THE COLOR OF GREEN

by Tom Gore

December 21 2007

Go green! That is the cry from everyone who wants to be politically correct this year,
and I would guess for years to come.

Last November in Chicago the spotlight, I assume they used an energy saving bulb, was on the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, billed as the largest conference dedicated to green building.

Former President Bill Clinton kicked it off with a keynote address to nearly 8,000 attendees. In it, he stressed the need to improve the efficiency of public buildings.

In his comments, the former president said the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI), part of the Clinton Foundation, is entering into partnerships to improve the efficiency of hundreds of buildings in the United States.

It was approximately one year ago the Clinton Foundation got involved in climate initiatives with the 40 Largest cities in the world, including five in the United States: Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, New York and Philadelphia. At Greenbuild, Clinton announced that the CCI has agreed to help fund the retrofitting of buildings in these major cities as part of the effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"We need a broader acceptance," Clinton said of encouraging the general public to reduce global emissions. "[We] have to figure out how to operationalize ... to prove this is not a great big bottle of castor oil to drink, but a great economic opportunity," He added.

Clinton continued with this statement, which put the challenge we face into simple terms, "I'm not going to pretend that it's easy. We can do this, but in order to do it, we have to prove it's good economics."

In truth, the former President hit the nail on the head, economics would rule, money would rule. If there is a buck to be made in “Going Green”, and there seems to be, the business leaders of the free world will jump on board. Is it a coincidence,that the color of money is green?