And So It Begins

Hello friends,

Welcome to my brand-new blog! In 37 hours or so, I will be starting my internship at EnerNOC, a wonderful company doing wonderful things for the environment. On the site there is both a video and a cute animated presentation that explain what EnerNOC does. I don't think I could explain it any better than they do, but in my next post, I'm going to try anyway.

For now, I'll just say this: I love EnerNOC because they're in the business of making environmentalism affordable. I'll explain how in the next post, but the gist of it is that they are paying businesses to reduce electricity usage. I love that.

The more I learn about envrionmental policy, the more I feel that pushing people to change their light bulbs or stop wasting water in their homes is great, but only an individual scale. When it comes to businesses, they're going to do whatever's going to make them the most money. The larger the business is, the more that model applies. Corporations will occasionally do something arbitrarily "green" or "for the community," but it's often limited in scope and usually seems to be geared towards attaining some kind of "family-friendly" label. Target is willing to donate money to help build a new park in some town, but only under the assumption that they'll create goodwill in that community which will lead to an increase in sales. Plus, they get to talk up how charitable they are, which makes more people want to shop at Target.

There is a constant process of cost-benefit analysis. If Target donates $50,000 to the creation of this park, they make $100,000 in increased revenue due to their new customer base. It's a calculated risk on their part, and if they think they only stand to make $30,000 in the long run, they'll build a park somewhere else. At the top, it's not about altruism. It's about business.

But in the end, cost-benefit analysis is part of what makes businesses work. My framework, then, is a more global one: can we envision a world where being a good person is not only the right moral decision, but also the right economic decision? The folks at EnerNOC and a few other places have that vision.

The truth is, we live in that world, but not everyone is aware of it. If Target could find a way to run their entire business efficiently without using a single piece of electronics, they would do it in a heartbeat. A business of that size has a huge electric bill, and if they could find a way to cut that, they would. Corporations don't waste electricity because they enjoy killing trees as they rub their hands together maliciously and twirl their mustaches. They would love to cut energy costs, but they just don't see how. That's where EnerNOC comes in.

The co-founders of EnerNOC came up with a great idea for how to make environmentalism the right business decision. Their methodology impresses everyone I've talked to, especially in the Peace Studies department. And guess what? The founders both have degrees in Business Administration, a field which many people would consider the antithesis of Peace Studies. I guess the bottom line here that there's only one way to create positive change. It just takes a vision and a lot of know-how. And some outside-the-box thinking. Although, as environmental guru Amory Lovins likes to say, there is no box.

I'll keep you posted as I find myself some vision and some know-how. This should be a great summer.