Citiwire.net

For Release Sunday, September 7, 2008
Citiwire.net

By Doug Henton

What do Portland, Ore., and California’s Silicon Valley have in common?

Both are leaders in the critical transition to the new paradigm described in Curt Johnson’s recent Citiwire.net article — a high efficiency and environmentally low impact model, reversing Americans’ profligate, high-impact, low-efficiency culture of the past half century.

And it works, economically. Since the 1970s, Portland has prospered, transforming its economy from forest products to high-value technology, simultaneously increasing incomes and boosting property values. It’s also been able to contain suburban spillover through an urban growth boundary. Portland has built a light rail system, increased urban densities, and rolled back its greenhouse gas emissions.

Portland’s Green Dividend, a recent CEOs for Cities report, documents how metropolitan Portlanders save $2.6 billion a year on combination of reduced transportation expenses and reduced commuting and travel time. Increased disposable income for individuals plus a more sustainable community — what’s not to like about that?

All of California has done well through the energy-saving building and appliance standards, plus utility efficiency programs, enacted during the energy crisis of the 1970s- saving a total of $56 billion. The state’s per capita energy consumption is now lower than it was in 1975 and greenhouse gas emissions are second lowest among the 50 states, according to the California Green Innovation Index.

Silicon Valley epitomizes California’s progress. Since 1990 it has created over 2,500 “green” jobs; in 2007 its venture capital investments in clean technology grew a notable 94 percent to over $1 billon. San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed recently announced an amazingly ambitious Green Vision — to create, within 15 years, 25,000 clean tech jobs, reduce per capita energy use 50 percent, receive 100 percent of electric power from clean renewable resources, and ensure that the entire public vehicle fleet runs on alternative fuels.

From the times of Copernicus and Galileo on, movement to a new paradigm of how society works has cost time and triggered some turmoil. (Imagine the shock: learning the earth was not the center of the universe but rather circled the sun).

But as pollster John Zogby rightly notes in his new book, The Way We’ll Be, “We are in the middle of a fundamental reorientation of America character away from wanton consumption and toward a new global citizenry in an age of limited resources.”

So what makes us think we’re at a critical turning point, right now?

+ Demand for oil is exceeding supply — a signal that our immense reliance on petroleum as an energy source must end. Rising oil prices are causing economic disruptions but also signaling opportunities for alternatives. It’s no longer a mystery: Energy efficiency and renewable energy sources are the keys to our future.

There’s a critical question, though: Can we make the transition rapidly enough to address our basic energy needs while reducing global warming — and keep our economy healthy? We’ll need massive innovation to pull it off.

+ An innovation economy, based on human talent and ideas, is fast emerging as a key to the future. Many large corporations and financial institutions are in trouble. If we’re going to create sustainable prosperity with a smaller carbon footprint, our hope lies in a host of nimble, smaller-scale enterprises operating within globally linked networks.

Are we seeing glimpses of the coming transformation?

I believe so. From my vantage point in Silicon Valley, I’m watching dramatic rises in private investment in renewable energy such as solar, wind and batteries for low emission vehicles. Small yet globally-attuned small businesses are flowering, using information technology to find their niches in world markets.

And we’re making smarter decisions at the local level. Between 1998 and 2007, Silicon Valley’s average residential density in newly approved developments increased from six to 21 units. As the area has gotten richer — its per capita income is now 57 percent higher than the national average — it has also become greener and more efficient.

Several other regions and states — Seattle/King County, Denver, St. Louis, Cleveland, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Maryland among them — are joining Silicon Valley/San Jose in the Climate Prosperity Project sponsored by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Environmental Defense Fund, and Global Urban Development. The goal: to demonstrate how efficient economic development with lower environmental impact can produce significant “Green Savings, Green Opportunities, and Green Talent.”

Are we at the tipping point? My antenna say “yes” — that the evidence of a creative new paradigm is all about us. Arguably, the new paradigm’s own logic will propel it forward. But the destructiveness and waste of the old paradigm is so huge, the sustainability needs of this new century so compelling, that it’s certainly our job — at every possible turn, in every city region and state, in government and business alike — to keep pushing the creative new paradigm forward.

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