DUKE CASTLE Co-Founder, Lake Oswego Sustainability Network Duke Castle has been teaching businesses more sustainable practices since 1998. A longtime marketing consultant who served as a marketing executive for Hewlett-Packard for 10 years, Castle learned about the Natural Step — a Swedish framework for guiding sustainability efforts in organizations. In 1997 he founded the Natural Step Network, a nonprofit developed to help nonprofits and businesses develop sustainability plans. In 2013, Castle helped found the Lake Oswego Sustainability Network, which has set its sights on projects like electrifying city vehicles, phasing out leaf blowers and converting street lights to LEDs. “Having worked on this issue of sustainability for 30 years, it’s gotten to be a little passé in a way. It’s used as a label for a lot of stuff. So in my mind, it’s important to be strategic,” Castle says. Twelve years ago, for example, Lake Oswego’s city council was planning to lay off 15 people, including the What Does It Mean to Be Green in 2025? Sustainable business — and the notion of sustainability itself — doesn’t look quite the way it did a few years ago. But some concepts are evergreen. BY OB STAFF Oregon Business started publishing its list of the 100 Best Green Workplaces in 2009. And to say a lot has changed in 16 years is a massive understatement — especially when it comes to where and how we work. First, the number of people who have jobs is still notably higher than it was in 2009 — but consumers are nearly as worried about the economy now as they were during the worst months of the Great Recession. Far fewer Oregonians are looking for work in 2025 — the state reported 4.6% unemployment in March of this year versus 11.1% in April 2009. But the number of unemployed Oregonians has ticked up about half a percent in recent months, and consumer confidence is at a 13-year low, with 32.1% of Americans saying they expect there to be fewer jobs in the next six months. The way Oregonians work has also changed, particularly in the five years since the COVID-19 pandemic upended workplace norms. As we reported in our Q2 issue cover story, “The Future Is Now,” while many white-collar workplaces have returned to the office full-time or on a hybrid model, others have fully embraced remote work. So what does a sustainable workplace look like when fewer commuters are on the road — and recycling bins are gathering dust in many offices but still filling up in home kitchens? And what does sustainability mean in a political climate where environmental regulations are rapidly rolling back and the economic forecast seems to change by the hour? We asked three Oregon thought leaders what sustainability means in 2025. 2025 city’s sustainability coordinator. Castle’s organization convinced them that they could save $200,000 every year by converting all the city’s streetlights to LEDs. “We were able to convince a conservative city council that this just made good business sense,” Castle says. An all-volunteer organization, Castle’s group doesn’t depend on federal money, nor does the city for most of its work. But federal funding cuts have had their impact, with one federal grant for installation of EV chargers frozen at the time of our conversation. “Nationally, it’s chaotic, it’s crazy, and in some way, it’s so pervasive that, personally, this ain’t going to go on forever,” Castle says. He says almost sheepishly that he still drives a Tesla, but like a number of EV enthusiasts, he’s distanced himself from the company as Elon Musk’s ascent to an advisory role in Donald Trump’s second presidential administration has made him an increasingly unpopular public figure. Castle has kept his focus local and is working on issues where he feels he can have the most impact. “Rising CO2 emissions contribute to 70% of greenhouse gas, so that’s why, strategically, that’s where our focus is,” Castle says. “It doesn’t mean there aren’t other things, but if you want to leverage this, that’s where you’ve got to start. That’s why we’re focusing so much here locally, because that’s something we can do locally. PHOTOS BY JASON E. KAPLAN; ARTWORK BY JOAN McGUIRE 30
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