Sustainability is all the buzz in the blogosphere

NEW YORK, NY -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 04/19/07 -- Is green the new buzz machine? According to Nielsen BuzzMetrics, the global standard in consumer-generated media measurements, references to "sustainable" or "sustainability" were up 110% in March 2007 versus one year ago. Sustainability encompasses a broad spectrum of efforts to provide better outcomes for human and natural environments.

These are among the findings from Nielsen BuzzMetrics' Sustainability Monitor(TM), a new syndicated service which takes the pulse of consumer sentiment and brand health around sustainability. The service tackles key areas like organics, recycling, renewable fuels, alternative heath care and environmental economics. The Sustainability Monitor(TM) service also includes focus reports in key categories such as automotive and consumer-packaged goods (CPG).

"While much media attention has focused on personalities like Al Gore pushing for a sustainable environment, millions of individual voices are speaking out across all corners of the Internet on this emergent issue," said Jerry Needel, senior vice president, product management, Nielsen BuzzMetrics. "The Sustainability Monitor aggregates those voices into key insights for companies and brands seeking to understand and participate in this movement."

Among key findings from the Sustainability Monitor(TM) April 2007 wave:

-- Sustainability discussion is tipping into mainstream; discussion
sources go beyond environment/activist-focused topics. Key sustainability
blogs rank among top 50 blogs overall and mainstream consumers are looking
for ways to get involved.
-- The topics driving sustainability discussion over the past year
include: environmental issues (23%); corporate initiatives (18%);
government involvement (15%); economic activities (14%); and land
development (13%).
-- There is a fine line between being viewed as authentic in the support
for sustainable practices and perceived as taking advantage of the
"trendiness" of going green. Consumers are actively calling out 'green-
washing' of corporations perceived to be entering this space with the wrong
intentions.

Mapping 'Eco-friendly' Discussion In The Blogosphere

To better understand sentiment and mental associations around 'eco-friendly,' Nielsen BuzzMetrics filtered blog buzz through its Brand Association Map (BAM). By applying advanced text-mining algorithms to all blog discussion with keyword eco-friendly, between January 1 and March 15, 2007, Nielsen BuzzMetrics plotted the most important attributes, issues and themes, with the most closely associated terms to eco-friendly nearest the center. (See accompanying image.)

Nielsen BuzzMetrics "Get Smart" Webinar Series

Nielsen BuzzMetrics hosts an ongoing educational Webinar series to explore the world of consumer-generated media (CGM) touching on important topics like sustainability. If you would like to join an upcoming Webinar, please register on our website at http://nielsenbuzzmetrics.com/webinars.asp.

About Nielsen BuzzMetrics

The Nielsen BuzzMetrics service, marketed by BuzzMetrics, Inc., is the global standard in measuring consumer-generated media and word of mouth. Nielsen BuzzMetrics helps more than 100 leading global companies interpret and leverage the buzz surrounding them -- clients like Canon, Comcast, Ford, General Motors, HBO, Kraft, Microsoft, Nokia, P&G, Sony, Target and Toyota, as well as the top 15 pharmaceutical concerns. Partners include the world's largest marketing-services firms, and innovative new-marketing agencies. The company has also collaborated with distinguished research organizations such as the Pew Internet and American Life Project. BuzzMetrics, Inc. is a subsidiary of The Nielsen Company, owner of such renowned research names as ACNielsen and Nielsen Media Research. For more information, visit www.nielsenbuzzmetrics.com.

"The only way to break a writer’s block is to apply the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair."
-Sue Ruddick

Sustainable Agriculture as a Tool for Rural Community Development
By Geoffrey G. Milz

This article is the synthesis of a broad review of the academic literature that attempts to understand, describe and support the use of sustainable agriculture as a tool for rural community development

With the coming of the industrial age in the United States came massive changes to all sectors of the economy. Over time, the production of goods from automobiles to zippers became faster, cheaper to consume, more capital intensive, mechanized, energy dependent, chemical dependent, and homogenous. The movement towards the industrialization of agriculture was similar. However, nearly 90 years since the first John Deere tractor turned its first furrow, a movement is growing in the fields and farms which calls into question the wisdom of this trend towards the industrialization of our food production processes.

The literature that attempts to explain and support this alternative agricultural movement is seated in the sociological, ecological economics and agricultural fields. The industrialization of agriculture in its quest for cheaper food costs for the consumer through efficiency by technology has led to bigger farms, increased mechanization, increased dependence on export markets, and specialization. Alternatively, as the academic Paul Lasley puts it, “Sustainable agriculture is a general concept that reflects an emerging set of cultural practices and also an underlying set of values and beliefs. Alternative agriculture, organic agriculture, regenerative agriculture, eco-agriculture, permaculture, agroecology, low-input farming among others are common labels for alternative models that seek to redefine agriculture.”

The trend in America towards a decrease in the number of farms, while the average farm size increases, is can easily be seen in recent census reports. This phenomenon is either noted or implied in all of the literature on rural development through alternative agriculture. Indeed, packed within this trend is the basis for the Goldschmidt Hypothesis. The Goldschmidt hypothesis explains that as the size of farms increase around a town, the quality of life decreases. It was based on a comparative study conducted in the 1940’s in central California by Walter Goldschmidt. His study was a landmark in linking farm size and structure to rural community development and has been tested with various methodologies in subsequent studies more than 17 times. In many, but not all, cases, the relationship between the health of small, sustainable farms and rural community development has been strengthened.

This leads to an interesting discussion on the role of sustainability and sustainable agricultural systems in modern rural community development. It is clear that there is no common understanding of sustainability as a concept, not even among the academics who write about it. In classes where it is taught, students seem to leave each with his or her own understanding of sustainability. The thinking on sustainable development lacks any sort of density. In the center one may find a few viscerally understood premises. Radiating and revolving around this core at various distances are bits of thought in the literature, like many electrons floating around a tiny distant nucleus. Such are the individual contributions. Some contributions focus on infrastructure, others on philosophy, some on policy others on practice. But despite this ambiguity, individuals, academics, students, organizations and governments still, after many years, gravitate towards it. Sustainability is still seen as a path which, if you can find it, will lead to the Promised Land where the problems of poverty, affluence, social intolerance and environmental degradation are alleviated.

What is truly amazing about this amorphous, electron-cloud of literature on sustainability is the relative gravity it is able to produce. In the natural world we are able to observe that the more densely packed the matter of an object is, the greater the gravity of that the object and the greater influence it is able to have on its surroundings. Sustainable development literature defies this natural order. Somehow, despite its {spread out ness} it has been able to pull supporters in from wholly different and unexpected backgrounds. I would argue that this phenomenon is not simple happenstance. It is not some weird and unexplainable phenomenon. The concept of sustainability is able to court brilliant minds, powerful governments and well-endowed organizations because of the gravity of situation it seeks to remedy. The study of sustainable development is the study of conflict. It is innate within it. It is inextricable. It is the depth and breadth of conflict which prevents the premature and naïve reconciliation of ideas seemingly opposed within the literature of sustainable development.

The literature presented in this review is no different. Sustainable agriculture bucks a trend that has been building since the industrial revolution. It is currently at odds with federal agricultural policy, federal trade policy, a macro-level understanding of neoclassical economics, multi-national and multi-million dollar agro-business and the mainstream consumer in America. But all this is changing.

This review looked at those academics who have studied how sustainable agriculture could be used in rural community development. It found that the literature produced in this field has sought to agitate for movement towards sustainable agriculture in one of three ways, through policy change, programmatic change or systemic change. These categories are not unique to sustainable agriculture. In fact, nearly all facets of sustainable development could include these categories. What makes sustainable agriculture of particular interest to me in the field of planning is two fold. First, sustainability is an anthropocentric construction that seeks to maintain the natural systems that sustain human life on earth. The natural system that every individual is perhaps most intimately and daily aware of is the food system. There is a direct physical connection between the grower of food, the food and the earth. It is easy to see. Everyone can immediately understand it. Secondly, the sustainable agriculture movement is about more than just food. It addresses the most important conflict in sustainability, the growth versus sustainability issue.

As this paper is penned, in late Autumn, the airwaves are jammed with messages of more. Christmas, to many, is a time of dissatisfaction. We are told that we do not have everything we want, we are not satisfied, we are not content, and that the gatekeeper to this world of satiation is the local affiliate of some global retailer. Sustainable agriculture seeks sustainability by seeking real satiation. Sustainable agriculture is the recognition and reaction to glutton. More is now less. We have more things that carry less meaning. We have more food that carries less nutrients. We have more “communities” but we have fewer interactions.

Sustainable agriculture seeks sustainability by seeking community. It is premised upon the idea that food brings people together on a familial level, as in Thanksgiving dinner, but also on a community level. Now, as the pace of the rural diaspora quickens, small family farmers are leaving behind shells of the once lively Main Street, USA. As the average size of farms increase the hinterland is less able to support a small local commercial center, civic organizations, schools, professionals like doctors or lawyers, and those people, places and organizations that allow for vibrancy and life of a small town.

Sustainable agriculture is able to help as a tool to be used by independent family farmers to get into a marketplace that has shut them out in the past. There is a growing number of consumers that are willing to pay more for some sense of fulfillment. During a trip to the market perhaps a relationship is developed between the consumer and the producer of her food. Perhaps consumers are willing to pay 10 – 15% more if they understand that they are helping out Mr. Turner and know about his farm just outside of town, if they know that buying from Mr. Turner means that herbicides and pesticides have been kept in their drums and not released into the regional environment, if they feel like they are doing the right thing.

Hope of moving towards a more sustainable food system, and towards the sustainability of our species in general, relies upon an optimistic understanding of the human spirit. In general, people do not want to do wrong. People want to feel good about the way they are living and the market place has shown that increasingly, those who are able to make the choice, choose sustainable agriculture. Organics are the new buzzword at the supermarket. Agribusiness has responded by trying to dilute the meaning and intention of the sustainable agriculture movement, but has met resistance from an educated or “enlightened” consumer class.

Hopeful, educated, aware. Those who fit these criteria will be the change agents in the sustainability movement whether in bountiful fields producing our food or bustling city centers tending our business. Wherever they are found they will have taken a lesson from Isaiah, Iccarus and Sisyphus, from Berry, Goldschmidt and Kirschenmann, and recognize that taking too much, flying too high or pushing too hard leads to a society that few will want to be a part of.

As we look out into the hinterlands of our country, once specked with porch lights from family farm houses, we see a changing landscape. Sustainable agriculture offers a tool for planners, policy makers, grassroots organizers and farmers to slow, halt or perhaps even reverse the social, environmental and economic impacts of industrialized agriculture on rural communities. Now as we take our first steps down the path to a more sustainable food system, we may look to those whose writings have been reviewed in this and subsequent papers as way finders. There are many questions and few answers. Ultimately we will need to make decisions informed by our awareness, hope and educated understanding of how to live in a more perfect world.

Good news about job prospects for planners from GRIST Magazine and Environmental Careers Organization-

Remake a Living: Growing the green economy
"April is the cruelest month," T. S. Eliot wrote. Ha! What did he know? For environmental-job seekers in a host of fields, this April could almost be certified "cruelty free." In no particular order, here's a quick overview of green career areas experiencing growth right now:


Wind Power and Solar Energy

A 2007 report from Clean Edge predicts that wind power revenues are expected to rise from $17.9 billion in 2006 to $60.8 billion in 2016. Solar photovoltaic companies anticipate a similar steep increase from $15.6 billion last year to $69.3 billion nine years from now. Estimates from other analysts and associations suggest even bigger pots of money flowing into wind and solar.

It will come as no surprise that solar and wind power employers primarily need technical and business people. Requests for engineers, installation and maintenance technicians, "grid operation managers," sales and marketing people, and manufacturing professionals (plant managers, quality assurance staff) dominate the wish list. An intriguing job title in the wind power industry is "wind resource assessor," which involves determining whether proposed wind farm sites are good bets to keep those turbines spinning.

Of course, photovoltaics are only one sector within the solar industry, and wind and solar together are only a portion of the exploding alternative energy industry. It also includes biofuels, hydrogen/fuel cells, efforts to reduce the impact of fossil fuels, and more.

Water Utilities/Wastewater Treatment Works

The indispensable Environmental Business Journal has reported that 286,200 people were employed by over 87,000 public and private water utilities and wastewater treatment works in 2005 -- primarily at local governments. This small army of water workers was supported by $70.7 billion in revenues from rate and tax payers. Roughly 100,000 of these essential professionals are "certified plant/system operators." Demand is expected to remain strong for many years to come. As water-quality management morphs into watershed management, there is also a rising demand for hydrologists.

Solid Waste Management/Resource Recovery/Municipal Recycling

In 1974, there was exactly one citywide curbside recycling program in the United States. In 2007, there are more than 10,000. Curbside recycling is just one part of a solid waste/resource recovery industry that supported some 411,000 people in 2005 at more than 15,000 entities that earned a whopping $47.8 billion, according to EBJ. With recycling rates stalled (or declining) in many parts of the country, the industry needs a new generation of creative recycling managers and coordinators. Without them, the growth will occur among the people who run landfills and incinerators. No one wants that.

Green Building

Want to join a green industry that's growing just about as fast as it can? Take a look at these numbers from the U.S. Green Building Council.

Green Building Stats
Indicator 2001 2007
Accredited professionals 527 36,000+
Member companies/organizations 1,137 8,033+
Local chapters 15 75+
Size of market n/a $12 billion and rising


For architects, construction managers, landscape architects, and related professionals, green building is where it's at. Since buildings are a big part of the climate change problem, the need for green building professionals is only to going to grow as building codes change to require greener houses, offices, and factories.

Land Trusts

In the most recent "census" (2005), the Land Trust Alliance reports that the number of land trusts in the United States grew to 1,667 -- a 32 percent increase in just five years. The census also shows that the total acres conserved by land trusts doubled between 2000 and 2005, and the role of local and state land trusts relative to national ones accelerated rapidly. Good news! More importantly for job seekers, the professionalism of land trusts is increasing, requiring more executive directors, preserve managers, real-estate and tax experts, education managers, and fundraisers. There has never been a better time to launch a land-trust career.

Urban and Regional Planning

In 2007, the demand for planners is strong and steady, especially in areas of the country experiencing rapid population growth. Working from U.S. Department of Labor statistics, ECO estimates that there are roughly 34,000 planners out there, 70 percent of whom work in local government. While many planners have a specialty like transportation, housing, community development, or environmental protection, most work at the cross section among social justice, ecological health, and economic security issues, putting them at the leading edge of on-the-ground sustainability action in many communities.

Brownfield Redevelopment

Political spinners love to claim that every crisis is really an opportunity, but in the case of our "brownfield" problem, it could be true. The U.S. EPA estimates that are at least 450,000 properties whose actual or perceived environmental contamination adversely impacts their redevelopment potential, sometimes leaving them abandoned for years. The National Brownfield Association claims that the number might be as high as 1 million. Nobody knows for sure. Successfully turning a brownfield into a park, shopping mall, parking lot, school, housing development, golf course, factory, or office building requires the talents of environmental remediation technicians, real-estate professionals, financial investors, and community relations staff. No one knows how many people make a living from brownfield redevelopment (estimates run between 5,000 and 10,000), but everyone agrees that it's growing quickly and will continue to grow.

Environmental Consulting and Engineering

The nation's environmental consulting firms are literally fighting each other for talent -- especially engineers of all stripes, earth scientists, project managers, and information-technology types. There is genuine worry about where these professionals will come from to fill available jobs. After several years of lackluster performance and lots of mergers, environmental consulting and engineering is back on a growth path. The (still) indispensable EBJ estimates that some 220,800 people pulled down a paycheck at 3,650 firms on revenues of $22.4 billion in 2005. And they project the environmental consulting sector to have average annual growth of 5.5 percent through 2010.

Government Retirements

ECO estimates that local, state, and federal government "environmental" agencies will employ an estimated 3 million people in 2007, some of whom are included in a few of the categories above. The average state government employee is over 44 years old, so huge numbers of these professionals are eligible to retire, or soon will be. I'm talking about tens of thousands of people retiring within a few years of each other. Large numbers of park rangers, foresters, fish and wildlife biologists, permit writers, food safety regulators, lab technicians, contract managers, environmental lawyers, and agricultural extension agents will be heading off to the golf course. Who will replace them? Why, you, of course.

Other

There are plenty of other environmental careers experience growth right now. Here are just a few: organic food, carbon management and control technologies, energy conservation and efficiency, education, health, community organizing, and ecotourism.

Throughout the rest of 2007, I'll explore some of these career areas, with details about specific job titles, employment trends, median salaries, qualifications needed, and profiles of people in the field. I'll also share ideas about how to land the job that you really want. Most importantly, I'll answer your questions, so log on and share your story.

Happy Earth Day!