Sustainability Law

 “It’s just like in Peter Pan. We clapped our hands, we all believed, and poof! there it was.” That was my introduction to the concept of money, the first time I really thought about what money is, courtesy of my college economics professor. He actually asked us to close our eyes, clap our hands, and believe in money; I did, it worked. Of course it helped that I had money in my pocket.

My professor’s point was to remind us that money, so often treated as an integral cog in the machine of society, is a conceptual invention of our collective imagination. It is also a physical invention: we do, quite literally, grow money from trees.

As an extension to physical money, we have come to believe in the stock market and its array of securities options. The complexity of our economic system makes understanding it a daunting task. But a key part of advancing environmental sustainability involves confronting the economic structure that governs society. If we understand the functions of capitalism, perhaps we can meet these functions in a more sustainable way.

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Rather than first define what sustainable fruit production is, it would be more helpful to first briefly outline the consequences of unsustainable fruit production. The depletion of soil quality, pest outbreaks, and other production inefficiencies caused by the over-use and misuses of farmland are among some of the harms suffered by farmers as a result of unsustainable agricultural practices. Petrochemicals have helped farmers maintain the status quo of agricultural practices by means of insecticides and fertilizers, which inevitably only exacerbate the problem. These petro-band-aids precipitate pollution, low quality and chemically tainted food, and more.

What is sustainable fruit production?

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Since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill wreaked havoc on the Gulf of Mexico’s environment and economy, there is a consensus that the laws and regulations surrounding offshore energy development must change.  Part of this change should be the inclusion of ecosystem services valuation as part of the decisionmaking process.  Earth Economics just released a report concluding that  the Mississippi River Delta’s natural capital has a minimum asset value of anywhere from $330 billion to $1.3 trillion.  The report also highlights the important ecosystem services of the Delta, such as protection from floods and hurricanes, water supply, water quality, recreation, and fisheries.  While, the total cost of damage to the delta’s ecosystem from the oil spill will not be certain for years, there is little dispute that the oil spill resulted in significant degradation of these valuable ecosystem services, a huge loss to the Gulf’s economy, which is greatly reliant on these services.

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In recent years, there have been many signs that sustainability has a bright future. From individuals shifting to more sustainable life choices, such as composting household waste, to cities proposing city-wide bans on plastic bags, to America’s biggest companies making commitments to implement more sustainable practices. Despite these many efforts to implement more sustainable practices, for freshwater, one of our most precious natural resources, a sustainable future does not seem so certain. While water is technically a renewable resource, freshwater is nonrenewable, at least in terms of its accessibility in the foreseeable future.  Usable freshwater is becoming scarcer as population grows and water quality decreases.  For instance, UNEP’s Ecosystem Management Programme estimates that anywhere from 5 to 25% of global freshwater water use exceeds long-term accessible supplies, with current demand being met through overdrafts of groundwater  or engineered water transfers.  Achieving sustainability in freshwater  will depend on society’s ability to conserve accessible freshwater in a way that ensures not only dependable and safe supplies of freshwater for current and future generations, but also healthy freshwater ecosystems.

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Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.[1] Sustainable development is then a very broad concept that involves two words: development and sustainability.

For a long time and even now at some degree, there are people who believed that sustainable development is an oxymoron because it is impossible to reach development without polluting. Fortunately, there are other people who have proven that there is a way to reach economic development in a sustainable way.

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The market for salmon in the U.S. and around the world is increasing despite drastic declines in run numbers. The economic value of wild Pacific salmon alone is enormous, but as noted in NOAA’s 2009 report to Congress “…the combined value of the West Coast (California, Oregon, and Washington) recreational and commercial ocean fisheries dropped 46 percent in 2007 to about $39 million, from the 2002–2006 annual average of $71 million.”

Aquaculture operations take a species of salmon that does well in crowded conditions – usually Atlantic salmon – and puts them in large stationary nets in the ocean. The fish are then fed until they reach a harvestable size, allowing producers to have a ready supply of easily-caught fish to meet market demand year-round. Despite the economic advantages, this ocean aquaculture presents some problems for the environment and local salmon populations. For one, these “fish farms” cause significant water pollution because of the concentration of fish waste and the addition of chemicals like antibiotics into the ocean. Farmed fish are also more susceptible to disease and parasites, which then easily spread to the wild populations if they come into contact with each other.  Despite the intention to prevent fish escaping, some inevitably escape and intermingle with wild fish. Possible interbreeding between the two physically similar groups will change the genetics and potentially the fitness of already-threatened wild salmon. Additionally, although farmed fish are generally considered less genetically “fit” for surviving in the wild, the reality is that they often have a competitive advantage over wild populations because their growth rate has been accelerated artificially to the point that they compete for food and nesting sites.

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Amid the push for renewable energy and the growth of the solar and wind energy sectors there has been a myriad of policy choices regarding energy technologies made by legislatures both domestically and abroad. While many foreign jurisdictions have focused on Feed-In-Tariff (FIT) policies to push the renewable sector,^[i] the United States has for the most part used Renewable Portfolio Standards to incentivize the growth of the renewable industry.^[ii] With the onset of the economic recession in the United States, many of the programs aimed to subsidize the growing renewable energy sector have been abandoned or met with harsh criticism. It might be time for many U.S. states and counties to reconsider FITs as a proven way to spur the renewable industry.

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Concerned about the vanishing population of wild horses and burros on the great plains, Congress passed the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 (WFRHBA or Act).  With this Act, Congress declared that “wild free-roaming horses and burros are living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West” and therefore deserving of federal protection from abuse and death.  The WFRHBA directs and authorizes the Secretary of the Interior (Secretary) to “protect and manage wild free-roaming horses and burros as components of public lands.”  While on public lands, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is responsible for managing the wild horses and burros (Wild Horse and Burros Program (WHBP)); and the Secretary of Agriculture is responsible for the management of wild horses and burros while on public lands managed by the Forest Service. 

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The U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) green building standards have recently come under attack for their incorporation of the Forest Stewardship Council’s (FSC) forestry product standards into LEED’s wood product criteria.  Much of this criticism has come from FSC’s competitors, most notably the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), as well as some elected officials from states with a heavy timber industry presence.[1]  SFI and FSC’s other competitors have a common interest: to get a slice of the LEED pie.

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In his 2008 book The Green Collar Economy, activist and attorney Van Jones defines green collar jobs as “blue collar employment that has been upgraded to better respect the environment” and “family supporting, career-track job[s] that directly contribute to preserving or enhancing environmental quality.”[1]

The purpose of the “green collar economy” is to address the connected problems of environmental devastation and unemployment with a connected solution.

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