How to Make Something Green

The color GREEN has been used to describe various approaches to energy development and usage.  It is very difficult to define what is meant when using the word green.  As one source puts it:

“Recent political groups have taken on the color as symbol of environmental protection and social justice, and consider themselves part of the Green movement, some naming themselves Green parties. This has led to similar campaigns in advertising, as companies have sold green, or environmentally friendly, products.”

When it comes to energy, the term is most often a reference to sources and equipment that are considered “sustainable”.  Unfortunately, that is another vague term when applied to energy engineering.  Here are two attempts at defining “sustainable” in this context.

Encarta Dictionary: Sustainable

1. able to be maintained

2. maintaining ecological balance

            Exploiting natural resources without destroying the ecological balance of an area

Brundtland Commission of the United Nations on March 20, 1987:

“sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

These are absolutely honorable and desirable goals.  However, being married to a watercolor and pastel artist, she has explained to me that:

GREEN is not a primary color. 

It is a mixture of other colors.  I believe that being GREEN with energy can only come from a mixture of actions.  The current definition of a GREEN energy source includes being renewable, non-polluting, minimal carbon dioxide impact, and minimal environmental impact.  I suggest that these impacts must be considered all the way back to the manufacturing stage of these resources.  For instance, how much impact does the factory making the photovoltaic cells have in all these categories?

Because no matter how good your energy source is, it will always be better and cheaper to use less, it becomes even more important that energy conservation must be a key ingredient to be GREEN.  In fact, the best way to start is to use less energy, then go to the most GREEN source available.  In my opinion, you can’t be GREEN if you don’t look at efficiency and reductions first.

I consider sustainability to be the yellow that is added to the blue of efficiency that makes the result green.  The order is important!  Sustainability added after efficiency.  And the actual shade of green will change with the shades of efficiency and sustainability that are used in the process.

Face it: so-called GREEN energy sources are currently more expensive than conventional sources.  So it just makes sense to reduce the amount of energy you need before you GO GREEN in a big way, it is very smart to GO LEAN first.

Rich