Matthew Savage's Blog

Consumers expect all types of food, with no concession to season or geography. This used to be mainly a habit of the richer countries, but now the developing world is taking our example.

Why is this like this? Well part of the reason is that there was a little-known international treaty signed in Chicago in 1944 called the Convention on International Civil Aviation to help the (then) fledgling airline industry. This was basically a tax exemption on fuel for international transport of goods, unlike what we pay for cars and trucks. Also, the exemption extended to ocean freighters.

This is only part of the reason, the other part is that the labor in the developing world is so cheap.

There is much debate about the carbon footprint of a good versus the distance it traveled. They are not always the same. Sometimes, people argue, that the locally produced good has a higher carbon footprint than an imported good. I would think this is a rarity, and if this is the case, I think that we can find ways to minimize the locally produced footprint much easier than the one from across the world.

I would prefer to just reinstate the tax on all of this transported food from all over the world. We need the cost of food to reflect the distances covered and energy used to get the food to us. Firstly, we should have labels about where everything comes from, which I am starting to see more and more although you really have to have good eyes! Secondly, we should have a carbon footprint label on the item. Maybe they could be the same label.

Meanwhile, as a food shopper, I would suggest to buy as locally as you can and to buy in bulk as much as you can to minimize packaging. Now that I know better, I will change my much-ingrained habits. Or do my best…that’s about all any of us can do.

Imagine a utility grid that is smart, distributed and more localized. What does that mean? Well, think electricity combined with the technology and structure of the Internet.

In our current electricity grid, the electrons flow from huge, centralized power plants, sometimes quite a distance from the end user, and simply go one way; picture thousands of one-way streets that branch off of a freeway. It hasn’t changed fundamentally for more than a hundred years, except for the capacity of the grid, that is, an increase in the number of power plants. But, the grid is outdated and in need of an update.

There are fundamentally two major problems with the existing grid:

1. Current transmission lines are incapable of transmitting electrons very long distances. For example, we cannot get our electricity in California from a wind farm in Texas.

2. Inaccuracy of the real-time usage data which makes it hard to predict patterns and troubleshoot.

The loss of electrons in transmission is something that only a technological breakthrough will be able to fix. We will have to wait and see on this one. But this is a long way off considering that the transmission lines will have to be replaced.

Now, what if the intelligence and structure of the Internet was a model for our electricity grid? Well, suddenly power companies would be able to track with accuracy, how much power was being used and where. Currently, much of this data is vague and inaccurate. For example, when there is a downed power line, the utility must wait for a blackout or for someone to call it in to diagnose the problem. What’s more, thousands of homes can go out when there is just one problem on the line. In the new grid, troubleshooting would not be a problem.

This new “smart-grid” would be controlled by thousands of wireless transmitters that could “talk” to each other and give the utility accurate data on real-time energy usage. This has many added benefits including:

• Empowering the customers and utility with real-time data.
• Better troubleshooting.
• More efficient use of the power load.
• Less prone to storms and terrorist attacks.

With this accurate information, the utility could begin to more efficiently handle the power loads during peak times. For example, the new smart-grid would be able to turn up the thermostats in thousands of homes by one degree in the middle of summer. Collectively this would make a huge difference in power needs, but on a user-level this would hardly be noticeable. One of the more interesting areas is the “smart appliances” that would be able to power on and off according to the power needs of the grid. Think of a washing machine that turned off on-demand by the power companies if you weren’t using it.

It is amazing that the grid has not changed much since the times of Thomas Edison. This is a huge growth area and very exciting when you consider that much of this will be powered by renewable energy and distributed. Traditionally, the electricity industry is very slow to change, considering the infrastructure changes that are required. However, the “smart grid” will soon be a common household phrase.

Most people trying to save the planet think that the best thing that they can do is to buy a hybrid vehicle like a Toyota Prius or put solar panels on their home. However, two of the most important areas in environmental change are being overlooked: conservation and efficiency.

The two most important resource-savings take place in energy and water usage. Although this is much less sexy than getting some semiconductors installed on your rooftop, efficiency and conservation are the easiest areas to make a difference right now, and should be regarded as the most important first step for any concerned citizen. I am amazed by how many people make the big jump towards other more technology-heavy measures, before they consider the changes that are less interesting on the surface, but if everyone did them, could literally change the world.

Often referred to as the cleanest power source of all, efficiency is the most effective way to save resources. Amory Lovins, founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute in Snowmass, Colorado, is one of the world’s most respected efficiency technology gurus. He first coined the term negawatt in 1989 as a unit of conserved electricity, or a megawatt of power that the power plant never has to generate because of efficiency.

Both in the water and electrical industry, the incentives have to be changed for efficiency and conservation to flourish. In the past, water and energy companies have been rewarded by how much water or energy they sell, without any incentives to sell less or encourage efficiency and conservation.

Nowadays, utilities are changing that model and reforming the system to create financial incentives for utilities to promote efficiency. For example, the Northwest Power Act of 1980 allowed power generators to share a portion of their customers’ savings from using less electricity, giving them a financial stake in the efficiency game. Among utilities’ large-scale efforts in efficiency is market transformation, a program in which utilities and regulators promote the manufacture and purchase of energy-saving products (appliances, building materials, etc.) with rebates, industrial training, consumer education, and marketing assistance.

But in most areas in the United States, except for the Northwest, California, New York, and a few others, regulatory efforts to drive efficiency measures have a long way to go. The decoupling of utility sales and profits has not happened yet in most areas, which gives utilities the wrong incentives to encourage efficiency and conservation.

We must spread the word about this important and often overlooked agent of change. Visit the website Flex Your Power [www.flexyourpower.org] for more information about conservation and efficiency. Also visit H20 Conserve [www.h2oconserve.org] for water efficiency tips and advice.

Today, the plumber came and turned off our water. There was a leak in the pipes and the plumber couldn’t fix it for three days. “Three days!!!”, I exclaimed.

It is amazing how helpless you are suddenly when there is no ready supply of water.

I quickly filled a few buckets and some other receptacles and then that was that – the water was off. I washed my hands with just a few cups of water. The process went like this: get the hands wet, apply soap, scrub, then add more water until there were no suds left. Brushing teeth was extremely economical. I was able to brush my teeth AND rinse with just one cup of water.

I realized that most of our water usage habits are based on laziness.

I am not as bad these days as I used to be back before Al Gore was a Nobel Peace Prize winner. I used to leave the tap running in many situations, including when I was brushing my teeth. Even though I have much better habits nowadays, having NO water made me think just how far I could push this conservation thing. I became a super-efficient “water hero” who only used exactly what he needed. Actually, in the third world, most everyone consumes water like this, and much less I’m sure.

It was annoying having to use the neighbor’s shower, but having to shape my consumption habits was really no more time-consuming than my regular routines – once I adjusted, that is. We really don’t appreciate how lucky we are to have limitless clean water flowing out of our taps on command and we certainly have no idea about the true value of water until there is none!

So CONSERVE it!!!