Citiwire.net

For Release Sunday, October 19, 2008
Citiwire.net

Climate protection and economic growth are not enemies. Core strategies to create a vibrant economy — innovation, efficiency, strategic investment, and finding better ways to use and reuse resources — are exactly the same steps we need to cope with global climate change now. These actions will increase jobs, incomes, productivity, and competitiveness, and they’re green.

There are commentators who advocate postponing investments in renewable energy and clean technologies, suggesting this will somehow delay economic recovery. They’re dead wrong. In the 21st century, the only way for people and places to get richer is by thinking and acting for sustainability, specifically aiming to become “greener.”

How do we get this message out to the cities and regions of America? How do we encourage them to switch their economic growth, community development, infrastructure, education and workforce, land-use, transportation, housing, and environmental policies to look courageously forward?

In 2007 the Climate Prosperity Project was formed, initiated by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and coordinated by Global Urban Development (which I head) and Collaborative Economics of Silicon Valley. We’ve been joined by a highly diverse public-private partnership of pro-business groups such as the International Economic Development Council, American Chamber of Commerce Executives, Urban Land Institute, Council on Competitiveness, International Downtown Association, and American Council on Renewable Energy.

We hope to get millions of people involved in learning the new 21st century economic paradigm. Technology companies, including Google and Applied Materials, helped launch the Silicon Valley Climate Prosperity Strategy in partnership with elected officials such as San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed.

Among other cities, counties, and metropolitan regions conferring with us on their Climate Prosperity Strategies are Seattle/King County, Denver, St. Louis, Cleveland, Charlotte, San Antonio, Albuquerque, Southeast Michigan, Southwest Florida, Ventura, Fairfield, and Montgomery County (Maryland). Also working towards Climate Prosperity Strategies are the states of Delaware, Iowa, Maryland, and Minnesota. In December the International Economic Development Council will publish the Climate Prosperity Guidebook.

The economics driving a shift to new approaches seem compelling. Oil prices have hit huge peaks in the past year as global demand grows exponentially (hindered only temporarily by the current recession). The United States consumes one-quarter of the world’s oil and yet possesses just three percent of the world’s reserves. The only way to stop the bleeding and staunch the flow of over one-half trillion dollars annually to foreign oil producers is by consuming less petroleum.

Fossil fuels are not the only commodities becoming increasingly expensive. Steel prices, for example, have skyrocketed by nearly 170 percent since 2002. As economic development and population growth accelerate in Asia and throughout the world, serious conflicts are growing as people and places fight over scarce water, land, and many other vital resources. Even the states of Georgia, Alabama, and Florida are battling over fresh water sources due to a severe drought. America, with five percent of the world’s population, consumes 25 percent of the world’s resources.

The idea of moving from “resource-wasting capitalism” to “resource-saving capitalism” is not new. Business development experts such as Paul Hawken, Amory and Hunter Lovins, William McDonough, and Peter Senge have long advocated this approach. The business sustainability model works in three mutually reinforcing ways: 1) Green Savings—cutting resource costs; 2) Green Opportunities—enabling businesses and jobs to grow and thrive; 3) Green Talent—developing globally competitive entrepreneurial and workforce skills, and attracting and retaining talented people.

Numerous corporations, including DuPont, General Electric, IBM, and Nike, are practicing innovation, efficiency, and conservation to enhance their productivity and competitiveness. DuPont responded to “peak oil” by switching from petrochemicals to life science bio-products, substantially improving its profitability through saving $3 billion, expanding revenues by producing goods that are better for the environment.

Fortunately, we have some success stories in which these business sustainability principles have guided economic development in place-based, area-wide economies. According to the California Green Innovation Index, Californians saved $56 billion on electricity expenses over the past three decades through improved energy efficiency, primarily from state and local government policies requiring higher standards for buildings and electrical appliances and providing financial incentives for utility companies, businesses, and households to conserve energy and use renewable sources. Private consumers reinvested much of this savings in the state’s economy, directly contributing to higher economic growth and greater prosperity.

Similarly, people in metropolitan Portland, Oregon save more than $2 billion annually due to the land-use and transportation changes that have occurred during the past three decades. By modestly increasing population and building densities and developing light-rail transit together with mixed-use communities encouraging walking and bicycling, Portlanders have reduced greenhouse gas emissions and vehicle miles traveled while jobs, incomes, and investments have boomed. California and Portland both got richer by becoming greener.

So we know how to build more prosperous, green, climate-protecting regions. Now is the time to get serious and spread the message to communities, cities, regions, and states.

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