Auntie Em Goes Green

A small, tornado ravaged town in Kansas is realizing the benefits of going green. On May 4, 2007, Greensburg Kansas was virtually wiped off the map. Now the town is rebuilding with an eye towards renewable energy and energy efficiency and finding green isn't just for hippies anymore.

The local John Deere dealership lost nearly everything in the disaster, but is taking the opportunity to get LEED Platinum certified. This is not about taking the moral high ground though. From the Article:

Although "green" may be viewed as trendy and new by some, Mike Estes {owner of the John Deere dealership] knows that it is not for show.

"We're looking at saving money here; truthfully, we are. We're running a business. If we can't make this make sense, why would we do it?" he asked.

And he says the non-political approach of the city in encouraging energy efficiency has helped.

"I don't think it's red or blue to be green; I think green is green, and green makes sense. And green saves you green!" he said with a laugh.

He's right too. It's a wonderful thing to be able to run a business in accordance with your values, but it's not always possible. More often than not, economics force our hand. In the end, a business has to make money or it won't survive no matter what your values are. What needs to be recognized is that capital investment in energy efficiency can save a tremendous amount of money in the long term. And when it comes to the balance sheet, saving money is the same as making money.

Towards a Unified Theory of American Problems

AP (via CNN) this morning provides evidence that our economic woes are tied to our national security problems and our environmental issues. The article, entitled "Planes Slow Down to Save Fuel," states that several airlines are slowing their aircraft (by approximately 10mph) in order to save fuel. According to the article, this change, while adding just minutes to the average flight, can save hundreds of gallons of fuel. Airlines mentioned in the article are said to be saving in the tens of millions of dollars per year on fuel.

What the article does not acknowledge is the reduced carbon footprint that goes hand in hand with the cost savings. It's pretty obvious though: use less fuel, produce less CO2. The EPA says that fossil fuel consumption made up about 94 percent (pdf) of CO2 emissions from the US in 2006. According to Wikipedia, the aviation industry is responsible for 11 percent of greenhouse gases (mostly CO2) emitted by the transportation sector in the US. This makes it about 3.6 percent of the total CO2 emissions in the US (again using the 2006 figures (pdf)).

Jet fuel produces approximately 23 pounds of CO2 per gallon. So saving 162 gallons of fuel (from the article) not only saves the airline $535, but it spares us 3726 lbs of CO2.

This is evidence that a very small change (minutes per flight) can have a significant economic impact, reduce our carbon footprint, and simply by virtue of conserving help to ease our dependency on foreign oil.

If JetBlue saves $13.6 million in fuel per year and they pay about $3 per gallon (at a guess), that could mean as much as 4.5 million gallons of fuel conserved by a single airline. And of course, the less we use, the less money we send overseas. It's interesting to note that this conservation need not be motivated by politics or concern for the environment. Pure economics is enough to drive the change in this case, but the by-products are great.

Addendum 5/3/08: McCain claims to have an energy policy that will end our dependency on foreign oil and admits that (well, ok, the first one anyway) the gulf war was about oil.