the environmental collapse threatened by the unbridled growth of the global economy,” he writes. Similarly, when designers of goods and production processes follow the laws of nature, corporations are "eco-effective" (William McDonough and Michael Braungart’s term).
Nature's Trinity by Design
Water
Soil
Air
Case study: The Elements of Quality
Empowering Values and Culture
Education
“Our educational program has evolved from traveling around with a massive library of all the best books on nature, restoration, and eco-technology design to now, summarizing this core information in easy-to-understand articles and posting them to our website and other public media,” says Dennard.
The educational aspect of Restorative Technologies is one that Deanna Batdorff values the most. “Tom Boyd is such an important resource,” she says. “He explains how the products are working, really wanting me to be able to explain it to my clients.”
In addition, since new development in sensitive areas of the City of Sebastopol appears to be inevitable, Restorative Technologies is offering positive solutions. Boyd is actively educating both decision-makers and the general public on how to apply green principles to aquatic ecologies, floodplains and wastewater treatment.
Research and Development
Currently, the ERT Design Center is developing new technologies for restoring water and soil, purifying air, generating renewable energy and enhancing food and medicine production. Scott Mathieson, owner of Laguna Farm in Sebastopol, is making good use of these new eco-products. Restorative Technologies installed an integrated clean drinking water system, agricultural water revitalization system and Vortex flowform fountain (which greatly optimizes the process of mixing treatments for organic and bio-dynamic crops) at the farm. Mathieson also relies on Restorative Technologies for stone flour and other eco-products. Conversely, Laguna Farm acts as a valuable local design feedback loop, allowing Restorative Technologies to better understand the role of eco-technologies in sustainable farming.
Finally, Mathieson practices sustainable energy management with biofuels and alternative energy production, relies on Restorative Technologies for equipment that boosts the efficiency of fuels of all kinds, including biofuels.
Economic Empowerment
Restorative Technologies uses the Internet to facilitate another tool for mutual support and benefit: its affiliate empowerment program. Through this program, Restorative trains individuals, organizations and communities that share its values, goals and passion to market and sell the company’s online product base. “This is another area of the business strongly influenced by our study of natural systems,” says Boyd.
For example, fungi set up interconnected communities that make and deliver nutrients, purify waste and restore the soil and water wherever they are. Based on the model of fungal distribution, the sales and distribution program at Restorative Technologies allows people from all over the country to bring ecologically restorative products, services and local scale eco-manufacturing to their bioregion.
Boyd stresses that only passionate and qualified individuals, businesses and organizations become affiliates, and that the qualifying process is rigorous. Because eco-technology is an emerging marketplace, the products that Restorative Technologies represents are just becoming well known. Consequently, interested parties must undergo stringent training to learn what the products are, how to use them, how to offer them and how they benefit eco-systems.
“We’re committed to a win-win style, which stresses serving our relationships and foundation principles,” says Deana Dennard. “In this way, we are all served, automatically.”
The Bioregional Perspective
The goal was to help business leaders save the world (literally) by learning to manage an organization to be environmentally friendly, socially just and economically viable. Consistent with the organizers’ intentions, participants walked away from the conference with practical tools they could put into place in their own sustainable enterprise. For example, participants received detailed instructions for becoming more sustainable in the way they manufacture and deliver products.
The conference was held at the former site of Agilent Technologies in Petaluma, California, and the mood was more than positive. The new owner of the site, Codding Enterprises, is transforming it into a model of sustainable development. Participants were also enthusiastic because the conference answered a burning question: What is the role of sustainability in business and organizational development? Restorative Technologies contributed to the answer with flowform fountains, a living example of how nature sustains, restores, and regenerates itself through dynamic motion and positive feedback loops.
A key presenter, Real Goods co-founder John Schaeffer, stirred the crowd’s passions by celebrating the dramatic changes that have occurred since the 1970’s. He stressed that not so long ago, eco-business owners that wanted to remain in business were well-advised to tone down their passion for the Earth. Now, it pays to make bold statements about ecological convictions. Schaeffer’s vast experience has convinced him that at long last, speaking passionately about the world’s ecosystems is good for the bottom line.
Restorative Conclusion
In China, it’s no longer possible to ignore the extensive water pollution and acid rain, or the chokingly dense smog. As a result, late in 2005 the Communist Party Central Committee approved initiatives for extensive energy efficient building construction, fuel economy standards for automobiles, high efficiency commercial lighting and renewable energy. China’s leadership has also recognized that the environmental and health effects of unfettered growth is costly. Accordingly, it has committed to investing over $156.6 billion in repairing the environment and preventing or mitigating future damage between 2006 and 2010.
In addition, Clean Energy Trends 2006, a report by California market research firm Clean Edge, Inc., predicts that the global market for renewable energies alone will expand 400% by 2015, rising to $167 billion. This seems to bode well for the eco-economy, but in his April 2006 Harper’s article, “Business, as Usual?” author and journalist Christopher D. Cook posits that without explicit policies to protect small farmers and the environment, ADM, Cargill and other large-scale producers are ideally positioned to dominate ethanol production.
Venture capitalists that are preparing to take advantage of the emerging markets for eco-technology may offer part of the solution: They’re pushing for changes in U.S. government policies. Doerr’s firm, Kleiner Perkins, plans to advocate for initiatives that will reduce the climate crisis and increase energy innovation. In fact, a Kleiner Perkins associate who has established his own venture capital firm is already financing a ballot initiative in California that proposes to raise taxes on oil companies and use the funds for alternative energy and clean technology development.
Another boost for eco-technology arrived in April 2006, when renowned venture capitalist John Doerr announced that green technology could be the greatest economic opportunity of the century. Supporting his words with action, he set aside $100 million for technologies that provide cleaner energy, transportation, air and water. Doerr’s firm, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, has already invested $50 million in seven eco-technology ventures.
Among the major investors in eco-technology is Goldman Sachs, the first global investment bank to adopt a comprehensive environmental policy that acknowledges the value of "ecosystem services.” In addition, the California Public Employees Retirement System is investing $200 million in what it calls the “burgeoning environmental technology sector,” and the Investor Network on Climate Risk is set to invest $1 billion in companies with green products. In 2005, General Electric—the world’s ninth largest corporation—committed to doubling its investment in green technology over the next five years, and to cutting its greenhouse gas emissions by one percent by 2012.
Poised to make its mark on society, Restorative Technologies is informing socially-responsible investors and customers about the critical differences between products and services that include the Nature’s Trinity model and those that don’t. Boyd is optimistic. “Too few companies are bringing solutions from nature to the market,” he says. “The supply and demand ratios for our emerging industry are more than encouraging.”
Written for Restorative Technologies
|