[With apologies to B. Traven . . . ]
After last week's intemperate outburst I thought it was time for a return to our periodic pieces on pathways to New Normal. This week's leverage point -- No. 5 of 12 in Donella Meadows' Places to Intervene in a System -- is Changing the Rules of the System.
Changing the rules -- so long as the infrastructure exists to enforce those rules -- is the most effective leverage point in the "conventional" toolkit of effecting change. [Foreshadowing: The top four leverage points are a bit more ephemeral -- basically, changing the way we think.]
One of the myths of freedom is that it is truly "free." Without rules there can be no civilization there can be no order there can be no progress. The Ten Commandments are rules. Free markets require rules to prevent fraud and cheating; these rules give confidence to the system and allow people to make money. When these rules are flaunted or manipulated, as happened in the recent financial meltdown, the entire system is undermined (though a silver lining often is such events lead to changes in the rules). Free speech works so long as it is not perjurous, slanderous, libelous or hateful propaganda.
One of the key transitions from the status quo to New Normal involves the process of changing the rules of the system. Obviously, those who benefited under the old rules will resist the transition to the new rules. Thus, the current energy bill, in spite of -- or perhaps because of -- the draft climate bill, continues to be larded with special perks for 20th century industries.
The rules of the system structure the incentives, the activities, and the requirements for success. The people who write the rules often end up being the ones who benefit most, which is why an open, participatory and transparent process of setting these rules is so important. For most of the 20th century, writing the rules was limited to governments or fairly narrowly defined and parochial professional or business associations. These processes were dominated by highly moneyed interests or packed with veterans that had crafted and mastered the rules so as to keep themselves in control.
Briefly jumping ahead to Leverage Point No. 4 -- how the process and structure of writing the rules is organized -- we have seen in the last decade or so with the explosion of the Internet the ability to organize people and information outside of these ossified existing structures. This has allowed upstart entities, such as the U.S. Green Building Council to organize across a much broader representational platform than the traditionally siloed professional societies.
Whereas in the past processes such as the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) was strictly the purview of large multinational corporations, now we have New Normal organizations such as Green Seal and the Institute for Market Transformation certified as a standards setting organizations. This new legitimacy allows for a much more rapid and effective proliferation of New Normal rules, such as the newly promulgated Green Seal standard for restaurants.
Back in 1978, a rule change known as PURPA (Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act) changed the rules to allow non-utility generators to put their power into the electric grid, the rules of which had previously precluded anybody but a regulated utility from generating power, and began the birthing process of the modern distributed and renewable energy industries.
Without this change in the rules, the groundbreaking for the Solyndra facility in California might never have happened, or may have been simply a Potemkin action by a utility to demonstrate that they were "doing something" about climate and the environment.
The next set of rule changes for the electric utility sector that affect buildings is likely to have to do with rules and requirements governing the installation and performance of so-called smart meters. As noted in earlier pieces, this means of providing direct feedback to consumers will have an important leverage effect on energy use and climate emissions. But, as in all systems often all things are interconnected. Thus, in order for the information leverage point to be activated, the rule-changing leverage point also needs to be activated.
Imagine how much easier an assignment like Catherine Sweere's at salesforce.com would be if accounting rules and practice did not enforce the imaginary line between capital and operational costs. There would be much less hunting for data and cross-fucnctional team-building required because the rules would channel peoples' day-to-day efforts to have that information at their finger tips. (Getting them to DO anything about it is the subject of future Leverage Points …)
Finally, the original rules of LEED documentation and certification were far too cumbersome for large portfolio holders, such as Wells Fargo, to certify large numbers of buildings. So, USGBC created the Portfolio Program -- new rules to leverage the ability to certify large numbers of properties effectively. Wells Fargo's Manhattan Beach branch is their first beneficiary of this rule change.
This week's Look-Grandpa-I-picked-up-the-$20-bill-you-said-was-fake-but-it's-real! shout-out goes to Chuck Gordon of Siemens Water Technologies for bringing home the fact that saving water is both cost-effective and a social imperative. Remember, every day, the sun provides more than 2,000 times the energy humans use for all purposes, but no new water has been created on this planet for billions of years!
Rob Watson
Executive Editor, GreenerBuildings.com
You can reach Rob at rob.watson@greenerworldmedia.com or follow him on Twitter @KilrWat.