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Quick: When you hear the word "green" what's the first word that pops into your head?
If you said "tree" then that explains why you're visiting this website. If you said "money"....congratulations! You're on your way to saving the planet.
And some leading financial institutions are beginning to see green as well. Maybe money does grow on trees. Or maybe saving the planet makes good business sense.
Here are five good reasons to have renewed hope in the financial world:
- Citi Bank
- Deutsche Bank
- JP Morgan Chase
- UBS
- ABN Amro
In a plan announced last week by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, each of these institutions have committed $1 Billion dollars - that's right, one billion with a "b" - dollars each, to retrofitting buildings for energy efficiency in 16 cities around the world. Wow!
In large cities, buildings can account for as much as 70% of their greenhouse gases. The participating cities will begin the work with municipal buildings first, and will streamline the permit process, allowing building owners a chance to move more quickly to retrofit their own properties.
Here are the cities that will begin greening under the new agreement: Bangkok, Berlin, Chicago, Houston, Johannesburg, Karachi, London, Mumbai, Melbourne, Mexico City, New York, Rome, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Tokyo, and Toronto.
The Clinton Foundation is talking to companies that supply building materials and systems to lower the cost of their products under the agreement. But the number of workers trained in energy efficiency installation, as well as supply-chain challenges, are looming obstacles to Clinton's plan.
But job creation is a tremendous side-benefit of work launched on this scale.
"No offense to the mayor of Mumbai," said Clinton, "but we can't outsource greening a roof. Someone must be here on my roof in Harlem."
In the U.S. there has been a very limited market for skilled photovoltaic installers, for example. A few companies that stand to gain from the new market such as Johnson Controls Inc., Siemens, and Honeywell and Trane, are already training new workers to meet the demand and lower prices.
It's all beginning to make some sense. Green makes green.
Welcome to Planet Change.
It's already happening. The world is evolving. The planet is about to exhale. Can you hear it? Listen...that rustling in the trees. Those are the winds of change. We can hunker down now and hope for the best. Or we can put up the jib and sail!
These are amazing times.
Just last month New York City's Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, announced one of the most comprehensive and progressive energy initiatives ever advanced by a policymaker. The mayor got a lot of attention for his threat of an $8.00 charge on vehicles traveling in downtown Manhattan. But Bloomberg's plan also calls for establishing a New York City Energy Planning Board, committing 10% of the annual energy spending on raising efficiency, strengthening building and energy codes, generous incentives for upgrading and retrofitting buildings to new standards, expansion of real-time pricing and peak load management for energy use, an energy awareness and training campaign, even a property tax abatement for the installation of solar panels. This is forward thinking and we should applaud Mayor Bloomberg for his efforts.
The writing has been on the wall for some time. If nothing else, perhaps the Iraq war has finally pushed us to see how desperately we need to gain independence from oil producing nations. And president-not-to-be Al Gore has done the lion's share of work in raising the awareness of just how dire things are. But all is not doom and gloom. This is opportunity writ large.
In the coming weeks and months Planet Change will let you know what's happening. We'll talk to the leaders in the energy industry, the scientists and policymakers, the activists and the oilmen. We'll try to put it all into perspective. And let you be the judge.
It's a big, big world with lots to discover. The only thing that's certain is change. We look forward to having you back.
