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It has been quite some time since I've posted my writings on my blog. I've been writing for wide outlets over the last year, though less frequently than I have before. The reason is that I had gotten quite behind on a book manuscript that I had to finish up. The book is titled Democracy and Leadership and will be out this year, I'm happy to report. That said, it's time I get caught up on reposting public writings on my blog.
I post pieces here partly to collect these writings for my online scrapbook, in a sense. More than that, there are many outlets that archive writings, though they let me repost them if I wish. So, rather than let pieces be accessed only behind a paywall, I will continue reposting them here.
Here's the piece:
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Greening Industry and Green Industries in Mississippi
By Dr. Eric Thomas WeberFirst published on 4/8/12 (here)
For quite some time, people have associated environmentally
focused efforts with the Democratic Party, and hence with partisan
disagreements. Fortunately today people
are coming to see that environmental friendliness generally saves money and is
a cause motivating big business development.
Mississippi could benefit from greater understanding of environmentally
friendly developments. There are many
opportunities for industry to save money through greening efforts and also for
businesses to expand in the areas that service demand for green technologies
and energy saving investments.
President Carter put up solar panels on the Whitehouse, which were soon after removed in Reagan’s administration.
Then, Vice President Al Gore came to be well known for his advocacy on
environmental issues, to the point that he has been a key spokesman for related
movements. Opposition to environmentally
beneficial technologies were often motivated by a desire to keep industry free
from excess government imposition. Plus,
religious motivations were at times raised, with the explanation that the Earth
was created for mankind’s use. Human
beings have dominion over the Earth, so why not make use of it as we please?
In the last few years, a number of
factors have refocused discussions about the environment. First, rising gas prices have called into
question for many the wisdom of driving Hummers, for instance. I suspect that they might be incredibly fun
to drive in obstacle courses, but regular travel would be hugely expensive in
one, compared with the great, fuel efficient cars that are taking over the
market. In a Toyota Prius, for example,
my family and I can drive to Atlanta, 6 hours away from Oxford, MS, on slightly
less than 10 gallons of gas. With
regular driving in the last few years, the fuel efficient car has been
fantastic for us. Whether one feels for
environmental considerations or not, people can understand the savings.
It helps, I think, to note the
differences between people’s experiences of environmental forces. For example, having lived near New York City,
then in Atlanta and Nashville, I saw recycling efforts everywhere I have
lived. There are prices associated with
landfills. The farther away are the
landfills, the more fuel is spent bringing trash to dumps. Plus, the slower one fills a dump, the
cheaper it is – the more delayed further costs are. So, recycling in my experience has always had
a clear and substantial impact economically on large population centers I have
known. Now that I live in Mississippi,
by contrast, land is quite cheap and the motivation for recycling is far weaker
here. Add that to the history of
associating the practice with the minority political party in the state and it
becomes easier to understand why the recycling movement has only lately caught
on in small towns in the state.
Two developments, one at the national
level and the other at the state level, have inspired some changes as
well. Historically strong critics of
people like Al Gore, such as Rupert Murdoch, who owns News Corp and thus Fox
News and the Wall Street Journal, have come to see the powerful forces of
environmental change. Murdoch saw the
spreading wildfires in his native Australia and understood quickly that
climates have changed, leading to dangerous conditions for a number of parts of
the world. He wrote a letter called
“Duty to the Future,” published on the National Review Online, explaining why his companies were going green. Beyond Murdoch, Pat Robertson has helped
reshape the religious message on the Right about the environment, to recognize
the idea that dominion over the Earth is consistent with the demands of
stewardship of such a great gift from the Divine. He made a fun commercial with Reverend Al Sharpton for the sake of seeking common
ground about the environment.
The second development is that
Mississippians recently experienced significant environmental problems. People all around were saddened by the photos
of wildlife affected by the B.P. oil spill.
Mississippi’s shrimping and coastal tourism industries were deeply
affected for some time. Beyond that,
many people who have been quiet about the environment, but who have loved it
all along have begun speaking up. In
particular, I am thinking of hunters, who love the outdoors, the beauty of
creatures and the connection to the world that capturing your own food can
motivate. In fact, people often forget
that the environmental philosopher Aldo Leopold was a hunter.
A bright conservative student of mine
at the University of Mississippi, Elliott Warren, had a number of these
connections click. His love of hunting
and the outdoors motivated action and leadership for green initiatives on
campus. He was so driven and successful that
he won a Sustainability Leadership Award the next year at the University of
Mississippi. He is centrally responsible
for the great program of game-day recycling for football games at the
university, which has kept literally tons of waste from going into the ground. Instead, the new program provides the city of
Oxford with materials that it can sell to companies seeking cost-saving recyclables.
With all of these developments in the
background, there are nevertheless those who are skeptical of “green”
initiatives, like the one the University of Mississippi signed a few years ago. However particular people feel about this initiative,
there are great examples of substantial savings already at work on campus, and
ones that can be emulated in various ways by businesses around the state.
I work in Odom Hall, which is one of
the wings of the building called the Trent Lott Leadership Institute. I have learned from campus sources that our
building in peak hours uses 65 to 70 Kilowatts per hour for its power. Nearby, the newly built Center for
Manufacturing Excellence, a larger building, had solar panels installed on its
roof. The panels do not provide all the
power for that building, to be sure, since it is a very large building. But, they do provide more in peak hours than
my building uses in its
peak hours. Those panels produce 80 to
90 Kilowatts per hour in their peak hours.
They generate 8 megawatts per month on average, according to Professor
James Vaughn, Director of the Center for Manufacturing Excellence at the
university.
Investments in technologies like the
panels atop the Center for Manufacturing Excellence may not yet be feasible for
widespread use in homes or in smaller businesses around the state, of
course. But, technologies like these are
getting cheaper and cheaper to make. Plus, there are countless efforts that are low
in cost to adopt. A student of mine years
ago gave a speech in one of my courses and convinced me to change to compact
fluorescent bulbs around the house. The
next month, I saw a drop in my electricity bill from the previous month and in comparison
with the year before. The initial
investment was about $150 for all new bulbs.
Many people are using low water usage toilets and shower heads now, for
similar reasons. Better insulation can
make a big difference in the summer heat as well, of course, and all of these
efforts are small and accessible ways that business can shave costs.
Those larger institutions that have
to do maintenance with some regularity, furthermore, such as the university,
which has projects and updates to complete each year, can budget for the
long-term benefits of doing things in the smartest way with regard to
energy. Many of these ideas involve small
changes, but can make a difference to the bottom line. Plus, when one makes an effort in this way,
we can brag about it to those who will be attracted by the idea. My favorite Oxford dry cleaner, Rainbow
Cleaners, for example, posts notices about the new methods it uses to cut down
on waste products and energy use. Plus,
companies that profit from doing what is less responsible, morally speaking, sometimes
get hit hard in lawsuits, when the results really hurt
people, or in public image at least, which is itself a very expensive
thing to clean up once tarnished.
Beyond the process of making industry
“greener,” there is also exciting growth taking place in Mississippi in “green”
industries. Both of these terms,
“greening” industry and “green” industries, are worth encouraging. “Greening industry” is the process of making
industries and institutions more energy efficient, which makes for savings in
money and from unwanted environmental effects.
It can include cutting costs on public schools and other government
buildings as well as in introducing cost saving measures in the private sector. Next, “green industries” are generally
associated with things like electric windmills, fuel efficient cars, and solar
panels, but they refer equally, in my view, to the sale of products and
services that somehow take advantage of more energy efficient means of
production or usage, or of products made from materials that cost less
environmentally speaking.
Green products can be quite simple,
not always technical in nature. When
shopping at Walmart, if you have not tried out their great “Reusable Bags,” you have no idea what you are
missing. They cost 50 cents each. I use these bags everyday for all sorts of
reasons, including for carrying my lunch to work or groceries home from the
store. Granted, you have to pay for
these once, but they are much more comfortable to carry than everyday plastic
bags – given their thick handles – and they hold much more and more robustly,
all while being light to carry. Plus,
they are strong, have many uses, and also are made of reusable plastic that
would otherwise eventually cost us money to throw in landfills.
The more sophisticated forms of
“green industries” are growing also, and in Mississippi. Among these are Twin Creaks, Stion, and Soladigm, to name a few. A former student of mine landed a job right
after graduation in 2011 with one of these companies and had only exciting
things to report about his experience.
There are other countries and other
states fighting to be at the forefront of business development in green
industries. There are also other states
doing more with tax incentives than we do in Mississippi to empower individuals
and institutions to green their workplaces.
At the same time, Mississippi has advantages for attracting business and
can build on these, including low taxes.
We can also work to take advantage of the recent developments through
which people have come to see that “green” is not a partisan issue. It is at times a matter of cost savings and at
others of potential new markets. We
should welcome our new opportunities and think about how we can build on them for
cost savings and profit. Here at the
University of Mississippi, where tuition is around $6,000 per year, we can
envision energy savings translating into the language of scholarships made
possible per month, for example. When
buildings cost thousands of dollars per month to power, the value of alternate
energy sources that can offset big institutional costs become easier to imagine
and understand.
If you are thinking of moving in the
direction of energy cost savings only, there are do-it-yourself options
available at places like Home Depot, which has a great guide online about all manner of products that
can save money and energy in the long-run.
There are many more of these as public awareness continues to grow.
We can all see that gas prices at
best will only rise more slowly even if new sources are found. It makes a lot of sense for business people
to think of long-term investments. We
can save money, and make more too, by thinking about industries that until
recently seemed only to be of interest to small numbers of Mississippians. Today, minds have changed and a culture has
set in that recognizes the need and opportunity for growth in green industries
and in greening industry.
Dr. Eric Thomas Weber
is assistant professor of Public Policy Leadership at the University of
Mississippi and author of three books, including Morality, Leadership, and Public Policy (2011) and the forthcoming Democracy and Leadership (2013). He is expressing only his own point of view
here. Follow him on Twitter.com/EricTWeber and visit his Web site at EricThomasWeber.org.
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