Both the Democratic and Republican national conventions have pledged to go greener this year. And they've drawn mockery for their efforts -- particularly the Democrats, who say they'll be putting on "the most sustainable political convention in modern American history."
A Wall Street Journal article in June reported that convention organizers were having difficulty finding union-made, organic-cotton fanny packs for volunteers.
The article also poked fun at the Dems' efforts to make convention food both green and good for you. They're aiming for 70 percent local and organic ingredients, and at least 50 percent fruits and vegetables. Fried foods are verboten. Meals must have "at least three of the following five colors: red, green, yellow, blue/purple and white" -- and garnishes don't count. All of this has caterers up in arms.
The New York Times reported that costs for the Democratic convention are ballooning out of control, in part because of efforts to be greener. Face the State, a conservative Colorado blog, recently pointed out that one of the wind turbines that's supposed to be offsetting the convention's carbon footprint doesn't work. (The turbine is now being repaired [PDF].)
The latest news is a security regulation barring bicycles from the area around Denver's Pepsi Center, where the event is being held. The Secret Service and the Denver Police Department don't want bikes parked within the convention perimeter. Cycling advocacy group Bikes Belong is bringing 1,000 bikes to the convention through a partnership with Humana. Mat Barlow, special projects coordinator for Bikes Belong, tells Grist the group expected there to be security regulations, so this is no big deal. Conference attendees can still use the bikes free of charge -- they'll just have to park them outside the perimeter.
The Democratic convention's first-ever director of sustainability and greening, Andrea Robinson, has also been the subject of ridicule. She's a sometime actress who's appeared on Baywatch Nights and Joey, but she also has a degree in environmental studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara and has worked to green other big events. (And maybe she picked up some political savvy while shooting one episode of The West Wing.)
Dems do Denver
But hiccups aside, the Democratic National Convention Committee has some ambitious green endeavors underway.
It is calculating the overall carbon footprint of the event -- which will be held in Denver from Aug. 25 to 28 -- and buying offsets for emissions that can't be avoided. It has issued a "Green Delegate Challenge" that asks each delegation to buy offsets for its travel; 28 state delegations have committed fully, and the rest will participate at least partially. Delegates can offset through a partnership with NativeEnergy, or choose their own provider. The 140-member Massachusetts delegation has teamed up with LiveCooler, which will be providing low-income families with 2,400 compact fluorescent bulbs, offsetting 393 tons of carbon in the process.
The Pepsi Center has pledged to go "100 percent green." It's installing energy-efficient lightbulbs and water-saving faucets, and the convention stage is being constructed with salvaged or recycled material and eco-friendly paints. During the convention, the venue will be powered completely by wind and solar from Xcel Energy.
The DNCC has set a goal of keeping at least 85 percent of waste out of landfills by composting, recycling, and reusing -- and they'll have monitors standing by waste bins to make sure that no one's refuse goes in the wrong container. Balloons will be biodegradable; utensils will be compostable; signs will be made of post-consumer recycled or biodegradable material; and banners will be made of canvas or corn-based bioplastics (and then recycled into handbags!).
On the vehicular front, there will be a hybrid-only parking area and a "no idling zone" outside the arena to cut back on emissions. The buses shuttling attendees from their hotels to the convention are all hybrid, alternative-fuel, or biodiesel-powered, and they'll be factored into the convention's carbon footprint.
GOP goes green
The Republican National Convention's goals are considerably less ambitious. Matt Burns, director of communications for the convention, calls them more "reasonable."
"We have very common-sense measures that anybody can do, and kind of understand that it will make a difference," says Burns. "They're just minor changes in habits."
During the planning stages, the convention organizers are shutting off the lights when they leave the room, shutting off the air-conditioning during non-business hours, and shutting off electronic devices when they're not in use, according to Burns. They're also recycling more and printing less. Their office building is Energy Star-rated, and they're trying to use mostly recycled office furniture and supplies.
At the convention itself, Xcel is again getting into the game by providing solar and wind power for the proceedings, which are being held at the aptly named Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul from Sept. 1 to 4. All official convention vehicles will be hybrid or flex-fuel, and Bikes Belong and Humana will be providing bicycles here just as they will be in Denver.
Recycling bins will be "strategically placed" throughout the convention hall, and waste "will be recycled to the maximum extent," according to a fact sheet distributed by the convention committee. Organizers also point out that they'll be using recycled carpeting and carpet padding made from recycled foam material, and using recycled aluminum for modular structures being constructed inside the center -- though Burns says this is typical protocol for the contractor they've used for the past several conventions.
The organizing committee has set up a "paperless" electronic system for media and volunteer registration and coordination, and for making housing assignments for delegates. It is also printing maps of the convention hall on recycled paper, and distributing delegate welcome kits online instead via the mail.
The committee is not putting any restrictions on food, Burns says, and it's not planning to offset delegate travel or the event's overall footprint.
"I think we need to focus on how we can be good stewards and do the little things that add up and change people's habits, but we're not going to shamelessly pander," says Burns. "I think some of the stuff that we've seen come out of Denver is shameless pandering."
At the end of day, how green can such a massive event be, when 35,000 delegates, volunteers, and members of the media pile into jumbo jets and fly across the country to sleep in hotels and sit around in over-air-conditioned convention halls? Grist will be on the scene at both events, so we'll be sure to let you know. (And yes, we'll be offsetting the emissions from our travel.)
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stevenearlsalmony Posted 11:04 pm
10 Aug 2008
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
August 8, 2008
Contact:
Kelly Boatman, Chair, City of Bloomington Environmental Commission
(812) 287-0031
ENVIRONMENTAL COMMISSION ADDRESSES GROWTH
The City of Bloomington Environmental Commission has adopted a position statement and completed a report to increase awareness of growth and sustainable development. The statement, "Position of the City of Bloomington Environmental Commission on Economic Growth in the United States" is modeled on similar statements issued by the United States Society for Ecological Economics and over 40 other groups inspired by the work of the Center for the Advancement of a Steady State Economy (CASSE). The statement advocates a steady state economy in which resource consumption and waste production are maintained within the environment's capacity to regenerate resources and assimilate waste, emphasizing development as a qualitative, rather than quantitative, process.
"This position statement acknowledges that the human economy is contained within, and dependent on, a finite and depletable natural environment," said Environmental Commission member Heather Reynolds. "Ever-increasing economic growth ultimately leads to resource consumption and waste production at rates greater than can be sustained by nature." A steady state economy for the U.S. will depend in no small part on the efforts made by communities across the nation to achieve sustainable local economies. The first step is awareness and acceptance of the concepts, both of which it is hoped that the position statement will foster.
The report, "An Examination of the Costs Associated with Residential Growth in Bloomington" is modeled after similar studies in other communities. Such studies have shown that infrastructure costs to support growth often outpace the benefits of that growth to the city. A sustainable approach to development would mean ensuring long-term benefits outweigh costs.
The Commission's report focuses on the City of Bloomington's capital expenditures and how these expenditures are impacted by residential growth. The report is not intended to define the full costs of growth in Bloomington, but rather to illustrate that there are substantial costs incurred by the City to provide necessary infrastructure to residences. To fully examine costs, further analysis of not only facilities and infrastructure, but also social and environmental impacts is needed.
"The Commission's report illustrates that the City incurs real costs that are associated with residential growth," said Environmental Commission member Mike Litwin. "The Commission would like to see the costs of growth balanced against the benefits and incorporated into the decision-making process in order to promote sustainable development in Bloomington." The report and position statement are available on the Environmental Commission website at http://bloomington.in.gov/environmental-commission.
Position of the City of Bloomington Environmental Commission on Economic Growth in the United States
(Adapted from the Position of the United States Society for Ecological Economics on Economic Growth in the United States and adopted on May 22, 2008 in a 4-2-0 vote following two years of discussion.)
Whereas:
Economic growth, as understood by most professional economists, policy officials and private citizens, is an increase in the production and consumption of goods and services, and;
Economic growth occurs when there is an increase in the multiplied product of population and per capita consumption, and;
Economic growth has long been a primary policy goal of U.S. society and government because of the belief that it leads to an enhanced quality of life, and;
Economic growth is usually measured by increasing gross domestic product (GDP), although this is an incomplete indicator of quality of life that excludes the equity of income distribution, other social factors such as physical health and level of crime, and ecological health, and;
The U.S. economy grows as an integrated whole consisting of agricultural, extractive, manufacturing, and services sectors (and the supporting infrastructure) that requires physical inputs of non-renewable resources, land and water, and that produces wastes, and;
Economic growth occurs in a finite and depletable biophysical context, and;
Continuing non-renewable resource-intensive economic growth is having unintended damaging consequences for ecosystems and human societies...
Therefore, the Bloomington Environmental Commission takes the position that based on the above evidence:
There is a fundamental conflict between economic growth and ecosystem health (in such areas as biodiversity conservation, clean air and water, and atmospheric stability) and the ecosystem services deriving from healthy ecosystems that underpin the human economy (for example, regeneration of renewable resources, decomposition and recycling of wastes, pollination of crops and other vegetation, and climate regulation), and;
Although technological progress and unregulated markets have had many positive effects they cannot be depended upon to fully reconcile the conflict between economic growth and the long-term ecological and social welfare of the U.S. and the world, and;
A sustainable economy (that is, an economy with a relatively stable, mildly fluctuating product of population and per capita consumption) is a viable alternative to a growing economy and has become a more appropriate goal for the U.S. and other large, wealthy economies, and;
A long-run sustainable economy requires its establishment at a size small enough to avoid the breaching of ecological and economic capacity (especially during supply shocks such as droughts and energy shortages) to promote the efficient use of energy, materials and water, and enable an accelerated shift toward the use of renewable energy sources, and;
A sustainable economy supports economic development, an increase in human welfare through strategic changes in the relative prominence of economic sectors and techniques (e.g. renewable vs. non-renewable energy) that maintains the human economy within the regenerative and assimilative capacity of the larger earth system, and;
While establishing a sustainable economy, it would be advisable for the U.S. to assist other nations in moving from the goal of economic growth to the goal of a sustainable economy, beginning with those nations currently enjoying adequate per capita consumption, and;
For many nations with widespread poverty, increasing per capita consumption through economic growth and often via more equitable distributions of wealth remains an appropriate goal.
Steven Earl Salmony
AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population,
established 2001
http://sustainabilitysoutheast.org/index.php
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Delay And Deny Posted 4:50 am
11 Aug 2008
Convention hookers will become more sustainable by installing energy saving CF bulbs in the red light district.
Ba-ding-bang!
(Thanks to David Lettermen writers for letting me steal their jokes.)
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