John Erickson (johnerickson)

I am a sustainability advocate and thinker in a public environmental protection and restoration organization in the Pacific Northwest.  By profession, I am an environmental planner whose work is now mainly in the management and financial dimensions of project planning.  I read Biomimicry, heard Dr. Janine Benyus speak, and had the opportunity to speak with her when our Sustainability Team was getting started.  It was easy to see through her eyes how nature had already solved millions of energy-efficient design problems using benign materials; constructing and using them where she raised her young.

I heard her challenge:  "How would Nature solve this problem?" While I have mulled over the idea from time to time over the past several years, I haven't really used it. Now I finally have a quest for a new way of thinking where this seems like the right approach:  green taxes (how to systematically incent choices for sustainability, or discourage choices that systematically reinforce an unsustainable path). 

Please don't take this as a callous, narrow-minded effort.  E.F. Schumacher reminded that Small is Beautiful, Gregory Bateson praised deutero-learning, and Joanna Macy breathes Peace for a great turning to sustainability.