Its the business owner’s bottom line, after any pitch or presentation about anything, especially for a relatively unproven niche market like “green” building or design: how does this product/service/alternative help me and my business make money?

If you own or manage a business and read any of these articles about “green” MDF, you’re probably asking this same question from a slightly different angle: sounds good, especially the health stuff, but how much extra is it going to cost?

While susceptible to the second approach, I prefer the first because it opens up a whole new perspective on the everyday issues facing business owners, managers and entrepreneurs that have become increasingly grim over the last couple of years: the radical decline in value of real estate, stock and other investments, the credit squeeze on business brought on by the credit “max out” of the general consumer, the rise of gas prices and fall of foot traffic, the ridiculous cost of healthcare, unfavorable price competition from China and other emerging global economies, degradation of our own water, air, climate and health as a result of business activity, etc.

After visiting the Hospitality Design Expo in May, I saw one of the ways in which the solutions necessary for positive change on the environmental front can cause positive developments in other areas of concern to business owners, including financial concerns.

In other words, to echo Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and several other forward-looking leaders in our society, there is economic opportunity in the growth of green for business owners, because there is authentic demand for what “green” design can deliver to practitioners, consumers and local economies alike.

So how does it work? And what does any of this have to do with picture framing?

It will take a few more posts to sort through all this even as just an overview, so I will start by concluding this post with what I think is an important piece of context for discussing green design.

A good chunk of small business/entrepreneurial growth in the US over the last ten years has been in businesses that have leveraged cheap labor abroad and cheap energy to ship overseas goods cheaply into our country. At the same time, many business have learned to leverage the internet in order to reach new customers at great distances and leveraged other services like Federal Express and UPS to fulfill those far away sales, opening up new markets and accelerating the spread of information and market presence well beyond traditional regional and word-of-mouth boundaries.

Unfortunately, the particulars of the unprecedented global economic growth characterizing the beginning of the 21st century include some nasty side effects, including counterfeiting, trademark and copyright infringement;  severe environmental pollution, widespread health problems;  small business failure and greater unemployment due to overseas competition and “outsourcing”; and occasions of dangerous “goods” being marketed here at home.

These negatives, coupled with the radical rise in energy and transportation costs, create the opening for  green design and green products to flourish in economic terms.

For instance, we are currently seeing a surge in gas prices that is crimping many segments of the US economy and directly impacting thousands and thousands of our fellow citizens who have built their homes, families and businesses around a driving lifestyle.

The car makers ahead of the curve on smaller high mileage vehicles are the new #1 and #2 selling carmakers in the United States for the first time in history and employ more workers and have made more investment in local communities through expansion and growth over the last ten years than their newly deposed American counterparts.

In theory, greater demand for these “green” vehicles should spur growth and investment, so that ultimately, through innovation and foresight, higher gas prices=more new jobs and opportunities— rather than less.

In our business at The Frame Maker, freight and handling charges on some of our most unique frames made custom outside of San Diego county have grown so high that we are now building a network of artisans here in San Diego in order to keep these one of a kind custom frame designs both affordable to our clients and profitable for us. So, high energy costs=more work opportunities for local artisans.

Similarly, many people have suffered through health problems (or their loved ones have) brought on by exposure to toxic substances. As people become more aware of what chemicals are actually used in their mattresses, carpets, and furniture, and the fact that those chemicals continually leech out into their surrounding environment,  so the demand grows for alternative products that reduce or eliminate the use of these substances. Sierra Pine’s “Formaldehyde free adhesive system” for making MDF is a great example of green design turning a health and environmental negative into an economic positive.

So while recycling is great (and we’ll talk about that soon in relation to the picture framing industry), its the spirit of innovation in green design that interests and excites us here at The Frame Maker– more in the next post.