Peat Is Sustainable

Peat is sustainable?

Well Yes.  I can say it with some level of confidence that Canadian peat moss is sustainable.  Most likely sustainable, probably, could be, well I guess that all depends.

There is a lot of debate today on whether peat harvesting is a sustainable practice.  And as is often, my views are somewhere in the middle.  If you have heard a talk or tour from me in the last 4 years, chances are I have brought this up because I find it important to educate people on the facts, and once those facts are heard and understood, by all means take a stance.  Each side has a point, and it comes down to where you want to draw the line and how you want to define sustainability.

What is sustainability anyway? This loaded word has a different meaning to everyone.   It matters to a degree what product or practice you are talking about and then what you value as an individual.  I feel that it is dangerous to throw this word around so often without a clear definition of what it is.  So for the sake of this argument, this is my definition of sustainability (today).

I look to the so called triple bottom line when discussing sustainability.  This involves Environmental, Social, and Economic impacts, or more cleverly put: People; Planet; Profit.  These are the things that motivate decisions and where success or sustainability is measured.  Below is my summary of it; for more indepth information and maybe a better explination please see the links.
http://www.economist.com/node/14301663
http://www.ibrc.indiana.edu/ibr/2011/spring/article2.html



Triple Bottom Line

 The Environmental side of this equation is what comes to mind for most when mentioning sustainability.  How are we impacting our planet, the ecosystems, the plants and animals?  Are we destroying things we can get back?  This rightfully gets the lion’s share of the attention these days because for far too long it has been an afterthought for many industries.  Even today companies who claim to care about the environment tend to be overly optimistic on the impact their activities have on water quality, air quality and other environmental impacts.  The challenging part when promoting the triple bottom line concept is giving the environmental side value; finding a way to measure the negative and positive impact the same way you measure the profit margin.  I can say from experience this is no easy task.

Social impacts or social sustainability is not as prominent, but possibly a little easier to measure.  How does your practices impact the community and your employees, how safe is your company?  Yes providing jobs to your community is a great thing, but this goes beyond that. Are your employees better people because they work for you, or is your community better off because of the things you do.  What kind of company culture do you have?  People need to be fulfilled, and productivity suffers when there is a negative cultural aspect in your business.  One can get a grasp on the people side of the equation when looking at employee buy-in or your reputation in the industry and community.  Look to those companies who are listed as the best places to work.  Google didn’t put a slide in the lunch room of one of their offices because it saved time, it made people happy and maybe more fulfilled.  While an extreme example, people want to work for google, too bad they don’t need horticulturists….

The third side of the triple bottom line equation is of course the economics.  This is pretty straight forward.  Is the company in the red or black?  Some may view a profit motive as negative in some cases, but frankly, that is one of the main goals of any entity or organism…survive and thrive.  So yes, in this discussion, a company that can stay in business is a sustainable business.  Making decisions to ensure the survivability of your organization are important.  If you bet on the wrong pony, you may go bust.  There are many examples of companies out there that didn’t see the changes coming and their main business strategy became obsolete and now they don’t exist.

So this is how I try to view the world and business.  However, much of the time profit, or in this economy, surviving financially trumps other things.  That is the reality, not the ideal.  It is important to take a pragmatic approach to these issues in order to put them in balance.  You can’t forsake profit for the environment, but the reverse is also true.  As an organization or as an individual you need to determine what is important, and use that to guide decision making.

Stay tuned for the second of this three part series on sustainability and peat moss.

Always at your service,
Your Horticulturist