San Francisco should be more like Philadelphia or Bellingham, WA.  Why? Because by supporting strong networks of locally owned independent businesses working in various "building blocks" of the green economy – sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, local capital, zero-waste manufacturing, green building, independent media, and downtown retail – both cities are building healthy, diversified local economies. And a lot of greening is happening as a result.

The business networks are part of BALLE – the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies. Our mission is to support local businesses, industry and agriculture, because “local” is a key factor in “green.”  Local sustainable agriculture means fewer food miles (and less petroleum use) between the farm and your plate. Local renewable energy means not only green energy, but also local control and lower distribution costs. Local capital means more investment in small local businesses, which continues the circulation of capital within the community. Zero-waste manufacturing means goods produced locally with low environmental impact and drastically shorter supply and distribution lines. Green building means not only buildings that people can live and work in, but also buildings that use less energy and materials. Independent media means access to thinking not in thrall to media conglomerates. Downtown retail means keeping independent small businesses flourishing in a thriving town center rather than leaking retail profits to mega-corporations headquartered in distant cities.

For many reasons, San Francisco is the city best positioned to set the bar for healthy, diversified, green local economies. In our race for the pennant for Greenest City in the US, San Francisco has done a great job of engaging city government and the average citizen. Our public utility, PG&E has taken a proactive stance with Let’s Green This City. We’re pioneers in clean and green tech. Many of the elements of a local green economy are starting to come together, particularly in the area of food. But we could be doing much more to engage the business community, the small and medium-sized businesses that are the backbone of our economy.

Business members of Sustainable Connections, the Bellingham network, are re-examining how they grow, distribute, and sell food, where they buy goods and services, how they consume energy, how they build homes, and ultimately, how they define success in business. Here in San Francisco, we could likewise strengthen connections among local farms, food producers, restaurants, caterers, institutions, and the public through producer/buyer directories, local food trade meetings, an Eat Local Pledge, farm tours for chefs and retailers, and public events like Eat Local Week and Bellingham’s annual Harvest Dinner.

In both Bellingham and Philly, retail merchants band together in a "local first" campaign, a citywide marketing campaign for locally owned, independent businesses. The campaigns educate citizens about which businesses are locally owned and why people should buy from them first: because locally owned businesses keep more money circulating in the local economy, retain the individuality of their community, offer better service and more diverse products, create more good jobs, help the environment, support community groups, invest in the community, make efficient use of public services, and tend to stay put. The San Francisco Small Business Commission, working with BALLE, the Third Street Corridor Collaborative, the San Francisco Department of the Environment, and the San Francisco Locally Owned Merchants Alliance put on a Shop Local First campaign in 17 neighborhoods in San Francisco for the second time last December, and expects to do a third this year, but the campaign is still in its early stages. In Bellingham, where Sustainable Connections has changed the whole culture of buying: 58 percent of residents say they have been significantly influenced by the Buy Local campaign.

In zero-waste manufacturing we see a big opportunity for San Francisco to join Oakland in becoming a model green city. As Van Jones of Oakland’s Ella Baker Center for Human Rights says, the green economy has to be strong enough to lift people out of poverty. The Ella Baker Center is driving the study of Green Enterprise Zones, a package of policies and private sector programs to create an area where green businesses can thrive, either an eco-industrial park or a virtual zone. BALLE is pioneering complimentary strategies of green economic development, involving investing in and supporting local entrepreneurs and tapping into local resources.

Recently, in San Benito County, we partnered with the Integrated Waste Management Department to convene business owners, farmers, and ranchers to decide what types of businesses they wanted in Hollister and the rest of the county that would provide quality jobs, be sensitive to the local environment, and fit with their vision for the future. Now local entrepreneurs, supported by state and local government agencies and nonprofits, are creating new businesses such as a biofuels company, a new downtown restaurant that will serve regionally grown food and wine, and a processing facility for humanely raised animal products. Our strategy, working with the Third Street Corridor Collaborative and the Bayview Business Resource Center, could help create jobs for people with a wide range of backgrounds and skill levels, from clean tech to venture capital to niche zero-waste manufacturing.

We’ve formally recognized the innovative entrepreneurship of San Francisco’s Timbuk2, which has developed a hybrid strategy for niche consumer-product manufacturing: They’ve retained custom high-end assembly here while moving their commodity line to China. They are a key supporter of SFMADE.org, a nonprofit established to promote San Francisco-based companies that manufacture consumer products within the San Francisco city limits though a website and other means. We’ve talked with them on a preliminary basis about expanding their promotional activities, and think SFMADE.org could be instrumental in expanding recognition and awareness of the benefits of a local manufacturing base.

We’re also at the heart of a process to create a new sustainable business rating system. San Francisco is the logical place to launch a system that sets standards for social and environmental performance and that separates companies with good green practices from those which only have good green marketing (also known as greenwashing).

In the area of local capital, we’re helping to launch a local stock exchange to be piloted in the greater San Francisco area. Its entire purpose is to match local green investors with local triple-bottom-line (people, planet, profit) companies to create a new kind of capital market. Also on the horizon are the Interra Project and the Evolver Project, a new breed of loyalty-based credit cards that benefit local small businesses while increasing consumer awareness. Green Zebra and Greenopia are local examples of a growing number of green city guides and coupon books. San Francisco is the obvious place to launch all these tools that will reinforce the city’s reputation as the predominant node in the green economy.

The best place to learn first-hand about all that BALLE is doing to build local economies around North America is at our annual conference, to be held this year at UC Berkeley from May 31 - June 2. Join entrepreneurs, innovators, community organizers, government officials, investors, and green business pioneers to explore cutting-edge social and environmental innovations, learn practical business skills, share best practices for network development, and connect with others in this flourishing network!