When Green Goes Mainstream

During his State of the Union address earlier this year, President Bush underscored support for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This emphasized commitment to being “green” is actually over a year old, springing from Executive Order 13423, which in January 2007 called for improved energy efficiency across all Federal agencies.

Later in 2007, New York Times columnist and author of The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman, spoke at the Stanford University Energy Crossroads 2007 Conference. There, he offered three reasons why the notion of “Green” has become mainstream today. Chief among those was that certainty about the climate change crisis has expanded beyond the scientific community.

As Federal real property professionals, our mandated responsibility to reduce waste and improve efficiency in our physical assets has the added benefit of reducing waste and improving energy efficiency. These two initiatives are tied together. Rightsizing the inventory is the key.

For example, a rightsized inventory of Federal real property assets reduces the heating and cooling requirements to support mission requirements. That in turn has a direct and proportional benefit in reducing both expense and greenhouse gas emissions related to heating and cooling.

It’s not a small matter. By some estimates, 50 to 65 percent of all energy consumed worldwide is used to build and operate buildings – in construction, heating and cooling, and maintenance expenses, for example.

As business people, we need to be more sensitive as to how much we consume and the cost of that consumption. What is our contribution to the waste stream, and is it necessary?

My interest in sustainability actually began some 30 years ago, when my wife and I built a solar home outside of Roanoke, VA. This “kit” home featured active and passive solar collectors, oriented with strategically placed windows to aid in heating and cooling.

Recently I was pleased to introduce a corporate Green initiative at VISTA. Our goal is to create a sustainable company – to control our use of consumable goods and thereby manage both the expense and energy requirements of our day-to-day operations.

VISTA also has instituted a remote worker program. This will not only reduce our dependence on fossil fuels for commuting, but may have a beneficial effect on our space requirements in the future. By opening ourselves up to new ways of working and doing business, we can simultaneously save money on our own real property inventory. We’re doing more with less, and – done properly – we will not feel the difference in any adverse way.

Some might argue that one company cannot do much to turn around waste and inefficient use of energy. Look at the other side of that coin, though: If hundreds of companies choose to thumb their noses at more responsible, sustainable growth, this unchecked consumption of raw materials will mean a significant contribution to the waste stream and pollution.

I challenge you, my colleagues, to learn more about global climate and how carbon is cycled through the atmosphere. Then you will begin to appreciate how now, more than ever before, our needless use of scarce resources is adding to the burden of increased greenhouse gas emissions.

Green construction and sustainability is not just the flavor of the moment; it’s mandated by Executive Order. Simply rightsizing the real property inventory, another Executive Order requirement, is a step in the right direction.

A single commitment, two initiatives addressed. Isn’t that worth the effort?


David Baxa
President and CEO
VISTA