I often pick up recyclables and trash when I'm out and about. A couple of weeks ago I bent down and grabbed an April 20  edition of The Austin Chronicle lying on the airport sidewalk. The cover story caught my eye: "Can the Earth Be Saved?" The story was about Walter Cronkite's involvement in the environmental movement, particularly as one who legitimized the first Earth Day in 1970. The villains in Cronkite's stories were "corporate polluters" like big oil, chemical and utility companies. Do we still view big business and industry that way?

 

Over my nearly 12 years in the environmental field, I've come to view big business and industry as key allies in the environmental movement, not the enemy. My work began with an EPA-funded University of Nebraska industry consulting internship. More recently I've been employed in both environmental regulatory and voluntary programs with the state of Texas. All along the way, I've found increasing evidence that industry isn't the bad guy. Attitudes and approaches are shifting within business and manufacturing.

 

The strongest evidence for me is pretty recent. Over the past couple of years I helped develop and publish more than two dozen success stories from various companies. These companies had significantly reduced energy use, water use and waste generation. Only a month ago, the GoGreen Austin conference featured high-level corporate panelists from companies like AMD, Dell, and Rackspace. The discussion and audience questions addressed real changes like zero waste initiatives and engaging employees. Just last week I came across a Houston-based company called AXYS Industrial Solutions whose sole purpose is to find uses for industrial by-products and wastes. They've made a business out of turning industrial wastes into opportunity and profit.

 

The bottom line is every human being uses natural resources and creates wastes. We all use industrial products and services. We are all polluters. We're all in this together. And that's good, because there's still an awful lot of work to do!