The article in the url below details a plan to refurbish the Empire State Building to make it "more energy efficient":
"The retrofit, which will include 6,500 better insulated windows, as well as high-tech lighting, furnaces and air conditioners, is expected to reduce the building's energy use by almost 40 per cent."
On the positive side, the scale of this project (which, after all, is only for one building) indicates the potential for "green-collar jobs" in the U.S. It also indicates the potential these kinds of projects have to drive economic growth in the near future more generally.
On the negative side, however, the scale of the project also demonstrates the size of the task ahead. If this is what is needed to convert one building (albeit a big one), then how long and how much money would it take to refurbish the whole of New York City. And that is only the buildings. What about the task of turning around a whole economy? We currently have a model of economic growth that is founded on waste. Turning that around with a renewed focus on sustainability presents a mammoth task:
"The global potential for energy efficiency is vast. This year, McKinsey calculated that in the US alone an investment of $520bn would cut non-transportation energy in the country by 23 per cent of projected energy demand - which would save the US economy more than $1,200bn."
There is some hope, however:
"Energy efficiency is benefiting strongly from government stimulus packages globally, many of which single out efficiency as a key target for spending. Of a total of $350bn so far allocated to green endeavours under the stimulus packages, the energy efficiency sector is due to receive more than half."
There are also some interesting graphics at the same ft.com url. One, in particular, underscores the argument often heard from developing economies-that the issue of climate change is one that was created by past economic development by developed countries and, as such, it is these economies that need to bear the burden of fixing it. This graphic lists the amount of carbon emissions, per country/region, from 1950-2007 (amounts in billions of tons):
Canada - 5.8
India - 8.0
Japan - 12.1
China - 28.7
Russia - 34.2
Europe - 43.2
U.S. - 68.4
Take care
David
Bill Werther & David Chandler
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility
© Sage Publications, 2006
http://www.sagepub.com/Werther/
Savings potential scales new heights
By Fiona Harvey in London and Sheila McNulty in Houston
878 words
21 August 2009
Financial Times
Asia Ed1
17
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1812bffe-8da4-11de-93df-00144feabdc0.html
or
http://www.wbcsd.org/Plugins/DocSearch/details.asp?ObjectId=MzUzODk
