Get Smart about Energy™

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For more than 20 years, Joel Makower has been a well-respected voice on business, the environment, and the bottom line. In his introduction to State of Green Business 2011 he writes "The fourth annual edition of our State of Green Business report continues our efforts to measure the environmental impacts of the emerging green economy. We document how well -- or poorly -- companies are improving their performance despite the challenges posed by the Great Recession, and begin to note promising signs for a sea change in corporate sustainability efforts. "

In our articles on the opportunities to save energy in a home office we find that the individual amounts of energy saved are small. I do encourage all our readers to visit Climate Savers Computing to learn about the work started by Google and Intel in 2007, and to seriously consider making a commitment with them to save computing energy.

Matt Peterson of Vertatique comments "The biggest materiality challenge may well be how to resolve the dissonance between that which is material in the aggregate, but apparently immaterial to the individual" The serious question we must ask is, will we each make the effort to achieve these small savings, knowing that the direct benefits to us are small, but that the cumulative impacts to society are significant?

Sadly the circumstances of our lives; the economy, health care and terrorist threat is filling our heads. One person I recently spoke with went so far as to say "we are slipping into a fear induced depression". We have developed a tendency to respond best to rewards and threats. We have been numbed to the cumulative opportunities to help others. Whatever inclination to save energy we once had has been quashed.

I was recently asked why saving energy matters so much to me. It is a good question and it warrants a considered answer. I do not do it to feel good about myself, and I certainly do not want to be promoting energy awareness as a new self help or spiritual practise. Ironically though, as I step away from my desk and remember to put my laptop to sleep, I am reminded of how wasteful and negligent I can be, and particularly of things that really matter.

I do not know all the answers to energy saving, or all the issues to do with global warming. But I do know that the energy I use is not mine to waste. I do respect the God who created me. I have found that there is greater wisdom when we fear God. I am indeed grateful for the grace I have been shown.

I do not think it is too much to ask that I be a good steward of what I have been given, or that I think of the cumulative benefit of us all saving more?



Open4Energy - Get Smart about Energy™