Goin' Green

Attended one of those conferences today with workshops and a keynoter and chicken. It was the Council of Governments for the Toledo area, TMACOG. The theme was all about the "green wave" and how you'd better get ready to surf it. Things were pretty entertaining, but picked up at the end when two post-chicken keynoters tag-teamed it. The first is President of a college in the Toledo area, Lourdes College, the second the Project Director of the campus of the "IHM Sisters Monroe Campus" in Michigan. They talked and showed slides about buildings that had been built or totally renovated as certifiable "green" buildings, with geothermal heat (pipes carrying water 300-450 feet down into the earth to heat them up and circulate heated water through the buildings), all manner of using gray water, and even an inverted roof that catches and channels rainwater into a holding area for irrigation.

One major point was that this wasn't feel-good stuff. Well, it was, to a point, and it tied in with much of the mission and stewardship goals of the Sisters and of Lourdes, but it was also a business decision. The up-front extra cost of goin' green would pay off in a few short years, like five or six.

I think this is why the green movement is going to take hold in the years to come. It is no longer just the province of tree-huggers. Those who are motivated now by altruism, or a feeling of connectedness to the planet, or whatever, will be joined by those who have calculated the ROI and it meets their investment criteria. It is going to be interesting to watch the Sierra Club joined by the "invisible hand of the marketplace" - some innovative things are likely to be in store. Meanwhile, local governments are beginning to talk about things like how to zone for household windmills.

One speaker earlier in the day, who has a business in Cincinnati, spoke about his corporate center, where the lights automatically turn off when they sense the meeting at hand can proceed just fine with the sunlight pouring in the large windows. This company is adding a "10 kW PV array" (a solar panel on the roof) every year, and on off days like weekends, the place is selling electricity back to the grid. Their goal is zero net energy costs, and they think they can achieve it.

In the spirit of the evening, I returned my name tag to the registration table. Just doing my small part.