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GreenMoney Journal - publishing since 1992
Fall 2010 issue
Socially Responsible Investing – Better Companies, Better Communities
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The SPIRALS Framework: A Trim Tab for a Livable Future And Excerpt from Thriving Beyond Sustainability
By Andres R. Edwards
Something hit me very hard once, thinking about what one little man could do. Think of the Queen
Mary – the whole ship goes by and then comes the rudder. And there's a tiny thing at the edge of
the rudder called a trim tab. It's a miniature rudder. Just moving the little trim tab builds a low
pressure that pulls the rudder around. Takes almost no effort at all. So I said that the little
individual can be a trim tab. [1] – Buckminster Fuller
Buckminster Fuller’s trim-tab metaphor is especially relevant today as we grapple with global
issues such as ecosystem decline, energy transition, population growth, economic disparity and
climate change. These enormous challenges call for devising and implementing innovative trim tabs,
with leverage points that can reverse these trends and chart new pathways. The SPIRALS Framework
acts as a trim tab by promoting effective initiatives. Similar to spirals found in nature, which
range from the shape of the Milky Way Galaxy to a snail’s shell, the SPIRALS Framework provides
interdependent criteria for identifying initiatives that are Scalable, Place-making,
Intergenerational, Resilient, Accessible and Life-affirming and involve Self-care. These criteria
emerge from a central point, which is a livable future for all species.
Scaling up our
efforts will be vital as the window of opportunity to reverse these global trends narrows. Whenever
a new project or program is being created it is important to ask, is it scalable? If not, then its
ripple effects will be minimal. Scalable initiatives hinge on leverage points that act as powerful
drivers of change. 1BOG (1 Block Off the Grid), a San Francisco-based nonprofit start-up, is a
great example of scaling up by meeting needs at the grassroots level. Homeowners who yearn for
affordability and for guidance in buying and installing solar panels now have a solution through a
collective purchase and installation program, and 1BOG’s services are being replicated nationally.
The scalable success of 1BOG reflects the importance of a Place-making approach for
tackling local challenges. This approach involves understanding the needs of the community in the
context of its surroundings and its heritage — the relationship of residents to their watershed,
agriculture, wildlife and economy. It also involves people’s connection to their cultural history
and the character of their community. In essence, a placed-making approach is as much about “what”
a place is as about “who” it is. Sustainability Street, an Australian nonprofit that promotes
sustainable practices at the community level, relies on the knowledge and leadership of local
residents to instill the significance of taking care of their village. The Sustainability Street
Approach offers training that has resulted in reducing waste, water use and greenhouse gas
emissions. The program has spread to over 200 communities in Australia and is being considered by
communities in China and the UK.
The effectiveness of a place-making approach is
strengthened by an Intergenerational perspective. Moving beyond the need for immediacy so common in
our fast-paced lifestyle driven by new technologies, this perspective instead recognizes the wisdom
of principles that endure through time. Rather than looking at quarterly returns, an
intergenerational lens looks at the impact of decisions 100 to 200 years down the road. The
Menominee tribe in Wisconsin, for example, has been sustainably harvesting their forest for over
100 years and the total amount of timber remaining has increased since they first began their
operations in 1865.
The long-term intergenerational perspective supports enduring
Resilient initiatives. Resiliency is the capacity to bounce back from adverse changes and involves
adaptability, redundancy, flexibility and nimbleness. Resiliency is especially relevant as we
create large-scale, interconnected systems, such as the food distribution network, transportation
links, the energy grid and the Internet, in which a breakdown affects millions of people. The
Climate Protection Campaign is working for a resilient response to climate change in Sonoma County,
California, by helping communities reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to 25 percent below 1990
levels by 2015. This bold target can inspire other communities to implement resilient strategies
for dealing with the effects of a warming planet.
As communities implement resilient
strategies, social justice comes into play through Accessible initiatives, which are inclusive and
economically and environmentally just. These programs invest in the skills needed for the new
economy. Solar Richmond, for example, is partnering with local governments, businesses and
nonprofits to train inner-city residents from Richmond, California, for green-collar jobs in the
energy sector. Participants learn to install solar panels and then get jobs that lift them out of
poverty. Solar Richmond’s model is rippling across America as other communities see the value of
empowering inner-city residents with these job skills.
As accessibility concerns are
addressed, the Life-affirming aspects of initiatives come to the forefront. These celebrate our
connection to the natural world and create opportunities for protecting the fabric of life of which
we are a part. For example, the Biomimicry Institute’s Innovation for Conservation program enables
“bio-inspired businesses,” which derive profits from natural systems, to contribute a portion of
these profits to protect the species and habitats that are the sources of their products. This is a
way of saying thank you and honoring the web of life.
The spirit of the Biomimicry
Institute’s Innovation for Conservation program applies to the final aspect of the SPIRALS
Framework, Self-care. Self-care involves our personal vitality, nourishment and well-being. The
success of any initiative we are part of depends on our health, energy and fulfillment. Like a
healthy plant that needs sunlight, water and soil with nutrients to grow, we are our optimal selves
when we take care of our physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual needs. Discovering what
gives us joy and meaning helps us create and implement initiatives that make positive changes.
The SPIRALS Framework serves as a trim tab to increase the efficacy of initiatives aiming
to build a livable future. Incorporating the SPIRALS Framework’s qualities — Scalable,
Place-making, Intergenerational, Resilient, Accessible, Life-affirming and involving Self-care — in
our work for Spaceship Earth will allow us to navigate the challenges ahead with a sense of
purpose, realizing that the power of our actions is augmented when we connect to ourselves, to each
other and to nature.
Article by Andrés R. Edwards ( http://www.andresedwards.com ) is
the author of Thriving Beyond Sustainability and The Sustainability Revolution.
He is an
educator, media designer, LEED®-accredited green building and sustainability consultant and the
founder and principal of EduTracks.
Article Note:
[1] Answers.com: http://www.answers.com/topic/trim-tab
Also Buckminster
Fuller Challenge: http://challenge.bfi.org/faq
BOOK EXCERPT: Thriving Beyond
Sustainability
(Chapter 5: Saving Ecosystems)
By Andrés R. Edwards
As the
economic benefits of ecosystem services become apparent, policymakers and communities all over the
world are implementing strategies to protect the environment so it can provide these services.
Financing for conservation, known as Payment for Environmental Services, is gaining acceptance as a
model to protect ecosystems. In New York City, for example, when the city’s water quality degraded
officials weighed the cost of a new water filtration plant against the cost of conserving the
watershed of the Catskill Mountains. They chose the latter. The price of a new plant was $6 billion
to $8 billion, compared to $660 million to restore the watershed. The city now uses its funds to
purchase open space in the watershed, restrict development activities and improve the septic
systems of people living in the area.
Similar decisions are being implemented elsewhere.
In Seattle, instead of building new levees officials are restoring floodplains to alleviate
flooding. Farmers living in Central America near the Panama Canal Zone are being paid to restore
their forested lands in order to reduce soil erosion, thus minimizing the need for dredging. The
restoration is funded by companies that use the canal for transporting their goods and benefit from
fewer delays caused by dredging.
The Natural Capital Project is establishing mechanisms
for valuing ecosystem services. Launched in 2006, it is a partnership of Stanford University, The
Nature Conservancy and World Wildlife Fund. The group is led by Gretchen Daily, a Stanford biology
professor and Woods Institute senior fellow, Peter Kareiva of The Nature Conservancy and Taylor
Rickets of World Wildlife Fund. The Natural Capital Project is “developing tools for quantifying
the values of natural capital in clear, credible, and practical ways.”[19] This link between
economic benefits and ecosystem services is of considerable interest to policymakers as they make
decisions that affect the environment.
The Natural Capital Project has developed tools
such as InVEST, which models and maps ecosystem services and biodiversity. It is compiling a
Natural Capital Database to provide the public with information about conservation projects that
focus on ecosystem services. Using these tools, the Natural Capital Project is working with
partners to incorporate ecosystem service values into demonstration projects around the world. The
primary sites include the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania, the Upper Yangtze River Basin, the
northern tropical Andes of Colombia and Ecuador, Sumatra, the Sierra Nevada region of California
and the Hawaiian Islands. In each of these areas scientists are providing strategies for reframing
the value of natural assets and ecosystem services, allowing policymakers to assess the economic
value of nature’s services; point to cases where policy and finance mechanisms are integrated with
natural capital; and make decisions that incorporate the environmental, social and economic
dimensions of resources. [20]
Book Excerpt Notes:
[19] Natural Capital Project. About The Natural Capital Project [Cited
September 21, 2009] http://www.naturalcapitalproject.org/about.html
[20] I am indebted to Gretchen Daily for additional information about the
Natural Capital Project and the InVEST tool, obtained through personal communication on June 30,
2009.
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