MODE Remarks August 97

MODE Remarks:
Money & Trees Both Green

by Frank Pizzoli

Harrisburg Mayor Steve Reed and others made the most compelling statement in the current Region at Risk debate when they stated that the region’s pastoral qualities might succumb to unplanned development within 15 years. Annually, we develop 24,000 acres out of the 1.6 million total within our eight-county home.

Wall Street Journal columnist Thomas Petzinger, Jr, agrees that growth unchecked is growth unwanted. He wrote recently of a carpet manufacturer, Interface Inc.’s Ray Anderson, who wept after reading about how humans pass toxins from one generation to the next. Carpet mills can suck up hydrocarbons and produce toxins.

Realistically, we all want carpets and we all want jobs. How we achieve both takes some reflection. Interface Inc., however, was able to turn their pollution problem into profitability. For example, Anderson cleaned plant filters rather than melting them down. After processing and purifying the water used in his factory, he sold it for golf course irrigation. He has garnered a stunning $25 million since 1995 with another $50 million to be gained from "green lining" his manufacturing process.

Interested? A good source for the businessperson is Pennsylvania author William Frederick’s "Values, Nature, and Culture in the American Corporation." The former business dean at the University of Pittsburgh outlines how the business community has historically attained its greatest economic performance by acknowledging the forces of nature. Working for, rather than against nature, seems to keep both company coffers and trees green.