opinion

What is really needed is some way to keep the Sierra Club and all the others from tieing up the courts and government time and finding judges that make bad choices because they "feel that way" without sticking to laws. We would have many more businesses in town AND a bridge at Stillwater saving lives and fuel if we took this bull by and horns and and threw it on its belly once and for all.

Companies are finding creative ways to lower their energy costs in anticipation of more anti-business tax burdens dictated upon them from the EPA and the Obama Administration. Sustainablility to a business owner means survival-NOT ecological stewardship. Not everyone can move their plants and factories over to China or India where the Global Warming religion is not practiced.

Poor Supervon, he just does not get it. If a business is willing to make a long term investment to save energy and reduce waste the bottom line will just getting better and better. They will also avoid future cleanup costs,ie superfund liability. But Supervon just cannot get this and uses this article to take a shot at the Sierra Club. These businesses are learning from the evironmentalists. Reduce, reuse, recycle and laugh at Supervon all the way to the bank!!!

The only problem with leaving it all up to business is that the innovations, manufacturing and jobs will end up overseas and so will the jobs. With oil headed up long term, with rare earth metals going along now is the time to really focus on sustainability. Forget about global warming if you must, economic viability leads you to the same place.

I would be happy if the self-professed conservatives in the US would even honestly discuss economic and ecological sustainability. Too much of their thinking is based on living without limits, and we saw where that got us during the Bush Administration. How serious is global climate change? How serious is the end of peak oil? Nobody knows for certain, but it used to be considered wisdom to "hope for the best but prepare for the worst." How does denying problems or limits until they hit painfully hard (subprime mortgage crisis, for one example) or turning everything into a Democrats vs. Republicans "Tom and Jerry" cartoon square with that?

You can talk about economic and ecological sustainability all you want but when it comes to concrete examples of what private industry is providing, they fall short. I give you the Chevy Volt for example. How many people are going to go out and spend $40,000 for a car today? Yes, I know it is subsidized as well, but why should government have to help you buy a car? When industry starts producing a product that is aimed at the masses, then I will listen. If the Volt is the best we can do, we are in trouble. I would love to go green, but in an article in our local paper, they were cheering the fact that one company was providing the ability to plug in your car for $1.50 per hour. Do the math including all costs. It seems that if we are serious about conservation as well as efficiency, we need to come up with affordable technology designed for the masses. The Volt is not it. I almost welcome $5 a gallon gas. I think it is the only way we are going to get some real world effort into changing policies and coddling big oil. Their days are numbered whether you like it or not; and maybe or maybe not in our lifetime, but it will happen faster than you think. The time to do something, is now. We need people/scientists who can "think outside the box" and I don't see that happening. All I see is the dead end road of people who holler, "drill baby drill."

The term sustainability is spooking alot of business. Wonder why the economy keeps stalling out?

Even businesses are leaving the Party of No behind. They can't wait any longer for the GOP to get out of bed with Big Oil and coal.

Two of the private sector leaders in Sustainability are based in Minnesota, Best Buy and Target. Many of the posters especially Supervon know very little if anything about Sustainability. My company works with organizations in the public and private sector to develop Sustainability strategies for their organizations.

We have a very interesting set of trends in the US. I wonder if it is the same in every Empire as they reach their terminal decline. The political mainstream gets hopelessly out of synch with reality..........¶ Business and the military all know that resource depletion and global climate change are the two biggest challenges we face, and they are moving to address them as best they can. The political mainstream still pretends there is unlimited energy and that the climate might not really be changing...........¶ Business long ago acknowledged same-sex relationships. Politicians are pushing "Defense Of Marriage" and Constitutional Amendments to keep families that already exist from being recognized by law..........¶ Business is the prime proponent of a government-run single-payer health care system, which we will probably get the next time a Republican president is inaugurated. The political group gaining power now wants to repeal the slightest controls on the Insurance industry, despite the fact that our current "system" is pricing itself out of existence...........¶The business community exists to solve problems, make money, and ensure its own survival. The political realm, on the other hand, is catering to the reactionary fears of the electorate which is terrified of change and is determined to keep its head in the sand.