When we tell people about our business (Perfect Flavor), we tell them that our goal is sustainability. In its simplest definition, sustainability refers to the long-term longevity of a human enterprise. Sustainability encompasses several overlapping concerns: the environment, social systems, and economic systems. One widely employed definition states that sustainable development:

“meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

With respect to the environment, one definition of sustainability means that all of the things a business takes from the Earth – the inputs like energy, fuel, and raw materials – must eventually be returned to the Earth in such a way that they can be used again.

We, like others involved with sustainable businesses, struggle with these definitions and labels. Although the terminology provides context, it can be confusing and limiting. In part, the problem lies with its Platonic “either/or” duality. We find it more useful and practical to consider things along a continuum from “less sustainable” to “more sustainable”.

The problem gets even more complex, because even the idealized notion of sustainability changes over time. Sustainability isn’t a place – it isn’t a singular and fixed destination. Like us, it evolves, as our understanding of the planet Earth and our species’ place thereon evolves. Sustainability is a process – a point of view that demands thinking, exploring, and questioning the status quo.

In that spirit, and encouraged by the notion that transparency matters, we offer a list of things we know that Perfect Flavor can improve upon. We hope that this disclosure will help our customers understand what we do, and the challenges we face. On some issues, we have had little or no choice on how to proceed because regulatory requirements are very stringent. On other issues, we have chosen to compromise because we are a small Mom & Pop business, and have insufficient capital to pursue other options.

Startup

• Building Materials: We used commonly-available materials, including concrete, pine stud framing, wallboard and so on. The Commonwealth of Virginia and federal requirements on Dairy Processing Facilities dictate many of these choices, particularly in the rooms used for the actual making of ice cream.
• Furnishings And Equipment: Our pasteurizer, batch freezer, coolers and freezers are all industry standard units. Again, due to regulatory requirements and a dearth of sustainably-manufactured units that meet those compliance criteria, we have no other choices at this time.

Ongoing

• Electricity:We strongly considered the possibility of using active-solar technology to meet some of the electrical demands of the Perfect Flavor Kitchen, but due to the startup costs, we can’t afford to do so at this time. Although we’d like to buy green power, Dominion Virginia Power does not offer any, and PEPCO, which offers a green power product to residential customers in Dominion’s service area, doesn’t do so for commercial accounts. Our only option is to purchase carbon offset credits.
• Water: The Perfect Flavor Kitchen has moderate water demands, and we are currently using water and sewer services provided by the City of Waynesboro. In the upcoming year, we will explore using rainwater harvesting for flushing the toilet at our facility.
• Transportation:Currently, all of our packaging and other raw materials come and go from the Perfect Flavor Kitchen on automobiles, using standard gasoline or diesel fuel. In the future, we hope to be able to use a more sustainable alternative, such as a bio-diesel or electric-powered delivery vehicle.

When we look at this list, we feel challenged to improve the myriad ways our business impacts the environment. The stark nature of this list illustrates just how far we are from our goal, but it heartens us to pursue the dream with passion.

A little slideshow I gave at SAIC about distributed application architectures. Enjoy:

What if we, as a species, were about to pitch off the edge of our ecological and evolutionary cliff?  What if all the signs were there, but we were just too muddleheaded to see them? What if the bees are smarter than we are?

I’ve been doing some subcontracting IT work (programming) for the last couple of months, and although it has been hard to put aside working on Perfect Flavor, I’ve found it worthwhile. One reason is that it pays quite well.

Besides the money, there are other rewards, and somewhat surprisingly, they relate back to the business of starting a new company. First, let me explain that the subcontract is for the government. Specifically, the DoD. This means Big Business, and it also means I’m four levels of subcontract deep. From this vantage point, it seems that the “customer” falls into the category of mythical animal, like Nessie. Spoken in hushed tones: “Yeah, I heard that Bob talked to the customer once. Bob was walking the dog on a cool fall morning, back in ‘04. Suddenly the customer appeared out of nowhere. Before Bob could pop off a shot with his cameraphone as evidence, it disappeared back into the mist.”

My “ut-oh” meter went off early. During the training session at the start of the contract, the trainer literally begged us, “Please, PLEASE try to think like one of the users, and don’t use terms like ‘adjacent record set’ when you mean ‘more results’.” But the problems run deeper than just bad information architecture, and I can’t really blame the developers. I couldn’t put my finger on it for the first few weeks, but eventually it hit me.

This program lacks an architect. It lacks an architect because no one is in touch with the customer. Nobody is in charge.

Various problems manifest themselves as a result. Very few people seem to understand the whole system. No one can articulate anything resembling a system metaphor. Feature and design decisions seem to be made on an ad-hoc basis, and the rationale behind them, if any, never makes it down to us grunts.

Piles of redundant, decaying code, abandoned subystems and decrepit, leaking interfaces lie scattered about. I wander, flashlight in hand, gingerly turning over spadefuls of this stuff, how on earth it could possibly still work. I’ve seen this problem before. When decisions (and hence responsibility) are made without a compelling common vision, an organization retains neither control over nor knowledge of its own destiny.

So, besides an fat paycheck (our tax dollars at work), I’m taking home a lesson about having clear goals, well communicated. And I am rededicating myself to sticking to my customers like glue.

“Even at the typical ice cream serving temperature of -16° C, only about 72% of the water is frozen.” From Structure of Ice Cream.

Profound climate change. Depressing.