Local Innovation Labs in Balance with Nature

Doc HallUrban Systems Web Conference

July 26, 2013

Don’t tell me the answer; just explain the question.Yogi Berra

1. Big PictureVision:

Systems Thinking;Holism

2. CommonMission & Goals4. Behavior:

What and Why;Mission, not Status

3. Rigorous Learning

(Scientific Method)

“Culture” must be reinforced every day

Vigorous Learning Organization

Ability to see a pictureas if looking fromoutside in; including seeing yourself as others see you.

5. ServantLeadership

Ask basic questions:• What’s work? Why? Is prevention

better than doing more and more?• What’s efficiency? Efficiency of what

for how long?• Productivity of nature? • What’s quality of life?

• How do we innovate to improve a total system?

Local Issue Learning GroupsCreate local systems learning laboratories as economic microcosms, safe havens for broader thinking by vigorous learning organizations.

Start local issue learning groups, using systems thinking and focusing at first on one issue, like:

• Cleaning• Safety and Security• Water• Energy• Health• Education• Transportation

Example 1: Scientific Cleaning – OS1

Barrel with“tool” apron

Pro Team back pack vacuum

Two-sidedmop bucket

Auto Scrubberusing ionized water

OS1 (Operating System 1) is a network of institutions across the U.S. dedicated to improving processes for cleaning larger buildings.

Quality of cleaning first; then quantity or efficiency.

Respect janitors as professionals.

Standardize cleaning processes.

Educate janitors for 3 weeks; don’t just train.

Sustainability at UT Austin:2011 Symposium

Standard issue:

• Pro Team Vacuum

• Unger Bucket

• PortionPac Chemicals (only 3 used daily)

• Microfiber mop

Janitor Education112 hours to start; 40 hours per year thereafter.

Some Selected Topics:

• Pathogenic organisms; where they hide; where to clean

• Particulates in air

• Measurements, like taking a pH

• Safety and hazards; hazmats

• Finding info: Web sites like FDA, CDC, EPA…

Daily Standardized WorkClean in teams; each member a specialist (versus “generalists,” each assigned to an area).

Work to a schedule.

Beginning of shift meeting: Count out the cleaning pacs;review anything different for this shift.

End of shift meeting: Count in; explain variances; report discrepancies – things needing fixing or attention.

Ideal: Regard a building and its surroundings as an ecology to monitor and to preserve for its stakeholders – including the building itself.

Old Liners New Liners0

50000

100000

150000

200000

250000

Liner Waste Produced Annually (in pounds)

220,459

141,847

Year 2001 Year 20110

50

100

150

200

250

Reduction in Chemicals

200CHEMICALS

32CHEMICALS

Some ResultsUniversity of Texas at Austin

GallonsPerYear

1,000,000

800,000

600.000

400,000

200,000

RestRooms

262,302

Other

863,240

Other

University of Texas at Austin:Annual water usage in mopping

2002 2011

RestRooms

Main cause: Unger bucket

The Role of Suppliers to OS1

Unger (Mop Buckets & Other Equipment)

PortionPac Chemical (packs of cleaning agents)

Pro Team (back-packed vacuum cleaner)

The OS1 Network is small: a few dozen universities, K-12 school systems, and government labs, and the Post Office. Implementation is a multi-step odyssey.

Many other K-12 schools, prisons, and agencies are in quasi-OS1 programs.

The only big commercial “user:” Boeing.

Why?

How can this nascent scientific cleaning movement expand its influence beyond the immediate campuses served?

Cleaning is one of the last factors considered, or never considered, in building design or renovation – or in community design or renovation.

But quality of cleaning makes a huge difference in ongoing sustainability.

Example 2: Safety & Security – Bergen County

An existing cooperative of 12 community police chiefs are trying to expand their influence on community ethos.

Budgets have been cut up to 50% in three years.

Recurring hurricanes and blizzards.

Fear of mass shootings.

All are in some stage of “community policing.”

In this situation (Compression), all practical countermeasures obviously require more citizen involvement in their own safety and security.

Example 2: Safety & Security – Bergen County

Improvements in community policing have “monitized” into 10K upticks in housing values.

Every storm, every water shortage, etc. calls for police assistance and intervention. How can this base load on policing be reduced?

Further progress must overcome jurisdictional gridlock in community governance.

Example 2: Safety & Security – Bergen County: Questions

In order for this group to progress further would the simple structure below be sufficient:

1. One or more local group champions.

2. A mentor/facilitator to keep a group in dialog, organize meetings, keep thinking long term, and guide learning via a VLO model.

3. A core group of insiders and questioners, but interacting with the community as needed.

4. Some worker bees to collect and compile data (college interns?).

Example 3: Water Groups

Indianapolis, IN and Bergen County, NJ.

Indianapolis has one utility for water and sewage, but it is reluctant to participate.

Bergen County has many utilities; some are eager to participate.

A kernel for a group is active in both locations, but reality is that one must cut through entrenched thinking everywhere.

Example 3: Water Groups

Each local situation is different, but many issues are common:

1. Unable to meet peak summer demand now; future supplies are limited.

2. Pumped water losses are ≈ 20%.

3. Aging pipes and pumps, but still sprawling. Water prices are rising.

4. Sewage overflow into storm drains in heavy rains.

Example 3: Water Groups

Common issues:

5. Experiments just now beginning with smart grid for water; too much guessing.

6. Pricing rarely penalizes overuse.

7. Little public understanding of need for: • Gray water (reuse) • Limiting usage • Their own usage patterns• The value of green infrastructure

Example 3: Water Groups

How to mentor these groups to look at total system effectiveness in the long run?

The paradigm shift is huge:Business managers tend to think of the efficiency (or profitability) of entities in isolation.

Lots of possibilities are off the table for consideration.

“Compression”

Dramatically cutting the use of virgin energy, raw ores, and known toxins will alleviate many other problems – including those of which we are unaware.

Do Much Better; Use Much Less

By 2000 we knew we were globally using too much stuff. But we are still

expanding – really fast.

About 75% of stuff is used by 20% of global population in industrialized

societies.

So to dramatically reduce consumption, the big hit (80%) has to

be in industrial societies.

business System Complexity

Enterprise-Wide Risk Management (ERM)??

Capital Market Complexity – Meltdown Risk?

Euro-zone Crisis Regulatory Morass

China Prices – BRIC CompetitionSoftware security

risksBig Data, etc – techniques

overwhelm

“Arab Springs”Business scandals – who to

trust

Work skills deficits

IP Protection

Cyber-Theft

New Environmental

Regulations

( banks call this mess “value at risk” )

Chief concern: risk to cash flow !

Technological Obsolescence

Complex Tax Codes

Stereotypical business assumptions:

Making money = Efficiency (market success, labor productivity,

jobs, etc.)

Financial death is more likely, much quicker than environmental

degradation.

But the big assumption is that:GLOBAL RESOURCES ARE UNLIMITED

FreshWater

Energy

Food Security

Climate Change Ozone Hole

Biodiversity

Landfills

“Super Size” Me (Incessant Marketing)

Outsourcing: Long Transport Distances

NIMBYs

Endocrine Disrupters

Terrorism,Insurgencies

Riots, Protests

SoilDegradation

OceanPollution

FinancialCollapses

HealthCare

Precarious Environment

Globalization Pushback

Finite Resources Excessive

Consumption

Total Environment Complexity

Everything effects everything else

Drought and Flood

ERO

EI

Time

Financially justifying the use of cheap energy to work ever lower yielding sources of energy and raw ores is the equivalent of using our last remaining bodily calories to strip the land in a desperate attempt to stay alive.

Return on Energy Peak

Real capitalism dedicates some of its effort and sets aside resources to assure that the system will keep going – just like the old family farm.

Were there no limits on use of resources, using as much as we can makes no sense anyway.

Making small changes while continuing to expand will not take us where we need to be.

We have to evolve smarter systems.

(More relationship driven, less arms-length transaction driven.)

Compression

Conservation

Transition

Constantly learn how to intervene in systems to make problems “melt away.”

Find and solve problems mostly one-at-a-time, using limited measures of success.Learn to improve bigger external systems in addition to improving efficiency doing what we do now.