By Clay Nesler, VP-Global Energy & Sustainability, Johnson Controls, Inc.
Thursday at the Clinton Global Initiative was the high point of a great week. The opening plenary session included Jeff Immelt (GE CEO), John Chambers (Cisco CEO), Carlos Ghosn (Renault-Nissan CEO) and Kofi Annan (Former UN General Secretary). It was a great discussion by some great leaders. One interesting comment came from Jeff Immelt who noted that while companies compete on a 1-5 year timeframe, they should work together in the 10 year timeframe to help define and shape the future. It is clear that solving the significant challenges we face will not only require the support of major corporations, but also their leadership.
My panel followed immediately after the plenary session and was focused on Infrastructure of Place – Sustainability and the Built Environment. The session was moderated by Vijay Vaitheeswaran, global correspondent of The Economist and Co-Author of ZOOM. The diverse panel included Ritt Bjerregaard, Lord Mayor of Copenhagen, Nancy Kete, Program Director of the WRI Center for Sustainable Transport, Albina Ruiz, Execuitive Director of Ciudad Saludable in Peru and Ron Simms, Deputy Secretary, Department of Housing and Urban Development as well as myself.
Lord Mayor Bjerregaard’s talked about a Climate Summit for Mayors to run in parallel to the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen. Mayors from Delhi, New York, Hong Kong, Moscow, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro and Sydney and many others are participating. Copenhagen has one of the largest and most successful district heating systems that supplies 97% of the city with clean, affordable heating recovered from waste heat from power plants and waste incineration. Ron Simms was a great champion for the new inter-agency approach to promoting green communities and improving livability. He described how green mortgages and other financial incentives are being bundled into larger grants to communities to seed programs that will be self-sustaining over time.
I was again asked about infrastructure support for electric vehicles (three for three) and then was finally asked to share experiences and best practices from the Empire State Building project. This case study never fails to captivate and inspire an audience. During a break-out, a challenge emerged of designing all new buildings to be carbon neutral and improving the efficiency of all existing buildings by 50%. Projects such as our IDeAS project in San Jose, CA and the Empire State Building are cited as evidence that these goals may be achievable on a broader scale.
The final event that we participated in was a special session on infrastructure entitled “Building a Better Future.” President Clinton participated along with Brad Pitt and Tom Darden of Make it Right, a non-profit focused on developing safe, green, energy efficient and affordable housing in New Orleans post Katrina. This is a great story about building a community of 150 LEED Platinum homes in a devastated area of New Orleans seeing no redevelopment two years after Katrina. Through thoughtful re-engineering of the entire design and construction process, these homes are being built at a cost of $150 per square foot which is competitive to conventional construction. Monthly utility bills are in the $30-50 range due to the use of solar PV with some as low as $8 per month. Bill McDonough later joined the panel made some provocative comments. He asked that we not to start initiatives or projects with metrics as they naturally lead to benchmarking which drives to goals that are “less bad.” He instead suggests starting with clear principles based on “good” outcomes like “no toxics”, “no waste”, “renewable energy” before defining strategies, actions and metrics.
Before the panel, Johnson Controls along with Jack Hidary, Jeff Tannenbaum and Bracken Hendricks were recognized by President Clinton for our commitment to PACENOW, an innovative energy efficiency financing model. Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) was created to accelerate the retrofitting of America’s existing buildings through PACE bonds which allow commercial and residential property owners to finance energy efficiency measures and small renewable energy projects as a lien on their property tax bill. The important role of companies like Johnson Controls in guaranteeing the energy savings was made by the President, who is a strong advocate for the approach.
This is my last update from a very busy and exciting week in New York. (Check out my reports from earlier in the week in the Archives for this month.) There is much to be positive about including the role of energy efficiency in buildings and vehicles to help reduce carbon emissions and create a strong clean energy economy. Onward to Copenhagen!
By Clay Nesler, VP-Global Energy & Sustainability, Johnson Controls, Inc.
Thursday at the Clinton Global Initiative was the high point of a great week. The opening plenary session included Jeff Immelt (GE CEO), John Chambers (Cisco CEO), Carlos Ghosn (Renault-Nissan CEO) and Kofi Annan (Former UN General Secretary). It was a great discussion by some great leaders. One interesting comment came from Jeff Immelt who noted that while companies compete on a 1-5 year timeframe, they should work together in the 10 year timeframe to help define and shape the future. It is clear that solving the significant challenges we face will not only require the support of major corporations, but also their leadership.
My panel followed immediately after the plenary session and was focused on Infrastructure of Place – Sustainability and the Built Environment. The session was moderated by Vijay Vaitheeswaran, global correspondent of The Economist and Co-Author of ZOOM. The diverse panel included Ritt Bjerregaard, Lord Mayor of Copenhagen, Nancy Kete, Program Director of the WRI Center for Sustainable Transport, Albina Ruiz, Execuitive Director of Ciudad Saludable in Peru and Ron Simms, Deputy Secretary, Department of Housing and Urban Development as well as myself.
Lord Mayor Bjerregaard’s talked about a Climate Summit for Mayors to run in parallel to the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen. Mayors from Delhi, New York, Hong Kong, Moscow, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro and Sydney and many others are participating. Copenhagen has one of the largest and most successful district heating systems that supplies 97% of the city with clean, affordable heating recovered from waste heat from power plants and waste incineration. Ron Simms was a great champion for the new inter-agency approach to promoting green communities and improving livability. He described how green mortgages and other financial incentives are being bundled into larger grants to communities to seed programs that will be self-sustaining over time.
I was again asked about infrastructure support for electric vehicles (three for three) and then was finally asked to share experiences and best practices from the Empire State Building project. This case study never fails to captivate and inspire an audience. During a break-out, a challenge emerged of designing all new buildings to be carbon neutral and improving the efficiency of all existing buildings by 50%. Projects such as our IDeAS project in San Jose, CA and the Empire State Building are cited as evidence that these goals may be achievable on a broader scale.
The final event that we participated in was a special session on infrastructure entitled “Building a Better Future.” President Clinton participated along with Brad Pitt and Tom Darden of Make it Right, a non-profit focused on developing safe, green, energy efficient and affordable housing in New Orleans post Katrina. This is a great story about building a community of 150 LEED Platinum homes in a devastated area of New Orleans seeing no redevelopment two years after Katrina. Through thoughtful re-engineering of the entire design and construction process, these homes are being built at a cost of $150 per square foot which is competitive to conventional construction. Monthly utility bills are in the $30-50 range due to the use of solar PV with some as low as $8 per month. Bill McDonough later joined the panel made some provocative comments. He asked that we not to start initiatives or projects with metrics as they naturally lead to benchmarking which drives to goals that are “less bad.” He instead suggests starting with clear principles based on “good” outcomes like “no toxics”, “no waste”, “renewable energy” before defining strategies, actions and metrics.
Before the panel, Johnson Controls along with Jack Hidary, Jeff Tannenbaum and Bracken Hendricks were recognized by President Clinton for our commitment to PACENOW, an innovative energy efficiency financing model. Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) was created to accelerate the retrofitting of America’s existing buildings through PACE bonds which allow commercial and residential property owners to finance energy efficiency measures and small renewable energy projects as a lien on their property tax bill. The important role of companies like Johnson Controls in guaranteeing the energy savings was made by the President, who is a strong advocate for the approach.
This is my last update from a very busy and exciting week in New York. (Check out my reports from earlier in the week in the Archives for this month.) There is much to be positive about including the role of energy efficiency in buildings and vehicles to help reduce carbon emissions and create a strong clean energy economy. Onward to Copenhagen!
Read more at: http://yourenergyforum.com/blog/2009/09/climate_week_people_and_progre_2.html.