Ashland Climate Collaborative board member and newly appointed Treasurer Chris Byrne is a true sustainability leader in our community.
With an MBA in Sustainable Enterprise (GreenMBA), Chris has worked as a sustainability professional for the last 20 years, and now works as the Sustainability Manager at Ashland Food Co-op. Chris spoke with us about how he got interested in sustainability and business—and how the two things go hand in hand.
When did you become concerned about environmental issues?
I grew up deep-sea fishing out of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, on my Dad’s commercial boat. The expanse of horizon without land made the Earth seem limitless. Later in life, the experience of living in Vail, in the mountains in Colorado, taught me that we are on a finite planet. I was in my late 20s at the time, and I remember learning that the average visitor produced nine pounds of garbage a day. Another time, when I went on a snowmobiling tour, the guide pointed to the horizon and said, “You know, a 14,000-foot mountain used to be there before they mined it for metals.” It struck a chord.
Yet infinite growth is built into capitalism. So I had to reconcile those two things. And that’s where sustainability comes in for me.
How did you become interested in sustainability from a business perspective?
When I was younger, I was skeptical of businesses and particularly corporations. It was the lead-up to the second Iraq War, and I was living in San Francisco and engaging in protests. I was feeling frustrated and didn’t feel like we were gaining any traction or leverage or anything. I had a moment where I realized that if any change was going to be made, it was likely going to be through, if not a private business, then a nonprofit or a government organization. Having financial acumen is very important to be able to make change.
Some of the organizing that I was participating in was at New College of California in the Mission District. I just happened to see this pamphlet for a green business degree at the campus of culture, ecology, and sustainability in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County. I moved up there and completed the GreenMBA, which was one of the first in the country along with Bainbridge and Presidio. That opened up a whole bunch of doors: specifically my interest in food systems, farming, and permaculture. I applied these as a consultant, doing Integrated Site and Systems Design and Green Business Development for many years. It’s kind of full circle to be here at the Co-op now, applying all that I have learned over the years, from renewable energy to food waste diversion to regenerative farming and systems design. It’s what I love about this position–it’s multidimensional and calls on all of my skills and knowledge areas.
What is a GreenMBA?
“GreenMBA” was the brand for the program that offered the Master’s in Sustainable Enterprise which I decided to pursue. There were three pillars to the program: business acumen, leadership, and a survey of appropriate technologies.
Within the business acumen pillar, we learned the skills you would expect of a traditional MBA; how to make a proforma, write a business plan, create a balance sheet, cash flow analysis, return on investment, and the like. Something that stuck with me early and since then is the mantra “No margin, no mission.” In other words, an organization needs to be financially sustainable in order to continue its work.
Within the leadership pillar, there was a tract I really appreciated about the theory of change and the way innovations spread through society, from early adopters on through a bell curve of the population. We learned how you can participate in that unfolding instead of just watching it happen.
Within the sustainability pillar, I attended an inspiring conference for the first time, which was Bioneers. I met environmental pioneers like Paul Stamets, who is a leader in the mycology space, studying how fungi can help heal the world; and Jeanine Benyus, who coined the term Biomimicry to describe design inspired by nature. I learned all these fascinating and innovative takes on the way we can approach sustainability by cooperating with the elegant patterns of nature rather than trying to conquer it.
In this program, I learned to speak about sustainability in financial terms — I have found that if you do so, you don’t even have to mention the word “sustainability” to get buy-in from people who otherwise might not be interested in environmental issues. Sustainability programs are often cost-savers, and that’s what businesses care about, since it’s their responsibility to make money for stakeholders.
At the same time as attending your GreenMBA program, you were beginning to explore food systems and permaculture. What is permaculture?
Permaculture is often misunderstood as an organic gardening cult, but it’s really a design framework. It’s a synthesis of farming and design methods that have been happening for a long time — like contour plowing for water retention — but it helps put those methods in their place so they can work together.
Let me give you an example. Permaculture introduces a concept called zones of frequency, in which things are placed in space based on how often we need them. Zone 1 is nearest, Zone 5 is furthest from the center of your system. You probably have to go to the chicken coop at least twice a day, but they can also be noisy, so that goes at the edge of Zone 1 and 2. But you don’t need to grow corn in the kitchen garden, so that goes farther away. It’s one of many “tools” in the kit when developing elegant systems, which I think of as using thoughtful design rather than solving poor design with fossil fuels.
Permaculture taught me design elegance. These principles can be applied anywhere, not just on a farm.
What changes are happening, big and small, since you took up your position at Ashland Food Co-op?
When I joined the Ashland Food Co-op staff, I was really impressed by all the work that had been done already by my predecessors—such as our complete food waste diversion system. I don’t even think anybody thinks of it as a sustainability program anymore. It’s just in the DNA of the Co-op. (It also avoids approximately 50 additional dumpsters annually, feeding people and animals, and not emitting methane in our landfill!) That starting point made it possible to focus on more ambitious projects, to keep pushing the leading edge.
Our 2030 Vision was written in 2007 by our visionary owners and staff, and outlines four goals that inform my work to this day: Carbon Neutrality, Zero Waste, elimination of Persistent Chemicals, and Sustainability Leadership in our Community. This is the guiding star for my work at AFC.
So, as an example, in terms of waste diversion, I was able to advise leadership at the co-op to discontinue the use of disposable cutlery. Now we only offer metal utensils, whether for dine-in or take-out. It was not only a sustainability thing, but a smart business decision. We were buying compostable plastic forks, because that’s what a co-op should be serving, right? But those don’t actually get composted because there isn’t an industrial facility in the area equipped to handle this kind of plastic. So it’s guaranteed to be trash. And the fancy compostable fork, it’s also more expensive than a typical plastic fork. So let’s say you come in to eat and take a fork that’s metal. If we get the fork back even once, we break even on that fork. If we get it back a second time, we start seeing significant savings, and the same is true for environmental benefits. If we don’t get it back, that’s ok too, because chances are it will also be used again. Is this going to rid the world of plastic pollution? Certainly not, but I hope it will inspire conversations and considerations of the pervasiveness of single-use plastics in our lives.
We’ve also made significant strides in moving away from fossil fuels as an energy source: we’ve done combustion tests to make sure the heating and ventilation systems are running efficiently while planning for their end-of-life replacement with CO2 systems, along with the refrigeration as well. We joined the Ashland Solar Cooperative last year as a foundational member and are constantly evaluating opportunities for additional solar arrays. And when I arrived, my predecessor was already capping off the gas line in the staff break room to make way for an induction cooktop, so I continued that work. The gas range in the co-op classroom was replaced with an induction range, and the back line of the Deli kitchen was converted to induction cooktops, with more kitchen electrification planned for this year.
I am also particularly inspired by our Greenhouse Gas Inventory, which maps upstream and downstream emissions of the products we sell in order to identify opportunities to inform our shoppers in making climate-aware shopping decisions. Similar to nutritional labels, we want to provide “Climaterians” (people who eat with the climate in mind) information to make informed decisions on the matters important to them. As far as I can tell, we are the only independent grocery store voluntarily taking on this work at the moment. We hope to be a beacon for others.
This is just a small sample of the projects we are advancing on a daily basis.
Looking at the future, what is your vision for the Co-op, and for the community of Ashland?
In one word: circularity. Do you know about Rogue To Go? Diners at twelve different eateries can join a system for getting take-out in reusable containers, which can then be returned to any of the participating restaurants to be washed and reused. Well, imagine if other businesses joined Rogue To Go or stopped offering plastic utensils. What if all the cafes in town participated in a reusable cup program so that we don’t have any more single-use cups in all of Ashland? Other communities have piloted similar programs and had wide participation and support. I think circularity is something we’re capable of, and that the community would support. There’s so much more potential here. That’s just scratching the surface. We are a community unusually suited to be pioneers in programs like these.
How would you guide our community towards lowering emissions and increasing resiliency?
A significant portion of my efforts at Ashland Food Co-op are dedicated to projects that aim to “bend the curve” on climate change by addressing methane emissions and fugitive refrigerants — climate-warming gases that leak from refrigerators and air-conditioning units. Tackling methane emissions is one of the best short-term strategies to stop long-term warming — over a 20-year timeframe, this climate-warming gas traps 80 times more heat than CO2.
Changes that I’d like to see: I believe addressing the methane emissions from Dry Creek Landfill would be another significant step the region could take to reduce these emissions. Food scraps and other organic matter leak methane as they decompose, making landfills the third leading source of methane nationally.
I’d also like to see a switch from gas-powered to electric landscaping tools. If you are in a better financial position than your neighbor, consider gifting them an electric lawnmower. Alternatively, consider starting a neighborly mower-share program!
Finally, it’s important that we build a disaster-resilient community. There are numerous ways we can all help with that effort now. I volunteer with Ashland Fire and Rescue’s Wildfire Risk Assessment Program (WRAP), which offers free assessments and recommendations for home modifications to protect your property and neighborhood from fire. Signing up for an assessment for your home and encouraging your neighbors to do the same are easy ways to make positive changes that directly contribute to community resiliency. Of course, personal preparedness—having a “Go Bag” for evacuation and a two-week supply of food and water for sheltering in place—is crucial. This helps your community’s resilience by reducing the need for emergency services to assist you if unprepared.
The good news is that Ashland Climate Collaborative’s Action Teams are addressing these issues: Electrify Ashland Now is helping Ashlanders eliminate “natural” gas (methane) from their homes, and the compost action team is diverting food scraps from landfills, where they produce climate-warming gases as they decompose. Meanwhile, we’re helping the community make necessary long-term changes to our transportation habits and water use — changes that build a more resilient city.