Técnicas e Instrumentos de recolección de datos

The second most salient theme that emerged from the intended community impacts of sustainability entrepreneurs was the goal of reducing waste and promoting efficiency in New Orleans’ systems. Five entrepreneurs showed a strong desire to make New Orleans a more efficient region with less waste and more recycling, composting, and reduced consumption. The primary group with this intended impact was private sector actors, although hybrid organizations shared this goal. The commitment to waste reduction also provides an example of commitment to the eco-efficiency principle from the 12-part model of SE in Tilley & Young (2009), as well as demonstrated concern for collective value chain impacts at the output/disposal stage (Fearne et al., 2012).

Entrepreneurs expressed the desire to reduce the waste stream of the region.

Stakeholders showed a desire to prevent additional burden on the municipal waste stream through strategies such as collecting compost at local urban farms and repurposing recycled materials such as building supplies and furniture. Phyllis, who directs a major deconstruction and recycling depot, explained that:

“we sell all kinds of lumber and hardware and lighting fixtures and plumbing supplies, and also nails, and iron railings, and anything that is…coming out of houses that are being renovated. We have been active in the last year working with the city blight program to go in, in front of the bulldozers, to houses that have

been declared blighted and are to be torn down, we go ahead of them and pull out useful material that we can…before the bulldozers get there”

(Anonymous, personal communication, August 19, 2012).

Changing Public Attitudes Towards Waste

Another major theme was the motivation to influence public behaviour towards waste and reuse. Entrepreneurs expressed a desire to build a culture of recycling and show the value that can exist in used material typically considered garbage. One stakeholder explained her innovative idea of reusing old tennis ball sleeves to protect the valuables of clients during her kayaking tours:

“So I put my keys in and I slipped my phone in and…it’s perfect! And it floats!...It’s so simple…And now when people show up...you get a container for your key and your cellphone. It comes with it…And they love it. They’re like

“Wow! I totally threw one of these away the other day”, and I was like “Well, you should have kept it.”…And some people come [with] their own. They’re startin’ to come with their own. Which makes me feel really good. [I’m] slowly making impact”

(Anonymous, personal communication, August 10, 2012).

This tendency shows that entrepreneurs are taking on roles as innovators in the area of attitudes, values, and practices—somewhat in the Schumpeterian sense (1954) of instigating innovation and change, but more in terms of spreading their values to the rest of the community.

Adapting to Local Capacity

Another emergent theme was the desire to encourage municipal waste management to strive for greater recycling efforts and to match business practices with the recycling capacity of the City. One entrepreneur has actively advocated for more recycling bins for the City of New Orleans, which it cannot technically receive until it has distributed its final 4,000 bins. Another entrepreneur explained how his packaging materials are deliberately chosen to match the City’s recycling capacity:

“When New Orleans starts recycling glass, we’ll come out with bottles. I have a Blonde (type of beer made by the brewery) bottle. We actually make Hopitoulis in draught too. With the label already on there, so you don’t have a paper label, it’s actually printed on the bottle, which I like a lot better. Yeah, so we’ll do that one day as soon as New Orleans decides to recycle glass”

These themes show a variety of motivations to reduce waste across the region.

Some stakeholders are concerned with materials management per se, while others are focused on public behaviour and values in attempts to influence more efficient waste management. This intended impact embodies the value of eco-efficiency discussed in Tilley & Young (2009), which these authors describe as a characteristic of sustainability entrepreneurship, aimed at improving the efficiency of businesses through better materials management and reduced waste. This impact also is encompassed by the goal from the Common Vision associated with waste management, repeated below. This concern highlights a gap in the current SE framework for the need for entrepreneurs to be locally appropriate in institutional terms. Although O’Neill et al. (2006) consider how to make SE more culturally appropriate, the theme of local capacity and making products and services adaptable to them has not been explored. Also needing research is the ways that sustainability entrepreneurs may begin to fill existing voids in services left by market and state actors. This focus from several New Orleans entrepreneurs, such as Kirk, begins to fill this gap.

N11 The waste stream of New Orleans is being reduced and diverted to an increasingly large proportion of recycling and reuse that is accessible to the public.

This goal, with its focus on both waste diversion and public accessibility, is reflected in the intended impacts of the entrepreneurs who wished to reduce waste through their activities. Expressed in the Community Capital Tool, their goals are reflected in the stock known as Minerals and Non-renewable Resources. The rationale of this listing originates in the nature of waste systems as a key non-renewable resource managed by communities that should be re-envisioned for reduction, reuse, and potential sources of revenue (Roseland, 2012). This intended impact is reflected in the CCS below, where five of the seven stakeholders with intentions to make a positive impact on this stock were referring to goal N10 in its emphasis on waste reduction and management. All of the entrepreneurs had a very strong desire to positively impact this stock.

Figure 37. Intended Natural Capital Impacts.