Renewable Energy; Sources for Fuels and Electricity
By Thomas B. Johansson, Laurie Burnham
ISBN: 1559631384
This book that is recommended here provides a thorough look at the renewable energy industry. Society, in general, has a growing need to find new ways to develop energy. Conventional sources of generating energy have been proven in the last decade to be detrimental to most ecosystems, and the world is moving in the direction of developing other sources of power. We must not only learn how to use energy more efficiently, but also how to generate in ways that are sustainable and clean. By shifting to a renewable energy economy, we can address some of the more egregious violations of our current energy policy. This book recommended here “discusses overall performance, cost, market potential, and environmental impact for a variety of fuels and electricity derived from hydroelectric, wind, photovoltaics, solar-thermal, geothermal, ocean, and biomass energy sources. In addition, policies for adopting renewables on a broad scale are provided.”
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Believe it or not, according to Wikipedia, the word sustainability was not introduced into the sphere of economics until the 1980s. The concept of sustainable business tries to bring together financial, environmental, and social concerns to map out the full impact production has on society. There is no doubt that, for most of the 20th century, the corporate mindset saw no problem sending numerous ecosystems into distress and hundreds of species into extinction everyday, and if left to their own philosophies, would have left the planet on a path toward catastrophe…wait a minute!
The fact of the matter is that for the entire duration of the 20th century, the global economy was based upon principles that were completely contrary to a growing reality; that is, the planet was dying due to overpopulation, over-pollution, resource exploitation, and a general disregard for life sustaining systems like clean air, water, and soil. The next generations of humanity on earth are preparing to reap the whirlwinds of a century of exploitative principles pushed around the globe by a short-sighted version of capitalism.
Corporate capitalism is extremely short-sighted; it looks for profits now, and worries about the future repercussions of their actions later. Corporate capitalism tries to ‘get away’ with as much as it can by dancing upon the lines of legality. Is it legal to use dynamite to strip mine mountaintops for coal? Yes. Is it ethical to destroy whole ecosystems by poisoning water sources and burying streams? No.
Sustainable economics seeks to bring a broader definition of ethics back into business by putting a price on the things that we value the most. If mountaintop strip mining companies were to be held financially accountable for polluting the waterways, in addition to the air (from the burning of their product), their most damaging practices would stop immediately. What if they were held liable for all of the health related problems in the people who lived near the site where the minerals were mined from? They would probably clean up their act. If the petroleum industry was held accountable for oil spills and CO2 emissions, we would probably have more electric cars on the road by now instead of watching oil companies reap record profits at the expense of humanity’s health.
The argument that most corporate capitalists use the constitution to forego federal regulations regarding the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Clean Water Act is at the core of the creation of the term sustainable industries. If the government is not going to regulate air and water pollution and environmental degradation, then consumers will have to hold the corporations responsible collectively with their individual wallets. It is working, and the movement is gaining traction in the business community. CEOs are realizing the potential of greening up their manufacturing loops.
Corporations argue that restrictions on the harvesting, manufacturing, and consumption of natural resources take away from their basic rights to sustain profit curves and, essentially, the rights of shareholders. They argue that government regulations actually hurt citizens by taking away jobs. Sustainable business seeks to introduce a new term to the shareholder equation that calls this whole line of reasoning into question.
Stakeholders, by definition, are any entity that is affected by the production of a good. This involves the people in the community where the good is produced, the larger global ecosystems affected, and the health of the planet in general. Introducing stakeholders to the business equation makes corporations consider the larger arena in which they operate.
Environmentalists took this as an opportunity to define sustainability in different terms than corporate capitalism had in the past. They claimed that a globally sustainable economy was structured in such a way as to promote the overall health of people, ecosystems, and the planet. This in turn would create more jobs because the types of jobs in a sustainable economy require more employees to cover the entire lifecycle of manufactured products. After the consumption phase in a corporate capitalistic society comes re-harvesting, recyling, re-engineering, retrofitting, and reuse. In a sustainable economy, harvesting resources, manufacturing products, transportation to market, and consumption is only the beginning. Collecting, recycling, and reusing waste materials are uncommon in the old corporate model of conducting business but are essential to creating an economy that will be able to sustain itself in the long-run.
Under an economy in which sustainable business dominates, concepts such as energy efficiency, renewable energy, and resource conservation are central to reducing waste in the manufacturing process. By concentrating on the safety of individual citizens and employees, as well as all stakeholders involved, sustainable industries are better suited to not only meet the consumptive needs of future generations and profit curves of big business, but also create a cleaner environment and healthier workforce after all is said and done.
Of course, some of the materials needed to create a sustainable economy are more costly in the short-term. Successive generations will simply have to realize that these new costs are the price of doing business; they are an indication of the real value associated with retaining clean air, clean water, and clean soil so that their future generations will have all of the same opportunities that were afforded us.
For example, computer manufacturers will simply have to realize that part of the cost of manufacturing a computer is the price figured for recycling it when it stops working; maybe they will design computers to last longer than two years. Oil companies will have to pay more for environmentally sensitive extracting procedures and more rigid shipping regulations; but maybe we will see fewer environmental catastrophes. Ethanol’s feedstock need not threaten people's food supply; we can use organic waste to produce biofuel without the need for additional agricultural acreage. This is simply the way sustainable business is done. It looks forward and adds in future costs associated with production and disposal; it figures in costs that are generally hidden from the present quarterly reporting.
So, let us take some time here to discuss the concept of sustainable design. This concept has also been called eco-design, or the more popular, green design. It is very much in line with the triple-bottom line philosophy, whereby companies figure into the manufacturing process economic, social, and environmental costs. The fundamental principle behind sustainable design is to bring individuals back into a mutually beneficial relationship with the environment. It has been said that human beings act like locusts, laying waste to the environment behind their consumptive paths; this does not have to be the case. We are intelligent creatures and have subsequently begun evolving to a more conscious way of doing business.
Sustainable design, in general, came about as a reaction to the current environmental crisis. A recent rapid expansion of economic activity due to ‘developing’ nations becoming ‘industrialized’ has caused a depletion of natural resources, damage to ecosystems, and the loss of biodiversity to levels that threaten the overall health of the entire planet.
According to Wikipedia, “the needed aim of sustainable design is to produce places, products, and services in a way that reduces use of non-renewable resources, minimizes environmental impact, and relates people with the natural environment. Sustainable design is often viewed as a necessary tool for achieving sustainability. It is related to the more heavy-industry-focused fields of industrial ecology and green chemistry, sharing tools such as life cycle assessment to judge the environmental impact of various design choices.”
The public’s voice is beginning to demand new industrial practices that reduce the negative side-effects that are associated with traditional manufacturing. What sustainable innovation and technology offers is a cleaner way of producing the same goods and services that society has come to rely upon. Economics, the art of making money, does not have to destroy life in order to continue generating wealth.
In order to define more clearly the practices involved in sustainable economics, let’s look closely at some of the principles involved in green industries in general.
First and foremost is to determine the environmental footprint that the manufacturing of a product has upon the planet as a whole. This is done using computer models and is based upon production at a commercial scale. Inherent to this idea is the lifecycle of product. Does the manufacturing process pollute basic survival elements like land, air, and water? Does the physical product include non-toxic materials that biodegrade over a reasonable amount of time? Included in this concept is the use of recycled materials that require less energy to manufacture than harvesting fresh resources.
Second, businesses that want to be considered sustainable need to design products that last longer and function better so that they do not have to be replaced as often. Businesses need to also have a way of taking their used products back and recycling the material into the manufacturing of new ones. This, of course, requires companies to design products to be recycled, that is, ones that can be easily disassembled and harvested for valuable materials. The concept of biomimicry centers on this idea of reusing materials in a fashion similar to the natural world. In nature, there is no such thing as waste. Redesigning products using nanotechnology can close some of our manufacturing waste loops.
Next, are the feedstocks for production renewable? Can the business or industry sustain itself based upon reasonable projections regarding harvesting, manufacturing, and disposal? Does the manufacturing of the product impact the health of global ecosystems negatively?
Finally, businesses that are considered sustainable, harvest, manufacture, and sell locally. WalMart is the antithesis of this concept. Producing plastic and toxic crap in far off distant lands and then shipping them halfway around the world leaves the planet in worse shape than producing products in nearby communities to where they are sold. Companies are also able to be held more responsible for the social and environmental effects of their product if they are located locally.
The simple fact of the matter is that sustainable industries are having a difficult time getting their footing in the predatory marketplace that has established itself over the past half millennium on North American soil. The current upper-class in America is heavily invested in pollutive technology and has paid handsome sums of money to politicians over time in order to bend the market rules in their favor. As long as these people decide to shun sustainable business and greenwash their own industries, corporate capitalism will go on consuming resources at ever-increasing rates in the name of economic growth.
It can be difficult to determine which businesses are pursuing truly sustainable practices and which companies have simply greenwashed their image. Corporate executives in search of cashing in on the green-craze sweeping the planet have essentially just rebranded their old ways.
Without changing the underlying production methods that drive the global economic system, the renewable energy movement will turn into a market bubble similar to the dotcom bust requiring more resources to clean up after another generation of greedy individuals takes their retirement money out of the system.
So, what are some examples of genuine green industries that have the potential to change the way our current economic system functions? A basic list might include lifecycle assessment software, nanotechnology, wind, solar, geothermal, biofuels, ocean energy, hydrogen, smart grids, energy efficiency, organic food, electric vehicles, battery technology, emission controls, water purification, forest management, and waste disposal. In all of these areas there are currently developing many investment opportunities for small and large investors. The time is swiftly approaching where sustainable economics is going to replace corporate capitalism. Which side will you be on?
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Sustainable Industries
www.sustainableindustries.com
The gameplan for this magazine is to focus strictly on the environmental and economic aspects of sustainable industries. When they began in 2002, few others were doing that. Today, Sustainable Industries is in a unique position to take the conversation further and to connect the dots between the environmental and social components of the West Coast progressive economy. Seeing how the West Coast is ahead of the rest of the nation when it comes to cleantech, the ideas posted here will become more mainstream over the next decade. This site focuses on green building, clean energy, green technology, green marketing, and many other areas related to cleantech. Click and check it out!
