Climate Change

Many of you have probably spotted me donning a MN350 t-shirt that reads: Climate Change is Real - So are the Solutions.  I had been teaching climate impact through my school teacher years, so it was an easy choice to operate a small business with climate impacts in mind. How could I minimize this business' impact on the earth's climate? How could I model solutions? 

This commitment has led to trying to grow the composting movement, introduce reusables for takeout, limit the number of ingredients I source from long distances, and build in energy saving equipment and processes.  There has been some progress, some wins, and yet, it feels like there is so far to go. 

You may have also spotted me donning a Main Street Alliance t-shirt that reads: We are Building Small Business Power.   These past 10 years have seen some climate change for small businesses in Minneapolis and across Minnesota because of the efforts of Main Street Alliance members.  Our small business stories helped move Earned Sick and Safe Time, and the Paid Leave laws into being.  Our collective creativity helped birth a Small Business Team at the city level to advocate for the small business community.  However, recent attacks on these laws and on the infrastructure that upholds small independent businesses remind us that progress is fragile and support for small businesses still isn't considered as a societal norm.

Within the restaurant industry, there has been additional climate change since the pandemic.  Loss of customer traffic, discomfort at dining out, disruptions to supply chains, and the domino effect of closures of both producers and other restaurants all lead to much more challenging environment for those of us centered around hospitality and food.  

As a mission-oriented business, I've never been one to be purely profit-driven, but these past couple years have made it clear that it is very difficult to even provide a mission when you can't be a profitable business.

As a micro-climate, Butter Bakery, has been experiencing climate change as well.  Difficulties in keeping up with rising costs and trying to manage a large debt burden from the pandemic years, has meant thinner staffing and more challenges staying well-stocked.  It has meant that our wages haven't kept up with actual cost of living.  Our no-tip pricing model is still rare among restaurants.  And although some city-wide movement has been seen since we chose to go to a no-tip pricing model in 2017, there is still a very long way to go make this a societal norm for restaurants.  I know I'm not alone as a small business owner in the struggle to provide fair wages (and indeed reach living wages) despite our deep desires (and claims) to do so.  All of these add up to a feeling of discontent.   

Climate change is real. So are the Solutions.

For any business struggling with its finances, a pricing increase is one solution.  Over the nearly 20 years of operating Butter Bakery, these increases tended to come in a once-a-year cadence. Until 2020.  Volatile ingredient costs, supplier changes, customer traffic drops, changes to our service days and hours, led to pricing adjustments coming 6 months, then 3 months at a time, and sometimes even that hasn't helped.  And presently, uncertainty in the larger society continues to make this a poor solution.

Another solution for many businesses has been to find ways to cut costs and that, of course, has been at work here since our start up with some limited success. Our creative efforts to live on less might be one reason why we're still standing when many restaurants have called it quits recently. 

Just raising wages for my staff may take some of their discontent away, but it doesn't really get at the larger climate change necessary to allow small independent businesses to thrive.  A stronger and deeper investment into businesses that create and build community is needed.  Consider the difference between shopping at a large chain store or along a neighborhood main street filled with small locally owned businesses.  Which one of these connects you to your community? Which of these supports a more vibrant neighborhood to live within?

The 5-year anniversary of George Floyd's murder was a reminder of the disinvestment in the 38th Street Corridor neighborhoods and the lack of movement from a city that pledged its support in the aftermath of the civil uprisings.  Holding our leaders accountable for what needs to happen will help create another climate change.

Sure, I worry about a political climate that now scores points for supporting the mega-rich and the global corporations at the expense of the rest of us (my community).  Yes, I get anxious about the fear mongering and terrorizing of our immigrant community (my customers). And, I'm certainly concerned that the few ingredients that I must source from other countries will be impossible to afford (like avocados, coffee and chocolate) because of the games being played with tariffs.  

Climate change is real.  But so are the solutions. 

As we listen to each other's concerns, respond to each other's needs, and organize to build the beloved society we all desire, we will find that we are the solution.

So, I'm trying to imagine myself in the form of lichen, that mysterious, unique organism that is a symbiotic colony of algae and bacteria and fungi.  Its ability to collaborate is an inspiration for survival.  Lichen lives in ways that benefit each of its parts and lives in such varied conditions, many in the harshest of habitats, for hundreds and even thousands of years.  I have a deep respect for lichen during my hikes. I wonder at what it has taken for a particular lichen to both form and thrive along the exposed rock faces where I find them on my treks.

I know that this business survives with the collaboration of customers, neighborhood organizations, government agencies, and many other small businesses in my network of vendors and service providers.  I know that it will take collaboration and tenacity to hold on to this corner of 37th and Nicollet for more years.  It will take a deeper customer investment in our mission to be a model for sustainability, a supportive workplace for residents of Nicollet Square Housing, and a workplace that can compensate all of its staff fairly.  And it will take some true symbiosis of community building amongst small businesses, non-profits, citizens, and our city government to bring us the vibrant neighborhoods we long for along this green path. May this be the change we embody.