We attended the opening forum of Greenbuild on Monday afternoon which consisted of a moderated panel discussion. It was really a kind of “State of the Union” for green building in America, especially in this down economy. Ashok Gupta, the Program Director for Air and Energy at the National Resources Defense Council was one of the panelists who said, “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste”, meaning that in this economy there are opportunities we must take advantage of.
We were shown a short video of President Elect Barack Obama’s message to the Governors meeting filmed earlier that day in which he discussed climate change and what must be accomplished in the U.S. and globally in the upcoming years. After the video Moderator Steve Curwood of NPR’s ‘Living on Earth’ commented, “I’ve heard more in this four minute video from President Elect Obama on climate change than over the last eight years.” Hopefully this is a clear indicator of where the new administration is headed.
One of the questions asked of the panel is whether or not the auto manufacturers should be bailed out since they hadn’t seemed to learn any lessons from the current crisis or the past ones (regarding oil consumption). Mindy Lubby, President of Ceres recommended there be strings attached to the bail out plan since, “the auto manufacturer who told me that he will not make hybrids, that America doesn’t want them, is the same CEO that no longer be the head of a major auto maker under this plan.” It is obvious, at least to those attending Greenbuild that America DOES want newer, greener technology. Lubby said, “The fact that thirty thousand are attending this conference during a down economy sends a message that (green) is important.”
The attendees of this conference have high hopes that this time we will act quickly and get it right. The current political climate has opened the possibilities. Although we must proceed with intelligence and caution, Stockton Williams, Chief Strategic Officer of Enterprise Community Partners, Inc., reminded us that, “the population who has little or nothing to do with causing the climate change (the poor) is the one who pays the most for it (through higher energy costs due to low insulation, etc.).”
Overall the forum was interesting and inspiring.
Tags: Events, Green Policies, politics
