The Power of Communities | Green Energy News

December 28, 2008 – Vol.13 No.41

THE POWER OF COMMUNITIES
by Bruce Mulliken

Cutting greenhouse gas emissions, curbing our addiction to oil, seeking energy independence, adopting renewable energy sources, ending pollution of air and water from energy consumption are all still tasks on the playlist of changes needed for the coming years.

Individually we can perform these tasks as best we can by changes in our habits of consumption: Buy a more efficient car, drive less, weather seal our homes and add insulation, install a more efficient heating and cooling system, add renewable energy. But we are limited by the ability to pay for energy upgrades, by the technologies available, or the basic characteristics of our homes. For example, not every house has a sunny south facing surface on which to install a solar system.

What can’t be done individually can be done voluntarily by businesses and industry because they think it’s the right thing to do and/or a profit can be made. But they, too, are limited to how far they can cut emissions or reduce energy dependence by what they can afford to invest. Businesses can’t run losses, for very long at least. And, like individual action, volunteerism in cutting energy or emissions isn’t the norm for every business.

We can also rely on national and state governments to encourage with incentives or downright force by the rule of law to cut consumption and emissions. Government can force or pay for more energy efficient products to be developed. Higher fuel economy standards will bring cars with reduced emissions. Power companies will build more renewable energy capacity with renewable portfolio standards. As we’ve seen, however, in recent years politics and special interests get in the way of doing what’s right for the country; or for the planet, for that matter.

So individualism, company volunteerism, and government are ways we can make energy. But there is also a fourth way: through the group efforts of communities.

Often the needs of a community are best known by the people who live in it. Often change can take place rapidly in a community when the residents get involved. But often an outside influence is needed to recognize needs as well as to push necessary change forward.

At the micro-level, through newsletters, personal contact, community meetings, people can be educated about energy savings, renewable energy and other ways to change consumption habits.

On a larger scale, community-wide changes can be adopted. Building codes being changed to meet stronger energy efficiency standards. New community buildings – schools, office buildings, fire stations, police departments - can be built to meet the new energy realities. Communities can even consider developing their own renewable facilities which can save the communities money or become a source of revenue instead of taxes.

But, as above an outside influence may be needed to determine what’s possible, what’s best for communities as a whole.

Through the creation of the Alliance, Owens Corning, best known for energy-saving insulation, has put itself in the business of being an outside influence for communities of all kinds to develop solutions for energy efficiency and carbon-reduction.

By taking a holistic approach – looking at communities as a whole – the solutions will incorporate plans to reduce energy demand from 25 to 50 percent and decrease greenhouse gas emissions of up to 80 percent compared to business as usual energy use and delivery approaches.

Included in their solutions will be a careful analysis of buildings to enable the use of smaller equipment to heat and cool buildings thus reduce initial cost and waste in daily operation. Other solutions will include a reduction in the need for each building to operate as an energy island allowing peak loading for the system to be distributed among all the buildings and reducing the overall peak loads and energy waste.

The Alliance, which is focused on developers, campuses and entire communities, includes Owens Corning, MVV decon GmbH, an international consulting subsidiary of the Mannheim-based German company MVV Energiedienstleistungen GmbH, and Garforth International,LLC, a Toledo, Ohio and Brussels, Belgium-based provider of energy productivitysolutions.

When complete with its work, the Alliance will provide an Integrated Energy Master Plan that will serve as the basis for the implementation of tasks to make the actual energy changes.

Combining what individuals can do, what business and industry will do, what government is able to do with what communities seek to do can, in the end, make real energy changes.

Links:

The Alliance
http://www.owenscorning.com/sustainability/sustainable-developments

Owens Corning
http://www.owenscorning.com.

MVV Energiedienstleistungen
http://www.mvv-investor.de/en