By Joe Salimando www.eleblog.com
Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote that “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and devines.” The first nine words are frequently quoted.
Just now, in 2009 and 2010, we’ve been learning that he was wrong.
“Energy Star In Harsh Media Spotlight” reads the headline from EcoHome magazine.
It’s an odd headline, as it makes it seem as if “the media” has elected to attack the national EPA/DOE program.
That’s not the case.
Trusted agency shoots program in heart
What’s on the front burner is a March report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Formerly known by another name, the nickname for this agency one was “Congress’s watchdog.” It’s probably the single government agency most worthy of the respect of every citizen.
Why? GAO investigates. It reports. And, over a period of years, the investigating and reporting have appeared to be entirely free of partisan taint.
Subtitle of the GAO report: “Covert Testing Shows the Energy Star Program Certification Process is Vulnerable to Fraud and Abuse.” Read a summary report here or download the 27-page PDF from that page.
Reading the report in full, you might find – well, you might conclude that the report is actually more troubling than the subtitle indicates.
In response, the EPA & DOE have:
- Issued (via EPA) a 3-paragraph response and a longer press release.
- Offered a joint EPA-DOE letter to “manufacturer partners” on “immediate changes” to the Energy Star product qualification process.
Check mirror before extending fingers
One can’t help but think about the “global warming” data-and-e-mail fiasco that hit the media only months ago. A British research organization, instrumental to the 2007 IPCC report – the one that earned its promulgators a Nobel Prize! – was found to have tinkered (at the very least) with the data.
That brouhaha was blamed on the media, on those who are skeptical about human-caused warming . . . on everything and everybody, it appeared, except what appeared to have been done. The wrongdoing was exaggerated, we were told – as if scientific data do not become completely worthless when the source is suspected of altering the numbers to fit the conclusions!
For the green “movement,” these two episodes constitute a reminder with all of the subtlety of a baseball bat to the head: Whatever a “foolish consistency” might or might not be, one can’t go out pointing fingers about anything if one has a closet full of skeletons.
What this means for contractors
There’s a lesson here for electrical contractors who want to adopt a “green” approach. You must be consistent; you are not one of those “little statesmen or philosophers or devines.” There are higher expectations for you and your company
Some examples:
- Are you going to claim, in a printed brochure, that you are green? First make sure your printer has obtained recycled paper for the press run! If the printer has done that, a “printed on recycled paper” legend, with the appropriate logo, should appear on that document.
- Will you tell people that you avoid harming the environment? Sweep up those copper scraps in your shop and recycle them. Print on both sides of paper in your office computer printer; recycle the paper if it’s not “classified” (shred the stuff that’s important, and then recycle that, too!).
- Are you positioning your company as offering expertise on lighting and energy efficiency? Use Electrical Contractor magazine, your local distributors and reps, and the many Internet resources to stay “up” on what’s going on inside that specialty.
Electrical contractors can legitimately claim to be green and feature sustainability in their everyday lives. But what we all should know, reinforced most recently by this Energy Star fiasco . . . is that if you’re going to “talk the talk” – well, you had better already be walking the walk.