Sustainability in Business series features entrepreneurs based in Portland, Oregon, who practice sustainable marketing and promote sustainability in business practices.
***
Igor Schwartzman, a naturopathic physician, co-owns the health care clinic Whole Family Wellness Center with his wife Kendra Ward, an acupuncturist. He spoke about sustainability at the recent meetup of the Socially Responsible Business Group.
“For me, sustainability is service,” Igor said. “It is to be part of a dynamic community, play a part, and leave something positive behind.”
In Igor’s view, the word “sustainable” means two things. First, to be sustainable is to have the capability to continue. As a practitioner of natural medicine, he encourages people he sees to make better decisions about their health. With that, he believes, he is making a small difference in his community. More importantly, he is “starting a chain reaction, planting a seed.”
According to Igor, marketing is “an opportunity to create relationships, reaching the community, and educating about making positive choices.” One of the basic principles of naturopathy is “physician as teacher”. As a naturopathic doctor, he educates about health and he holds people who come in accountable for their choices. It’s about creating partnerships and working together to prioritize health.
Along those lines, his role is to create health not treat the disease. “I work not with Susan the diabetic,” he said, “but with Susan who has diabetes.” To a naturopath, symptoms are messages or signals about underlying causes. Natural medicine focuses, first and foremost, on prevention, on creating conditions that will preclude diseases from occurring.
“Traditional doctors’ hands are tied when it comes to chronic diseases. Theirs is a disease-based paradigm. They’re working against an illness,” Igor said. “Natural medicine is health or nature-based in that it works with the disease to make sure the body doesn’t allow the disease to happen in the future. I encourage people to come in not just when they’re sick, but to work with me long-term to attain optimal health.”
Cultivating relationship with people he sees sustains his business as an entity through a powerful side effect: generating revenue.
The second aspect of sustainability for Igor is conducting his business with minimal effects on the environment. The office is treated as an extension of Igor’s and Kendra’s home. Among other things, they pay the green premium to use only environmentally friendly products and supplies, they recycle whatever they can, they minimize waste, and they ask for the same from their vendors.
Igor’s understanding of the social element in corporate social responsibility extends to both the people he sees and the employees. “People who come in are people, not patients. Treating them as human beings extends to them the care, respect, and compassion they require and deserve.”
Employees (the Clinic has one so far) receive the same level of care as the people who come in. “They must believe in what we do,” Igor said, “and in return we offer incentives and rewards based on how well the business does. They get free health care and health products we carry at cost.”
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Can anyone here please help me with finding some information about traditional Chinese medicine? I have been looking around for ages and thought I would ask around, as I might be missing some great sites. Thanks.
The naturopathic approach to health care helps prevent disease and keeps minor illnesses from developing into more serious or chronic degenerative diseases. To know more about naturopathy and different benefits, consult Dr. Gez Agolli and his team of expert naturopathic practitioners in Atlanta.