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News from the CU Environmental Center February 2008
Director's Corner

Greetings!

Enjoy the monthly update from the CU Environmental Center. Please let us know if you have ideas, input, feedback or news.

Director's Corner  

"Screw in a CFL-then screw in a new Senator," sustainability guru Bill McKibben told a few thousand of us at a conference last month. He wasn't going after a given Senator-he was making a point about creating leverage; being more effective by working at wholesale in addition to retail sustainability.

Hunter Lovins talks about working at 'high multipliers' of 1,000X, 10,000X, or even 100,000X. Working to pass legislation or progressive campus policies, getting good people elected, or teaching sustainability to large numbers of students are examples of multiplier efforts we need if we are to change the course of man and nature.

Lovin's and McKibben's point is that personal lifestyle choices that embrace sustainability matter-but working at a high level of leverage to move progressive policy or people forward is needed too. The need for change is so profound now that we should focus on multipliers as much as possible.

No, they are not ducking personal behavior choices. Indeed, personal behavior counts and we should all do as much as we can to Live Green. Check out some very poignant art that illustrates well the cumulative effect of personal choice.

However, think about the increased impact we can also have by working on policies or practices that directly influence thousands of others. Key word there is "also."

As Inside Higher Ed's green blog author points out: personal choices may only influence those who are already predisposed to living green. They may only have a limited effect on other so-called "persuadables." Policy work nets additional benefits because it is influential outside of the mainstream enviro "choir."

Do the math:

• The effect of personal lifestyle choices = 1x participating population (the choir).
• The effect of policy work = ~10,000x total population (everybody).
• Personal choices + policy work = maximum effect.

Likewise, we enviros can get very bogged down judging other enviro's lifestyle choices. We're a judgmental lot--and focusing so much on personal choices plays into this "holier than thou" foible that has helped vex and divide this movement for the better part of the 30-odd years I have been in it.

To be clear: I am not saying personal lifestyle doesn't count. It very much does. Again, we should each try to do as much as we can now-and try to increase personal green behaviors over time. This is must-do stuff.

And I will cop to being guilty of non-green behaviors: I fly, I own a car-and I even drive it. I wear clothes made by who knows who in who knows what working conditions. I burn natural gas to heat my house. I buy electricity derived from coal. I live along the Front Range of Colorado along with millions of other people only because we humans have engineered a water system that is counter to Nature. My living here tacitly supports that un-natural water system without which maybe 50,000 people could survive in this environment.

The things I do to live green don't ease my sense of guilt. I have all CFLs and occupancy sensors/timers in my house to reduce electrical load. My appliances are all EnergyStar. My hot water pipes are insulated. I recycle and compost-drives my family crazy. I set the thermostat to 62 when we're up and about-and turn it off at night. I pay to offset all my energy use-electricity and natural gas-and I offset all my vehicle fuel use and air travel. I give offsets to all my children for Christmas. I drive a high mileage vehicle and take the bus when I can (not often enough). Unfortunately, I have very few transit choices where I live-and virtually none where I take my daughter to school. So, I offset.

And whoever said offsetting assuages guilt has never tried it. I am reminded every time I see the little offset sticker on my car that I am releasing carbon. Guilty. And while there are legitimate concerns about offsets-it beats doing nothing when there are no other choices.

If we all do what we can we will make progress within the confines of our lives' unique limitations. I will, for instance, hopefully this year convert to solar thermal/high efficiency heat/water for the house. I have designed and need time to build a greywater system for foliage. Maybe next year I can afford a PV array. If green clothing starts appearing in size gi-normous, I'll buy it. And if my daughter changes school next year, I will be able to ride the bus a lot.

My `multiplier' work is to try and affect influential policies that advance sustainability at all levels: on campus, in the community, at state levels, among my professional colleagues, and, in my private life, by supporting worthy political candidates. My job is about advancing sustainability policy and practices for 30,000+ people on campus. We teach classes on all this to bright students who themselves will move into the world hopefully charged up to advance sustainability not as an option-but as the default.

Yes, personal choices matter--a lot. And yes, good personal choices enhance personal legitimacy and that makes selling sustainability to others easier. Clearly, the easiest way to impeach a sustainability advocate is to impeach his/her lifestyle: "you are not practicing what you preach."

Point is, none of us are. I have yet to meet the perfect green person-although a few of the more judgmental among us think they are. But "if you live in a glass house, don't throw stones." Or, as a wise man once said, "we are all Bozos on this bus."

So, the solution is as Lovins and McKibben say: live green as you can-and pursue activities with big multipliers. Do them both. Screw in a CFL-and a new Senator, figuratively speaking, of course.

Do the math.

  Contact the CU Environmental Center email: ecenter@colorado.edu phone: 303-492-8308 web: http://ecenter.colorado.edu Join our mailing list!