City Green to present at Kimberley 'green' Home Show

Just in case you are not full of New Year’s resolutions yet, here’s one to add to the list of possibilities: in 2010, you – we – will take the first step in the journey to a greener future, perhaps a 100% sustainable future.

For those who figure that this would be an intriguing, exciting and worthwhile journey, there is a way to take the first, or many steps in this direction. Building Sustainability: A Green Homes and Renovations Conference is coming January 29 and 30, 2010, to Kimberley, BC, presented by Wildsight with partners the Columbia Basin Trust, Kootenay Rockies Innovation Council, City of Kimberley, City Green and the BC Heritage Branch.

Anyone who is interested in how housing fits into their journey to sustainability will find riveting presentations, fascinating workshops and a Green Building Showcase, a free trade show open to all. Full conference information is available at www.wildsight.ca.

This is an exciting time for green building. Housing uses a tremendous amount of materials, energy, human effort and money, as well as natural resources: wild and agricultural land, water, soils, timber and landfill space. The products used to build and operate housing can be toxic, their manufacture requires inputs of energy and materials in turn. The industry is changing in response to these challenges, and the marketplace is becoming aware of the demand for sustainable buildings: for homes that enrich the social, economic and ecological wealth of the community.

At the same time, the customers are there: many people in the East Kootenay who have expressed an interest in the conference are homeowners and landowners in the area; most are residents. This is a growing and dynamic market, a combination of older folks who wish to leave a better legacy while fighting fixed costs in rents and energy, and younger folks who have new children confronted with the future for their children, with the same constraints on their spending powers. Both are looking for a better way of housing themselves.

One particularly inspiring journey to sustainability is that of Ray Anderson, industrialist and CEO of carpet manufacturer Interface. Ray Anderson began a 16-year quest to make his business 100% sustainable back in 1994. Since then this energy intensive company has:

• cut greenhouse gas emissions by 82%
• cut fossil fuel consumption by 60%
• cut waste by 66%
• cut water use by 75%
• invented and patented new machines, materials, and manufacturing processes
• and increased sales by 66%, doubled earnings and raised profit margins.

As Mr. Anderson explains in his recent book, Confessions of a Radical Industrialist: Profits, People, Purpose – Doing Business by Respecting the Earth, the move to a more sustainable future for his company was inspired by “an arrow to the heart,” after reading Natural Capitalism by businessman Paul Hawken. The book questioned the traditional way of doing business, where the price paid for the product did not include many of the “external” costs – the price of landfills, pollution in the air, the damage done to the water, rivers and oceans and other ill effects. Anderson had to admit that he was one of the people described in the book who took full advantage of legal means of disposing of the waste generated by his factories, without knowing what the impacts were, and without taking responsibility for the results.

For Anderson, it was the beginning of a professional journey to fess up, and to quit doing business while expecting others to clean up any resulting messes. An epiphany for the environment, it led Interface Carpets to a position of corporate sustainability that is the envy of the marketplace, and which is leading a whole industry in its efforts to get it right, for the environment, for people, AND for business.

Ray Anderson chose a sustainable path for his company in 1994, a path that has held many challenges and opportunities. As he explains in his Confessions and later, he figures he made the right choice, and credits the continuing success of Interface in the face of the recent economic downturn to this choice and its benefits. Anderson and the people at Interface have created a company that wastes less, producing product that provides better customer service and satisfaction, with less impact on the environment, with higher returns than business as usual.

Now if only all resolutions would turn out as good by half…Maybe Anderson’s onto something. Come to the Building Sustainability conference and see what opportunities await. Ray Anderson will be sending video greetings to the conference during the Friday evening opening event at McKim Theatre.