Our swans decamped for their summer nesting grounds overnight February 28-March 1. It has been quiet in the park, as the winter’s visitors decamp, and the spring migrants and summer residents have not yet arrived. We are eagerly awaiting our first swallow sighting for 2009.

Indian plum, alder, and willow are in bloom, as are the introduced camellias. Juanita Bay has been added to the Green Kirkland Partnership list for invasive removal and native plant restoration in the 2009 year.

St. Edwards Environmental Learning Center has published its spring schedule, although non-members must wait until March 15 to sign up. Due to state cutbacks at St. Edwards Park, evening indoor classes will be held at Bastyr University this year. Day classes and the outdoor classes are held in the park, although there may be further cutbacks to the park. No details are available on the state park Web site as of print deadline.

Green economy basics – What is a ‘triple bottom line?’

This is just a minimal sketch of a topic that easily fills many entire books. When I took basic economics, I was taught that the basic building blocks of the economy were capital (finance, infrastructure), labor and materials. In sustainable economics discussions, these terms are expanded. In general, labor becomes human capital and includes the community the business is located in, and its people and infrastructure. Natural capital includes environmental support services provided by, for example, air, water, soil, climate, and living organisms, and considers the economic activity’s impacts on them as well as how they can be incorporated into a product for sale where appropriate.

An easy-to-remember alliterative shorthand for what is implied when a business is said to have a “triple bottom line” is offered by David Korten: People, Profits, and Place. Current economics and economic measures focus mostly on profits, while downplaying many real human and natural resource costs of economic activity. One frequent theme is the need to include in our economic statistics and cost accounting costs currently ignored and/or pushed over to the public sector, so that they can be included as a cost of a product and of doing business. A “triple bottom line” business typically includes impacts on the community, its people, its employees, and the environment in its business practices and decision-making, as well as profit and its own business needs.

Green Calendar

March 11

Sustainable Futures Book Club, 7 p.m. at the Redmond Regional Library. Howe, Rob: The Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience.

March 12

Sustainable Kirkland Community, 6:30 p.m. This community group is affiliated with SCALLOPS, Sustainable Communities all Over Puget Sound. For details, visit www.sustainablekirkland.org/