Strong Markets
Sustained economic prosperity depends on the health of society and the environment. People's ability to maintain their communities and responsibly manage local landscapes is directly related to the strength of the economy.
Workers, consumers, entrepreneurs, investors, government, and natural resources are all vital pieces of our economy. Remove just one, and markets stop functioning.
Sustainable Northwest promotes market-based solutions to social and environmental challenges. Through partnerships with natural resource dependent communities and enterprises, we're helping create a more sustainable economy in the West.
Features of sustainable enterprises:
- Production and sale of goods and services fully incorporate the role of, and impact on, nature and society
- Triple bottom line profitability - economic, social, and environmental
- Builds a strong customer base and expands market share by helping consumers consume less, serving their needs not their neediness
- Shareholders and employees are happy and loyal because the company creates value by being values-based
- Practices eco-efficiency (being less bad) and constantly strives toward eco-effectiveness (being all good), where the byproducts of production are inputs for other processes (zero waste).
Stories of Strong Markets
- New Leaf Paper
- Jeff Mendelsohn took on one of the most polluting industries in the world, the paper industry, with the goal of producing the best environmental paper.
- Ecohaus
- Matt Freeman-Gleason acted on his commitment to sustainability and started Environmental Home Center, now Ecohaus, an eco-friendly building materials supplier.
- Emma's Eco-Clean
- A group of low income women in Northern California banded together to create a successful co-op cleaning business using environmentally friendly cleansers.
- Inaba Produce Farms
- Lon Inaba explains the history of the Yakima Valley farm and continuation of family values: nurturing the workers, the crops and the insects that pollinate.
- Mike and Jean’s Berry Farm
- Mike and Jean Youngquist are beating the odds by evolving with the marketplace, and lobbying consumers and policymakers for support of domestic food sources.
- Sakuma Brothers
- Three generations of the Sakuma family have built a fruit business operating in two states with a farm, research laboratory, and processing and packaging plant.
- Shepherd’s Grain
- Fred Fleming and business partner Karl Kupers are Food Alliance certified, use no-till farming, and sell their Washington wheat to local markets.
- Willows Inn, Nettles Farm, Lummi Reefnetters
- From pasta hand-made with organic Nettles Farm eggs to reefnetted salmon, Riley Starks and Judy Olsen bring quality local food to diners at Willows Inn.
- Leonetti Cellar
- Leonetti Cellar winemaker Gary Figgins and his son Chris, the winery's lead viticulturalist, cultivate soil health to create quality wines.
- IronStraw Group
- Michael and Spring Thomas founded IronStraw Group to educate about strawbale construction and now teach building skills to disadvantaged rural youth.
- Mobile Meat Processing Unit, Lopez Community Land Trust
- A revolutionary innovation in small farming on Lopez Island, WA - a mobile meat processing unit that allows consumers to support small island ranchers
- Peshastin Creek Growers Association
- Dr. John Dunley helps the Peshastin Creek Growers Association develop a soft pesticide program for their orchards and move away from conventional farming.
- Quillisascut Farm School of the Domestic Arts
- LoraLea and Rick Misterly use small-scale farming methods to provide high-quality products and hands-on education for aspiring chefs.
- Rendezvous Reclamation
- Sam Lucy reclaims abandoned Methow Valley farmland using crops rather than chemicals to bring weeds under control and the soil back to fertility.
- Rebuilding Center
- To reunite and meet the needs of the neighborhood, Shane Endicott started the non-profit Our United Villages, and the Rebuilding Center was its first success.
News
- Montanan, Idahoan “Tied to the Land” Testify in D.C.
- The message to Capitol Hill: "We are new voices. We are not the voices of industry and we are not the voices of environmentalism. We are a third way ...”
- Welcome New Board Members
- Sustainable Northwest is pleased to welcome three new members to our Board of Directors: Camilla Seth, Jeff Allen, and Marcie McLaughlin.
- Oregon Business Plan and Rural Idaho Entrepreneur Recognized for Leadership in Sustainability and Conservation
- 2008 Cecil D. Andrus Leadership Awards Presented at SNW Gala on March 14th in Portland
- Sustainable Forestry and Green Building Tour
- SNW recently partnered with Northwest Natural Resource Group to host a full-day field tour of local sustainable forest management and wood products manufacturing.
- Lakeview dedicates small diameter mill and biomass energy project
- The Collins Companies and Marubeni Sustainable Energy host the ribbon cutting for a new small diameter sawmill and highlight the future Lakeview Biomass Energy Plant in Oregon
- Upstream 21 Acquires Two Wood Products Enterprises
- HFHC partners Jefferson State Forest Products and Community Smallwood Solutions acquired by Upstream 21
- SNW Welcomes Two New Board Members
- Sustainable Northwest is excited to welcome Kathy Long Holland of LongSherpa Design and Tim Taylor of the Environmental Home Center to its Board of Directors.
- Our First Video: The People and Place of Lake County, Oregon
- Through interviews with community members and sweeping images of the quiet Lake County landscape, this video provides a beautiful history of the early days of the community-based sustainability movement in the Northwest. Featuring Paul Harlan, Collins Companies, Jim Walls, Lake County Resources Initiative, Jane O'Keeffe, SNW Board Member and Martin Goebel, SNW President on the story of collaboration on the Lakeview Sustained Yield Unit.
- HFHC Receives Woody Biomass Utilization Grant from USFS
- The Healthy Forests, Healthy Communities Partnership (HFHC) was the recent recipient of a $249,000 Woody Biomass Utilization Grant from the US Forest Service. Through this grant, HFHC will provide strategic financial and technical assistance to four separate projects treating at-risk forests and processing the small diameter material into value added products.
- Chewaucan Challenge: Return of the Desert Red Band Trout
- Due to a recent restoration and dam removal effort, the Chewaucan River in Lake County, Oregon is seeing the return of the Red Band Trout. Scheduled for July 22-25, 2007 in Lakeview, the first-annual Chewaucan Challenge is an elite catch-and-release fly fishing tournament to inaugurate the return of this once thriving recreational fishing industry.
