Western Bluebird, © Photo by Steve Kaye

What If Nature Was a Business | Nov 2016

Suppose you were the CEO of Nature.

How would you run this business?


Western Bluebird, © Photo by Steve Kaye, in post: What If Nature Was a Business?

Western Bluebird, Male, Who Wants to Know What You’d Do


Three Considerations Govern Running Nature as a Business

1) Your goal is to make Nature ecologically profitable.

While an economically profitable business may be commendable, that becomes irrelevant if the business fails ecologically.

2) This business is a closed system.

Thus, you cannot sell it, merge with another business, or buy another business. There is only one Nature.

3) Bankruptcy is not an option.

In fact, if you ruin this business, the result is catastrophic.


6 Strategies to Make Nature a Successful Business

1) Charge realistic prices.

These prices would be high enough to earn a positive return on the investment. Thus, they would cover all costs plus leave an ecological profit.

Then invest profits into the business to guarantee its continuation. And so the business will be constantly improving its vitality.

Operating Nature with the current exploitation-based strategy is both unacceptable and suicidal.

2) Pay fair wages.

A successful economy depends upon everyone having enough. This implies that no one has too little, and no one has too much.

Note that a greed-based system will eventually destroy itself. If you check history, you will find that this has happened before.

3) Manage resources.

Natural resources are the principle for this business. So you must protect, and even increase this principle. If you destroy the principle, the business will fail.

Thus, use resources at rates that are below their replacement rates.

For example, an increasing number of trees indicates a healthy business. And a declining number of trees indicates trouble.

So you might set up trend charts of key resources, such as bees, birds, trees, and wildlife.

4) Manage waste.

Since this is a closed system, everything must be recycled or reused.

This especially applies to toxic wastes. Irresponsible release of toxins will poison (and end) the business.

5) Promote truth.

An informed, intelligent public is essential for the success of this business. Otherwise, people will make bad decisions that ruin the business.

Thus, you must promote science education. You must sell the importance of protecting Nature. And you must keep the public informed on the realities of science.

6) Hire the best.

These will be the most knowledgeable, most skilled, most ethical people.

Consider: Would you hire someone who didn’t believe in arithmetic to manage your payroll?

Consider: Would you hire someone with a history of crime to manage your savings?

Consider: Would you hire someone who told lies to work as your advisor?


Two more points.

1) We are the business.

So if the business fails, we fail.

2) We are all stockholders this business.

How?

By the decisions we make every day. This includes: What we buy, what we support, what we allow, what we do, what we read, and so on.

So how are you doing in managing your share of this business?

The next generation wants to know.


Much success,

Steve Kaye

Find More at:

Niche Market Fable

Earth Day by the Birds

Simple Request


Did You Know?

The most effective way to help birds is to buy land.

Here are three organizations that excel at doing this.

1) American Bird Conservancy

2) The Nature Conservancy

3) The Trust for Public Land

Please visit their web sites to learn about the work they do.

Here’s an excellent book: The American Bird Conservancy Guide to Bird Conservation


You can help – Please share this blog with others.
Inspiring Respect for Nature, one bird at a time.

Web Site  |  Presentations  |  Blog  |  Photos  |  Articles


4 Comments
  • Kathryn Grace
    Posted at 01:18h, 18 November

    Steve, one of the things I appreciate so much about your site and your blog is how cogently and concisely you bring home a point. This is a superb example. Wouldn’t it be something if the world could see this viewpoint?

    As for what I’m doing: Not nearly enough. My 2-gallon kitchen garbage can still fills up with 2-3 pounds of non-recyclable, non-reusable bits every 2-3 months. Most of it is plastic wrappers. Though I make my own bread, buy yogurt and milk in glass jars or make my own (vegan in the case of the homemade milk), and avoid plastics a number of ways, still we end up with too many products encased in plastic. And that’s just the kitchen garbage. Don’t get me started on the bathroom, although I did switch to the no-poo hair care method some years back so I could stop buying plastic-bottles of frothy shampoos and oily conditioners that poison our waters and soil.

    Seventeen years ago, we moved to a city with good public transportation so we could give up our cars. At one time, we owned three! I bake our breads and cook with whole, fresh foods, but I still buy commercial cheeses, usually encased in plastic, and occasionally buy boxes of crackers and glass jars of spaghetti sauce. We gradually reduced our intake of meat to the point we never buy it for home any more and rarely order meat dishes in a restaurant. Bacon still calls to me from time to time. Fortunately, a restaurant within a mile or two walking distance uses grass-fed, organic meats, so I can get that fix once or twice a year.

    Of course we turn out lights and try to conserve water usage. But whenever I take the carbon footprint test, we would still need at least 1-1/2 Earths with the natural resources available today to support everyone on the planet with our lifestyle. I have a long way to go to be sustaining.

    Then there’s political activity. I haven’t been doing as much as that as I should have, thinking I could let the younger generation do more now, but I see, given this last election, that I have to get deeper into that mess too. I’ll hold my nose and jump in!

  • Robert Chianese
    Posted at 06:38h, 22 November

    Steve:

    For Trump, it is a business: profitable, unsustainable, and based on plenty of border-crossing immigrants.

  • Lynette M. Smith
    Posted at 09:37h, 22 November

    Well said, Steve. Thank you so much for saying it! As a professional copyeditor, initially I wanted to change “was” to “were” in the title of your blog, “What if Nature Was a Business?” on the premise that “were” is used when describing an impossible hypothetical situation, like, “What if I were a giraffe?” But then I realized that Nature IS a business–one we’re managing poorly. So your grammar was correct, and most of us “managers” are sorely lacking in applying our management skills. I appreciate your bringing this to light.

  • Thilda Zorn
    Posted at 13:01h, 22 November

    YES, YES AND YES AGAIN, DEAR STEVE, WE ARE ALL SITTING IN THE SAME BOAT, WHEN WILL WE FINALLY TAKE RESPONSIBILITY? GOOD TO SEE SO MANY ORGANIZATIONS WHERE WE CAN SHARE AND HELP AND BE PART OF THE NEW WORLD!
    I PLANTED 1.400 TREES THIS YEAR AND HOPE FOR MORE.
    THE LAKE “LOOKS” CLEAN, I AM NOT CONNECTED WITH WASHING ETC., IT ALL IS “RECYCLED’ ON MY OWN LAND.
    I TRY TO EDUCATE MOTHERS AND CHILDREN, IT IS NOT EASY TO CHANGE OLD HABITS.
    I AM GRATEFUL TO BE A MEMBER OF THE HUMAN COMMUNITY, ALTHOUGH SOMETIMES ASHAMED OF WHAT WE ARE “ABLE” OF DOING TO THE PLANET…..ENOUGH! LOVE AND ALL THE BEST AND LUCK, FROM Thilda

Post A Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.