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Green California Summit will
Focus on Savings and Growth
by Carl Smith
"We all know we're going through tough economic times right now,"
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has said, "but that's no reason to slow
down when it comes to protecting our environment and investing in clean,
green technologies."
Concerns about cost have always been the first arguments raised against
aggressive action to protect the environment. Yet as America faces its
greatest economic challenges in decades, investment in sustainability has
unprecedented appeal. Green is a common theme in programs ranging from a
federal call for renewable energy infrastructure to community-based
efforts to help under-served youth find decent careers.
More than any other state, California has managed to gain economic
advantage by preserving resources. The non-profit Next 10 has determined
that, over the last 30 years, California's energy efficiency policies have
created 1.5 million full-time jobs with a total payroll of over $45
billion and saved consumers over $56 billion in energy costs. Moreover,
during this period California's productivity grew at a rate that was five
times the national average.
Today, a legal obligation to act aggressively to fight climate change
exists alongside an urgent demand for economic stimulus. Rather than
competing for resources, programs to address these converging crises are
likely to support one another.
The Green California Summit
and Exposition, coming to the Sacramento Convention Center from
March 16-18, will examine how this might be accomplished from many
perspectives from the broad strokes of keynote presentations to
education sessions that provide the details of best practices. The
exhibition floor will provide another kind of education hands-on
exposure to more than 200 companies offering products and services ranging
from insulation made from recycled blue jeans to water-saving pervious
concrete and energy-saving geothermal heating and cooling.
Over the last year, Green Technology magazine has had the
opportunity to speak with a variety of leaders from the public and private
sectors who are engaged in building the foundations of a green future.
Their insights underscore what stands to be gained or lost at this
turning point in the state's history.
"You have the chance to make California the leader of the new energy
economy," said author, attorney, educator and rodeo rider
Hunter Lovins,
president of Natural Capitalism Solutions.
A keynote speaker at the 2008 Green California Summit who returned by popular
demand to speak at the Green California Schools Summit, Lovins captured
the basic economics of sustainability.
"Every decision you make is influencing the future," she observed. "Every
time you spend a dollar, you're choosing to reward the policies of a
company. Are you rewarding companies that are making the commitment to
derive their materials sustainably, to sustainably produce their goods and
services, and then responsibly deal with the consequences that the product
will put out in the environment, the waste that they've generated? Are
they responsibly taking care of their people? Is this a company that is
honorably doing business? If it's not, why are you rewarding it? People do
what you incentivize them to do.
"With your own staff, are you giving them a share of the savings that come
from doing things right? Or are you subtly encouraging them to do things
in the old way, to not take risks? How we live our lives as individuals is
enormously important. The kind of leadership that we need in today's world
is for every one of us, however little we may think we are, to take on the
responsibility of saving the world."
In a recent
interview, Dr. David Roland Holst of the Center for Energy,
Resources, and Economic Sustainability at U.C. Berkeley, spoke to
California's expanded opportunities to catalyze change as result of the
outcome of the November elections.
"Now is the time that all eyes are in California, watching to see what we
will do," he said. "Washington is now moving beyond the denial phase on
climate policy, and national leaders will be turning their heads towards
California. We have to provide a roadmap for energy efficiency and
intensive New Economy job creation.
"We cannot relent on this because of temporary low energy prices. Energy
prices are being driven down by demand side forces, but global scarcity
will come right back and bite us when economies recover. We'll need a lot
to invest in when it comes to climate change. We have to protect ourselves
against it. There are a lot of assets at risk. We have two airports in Bay
Area, for example, that are within two meters of sea level. We have to
start right away planning for how we want to adapt. There's a lot to do
and, with planning, the state can spend its stimulus money very
productively and set an example for the nation."
Architect Bharat Patel,
who played an integral role in launching a green building initiative for
the Los Angeles Community Colleges District, one of the nation's largest
public sector efforts to create sustainable facilities, touched on other
factors that distinguish the Golden State.
"We're in a new era where innovation is key," Patel said. "Innovation has
always come to our rescue. America has always excelled in it; we're not
good, we're brilliant at it. I deal with a lot of venture capitalists, and
there's more money being brought into the green movement in California
than into software and hardware combined. There's billions of dollars
being invested. Venture capital holds itself where there's innovation, and
innovation drives California.
"California is the leader in this and will lead the rest of the nation,"
he said. "There is no doubt in my mind that the United States of
America will be the world leader, not in terms of sacrifice, but in how we
will innovate our way out of the issues presented to us as a result of
climate change. We will take pride in the new jobs we will create
worldwide through innovation jobs of a higher caliber that will pay well
and thus lift people upward and many out of poverty."
In fact, this evolution is already well underway. Next 10 notes that
capital investment in green tech ventures almost doubled in one year in
California, hitting $3.3 billion in 2008, 57 percent of the national
total. Since 2005, green jobs in California have grown ten times faster
than total job growth in the U.S. From 2002-2007 California led all states
in patent registrations for green technologies.
As the state moves to implement AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act
(see related article), the practice of sustainability is becoming an issue
even for businesses that are not directly involved in creating "green"
products.
"One of the things that I have been active in is trying to persuade
businesses to take a sober look at their long-term prospects in a changing
global environment and to calculate impacts on business and ways to adapt
to that," Treasurer
Bill Lockyer told Green
Technology. "If you want to make profitable long-term investments you
have to be aware of the risk factors associated with global climate
disruption. Ask anyone that was an investor in New Orleans they know how
nature, or inadequate infrastructure, can have an impact on investment
returns. That could happen much more broadly with global warming.
"I see a new form of green capitalism emerging that is an area to do well
and do good," he said. "We will accomplish just that by saving taxpayers
money and by retrofitting existing buildings to save energy. We especially
need to do that when belt tightening is necessary."
Local government and special districts also have a tremendous part to play
in reducing greenhouse gases, Tim Anderson, Sonoma County Water Agency's
government affairs coordinator,
told the magazine. "The state and federal agencies make the
rules, set the standards and provide incentives, but when it comes to
building projects, increasing efficiency, saving money and actually
reducing emissions, it will be done mostly by people at the local level."
The time is now, Anderson believes, and the change in administrations
provides an opportunity. "We encourage all our fellow agencies to talk to
their legislators and get their projects lined up to be funded. It looks
like there may be a push to fund energy efficiency and renewable power
projects as part of economic stimulus bills coming up this year. Let's
make sure we're prepared for this opportunity."
In addition to its innovations in energy policy and practice, California
is breaking new ground with its Green Chemistry initiative.
Maureen Gorsen,
Director of the Department of Toxic Substances Control, described the
essence of an effort to transform the complex and expensive task of
ensuring that humans and the environment are not harmed by hazardous
chemicals.
"The realization hit me that we had to get out of the business of just
managing, controlling, cleaning up," she said to Green Technology
managing editor Racquel Palmese. "The cradle-to-grave' philosophy is
throughout the language of the law - but what we need is a
cradle-to-cradle,' green chemistry philosophy. How can we use the state's
resources, the state's tools, the state's policies to influence the design
of the products we consume and the design of the processes by which we
make those products?"
The Green California Summit offers the only forum all year for
participants from all levels of government and interested partners from
the private sector
to explore the implications of these trends and
programs, and to discover tools and strategies for purposes ranging from
creating a recycling program to funding renewable power generation.
"The potential for rapid change exists if policy is well understood and
best practices are captured and shared," said Green Technology President
Bob Graves. "These are the dual purposes toward which the Summit's
Advisory
Board works, and the best reasons to make it a priority to
attend."
Note: Entrance to keynotes and the exhibit hall at the Green California
Summit are free to registered attendees. For details, or to register
online, visit
www.green-technology.org/gcsummit.
Carl Smith is Editor in Chief for
Green Technology
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