Should we build Apples or should we harvest them?

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Bob Wise is a senior project manager at Portland-based Cogan Owens Cogan, LLC. This is the first post in a series on import substitution.

Apple’s new iPhones and iPads are not made in Oregon or made in America. The production process is global and so complex it can apparently only be handled by Asian production and supply chains. A story by Charles Duhigg and Keith Bradsher, in the New York Times details the challenge faced by the United States and Oregon in the global economy.

The trends in U.S. manufacturing jobs are not promising. As Adam Davidson notes in the most recent issue of the Atlantic, “In the 10 years ending in 2009, [U.S.] factories shed workers so fast that they erased almost all the gains of the previous 70 years; roughly one out of every three manufacturing jobs — about 6 million in total — disappeared.”

What to do? Where can good sustainable jobs come from?

Gov. John Kitzhaber and other public officials are rightly focused on increasing exports of Oregon made goods and services – the “traded sector." Increasing exports is also a top priority of the Obama Administration. As explained in the NY Times article, this strategy can only go so far until we reach increasingly steep stairs of high labor costs, health and safety standards, long supply chains, inability to scale, unskilled labor and unwillingness to work 12 hour days for six or seven days a week and live in dormitories .

There is a simple and obvious strategy to supplement our current focus exports — import substitution. At its simplest, import substitution replaces spending on imported goods and services for those made locally. This is not a radical idea but will require economic development thinking where we tend our own garden.

In future weeks through contributions to the Voices from Sustainable Business blog, I will illustrate import substitution strategies focused on the food we eat, energy we consume, houses we build, public works we construct, and exemplary companies focused on these markets and others.

• Can we grow our own food? Just imagine the economic activity in the Portland region if this incredibly productive region purchased 20 percent of its food here instead of the current rate of less than 5 percent.

• Can we generate our own energy? Imagine what would happen if Oregon produced 25 percent of our own energy instead of the current 15 percent. Imagine if our energy strategy made us money and reduced our greenhouse gas emissions.

• Can we use local products to drive the green building industry? What would happen if we became an innovator in the green building supply chain and built on our current expertise in green building design and forest products?

• Can we supply products for the public works we build? Imagine if we designed public works, such as new bridges over the Columbia and the Willamette, for their total economic benefits and not just the lowest price.

• Can we have companies focused on specific import substitutions markets in the region? Which companies are focused on local purchases and what are the benefits to them and to our economy?

I will outline how each of these strategies can be executed, and the potential benefits that can accrue to the Portland region and to Oregon.

Imagine sustainable industries that produce sustainable products. That would be real sustainability.