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I realize that my blog consists of a large amount of pictures of my weekend excursions and the humorous side of life in Australia. Contrary to this image, I do work during the week and I apologize for not reflecting on my day to day activities and sharing this experience as much as I'd like. Unfortunately I’ve been hesitant to write extensively because when I started the job I was required to sign non-disclosure documents as we are constantly working with proprietary knowledge from Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) and its partners. Don’t want to get fired from a job I don’t get paid for and all. Here are my thoughts so far….
By now you have probably heard many people say that there is no “silver bullet” that will mend our current environmental or energy problems. However, many that work in this sphere believe that there is“silver buckshot.”(That’ll get some Arkansans’ attention when discussing the environment.) It is obvious that no one source of fuel will completely replace our reliance on fossil fuels. It will be a combination of cellousic biofuels, solar, hydro, wind, geothermal, “clean” coal, natural gas, carbon capture and sequestration, efficiency and conservation that will lead us to a cleaner future. Now is a time for innovation and ingenuity. It’s not going to be easy, especially, because there are so many options and routes one can conceivable take to get to a singular goal.
There is so much information out there. You might be reading about the virtues of solar thermal versus solar photovoltaic or researching how carbon that is captured from coal smokestacks can be used to help produce algae that can be turned into fuel for cars and then an article turns up of a company that can turn human waste into fuel for a car. You get excited for a second because you know of several people who would be able take road trips for months if this were possible. It’s confusing. The point is that there is so much information out there and it is easy to become overwhelmed and it can be difficult to stay focused. This tends to be a problem for me. Passion guides my actions. I more clearly see that I need a healthy dollop of facts and figures to help make that passion effective.
In simple terms, CCI looks for the projects that hold the most promise and try to scale up those projects as rapidly as possible in order to create replicable models on a global scale. For example, CCI has given priority to three specific types of projects: geothermal, solar thermal and carbon capture and sequestration. These are projects that exhibit characteristics that many feel can be replicated all over the world.
Their strategies are taken from an economic point of view. They don’t ask corporations or any of their partners to not make a profit. What they will do is devise strategies on how to pool together resources to drive the price of energy efficient technology down in conjunction with developing business models that show companies the economic benefit of becoming more energy efficient. The biggest lesson that I have gained from this experience so far, is the need for a stronger background in finance and economics. My final classes this fall are going to finance classes.
The plain truth is that you are not going to convince a CFO to undertake a project if they cannot see the benefit in economic terms. Sure, the warm and fuzzies of the public relations would be great, but ultimately it comes down to a different kind of green, money. Although some don’t like that sort of motivation for environmental action, they should probably just get over it. If the environment benefits and people can make money off it, isn’t that the freakin’ point? SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT.
Working in this space is a balance between the Chicken Littles and their doomsday prophecies and working within the current realities of this business world. A balance of scale must also be struck with science and economics. Sometimes change is incremental and sometimes it needs to occur rapidly. Just saying that corporations should do the right thing by the environment is not good enough. There are real complexities which require a real understanding in order to move forward. Just look a corn ethanol and soy bean based biodiesel. Many, including myself, sung its praises without much examination. We now see the other side to this “answer to our prayers.” However, it was a necessary step that allows us to learn and move forward. Urgent action is needed now. We just need to be smarter about our tactics.
By now you have probably heard many people say that there is no “silver bullet” that will mend our current environmental or energy problems. However, many that work in this sphere believe that there is“silver buckshot.”(That’ll get some Arkansans’ attention when discussing the environment.) It is obvious that no one source of fuel will completely replace our reliance on fossil fuels. It will be a combination of cellousic biofuels, solar, hydro, wind, geothermal, “clean” coal, natural gas, carbon capture and sequestration, efficiency and conservation that will lead us to a cleaner future. Now is a time for innovation and ingenuity. It’s not going to be easy, especially, because there are so many options and routes one can conceivable take to get to a singular goal.
There is so much information out there. You might be reading about the virtues of solar thermal versus solar photovoltaic or researching how carbon that is captured from coal smokestacks can be used to help produce algae that can be turned into fuel for cars and then an article turns up of a company that can turn human waste into fuel for a car. You get excited for a second because you know of several people who would be able take road trips for months if this were possible. It’s confusing. The point is that there is so much information out there and it is easy to become overwhelmed and it can be difficult to stay focused. This tends to be a problem for me. Passion guides my actions. I more clearly see that I need a healthy dollop of facts and figures to help make that passion effective.
In simple terms, CCI looks for the projects that hold the most promise and try to scale up those projects as rapidly as possible in order to create replicable models on a global scale. For example, CCI has given priority to three specific types of projects: geothermal, solar thermal and carbon capture and sequestration. These are projects that exhibit characteristics that many feel can be replicated all over the world.
Their strategies are taken from an economic point of view. They don’t ask corporations or any of their partners to not make a profit. What they will do is devise strategies on how to pool together resources to drive the price of energy efficient technology down in conjunction with developing business models that show companies the economic benefit of becoming more energy efficient. The biggest lesson that I have gained from this experience so far, is the need for a stronger background in finance and economics. My final classes this fall are going to finance classes.
The plain truth is that you are not going to convince a CFO to undertake a project if they cannot see the benefit in economic terms. Sure, the warm and fuzzies of the public relations would be great, but ultimately it comes down to a different kind of green, money. Although some don’t like that sort of motivation for environmental action, they should probably just get over it. If the environment benefits and people can make money off it, isn’t that the freakin’ point? SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT.
Working in this space is a balance between the Chicken Littles and their doomsday prophecies and working within the current realities of this business world. A balance of scale must also be struck with science and economics. Sometimes change is incremental and sometimes it needs to occur rapidly. Just saying that corporations should do the right thing by the environment is not good enough. There are real complexities which require a real understanding in order to move forward. Just look a corn ethanol and soy bean based biodiesel. Many, including myself, sung its praises without much examination. We now see the other side to this “answer to our prayers.” However, it was a necessary step that allows us to learn and move forward. Urgent action is needed now. We just need to be smarter about our tactics.
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