Clean More Than Just Green

Since the inception of this blog, we’ve discussed the practical upsides to adopting cleantech and energy efficient techniques and policies, aside from their impact on the environment. It’s critical for widespread adoption, in fact, that energy efficiency methods and cleantech provide a cost-saving alternative to their dirtier counterparts. The environmentalist movement has succeeded in proving that privation really does not sell; consumers will buy reusable grocery bags, because they also happen to be sturdy and better than both plastic and paper bags, but they won’t stop driving 10 miles out of their way if the grocery store around the corner does not have what they want.The current economic reality underscores the attraction of efficiency efforts; more and more the forces that kept many of these options out of the marketplace have largely approached and passed one another. Energy prices continue to climb at a rate that seems impossible to sustain–or keep up with–while saving technology gets more popular and more efficient, sending prices down.Ralph Nader has hopped on board, calling for government regulation and spending in his own unique way to stimulate a deep greening of the corporate world. He relies on one of the best examples out there, Atlanta’s Interface Corporation, as a prime example of a company engaged in a deep, comprehensive restructuring of their business to be as clean and efficient as possible. So far, they’ve been quite successful in moving toward their goal of 100% clean by 2020, and in the meantime saved hundreds of millions.Likewise, when Johnson County, Kansas decided to build a new building for their county offices, they elected to try for LEED Gold certification, not because they were looking to save any trees, but because it could save them considerable money. According to the county, their energy savings are 43 percent over a similar county building put up in the 1990s, not inconsiderable when the rise in energy prices is accounted for.That kind of pragmatic approach, as Nader says, needs to be expanded. The market is likely to push in that direction, though it’s entirely likely that some regulation should be enacted to make sure the adoption of such measures is more uniform and appropriate. The USGBC has done an excellent job so far, but, for example, they’ve yet to take commercial kitchens into account. That kind of oversight, for instance, could seriously hamper any kind of efficiency effort.But once there is that broader application, cleantech as an industrial sector and a conceptual movement is going to take off, and 2008 looks to be a big year for that.

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