Sustainable and Resilient: Getting from Point A to Point B

We hear a lot about being “Sustainable”.  Most of us have some vague notion about that meaning living our lives without using up too many resources so that people in the future can live good lives too.  When I think about sustainability, I think not only about those distant relatives seven generations from now … I wonder what it will take just for US to make it through the next 10, 20 or 40 years.  That is where the concept of being “Resilient” comes into play alongside the notion of being sustainable … as resources get scarce and changes happen without warning, how do we continue to live productive, meaningful and steady lives?

In 1987, the United Nations Brundtland Commission defined Sustainable Development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.  Back in 1987 (when Guns ‘N’ Roses released Appetite for Destruction, one of the greatest musical achievements of all time, in my humble opinion), practically no one wondered if there would be enough gasoline or electricity or wheat to go around.  Sure, there was lots of income and wealth disparity, there were “have’s” and “have nots”, but no one thought we were pushing up against any limits to growth or that natural resources or natural systems had any scarcity.

Today, we’ve got green this and green that and rainforest certified toothpicks and soup spoons made out of corn starch that you can eat when you’re done with your Chunky Noodle.  Everyone is thinking about green and sustainable, whether or not they are actually taking it seriously.  Gasoline prices spiked above $4 a gallon more than once, and hang out north of $3.50.  American muscle cars are beaten off the line of stoplights by Japanese hybrid electric cars that are practically silent instead of throaty, growling things.  Meanwhile, “Global Weirding” has left the pages of Thomas Friedman’s books, made a devastating stop in New Orleans, and now hurricanes are cancelling Broadway Shows (hurricanes are NOT supposed to hit New York, people!).   Slash is still wearing his black top hat and rockin’ out, but don’t get me started on where Axl Rose has slid down to.

The point is that we’re living it right now and those “future generations” that we’re supposed to ponder and pity and maybe save some scraps for might be our own kids or maybe even our own selves in a decade or two.

Which brings me to being Resilient.  In this context, “Resilience” is a term that comes out of Ecology, and refers to the extent to which a system is able to withstand unexpected shocks or disturbances without being thrown off or losing its functionality.  A resilient business is one that is energy efficient, has diversified revenue streams, multiple suppliers, back-up systems, and disaster preparedness plans in case of catastrophes like natural disasters, computer hackers, or vicious competitors.  A resilient government is one that has evacuation plans, local food supplies, a vibrant local business and cultural scene, and engagement with people so that they can respond to whatever the world comes up with next.   A resilient person is one who rolls with the punches, or who can effectively adapt to a new situation, or even read a blog entry written by a so-called professional who likes to reference completely random things like hard rock bands without completely losing the thread of the points being made.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not an alarmist.  I just want to make sure that we can collectively make it from Point A to Point B.  Sustainability is great.  By all means, let’s preserve resources for future generations.  And at the same time, let’s make sure that we can continue to function well and without interruption on our way to those future generations.

Yes, Deloris … This IS a good time for Energy Improvements

I get asked this question a lot:  “With the economy so bad … do you think this is a good time for people to spend money on their houses?”  And I love to flip this one on its head and give the answer that the asker just doesn’t expect:  “That makes this the BEST time to do it.”  Really?  Yes.

In a time of double-dip recession fears, bursted bubbles, and roller coasting stock markets, it’s good to have something you can count on.  Making improvements in your home or business are reliable and productive investments.  We can predict the energy savings and therefore money savings that they’ll have.  But it goes so much further than that.

Are you comfortable in your home, or does it have cold spots or maybe entire rooms that are chilly?  You could call Ghostbusters, but I think you’ll be better off calling Thurston Energy so that we can find the spots that are missing insulation and leaking air to the outside.  Finding these areas with high-tech diagnostics and then solving them with low-tech insulation and air-sealing is our specialty.  That investment in your home just made you more comfortable and happy, even as it reduced your energy bill.

Back to the economy … think you’re going to sell your house soon, or maybe you’re going to be there a few more years?  It’s a tough time to sell a house.  A lot of folks are staying in their homes.  In that case, an investment to improve comfort is a timely one that you’ll enjoy.

How about your business?  Could you stand to knock a few hundred or perhaps a few thousand dollars a month off of your operating costs?  Maybe that would mean the difference between keeping all of your staff or letting someone go during a time when sales are not exactly booming.  During the down times, business owners need to pull back and save money where they can.  If you’re a small business owner and you’re still using those thick T-12 bulbs you NEED to take advantage of rebates and get those lights upgraded to high efficiency T-8’s.  They’ll pay for themselves in less than two years, or you can even work through our credit union partners to finance them with no money up front.

If you look at it from the big picture, the way that we’ll get out of this economic hardship as a community is by making good investments, and keeping our dollars local.  Energy efficiency improvements are good investments that pay us back and use local people to make installations.  It’s practically your patriotic duty to make your place more comfortable and less expensive!  Ain’t it grand?

So yes!  This is the best time to make energy efficiency improvements!  They make our homes and offices more comfortable and less expensive to operate … they pay us money back over time … they build our local economy … and they don’t crash or pop like the markets or the bubbles.

Back to School Sales ALREADY??

A couple of weeks ago, on the first nice and warm sunny day of the “summer”, I walked into a store with my family and saw a banner hanging from the ceiling covered with giant pencils, back-packs, jeans and pocket calculators.  “A Back to School Sale ALREADY” I whined.  “But summer just started TODAY!”  In that moment I was an annoyed 12-year old boy again, dreading the return of school, instead of the responsible Dad of two that I was supposed to be.  Naturally my 8 and 6 year old kids picked up on it instantly and repeated my refrain (which they’ve done every Saturday shopping trip since then, much to my wife’s chagrin).  By now it’s approaching mid-August which seems like a tolerable time to start back-to-school planning and shopping in my opinion, but I still feel like summer just started and we’re being cheated on this side of the mountains of all the fun, sun, sweat, and sunburn that the rest of nation has been experiencing.  But I’m not (only) writing about this to complain.  Like it or not, we’ve got 3 or 4 weeks left, and then it’s back to school and back to business.  Are you ready to get serious again?

I think in many ways adult life still reflects the kids’ school year.  Weather cooperating or not, we find time over the summer to get away and do fun things … take driving trips to the mountains or the beach … take the kids to summer camp … catch the big sequel at the movie theater and end up with yet another pair of those black plastic 3-D glasses like the ones that Uncle Mortimer wears in your old family scrapbooks.  But roundabout mid-August we get that feeling that real life is going to start again sometime around the corner.  Our bosses want to collect our budgets for next year, and we have sales targets, and the Fall Season is getting ready to hit.  If you’re like me, you’re already into the planning phases, getting ready for the rollout, even between trips to the ice cream shop for chocolate dipped cones (oh, and the kids’ get them too).

So it’s about time to get serious, folks! 

Did you know that doing an energy upgrade in your home not only saves money, but also makes the house more comfortable, less drafty, with cleaner indoor air and a more steady, reliable temperature?  It seems to me that the closing days of summer or first days of Fall (defined as the first couple weeks of Johnny’s new school year) are the ideal ones to either get your HomePLUS evaluation process going, or to get around to making those upgrades that you already know you need to do.  Because you know that you’re just going to get busier once October hits … so why wait any longer?  Give us a call (360-528-2112) or fill out our form online, and we can help you along the Pathway to Savings.  Who knows … the money you save on energy bills might even pay for that new pencil case, crayons and DSi your kids need for school.

A Tale of Two Aircraft

Early this morning in Florida (July 21, 2011), the final NASA shuttle mission ended with Atlantis touching down on the landing strip beneath the stars of a clear pre-dawn sky.  NASA will not launch another space shuttle, but will catch rides into space for astronauts and equipment on other countries’ and companies’ rockets for the time being.   Meanwhile, In Western Washington (where we’d LOVE to have a clear pre-dawn sky this summer, just ONCE!), Boeing got mixed news as a result of winning a bid for 200 new 737 aircraft from American Airlines that will feature a redesigned, energy efficient set of engines.  Boeing had been planning to phase out the 737 and design a completely new aircraft, but the marketplace, and their competitor Airbus forced their hand. 

Could this be a tale of two aircraft? 

Both the space shuttle and the 737 were scheduled for retirement.  The space shuttle has reached its official retirement.  The 737 just got extended for many more years.  What is the biggest factor at work here?  I believe that my knowing nothing about aero-space engineering or the inner workings of either company makes me an expert with a unique perspective that I will dare to share with you now … high cost of operation was the key factor. 

According to NPR, the cost of lifting cargo into space on the shuttle costs around $10,000 per pound.  Private space flight operators are trying to drive that cost down to $2,000 or even $1,000 per pound.  On the airlines side, the sticking point for the new single aisle planes that American is buying for their flight is the fuel efficiency of the engines.  Airbus’ new plane is more fuel efficient, and even though Boeing wanted to redesign the whole airframe of the craft, it came right down to how much fuel the planes will use, not the smoothing of curves on the body.

If you’ve flown in an airplane lately you know that cost is a big factor for those carriers.  Luggage costs extra to send through the baggage compartment.  Snacks cost money.  Headphones cost money.  What’s next?  Are they going to start charging for water and the air to breathe?  But if you think it’s bad being a passenger on an aircraft, just wait until we’re passengers on space craft.  Can you imagine the Russian ticketing agent saying to the American astronaut:  “I’m sorry sir, you’ll need to pay our surcharge of $250,000 for that 25 pound carry-on.  Would you like to use your credit card?” I guess the upside of that is he’ll get points on his credit card toward buying those new Moon Boots (see June 23^rd blog post).

But before this blog post flies completely out of orbit, I’ll just wrap up … high fuel costs are everywhere.  Whether you’re talking about homes, offices, automobiles, airplanes, or space ships, it is costing more money to use energy.  So before we fly off the handle, let’s realize that energy is only getting more scarce and expensive, and get a hold on how we use it.

How Organizations Influence Those Around Them

I’ve been thinking about “Influence” lately.  As in “Who do we have influence with and who has influence with us?”.  I was thinking about it in the context of our organization.  I realized that the same situation applies to any organization.  So I dashed off a quick diagram.  Here’s my Organizational Influence Model:

Let’s think about it in terms of an organization that cares about energy efficiency and renewable energy (let’s just say energy) and wants to do something about it.

That organization can take action within its facility or operations to reduce energy usage.  That will have operational cost reduction benefits that will pay dividends for the investment.  But that investment can have two additional benefits that come from sources outside the organization:  1) the kudos or recognition that the company can get for taking action, and 2) the inspiration of others to take similar actions as a result of the influence that the organization has on others.

So now we get to the notion of an organization’s influence. 

On the horizontal line of the model, we see a representation of social influence.  An organization is made up of owners, employees, and/or volunteers that come to work there.  Likewise, an organization speaks to and may be noticed by the public, the media (news and otherwise), and the social networks that it exists in.  An organization that takes action on energy can tell its story and be an inspiration over both of these sets of people.  Likewise, it can encourage and even reward similar energy saving behavior by celebrating employees’ successes saving energy at home, giving educational advice in employee newsletters, and sending out press releases to the media or to social networks explaining the organization’s actions so that others might do the same.

On the vertical part of the model, we see a representation of business influence.  An organization buys from some combination of service providers, suppliers, and/or private contractors.  Likewise, an organization sells to or serves customers or clients.  With these folks, an organization has influence because of a stream of dollars, but in most cases that comes with respect, familiarity, and working relationships (hopefully).  An organization can say to a supplier:  “We’re taking action to save energy and money.  How about you?”  Depending on the dollar amounts that the organization spends with that supplier, they may be able to directly influence or even demand that suppliers take certain actions to keep up.  On the downstream side, organizations can report to their customers or clients the ways in which they are taking proactive steps to reduce their energy use and be good stewards of limited resources.  Some people actually buy more from responsible companies.  Really!

I know this stuff is not rocket science or even anything new … we see it all the time, especially from big companies.  When you get packages in the mail, the shipper might put in a special label telling you about the biodegradable cornstarch packing peanuts they used (I’m still waiting for the one that says “Just pour milk on them!  Part of this nutritious balanced breakfast!”).  And the company employee e-newsletter might talk about the latest project that the company did in the Des Moines office.

The message here is that the actions taken by organizations do not happen in a vacuum.  Positive actions like saving energy and saving money at the office can be channeled to have cascading positive impacts outside the organization that result in good P.R. for the organization, more energy and money savings by private individuals and other organizations, and it can even make a pretty cool little model I can publish on my blog.  Just don’t pour milk on it, I don’t want the model to break down.

Your Electric Meter is Your Credit Card

You’ve heard a million times that “Time is Money.”  Yes.  But here’s another one:  “Energy is Money.”

Think about it.  Every electron and every drop of gasoline you use costs money.  The bank or the Federal Reserve (depending on who you ask) creates money and passes it around, just like energy is created at power plants and sent to your building through transmission lines.  Our energy supply fluctuates but has natural limits, just like the money supply.  And here’s the kicker … we can either spend our energy recklessly, or we can save it.  Do you manage your electric meter the same way that you manage your credit card?  Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

I love my credit card.  I have a credit card that pays me points to their store, so when I use it, I can get a new pair of hiking boots every year “for free”.  My credit card is nice because whenever I want to go out to lunch (which is far too often), I can just walk in and slide my card and not think about it very much.  Do you think about your credit card purchases, or do you just make them?  When you flip on a light switch or fire up that 65” plasma screen TV, do you think about how much energy you are buying?  If you’re like me, you just enjoy the show.

Once a month, we get the bill for the previous month’s purchases.  “Whoa, why was my bill so high last month?”  That electric meter kept spinning and my credit card kept swiping.  We pay off that balance every month so that we don’t get hit with finance charges or have the lights turned off for good.

So how do we bring that bill down?  Three things jump to mind:  1) pay attention, 2) do some planning, and 3) make good investments.

First rule of not blowing your budget:  pay attention to what you are buying.  Resist the temptation to buy another Mocha Coconut Frappuccino® coffee (DON’T click the link!  Don’t do it!).  And pay attention to your energy usage.  Turn off the lights and the TV.  Go out and play!  It has ancillary benefits anyway.

Second rule:  do some financial / energy planning and understand what you need to buy and what you need to spend.  Make a budget.  Figure out how you can get groceries more cheaply.  Buy some fluorescent light bulbs or LEDs to save energy and money.  Get around to installing that weather stripping around the door and caulking around that leaky window (you know the one I’m talking about!).

And third:  make some intelligent long-term investments.  Consult your financial advisor about how to deploy your savings in stocks, bonds, and stuffed mattresses.  Consult THURSTON ENERGY on how to best invest in your home or business with an energy efficient heating system or another layer of insulation.  These investments pay dividends over time and help secure your future.

So what is the ultimate end game?  A brave few get to the point of cutting up their credit cards and going it alone.  Personally, I think a well-managed credit card is worth it for the new hiking boots.  But if you are the card-cutting type … dream about Solar Panels and cutting up your credit card by getting off the grid!  Just don’t try to buy groceries with a PV panel.

The Magic and Allure of Solar Power

I love solar panels.  They’re bright and shiny and make little rainbows of light glint off at angles when it’s sunny.  Photovoltaic (PV) panels turn sunlight directly into electricity … they change photons into electrons like some little microscopic version of Rumpelstiltskin weaving straw into gold.  The concept is simultaneously so simple and magical that it captures the imagination and cannot be denied.  Blowing shredded newspapers across your attic, on the other hand, is a lot more mundane.  Which is more effective at saving energy and money?  What’s a healthier breakfast, the bacon skillet scramble with the chocolate covered donut or the egg-white omelet and bran muffin?  And which one do you want right now?

Home air sealing, increased insulation, duct sealing, and efficient lighting … these are some of the most cost-effective ways of saving energy.  They are also great at making your house more comfortable and cozy by reducing drafts and cold spots.  Combined with good ventilation, they make your home more healthy and your indoor air of higher quality.  And yet, we get more questions at Thurston Energy that go something like:  “Can I afford those sweet solar panels?”  This was frustrating at first, but I’m over it.  In fact, I’m ALL over it.  I’m getting really excited about seeing bright blue and sleek black PV panels and long slender evacuated tube solar hot water heater collectors all over this town.  Why?  Because we should think of solar as the guilty pleasure reward for an energy efficiency job well done.

Listen folks, we need to insulate our attics and seal our ducts, okay?  We also need fiber in our diets.  But let’s look forward to dessert!  The answer to the question above, about how to afford PV, is to drastically reduce the amount of energy that you use in your home, so that you have lower utility bills, and don’t need as many solar panels to make electricity or heat water.  If we really want to brag to our neighbors (I do) that “Yeah … 85% of my power comes from those babies on the roof,” the best way to do that is to cut our power demand way down first so that we don’t need to give away our first-born to afford those panels.

So let me break it down for you.  Solar panels are awesome.  I love ‘em.  And with net metering and production credits from our local utility, they are more affordable now than they ever have been before, and they MAKE MONEY for you over their service life.  You can even get together with your neighbors and form a company and put solar panels on your neighborhood school or municipal building in a Community Solar project and make a nice return on your investment.

But the best way to make solar affordable?  Drive down the amount of power that you use in your home first.  Save money every month, and put that savings towards buying those beautiful panels.  Because if you eat enough fiber you downright DESERVE that donut, am I right?

Lead by Example; Everyone’s Doing it!

So here’s a Pop Quiz.  Are you more likely to reuse your towel in a hotel for a second day if:  a) the hotel tells you they will donate money to a worthy environmental nonprofit if you DO reuse your towel; b) the hotel tells you that they have already donated money to a worthy environmental nonprofit and invite you to reuse the towel and help them save money; or c) you accidently spilled the complimentary coffee all over the sink and you used the towel (and the little energy beast of a free hair drier) to clean up the mess.  The correct answer appears below, so keep reading.

Lately I got turned on to the question of “why do people do what they do?” and have been reading through the archived presentations of the 2010 Behavior, Energy & Climate Change Conference that took place in November of 2010.  According to the website, this was the fourth annual conference “focused on understanding the behavior and decision-making of individuals and organizations and on using that knowledge to accelerate our transition to an energy-efficient and low-carbon future.”

I really recommend browsing through the PDFs and looking at the various presentations.  I have gleaned a few really interesting gems that I’ll comment on.

We’ve all heard about the notion of Keeping up with the Joneses.  That phrase refers to wanting to have the great stuff that your neighbors have.  Well it turns out that it goes beyond just wanting good things, but also relates to bad things.  According to Keynote Speaker Dr. Robert Cialdini, Professor of Psychology & Marketing at Arizona State University, when we relay a Descriptive Norm by saying “Look at all the people doing this or that bad thing,” we don’t motivate people to stop doing the bad thing, but instead reinforce the Norm of doing the bad thing.  So stop doing that like everybody else!

Dr. Cialdini’s research also describes another norm.  The Norm for Reciprocation trumps any obligation of driving a match from someone else based on our own behavior.  In our society and culture, we teach and value the notion that if someone does a favor for you, you should return the favor.  Put another way, the Golden Rule says treat others the way that you would like to be treated.  Put yet another way, Pay It Forward.  And don’t forget what you tell your kids every December (sort of):  It is Better to Give than to Receive. 

The studies cited in the presentation showed that 10+% more people re-used their towels in hotel rooms with the message relayed in Answer b) above, that told the story of the hotel giving the donation first, and then inviting guests to join in their efforts.  The promise of an action to be taken by the hotel only after the guest took an action was not persuasive or effective.

So here’s the big lesson of the day:  we as people and organizations and companies need to lead by example, be generous and reasonable, and invite our peers and others to join us in our efforts.  Matches that are contingent on others’ actions are nice, but may not be as effective as a good, clean, honest invitation for people to join us in doing something that makes great sense. 

So would you like to join us in saving some energy?  Just don’t run the hotel hair drier to clean up the coffee spill, it leaves a stain.  Trust me.

We Are Yours!

“Thurston Energy” belongs to everyone.  It is a community property.  Thurston Energy is not a company, or a product, or even a service.  Thurston Energy is a community resource that exists to reduce the overall amount of energy used in Thurston County, by assisting individual homeowners and business owners to make energy efficient improvements in their buildings and operations.

Everyone in our community is invited to embrace Thurston Energy, and put us to good use.  Everyone in our community can also help get the word out about our services.

Do you work in an office with a large number of co-workers?  Thurston Energy would like to set up a table in your lobby or lunch room for a few hours to meet you and your colleagues.

Do you own or manage a shop where customers come up to the register?  Thurston Energy would like to co-brand a small display at your check out that highlights Thurston Energy’s services and your commitment to our community.

Do you write or distribute a newsletter, magazine, or radio show in our community?  Thurston Energy would like to tell our story, and highlight the successes that our customers have had saving energy and money.

Do you have a community group or club that you belong to?  Thurston Energy would like to speak to your group, and cast vision for how we can save energy and money by working together.

Do you have a Facebook page or blog, or email list that you keep up with?  Thurston Energy would like to be Friended or liked or linked to or blogged about.

We at Thurston Energy exist for our community’s benefit.  That’s it!  Please help spread the news.  Contact us today if you’d like to save energy and money yourself, or if you’d like to help us get the message out.

Running Around Starting Fires

You know that old cliché “I’m always running around putting out fires”?  I like to turn that one on its head and run around starting fires.  What I mean is that we at Thurston Energy motivate people to action, so that they invest in energy efficiency.  We do that by identifying opportunities, inspiring people, and giving them what they need to make it happen.

What are the three necessary elements of a fire?  Come on you Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, say it with me:  1) dry fuel, 2) a spark, and 3) oxygen.  I love campfires. 

Dry fuel in this case are clear opportunities to save energy and save money in homes and businesses by replacing old inefficient equipment, or by sealing up leaky cracks around doors and windows, or by switching out old light bulbs with new ones that cost less to operate and last longer.  There is lots of dry fuel out there, if you know what you are looking at.  We sub-contract with trained experts who know how to spot the best opportunities.

We provide the spark through education, awareness, case studies, testimonials, hard facts and silly videos (see Green Becomes Us!).  That spark is the excitement, or the inspiration, or the kick-in-the-pants that we all need to move from “Yeah, that’s nice” to “You know what, I really need to do that, like TODAY”.  Everybody’s busy, we know that.  And I realize that energy efficiency is not at the top of most normal people’s priority lists (it’s at the top of mine, but I said “normal” people).  So at Thurston Energy, we spend a lot of our effort on sparking people’s interest and moving them to action.

Fire also requires oxygen.  To get a fire going and to keep it going, it takes breathing room, circulation, and effort.  To follow through with an energy efficiency upgrade, it requires more than just opportunity and desire.  It also requires effort, resources, qualified contractors, time and focus.  We at Thurston Energy fan the flames of an improvement project by prioritizing recommendations, generating RFPs for customers, gathering competitive bids, and providing avenues for financing.  To burn up all of the wood in your campfire, you need to push things around with a stick once in a while.  We’ll help you figure things out and keep them on track.

Can you tell I’m ready for the first camping trip of the season?  Normally, we use the analogy of the “Pathway to Savings”.  Campfire of Savings?  Hmm.  Maybe not.

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