Business needs to play a role in sustainable cities

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Christina Williams is the editor of Sustainable Business Oregon.

Everyone has their theories about what makes a city sustainable and which cities are lining up to claim the mantle in 2012.

If you were wondering, I’ll break the suspense and tell you that while Portland was on the short list in past years, Oregon’s largest city was passed over as a has-been in this tally by Triple Pundit in favor of up-and-coming cities such as Belgrade, Serbia; San Jose, Calif. and Seoul, Korea.

You can hardly blame bloggers and reporters for wanting some new names for their lists. But when I look at the list of emerging sustainable cities, or read the attributes of a sustainable city as laid out by Fast Company guest blogger Dave Bartlett, I can’t help but wonder why businesses are so often only a footnote to the conversation.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty sure Bartlett gets it. The bulk of what he describes as the attributes of a sustainable city — smarter neighborhoods, smarter buildings, the so-called “internet of things” and energy efficiency as a cornerstone of effective real estate management — are innovations that only business can lead.

But the Triple Pundit list includes cities like Detroit not for it's sustainable business culture, but almost because of the absence of business influence in the core.

"Never mind an overwhelmed local government, ignored buildings and automakers who are just now recovering from the crisis of a few years ago," writes Leon Kaye. "Detroit’s contraction means the city’s citizens are already in the middle of redefining the urban and rural. Watch for urban farming, social enterprise and the creative arts to thrive."

In a place like Portland where so much of what makes the city sustainable is dictated by policy and supported by a passionate citizenry similar to the one described in Detroit, I can’t help but question whether the city’s progress would be better served if businesses were taking a more active role in building up the sustainable infrastructure of their home town.

There are many different roles business can play in changing the face of the sustainable city. Portland's ecodistricts initiative, for example, wouldn't be getting very far if it weren't for businesses like Corix Infrastructure and McKinstry stepping up to make concepts like district heat a reality. And innovations such as the car-sharing service offered in Portland starting this month by Getaround are being identified as key attributes of a new lower-impact urban lifestyle.

But businesses can also step into the advocate role, whether that's corporate backing of the Oregon Sustainability Center — whatever you think of that project, without business support it's dead in the water — or taking a seat at the table in Salem and at City Hall when policy is being crafted.

Not sure where to start? Organizations such as the VOIS Alliance — which hired its first executive director this week — and Climate Solutions can help connect businesses with sustainability issues and help them make an impact.

Portland, and Oregon, would benefit from the brains in the business sector being put to work improving the sustainability efforts of the public sector.