Michael Janzen

Truth be told, if any piece of a system is sustainable it has a natural sustaining effect on the other parts. By sustainable I mean the true definition of the word, the capacity to endure. This can be applied to any system, natural or human-made.

For example, if we build a civilization that is dependent on non-renewable energy sources, we’ve built a unsustainable civilization, one that cannot endure. The same is true of business. A business built on top of an uncertain foundation might benefit from rapid growth while that foundation holds but when it fails, watch the greedy bastards that set it up jump off like rats leaving a sinking ship, before it sinks.

This is actually the main reason all the dominos in our economic game fell in sequence. When a big one drops, (like home values), other segments that were dependent on unsustainable resources, (like borrowed capital), saw their foundations crumble. Since so many small businesses were built on the foundation of borrowed home equity, we naturally saw the failure of many small businesses when the home value bubble burst.

I was surprised to see corporate giant AT&T running ahead with a renewable energy program. This shows how they must understand how environmental sustainability will help to ensure their economic sustainability. They will be keeping their networks alive with solar power.

It would be nice to see more regular folks embrace this business strategy and apply it to their own lives. Imagine how sustainable our civilization would be if we were all a bit more self-reliant.

It looks like Google is quickly charging into many realms outside internet technology. The Google Nexus One is well positioned to move the mighty iPhone out of the way and now Google is getting into the Energy game too with the start-up of a green utility company. Their operating system Google Chrome must be sending shivers up the spines of the executives at Microsoft. What’s next… a bank?

In the mean time take a look at their phone.

The pressure has just been turned up to get off Russian natural gas and find alternative sources of energy. I’m sure everyone in Europe has seen the light now. Those of us in North America should take heed and take a look at our own dangerously reliant position on foreign energy too. It seems far to dangerous to be so dependent on outside fuel. It seems like this should be our number one national security focus. Can you imagine the additional effect on our fragile economy if fossil fuel supplies were cut? Here’s a news story on the latest development in Europe and how they are moving to other energy sources.