Athena in the News
Singing and dancing with the new sustainability movement
January 10, 2006Author: Gordon Price
Publisher: City Business
City Business
By Gordon Price
Business In Vancouver
January 10, 2006
On one dark Monday evening in the middle of December, in the uber-lounge of Steamworks Brew Pub, the twenty-somethings were raising the roof. All energy, good looks and sharp minds, this crowd knew it was hot.
In the corner, the turntables blasting out the music were powered by bicycles - appropriate, given that this was another gathering of Green Drinks, the international environmental movement with an unhidden agenda: drink, talk, connect. It happens once a month in 96 cities around the world.
Upstairs, the young folks were exuberant. They know they're on to something, and boy, are they having fun. This was a very good place to pick up more than just good ideas and opportunities.
In the downstairs lounge, the older crowd was more subdued, busy networking, talking of sustainability. They were the first to catch on; they took it seriously in the 1980s, when it was mostly just good intentions, they got jobs where their expertise mattered and now they're watching a new seriousness take hold. And with it, a lot of potential business.
Sure, no one can exactly define sustainability, much less agree on what needs to be done. But only fools or deceivers completely discount climate change, the end of cheap oil and gas, and the implications for our economy and politics. That seems stunningly obvious to this group. Like the '60s generation, they don't take anyone seriously - a premier, a PM, a president - who pretends that life will go on as though the 1950s never ended.
It's not that the old boys (of both genders) aren't catching on. Sustainability is referenced in each vision statement and every corporate manifesto. Lip service must be paid. Watch what happens when Kevin Falcon, the provincial Minister of Transportation, releases the details of his Gateway Program. The greenwash will no doubt pour from the press release. Gordon Campbell may finally speak up about his expectations for the Lower Mainland, and how our vaunted quality of life and environment will be protected from the consequences of all that asphalt to be laid over the Lower Mainland, from Sea to Sky to the green fields of Langley.
But hold on - no reason to be cynical.
There's a reason why sustainability hasn't disappeared as phrase-and-flavour-of-the-month, even though it has way too many syllables. It was captured nicely by a consultant from the United States, working for the premier on alternative energy.
P.S. Reilly of the Premier's Task Force on Alternative Energy and Power Technology was appearing a few days earlier before another packed-in crowd, only this time at sunrise. (When it's standing-room-only at a breakfast to talk about sustainability, you know something is happening.) Her job was to explain why B.C. is taking alternative energy seriously as an economic opportunity.
Yes, she acknowledged, initially you'll get only the converted, those who can see where we'll be tomorrow even if it doesn't pencil out today. But when it does, they'll be overtaken by the greedy - and then the fearful. But by then you've got a burgeoning market, if only you're ready to take advantage of it.
Anyone who doesn't share a little fear about the future isn't paying attention. But the ones who really care, to whom the future will really happen, don't seem to be caught up in a self-indulgent gloom. They're busy chatting and flirting, and quite confident that they're going to be changing things.
You know a movement has taken on a new confidence when the crowd stops the speeches and starts to dance.
Gordon Price is the director of Simon Fraser University's city program and a former Vancouver city councillor. His e-mail address is pricetags@ shaw.ca. His column appears monthly.
By Gordon Price
Business In Vancouver
January 10, 2006
On one dark Monday evening in the middle of December, in the uber-lounge of Steamworks Brew Pub, the twenty-somethings were raising the roof. All energy, good looks and sharp minds, this crowd knew it was hot.
In the corner, the turntables blasting out the music were powered by bicycles - appropriate, given that this was another gathering of Green Drinks, the international environmental movement with an unhidden agenda: drink, talk, connect. It happens once a month in 96 cities around the world.
Upstairs, the young folks were exuberant. They know they're on to something, and boy, are they having fun. This was a very good place to pick up more than just good ideas and opportunities.
In the downstairs lounge, the older crowd was more subdued, busy networking, talking of sustainability. They were the first to catch on; they took it seriously in the 1980s, when it was mostly just good intentions, they got jobs where their expertise mattered and now they're watching a new seriousness take hold. And with it, a lot of potential business.
Sure, no one can exactly define sustainability, much less agree on what needs to be done. But only fools or deceivers completely discount climate change, the end of cheap oil and gas, and the implications for our economy and politics. That seems stunningly obvious to this group. Like the '60s generation, they don't take anyone seriously - a premier, a PM, a president - who pretends that life will go on as though the 1950s never ended.
It's not that the old boys (of both genders) aren't catching on. Sustainability is referenced in each vision statement and every corporate manifesto. Lip service must be paid. Watch what happens when Kevin Falcon, the provincial Minister of Transportation, releases the details of his Gateway Program. The greenwash will no doubt pour from the press release. Gordon Campbell may finally speak up about his expectations for the Lower Mainland, and how our vaunted quality of life and environment will be protected from the consequences of all that asphalt to be laid over the Lower Mainland, from Sea to Sky to the green fields of Langley.
But hold on - no reason to be cynical.
There's a reason why sustainability hasn't disappeared as phrase-and-flavour-of-the-month, even though it has way too many syllables. It was captured nicely by a consultant from the United States, working for the premier on alternative energy.
P.S. Reilly of the Premier's Task Force on Alternative Energy and Power Technology was appearing a few days earlier before another packed-in crowd, only this time at sunrise. (When it's standing-room-only at a breakfast to talk about sustainability, you know something is happening.) Her job was to explain why B.C. is taking alternative energy seriously as an economic opportunity.
Yes, she acknowledged, initially you'll get only the converted, those who can see where we'll be tomorrow even if it doesn't pencil out today. But when it does, they'll be overtaken by the greedy - and then the fearful. But by then you've got a burgeoning market, if only you're ready to take advantage of it.
Anyone who doesn't share a little fear about the future isn't paying attention. But the ones who really care, to whom the future will really happen, don't seem to be caught up in a self-indulgent gloom. They're busy chatting and flirting, and quite confident that they're going to be changing things.
You know a movement has taken on a new confidence when the crowd stops the speeches and starts to dance.
Gordon Price is the director of Simon Fraser University's city program and a former Vancouver city councillor. His e-mail address is pricetags@ shaw.ca. His column appears monthly.