Can We Harness Greed for Good?
September 2009

Until the deal fell through, the recent eBay auction of the file-drawer sized tomb above Marilyn Monroe for $4.6 Million appeared to be ready to set new records for excessive self-indulgence anywhere on the planet. Evidently, the high bidder had second thoughts about the true value of the crypt’s unique location when he finally realized that no greater fools could be found to flip the deal to, and he would have to be dead to occupy the coveted space. Viewing this bizarre spectacle, along with other recent examples of excessive self-interest on Wall Street and elsewhere, we are reminded of how difficult it is to regulate human nature.

Greed—self interest on steroids—is everywhere. This fact is usually a bearable consequence, if not a potent driver, of a free market system that has given us unparalleled wealth and prosperity in recent history. However, numerous reports of impending system-wide failures, along with lessons from historical declines in ancient civilizations, should inform us that there are limits to how much greed we can handle and still be sustainable as a society.

Nowhere is society’s debate over fairness more important than when we discuss a region’s biological carrying capacity. A ground-breaking final report on local population and the environment, funded in part by local governments, was released last month by the group, Advocates for a Sustainable Albemarle Population. The report is entitled, Estimating Impacts of Population Growth on Ecosystem Services for the Community of Albemarle County and Charlottesville, VA, and it indicates that as growth occurs, fields and forests disappear and impervious surfaces and pollution occur, which then impair ecosystem services so that the community will not be locally sustainable.

Emergence of the Market for Ecosystem Services

In order to sustain civilization with a high quality of life, landowners whose properties generate essential ecosystem services should be rewarded for preserving those services – but that requires agreement on what those services are and how they should be measured. The State of Oregon has embarked on a two-year program designed to reach that agreement. Payments for ecosystem services can help improve the environment while expediting development in appropriate areas. They can also provide revenue to struggling rural areas by paying cash-strapped landowners to act as guardians of the ecosystem. To achieve their potential, however, these schemes must not only be properly structured and managed, but they must follow a clear set of rules that everyone agrees on.

The Oregon program is supported by a host of diverse stakeholders including the Oregon Homebuilders Association, The Nature Conservancy, the Oregon Forest Industries Council, the Oregon Business Council, Ecotrust, Sustainable Northwest, and the City of Portland. You can read about a SLDI ecosystem services initiative in our featured articles below.

Your participation and comments are welcome.

Terry Mock
Executive Director
Sustainable Land Development International

Promoting worldwide land development that balances the needs of people, planet & profit - for today and future generations.

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Achieving Sustainable Land Development

• SLDI Project Goes Carbon Negative
  (August 30, 2009) The land development industry is uniquely positioned to utilize SLDI best management practices to take advantage of emerging ancient and new biochar technologies to help address a multitude of pressing environmental, social and economic concerns.
  Source: Sustainable Land Development Today
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• Mobile 'biochar' machine to work the fields
  (August 25, 2009) Biochar Systems, a joint venture created by BioChar Engineering and EcoTechnologies Group, has developed a mobile machine targeted at landowners or other organizations that generate a lot of "green waste," such as agricultural producers, nurseries, or land managers.
  Source: CNET News
  

• City Changes Land Development Ordinances for 13th Time in Six Years
  (September 2, 2009) The latest round of proposed changes amount to the 13th revision since 2003, when leaders last made a sweeping overhaul of land development ordinances.
  Source: Cary News, North Carolina

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• Char-Apalooza' Presents Top Biochar Breakthroughs
  (August 18, 2009) First North American Biochar Convention pulls in top Obama brass and puts this fledgling industry on the map.
  Souce: Mother Nature Network

• Iceland's Geothermal Know-How To Warm Others
  (August 31, 2009) Iceland has found creative ways to use sustainable geothermal power, and many of its innovations may be coming to Northern California and other geothermal-rich regions seeking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
  Source: San Francisco Chronicle

• Ziba Design's New HQ Is A Sustainable Pillar Of The Community
  (August 27, 2009) Ziba Design has long anchored the sustainable design industry in the Northwest. But it grew so much that it needed new office space. So, the company began collaborating on a building that was not only LEED-certified, but one that better served the local community.
  Souce: Fast Company

• Recession Cuts Back On Pollution
  (August 26, 2009) Tighter pollution controls and the recession curbed toxic chemical flows into Delaware's environment last year, new federal reports indicate, dropping some local plants from the nation's list of top polluters.
  Source: Wilmington News Journal, Delaware

• A Farm On Every Floor
  (August 24, 2009) If climate change and population growth progress at their current pace, in roughly 50 years farming as we know it will no longer exist. But there is a solution that is surprisingly within reach: It’s called vertical farming.
  Source: New York Times. Opinion

• Cleaning Up At The Ports Of Los Angeles And Long Beach
  (August 23, 2009) The two ports are becoming important contributors for a new kind of innovation - energy efficiency - and putting to rest the notion that environmental regulation is bad for business.
  Source: Los Angeles Times

• Freshwater Mussels Found In Cuyahoga River, Indicating Improved Water Quality
  (August 22, 2009) When water quality expert Ron Maichle stepped into the lower Cuyahoga River early Monday, he became the first person in more than half a century to find a living freshwater mussel in that long-polluted portion of the river.
  Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer

• A Portland Sustainability Center Could Sprout In 2010
  (August 22, 2009) After more than a year of technical studies, the greenest large-scale building in the world appears poised to start construction at Portland State University next year.
  Source: Portland Oregonian

• Salmon River Lives Up To Its Name Again
  (August 20, 2009) For the first time in more than a century, scientists have found wild-born Atlantic salmon in a Lake Ontario tributary that once teemed with the fish, suggesting that the native species is recovering after many years of reproductive failure.
  Source: Associated Press

• City Council acts to regulate land use
  (September 2, 2009) The first land use regulations for larger development were given first reading Tuesday by City Council. Council also gave first reading to a temporary stop to local development until the land use regulations are finalized.
  Source: The Times and Democrat, Orangeburg, SC

Editor's Note: SLDI News Service may feature press releases submitted directly by organizations in SLDI's network. This content is not specifically endorsed or supported by SLDI and is not subject to SLDI's editorial process.