Friday, January 22, 2010, 9:55am PST | Modified: January 26, 2010, 12:15 PM

The “nature state” approach to reliable prosperity

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People everywhere face a convergence of economic, energy, social, and environmental crises on a scale and immediacy never before imagined. In response, capital, technology, and policy are used in attempts to stabilize the economy, tighten energy security, alleviate poverty, and improve environmental conditions.

But reliable peace and prosperity will elude humankind unless we embrace a fundamental shift in our relations with each other and the natural world — and then realize the business, political, and cultural changes that will arise from this shift.

How can we achieve reliable prosperity for ourselves, and the natural order? A good first step toward this lofty goal is to start thinking at the scale of “nature states.” Also called bioregions, nature states are defined by their social and geographic coherence, rather than by state or national borders; examples include the Pacific Northwest, the Mississippi Delta, and the Chesapeake Bay.

By recognizing each nature state’s distinctive environmental and geographic characteristics, its citizens can preserve those qualities while building businesses and organizations that take advantage of them. This nature state thinking has the potential to fuel more bottom-up local and regional innovations.

I first learned about regional thinking in Central and South America, where I saw intact, ancient wilderness supporting regional economies — for example, regions of Costa Rica prioritized the smaller, long-term economic returns of sustainable forestry over the big, short-term profits of large-scale environmental destruction.

Today, nature state thinking could help reinvigorate America’s marketplace and provide a model for international restoration. The Northwest nature state — an area comprising the temperate rainforest coasts of Northern California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska — has proven to be a fertile ground for regional business and cultural experimentation.

Among the innovations are ShoreBank Pacific, a regional bank that prioritizes community building and stewardship of the environment in lending. New Seasons Market is another example. The chain of grocery stores in Portland caters to the region’s reputation for friendliness and delicious locally grown food; it carefully chooses its employees, using a lone counselor to interview and hire each person. By understanding the region’s psychology and ecology, the business has developed an almost cult-like following. Carbon sequestration, clean energy and green construction companies reliant on our abundant natural resources also prosper here.

Guidelines for creating reliable prosperity have emerged. One is to measure success in nature’s indicators, not dollars. When thousands of big, healthy Chinook salmon die within days of entering the Klamath River, as they did years ago, we know we are failing.

A second guideline is to build compact cities and towns based on “smart growth” principles and living buildings. Smart growth is a worldwide movement that promotes an ethos of quality housing for people of all income levels, distinct and walkable neighborhoods, compact building design, energy-efficient buildings, and open spaces.

A third guideline is to develop local sources of energy through major investments in a renewable, efficient, diverse, and distributed energy system. We must also restore entire landscapes and watersheds — not just pieces of them.

We know that reliable prosperity is achievable, and affordable. A report in late ‘09 by more than 200 independent economists shows with investments of roughly 2 percent of global gross domestic product, we could rapidly transition from oil and coal to renewable and clean energy, including wind and solar, and replenish global forests, which would help trap billions of tons of carbon. These efforts would create jobs and stabilize the climate in the process. Fluctuations or changes in some factors, such as the price of oil, could mean these investments might actually save us money. Leadership for this sort of activity is ours for the taking in the Northwest.

Regional thinking, when matched with regional action, can be more powerful than data, science, money, and technology. Failure to do so promises only more destruction and unreliable prosperity.

Spencer B. Beebe is the founder and president of Ecotrust in Portland. Previously, he was president of the Nature Conservancy’s International Program and co-founder of Conservation International.