Friday, March 5, 2010, 8:43am PST | Modified: March 9, 2010, 10:57 AM

Doing something about the weather

by Ryan Deckert
Oregon Business Association

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In thinking about sustainability, I am reminded of Will Rogers’ enduring sense of timing when he explained, “Everyone talks about the weather but no one ever does anything about it.” The same is true with sustainability — everyone talks about it, but what does that mean. A few members of Oregon Business Association are doing more than just talking.

Deschutes Brewery

Oregonians already know that Deschutes Brewery is the maker of some of the nation’s best beer. What you may not know is that they produce their award-winning brews while implementing a number of innovative green building and brewing efficiency measures.

The brewery’s efficiencies include state-of-the-art boilers, a vapor-condensing heat exchanger on their brew kettle that helps preheat the next batch of brewing water, a warehouse for finished product designed to maintain a 64F temperature year round without air conditioning and insulated fermenting beer tanks that save the company approximately $14,000 annually in energy savings.

The investments made by Deschutes Brewery in efficiency significantly reduce the company’s carbon footprint while simultaneously strengthening their bottom line. The company’s commitment to sustainability has become a competitive advantage.

McKinstry Company

McKinstry helps other businesses — schools, hospitals, municipalities, and commercial property owners — reach their sustainable goals through building design and retrofits. For nearly five decades, it has been creating systems designed to help customers save energy, lower costs and optimize operations.

The success McKinstry enjoys owes much to its philosophy of integrated design-build, which provides clients a “one stop shop” and single point of accountability for everything from design, pre-construction and commissioning to service over the lifetime of any given facility.

The company’s long-term approach is about a maximum reduction in carbon emissions and savings of energy costs for its clients that will pay off for decades to come. This is a win, not only for the business investing in sustainable practices, but for the environment as well.

McKinstry also practices what it preaches, employing the same innovative strategies in its own operations that it champions for clients. Recently the company rebuilt its headquarters in Oregon, transforming the building into a high-performance facility with such sustainable features as low-flow fixtures, ground-source heat, day lighting controls, and building materials made from low emitting products, among others. The building has since achieved a LEED “gold” certification.

KEEN

It’s clear that integrating efficiency and innovation into business operations makes sense. For most companies, improving efficiency, reducing costs and limiting environmental impact is about best business practices. For some companies, taking on these challenges is part of creating a new corporate culture.

Born this century, KEEN is an outdoor brand that makes innovative shoes, bags and socks. KEEN embodies the idea of a company that makes reducing their footprint a cornerstone to create a culture of “conscience.” Their company philosophy, which is centered around “create, play and care,” sets KEEN apart in their dedication to provide a quality product while bringing a conscious awareness to the community and the environment.

To demonstrate and guide their efforts toward corporate social responsibility KEEN created a report card to set a benchmark to understand where they’ve been, where they are, and more importantly, where they think they can go. Specific actions include: sustainable product development, strategic sourcing options, impactful community outreach, and a progressive work environment. KEEN is proud of its progress-to-date, but they also realize that successes today will yield challenges for the future.

KEEN’s efforts to integrate environmental and community stewardship into the corporate culture from the starting line may be a glimpse at the future.

Climate Change … for Business

Deschutes Brewery, McKinstry and KEEN all have answered Will Rogers' challenge of doing something about “the weather.” Each has made sustainability a cornerstone of their operations, in part because it is good for the bottom line and also because it clearly is good for the environment. The real significance is that these and other Oregon companies understand that resources are growing scarce, the public and investors are rewarding innovation and smart businesses are getting ahead of a rapidly changing economic climate that values environmental stewardship.

Ryan Deckert is president of the Oregon Business Association.