GM: Have they been eating their bailout dollars?

This morning General Motors unveiled a new concept: the P.U.M.A. project. This project alone appears to reveal just about everything that is wrong with General Motors and why it might not be destined for bankruptcy, but rather total irrelevance and failure. 

The concept appears to be this: partner with the manufacturer of Segway to provide people will another excuse for not exercising or using mass transit. It's almost as if they put five people in a room and said "design us something that will make us the laughing stock of the auto industry." The P.U.M.A looks like a cross between a Ferris wheel bucket and something you'd ride at Epcot center. It's eerily reminiscent of the people movers all the fat people were riding around on in Wall-E.

Seriously GM, why not get into the business of building MAGLEV trains or highly affordable, zero pollution mass transit trains that towns could actually afford to build, maintain, and promote? Why not find the answer to moving rural and suburban people from home to work in cities 15 to 20 miles away? Why on earth would you design something for city dwellers who will have nowhere to store it and already have access to a wide variety of transportation that is being greened: taxi cabs, buses, and subways?

GM, you were supposed to spend that bailout money on solutions for the future. Not offer it as an appetizer in the lunchroom. 

Be a Noah

While out in the yard enjoying the arrival of spring and tending to the work of getting things growing again outside, I listened to a chapter of Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas Friedman that was incredibly fitting for the week ahead. As proof of how the universe works, the ideas presented by Friedman reinforced a conversation a friend and I had this morning over oatmeal and eggs: that the sustainability movement in residential energy as well as commercial has the opportunity to fundamentally reshape how we do things. However, the answer to a new sustainability model is not to wait for some megacompany to come along with the incredible single invention that will solve our problems. 

According to Friendman in the book, "Noah had one ark to save the earth's biodiversity in his day, and we need a million of them to save the biodiversity in ours....Some say the key to solving our energy problem is just one really smart Thomas Edison - one inventor who can come up with that magic breakthrough to generate abundant, clean, reliable, cheap power. Maybe."

I tend to think that's a very BIG maybe, and for that reason why sit around and wait. A friend and I spoke this morning about the immense opportunity green jobs and green entrepreneurship brings to our region, and just how few companies out there are engaging in the work now. We talked about how few people in our state today have the training and certification to engage in the work of greening energy, and if they are out there, we aren't all connected as we should be. 

If energypreneurs can muster the will and courage to take a leap into the business world, not only could we push the envelope when it comes to sustainable business practices in our region, but we could potentially create hundreds of good paying jobs and successful companies in the process.

Help Local Companies Connect the Dots, Because No One Else Will

I'm a little disturbed by some articles I've been reading this week in Central Pennsylvania about businesses addressing their energy and natural resource usage. The Central Pennsylvania Business Journal publishes an intriguing publication called Currents that explores various new trends in sustainability, energy conservation, and going green.  David Dagan had a good piece on "5 Ways to Fight the Price Surge" referring to the removal of rate caps from electricity prices by PA energy generators this year. While Dagan did a nice job at cataloguing the steps companies can take to save money in the new energy-climate era we now find ourselves opening the door to, he only scratched the surface, and like all things related to "greening" in Central Pennsylvania, failed to really connect the dots for the reader.

What left me most aggravated about the latest issue however was the company directory supplied in the back. As with all publications, consider the agenda, right? Well, try this on for size. The listing of17  fuel companies included only a single local company that engages in selling biodiesel or other biofuels. United Biofuels,  Amerigreen - not on the list despite that being their specialty. Wouldn't a publication about sustainability work to find a listing of biodiesel and biofuel companies?

Worse yet, when you turn the page to a list of electricity-distribution companies, the list is only 8 companies long because not a single renewable energy company (as in their primary function is the production or sale of clean, renewable electrons) is listed there.

And finally, the listing of electrical, plumbing, and HVAC distributors seems to be a listing of suppliers of this equipment, not necessarily a listing of the contractors and skilled workers in the area who would actually be qualified to install high efficiency air conditioning, solar, wind or other systems.

To be abundantly clear, we will not achieve a new model for business efficiency and sustainability if we take old energy economy firms and paint them green. They have to be retooled, retrained, and re-educated in the language of green. Their standards must rise. What I wish the Central Penn Business journal would have said was "When you think about 'going green' think how Google would do it, not Wal-Mart.

Excuse me. How much is this carbon?

Do you know how much carbon you emit through your job? Here's a better question: In the not-so-distant future, will your company see you for what your bring to the job or for how much carbon you're costing the company?

That second question is one nearly none of us have ever considered at work, but in the new energy century, businesses will assuredly be required to keep account of every ton of carbon dioxide they pollute annually.  What are the accounting practices and procedures we'll use to add up all those invisible but deadly plumes of carbon dioxide? What will the price be for a ton of carbon credits? What is the penalty be for exceeding your annual limit?

These critical questions are part of the new energy century and will be coming to an office, factory, or pizza shop near you. But have no fear: carbon cap and trade is a financial opportunity, not a drag on the bottom line. Consider this recent post by Ryan Schuchard on Greenbiz.com

"Companies that generate and rely on low-carbon energy are set to prosper, as are those that can exploit technological breakthroughs in resource efficiency and materials. Those firms generating new forms of energy -- in particular, renewables -- will participate in a massively growing market. Companies in industries that address adaptation problems, such as pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, stand to gain. In the end, as the world’s climate policies are developed and strengthened, there will be important roles for companies from almost every industry." 

I couldn't agree more. Not only will an entire new market be created in which international carbon credits will be traded, but carbon brokerage firms, carbon accounters, carbon assessors, carbon auditors, carbon day traders, and a thousand other carbon-related jobs stand to be created in the next decade.

I encourage energypreneurs to think creatively about solutions to the dilemmas facing corporations around their carbon obligations in the coming months and share ideas here as authors on the Energyprenuers blog.

Sustainability taking root?

A recent column in our local Harrisburg newpaper pointed to new trends in sustainability as offering hope for the future of Pennsylvania. The author, John Dernbach, points to six areas of improvement that give him hope. Here is number 5:

Sustainable business practices have gone from being just a "movement" to the mainstream of the market. It is increasingly clear to business that the triple bottom line--economic, social and environmental -- provides many profitable opportunities.

The question for energypreneurs is how do we flesh out more clearly how sustainability is profitable and how can it become a key business model for moving a company a step above the competition?

Two thoughts here. First, that sustainability is profitable most directly through energy efficiency and conservation. Businesses that takes steps in the next three to seven years to mitigate their energy costs, conserve energy, and put energy costs and carbon emissions as part of the bottomline will be leaps and bounds ahead of the competition that will be forced to "react" to a changing political and business landscape as energy and climate change come to drive more of our everyday actions.

Second thought: Dernbach suggests in the article that "hundreds" of companies are engaged in recycling, brownfield mitigation, and clean energy production.  Hundreds? Yes, actually thousands.  But quantity does not equal quality here. For example, thousands of small companies running borough to borough or city to city to collect items for recycling may never reach the economy of scale necessary to help their businesses take root and really push recycling rates in Pennsylvania beyond it's meager 35% rate. And it's only that high because PA DEP started counting heavier items in the total tonage calculations in 1996 using the EPA model.  And does that take into account the thousands of tons of trash Pennsylvania imports as the #1 state trash importer every year? Probably not.

There continues to be a disjointed and ridiculous consumption driven approach to waste management, energy, and land use in Pennsylvania as well as other states. Nonprofits have worked for decades to get to the bottom of these matters, but increasinly I am coming to believe business will be ultimate change agent when it comes to behaviors. We need more businesses that can get to the bottom of how to improve these "systems" to be more efficient, actually promote conserving energy and resources, and be profitable ventures with good green jobs for the workers.

How to create 297,000 green jobs

A recent post on the NYT Green Inc. blog highlighted the job creation potential of a national renewable energy portfolio standard. 

“There were three times as many jobs produced in renewable energy than there would be if we followed a business as usual path and used more fossil fuel generation,” said Jeff Deyette, an analyst with the group’s clean energy program.

There are always winners and losers in the business world, and a shift towards conservation and efficiency while promoting, clean, abundant, reliable and cheap energy could mean some job cuts in highly polluting industries. Still, a report by the Union of Concerned Scientiest cites a net gain of 202,000 jobs in this sector alone.  But the cherry on top is new local revenues: $11.4 billion in potential tax revenues for localities and $13.5 billion in revenues to ranchers, farmers, and rural land owners.

Not to mention the millions of jobs that will be created in related industries and services. President Barack Obama supports a 25% renewable energy portfolion standard for the nation by 2025.

Wanted: Creative, green entrepreneurs

I recently issued a call to action on the blog Everyday Citizen and I want to open this new blog on green energy development by encouraging new entrepreneurs - young and old - who are pursuing what Thomas Friedman calls a "Green Revolution" to be contributors to this blog.

My vision: help others to understand the opportunities that exist at the local level to push America block by block, business by business, city by city away from the old model of energy and toward a new one. The energ-e (that would be my slang for alternative fuels and green energy) revolution means decentalizing energy production, distribution, and sourcing. In the Green Revolution, we start by assuming every job is a green job - or can be. We start by assuming every home and business has a role to play in our collective energy strategy. We find ways to save energy, create good green jobs, and renew America in the process.

Join me in telling the story about you own work to start a new green energy business. Share resources, news, events, and research. 

Make energ-e market development a cooperative process. Contact me if you're interested in being a contributor to this site.