Archive for the ‘Sustainability’ Category

The fool’s gold of economic development

More than 200 people lost their jobs yesterday in Roseburg, Oregon after Dell closed its call center there. While the closure came as a shock to many employees and the community, no one should be the least bit surprised it came to this. What’s surprising is that elected and economic development officials, desperate for jobs, keep rolling out the red carpet for global corporations whose only long-term allegiance is to making money for their shareholders.

Back in 2002, Dell chose Roseburg for its call center after starting with a list of 3,300 communities as potential sites for the center, according to a December 23, 2002 article in The News-Review of Roseburg. To win the selection process, the city, Douglas County and the state of Oregon agreed to give Dell a package of tax breaks and other inducements. According to The News Review, the package included a property tax waiver of up to three years, a state income tax credit worth up to 25 percent of property investments that relate to online trade, a reimbursement of $250,000 for Dell expenditures on telecommunications upgrades and equipment, and even an agreement to build a 75-car parking lot at no cost to Dell.

In that same newspaper piece five years ago, well-known Oregon economist Joe Cortright warned, “Places that are going after call centers have to be very cautious.” He was very aware that the trend then (and now) was toward moving corporate call centers overseas to save costs. It’s also the case that business conditions change rapidly and companies react accordingly. That same month of December 2002, as the article noted, DirecTV closed its call center in Beaverton, Oregon and laid off 400 people after shutting down its Internet subsidiary.

The warning signs were there five years ago, making what happened yesterday in Roseburg no surprise. Too often winning the chase for jobs from outside corporations is nothing more than fool’s gold. It may look like real economic development, but it is soon followed by the realization that the same thing that draws large companies to a community – lower costs and higher profits – is what sends them on their way when their business declines or better opportunities present themselves elsewhere. Dell is just the latest example of this. As has been widely reported, Dell sales have been falling, and they are in the process of shedding jobs.

So what’s the choice for communities hungry for jobs, like Roseburg, which has long struggled to overcome the deterioration of timber industry employment? It’s doing everything possible to take care of existing local employers and to encourage local entrepreneurship. This is not the quick-fix answer public officials seek, and it doesn’t let them bask in the glow of ribbon-cutting ceremonies with out-of-town corporate fat cats. But independent locally owned businesses are the long-term foundation for a sustainable economy.

One Roseburg resident summed it up well yesterday in comments to The News Review:

“Did anyone know Dell was going to close?” Absolutely! Everyone who has been paying attention to the business world for the past few decades (at least). Small towns bend over backward to give big corporations whatever they want; the companies fail to deliver, and then leave in five years. If half the worth of incentives and tax breaks had gone to supporting locally-owned businesses instead of Dell, the people of Roseburg would be better off today.

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Going local: the real competition for Whole Foods

Several newspapers today are picking up a story about growing competition in some markets between Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. I wouldn’t be surprised if Whole Foods’ PR people had a hand in getting the story placed because it lends credence to Whole Foods’ argument that its proposed purchase of Wild Oats will not eliminate competition, and therefore the FTC should not block the merger.

The better argument for this may very well be the success of New Seasons Market here in Portland. New Seasons is winning customers’ allegiance all over the Portland metropolitan area, even with the presence of Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. Unlike in many major metropolitan areas, Whole Foods has not been able to dominate the market for its preferred “college-educated” demographic in Portland. If anyone is doing the dominating today, it’s New Seasons, along with Zupan’s Markets, another home-grown grocer.

I spent yesterday (Sunday) working at a food booth outside two New Seasons Market stores. All the proceeds from the barbecue sales went to a non-profit organization I am involved with to promote vibrant local economies based on independent locally owned businesses. New Seasons Market is a member of the organization and a poster child for what these businesses mean to a community. The Market is deeply committed to the Portland area and to the success of family farms in Oregon.

At least when it comes to food shopping, Portlanders appear to get the importance of buying from independent locally owned stores. If this awareness spreads to other cities around the country, Whole Foods may discover that its greatest threats are not the other national or international grocery chains. It’s all of us who are saying yes to the relocalization of our food producers and retailers.

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Monday, July 30th, 2007
Posted in Business & Economics, Oregon, Sustainability | No Comments »

Local currencies for local economies

One of the ideas that keeps getting bounced around among advocates for promoting sustainable economies based on independent locally owned businesses is creating a local currency. Even BusinessWeek is getting into the act this week with a look at the Berkshares program, a creation of the E.F. Schumacher Society. The Society’s executive director tells BW, “One of the important roles that a community currency plays is as an educational tool that reminds people about their local businesses, local economy, and develops a sense of pride in the region and those businesses.”

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Friday, July 27th, 2007
Posted in Business & Economics, Sustainability | No Comments »

Buy green? How about buy nothing

I have been a marketer for more than 20 years, and appreciate the importance of marketing for any organization. I also count myself among those aspiring to a truly sustainable lifestyle. So why would I have any bone to pick with marketers of green goods and services? Because too many of them want us to think green consumption is harmless, maybe even good for our planet.

I like what Alex Steffen, the executive editor of Worldchanging.com, told the New York Times on Sunday: “There is a very common mind-set right now which holds that all that we’re going to need to do to avert the large-scale planetary catastrophes upon us is make slightly different shopping decisions.”

In other words, we’re being urged by many green marketers to buy a hybrid, vacation in an eco-friendly overseas resort, purchase organic cotton clothing, install a solar panel on our second home, when in fact we should be selling our cars, limiting our air travel, buying less clothing (and other stuff) and owning only one home (and a small one at that).

As New York Times reporter Alex Williams writes in the same piece, “It’s as though the millions of people whom environmentalists have successfully prodded to be concerned about climate change are experiencing a SnackWell’s moment: confronted with a box of fat-free devil’s food chocolate cookies, which seem deliciously guilt-free, they consume the entire box, avoiding any fats but loading up on calories.”

The tough thing isn’t switching to a fat-free snack, it’s doing without the snack altogether. We don’t just need to consume more green stuff and less bad stuff. We need to consume less. Period. Bring on the companies that see a way to make their mark and their income from “non-consumption.” If I had my way, that’s what green marketing would be all about.

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