I haven’t been a good blogger lately L It has been quite some time now, but as my mid-year resolution I am setting a goal to write more. Tonight I find myself in need to express and the motivation to do it.
To those that know me, I’m the hippy of my office and friends group. Yes, I run in the realm of green. As an EcoBroker and a committed member of the Triad Green Building Council, I find sustainability to be a cause I can really get behind. Who doesn’t want lower energy costs for their home, better indoor air quality, tax rebates and incentives to do it, and using sustainable products and knowing you are doing the right thing? What could be the downside? It’s just common sense and good practice.
On the other hand, there is still that side of green that I don’t understand so much. I am a firm believer in “to each their own,” and I try my best not to be judgmental, but when deciding where to spend dollars allocated to the city, I get a little concerned about the logic behind some thinking.
Greensboro will be receiving, if all forms are filled correctly, with a solid plan of action and by the deadlines and upon approval, somewhere in the vicinity of $2.5 million from the Obama Stimulus Bill to make energy efficient and sustainable improvements to the area. I got a bit frustrated at a public meeting I attended this evening where the council announced updates and asked for community feedback. I know a few of the members of this council and I’m sure they will do right by what is best for the city; however some of the recommendations thrown out this evening baffle me.
When choosing between what items would be best for the city to prioritize to apply the funds we were given a list, but also asked for any additional thoughts. This is just my opinion, but one that seemed fairly popular I didn’t quite see as being the best use at this time. It was “Reduction and Capture of Methane and Greenhouse gases.” Yes, something we should do, but it was recommended that we should do this in the local landfill and create artist workstations. I support the arts whenever I can, but in this instance, I feel these are items that are a little more fluff that would be a great future project. I look at the list and think… “Hmm, how can we use this money for the greatest return to the taxpayer?” Energy audits of the city and county buildings could yield significant increases in energy efficiency and lower costs over the long term for taxpayers. Such audits will identify where the buildings are losing energy, and allow us to retrofit them in effective ways. Huge dollar amounts are being lost to these inefficiencies which we could easily identify and correct.
What if we looking into geothermal for some of our cities buildings that it could benefit? Everyone loves to support solar energy. You can’t argue with free energy once the panels are in place. Between the tax incentives it wouldn’t be long to reach the payback and that’s one less building taxpayers would have to pay for ever again to power. I would gladly support geothermal in this situation since to do full power from solar the payback is longer and energy costs are not high enough to make this worthwhile at this time. However using it to heat the buildings water could be a large benefit to community. I think about locations such as the police station and fire stations, and others that would use large amounts of water that needs to be heated. Rain water collection systems are also an option. Let’s gives these buildings a makeover!
Education about sustainability is a great way to advance the cause. Let’s get out there and teach those in our communities how to recycle, where to recycle. I’m sure plenty of the attendees this evening would be glad to volunteer to help with such educational opportunities. Use the money to create more recycling centers, along with ways to recycle more products.
One of the other things that I wasn’t so thrilled about was targeting farms for excessive nitrogen runoff. I live in the county, there are cows at the end of my street as a matter of fact, and I know several of the farmers in the area. So I may be more partial to the agricultural side of the argument, but I don’t see getting rid of farms as the solution here. I see it as less farms = less food. Less local farming just means to let someone else deal with it, but then we are shipping in food from elsewhere and you have no idea as to where it came from and the conditions it was grown under. Local produce, local products, and result less carbon impact, especially when it comes to transportation costs! You can see the field it was grown in and know you are helping the farmer and their family selling you their crops and the money stays in our local economy. If it is run-off you worry about, get out there and fuss at all the homeowners over-fertilizing their yards and dumping who know what else on it. I know… small yard doesn’t compare to large field, but it’s still going into the runoff water, and there are significantly more lawns than farms. The farmers know exactly what goes on the crop and how much of it. The average Joe who went to the “big-box do-it-yourself store” is grabbing all kinds of chemicals and dumping them out on the ground. I don’t think it’s fair to just pick on the farmers for this one, they know the high costs of fertilizing their crops, and conserve whenever they can.
I feel I have reached the end of my rant for the evening. Everyone is entitled to their own view, as we are all unique and individual. We all have our own interests and opinions. This is mine. When dealing with a large sum of money you need to do what’s best for the most people and many of these smaller causes would be nice to tackle, but positively impact only relatively few. These are many things that we should be moving towards. I’m all about saving the world one step at a time and the fluff can wait until our big ticket items have been acted upon. This should be our focus. We shouldn’t be greedy or selfish and act spontaneously just because there is a cool idea. We are still in the baby steps of saving the world here in Greensboro. Yes, we are tackling it in leaps and bounds and making a fantastic push, but let’s do things that save us money first before we just spend for the sake of spending. With that said, I think I’m done. Thanks for hanging in there with me if you read this far. This common sense hippy is heading to bed now. Good night.