We attended the KAIROS event at Mount Mary Retreat Centre in Ancaster on Friday 12th October. Emily and I staffed the booth and we many some interesting contacts.
Our wonderful volunteer Betsy Agar was registered for the conference and was able to staff the booth as well when she wasn't in the workshops.
She wrote up a report which I have edited below;
Transportation and the future of cars
Presented by: Liz Benneian (Pronounced Bennyan)
President, Oakvillegreen Conservation Association
http://oakvillegreen.org
Key Transportation Issues: Peak Oil and Global Warming
Peak Oil
Oil is a finite resource and the world’s geologists estimate that half of our oil reserves have been used. Peak Oil is not to be confused with running out of oil. Peak oil is a point at which demand exceeds supply, which carries with it tremendous social impacts.
Citing the statistic that 20% of our fossil fuel energy is used in transport, Liz made the direct connection between transportation and Peak Oil. In fact, she refers to Peak Oil as a transportation issue, reasoning that built environment energy needs have so many alternatives available. As such, she projects that we will travel less in the future.
Global Warming
She spoke briefly of the limited fuel alternatives currently proposed for transportation: biofuels, ethanol and sugar cane.
Biofuels are not the answer because of the threat to food production.
Ethanol she discredits as an energy loser. That is to say, it takes too much energy to produce ethanol.
Sugar cane is the most promising alternative energy for transportation, but this option is not without drawbacks. Sugar cane is associated with deforestation and monocropping. Field burning is a practice that facilitates harvest but also produces pollution. Finally, sugar cane fuel production is another energy intensive process. The Return on Investment (ROI) is 8:1, which is significantly less than oil’s ROI of 40:1
North-South, East-West
Liz drew audible gasps from her audience when she reported that that the U.S. is responsible for 45% of global auto emissions, and that SUVs in the U.S. emit as much as the sum of 55 of their biggest coal-fired power plants. She is particularly concerned with the land use patterns developing nations are adopting: they are building suburbs; they are repeating our mistakes.
Environmental (In)Justice
She briefly mentioned the environmental impacts of the practices of the developed world, not to diminish their importance, probably to reserve attention for the social justice issues that, in my view, are often overshadowed by more locally relevant environmental issues. She highlighted our intense use of energy and raw materials.
Social (In)Justice
She directly connected our car culture with an undeniable rise in obesity rates, as well as pollution related illnesses such as heart disease, cancer and respiratory diseases. The prevalence of road accidents and our perception of risk were also discussed. We seem to have accepted these risks or somehow discounted their importance.
However, impacts not easily ignored but not often felt by people in developed nations, such as Canada include wars, civil conflicts and food scarcity. Without mention of every environmental activist’s favourite target, she drew attention to the immoral choices made in the name of oil. She linked the lack of action in Darfur to China’s import of Sudanese oil. Taking action in Darfur could, and likely would, threaten Chinese-Sudanese relations.
She illustrated the connection between food scarcity and Peak Oil, using corn as the example. Corn-based fuels increase demand for corn. Corn prices rise. Corn becomes expensive for consumption and farmers begin to cater to fuel producers. Also, excess corn is no longer available for humanitarian aid.
Under the heading:
“Why it is hard to change?” Liz suggested 10 reasons why these problems persist:
10 biggest companies in the world (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/global500/2007/)
Wal-Mart
Exxon Mobil
Royal Dutch Shell
BP (British Petroleum)
General Motors
Toyota Motor
Chevron
DaimlerChrysler
CononcoPhillips
Total (Petroleum)
Her technique was effective. She stirred her audience, but did not leave them feeling helpless. She then proposed a challenge.
Envisioning the future
To begin the interactive portion of the workshop, she explicitly reminded:
We can’t take more than we give back
We can’t give back petroleum
Then she formed six groups of 5. Each group was to envision an ideal living scenario and work backwards to determine the necessary steps to achieve that ideal.
Steps:
What – Explore visions/options
How – Strategize how this ideal can be achieved
Who – Examine who will have to take action
When – Examine short and long term goals to set out a timeline for action
Following the small group exercise, she invited the whole group to discuss their results. The following are some of those suggestions:
Vision:
self-reliant community
walkable cities
individual involvement in community
Short Term
eat locally
dense living
lobby government to cut oil and gas subsidies
pesticides will disappear, they are petroleum based
Medium Term
systemic change
leadership
from the people
workplace “Green Team”
mandatory local civil service
like German model
Her final point was that no matter what the demographic, every group she meets with calls for a re-engineering of society. She has promised to post her slides online, which will be very valuable as she suggests a number of personal and corporate actions that can be taken. The highlights of her suggestions include:
Policy changes happen at the budget stage, the planning(?) stage is too late
Public transportation must be in place before people move in or they buy two cars
Bus rapid transit is the cheapest most flexible public transit option
Greening Sacred Spaces
Presented by: Rory O’Brien
GSS Coordinator, Faith & the Common Good
http://www.faith-commongood.net/gss/
Video
Rory was not originally slated to speak and chose to screen their movie: Greening Sacred Spaces, the research for which is credited to Rory O’Brien. The following are notes from the movie.
Introduction
good stewards of Earth; calling for people of faith
multi-denominational
balance utility of space with environmental requirements
Energy Audit (In shortened version)
insulation
air leaks
appliances
water conservation
municipal subsidies may be available
HVAC distribution systems
Guide available at http://www.faith-commongood.net/docs/gsspracticalguide.swf
Light Green
place to begin
hand wash dishes
Recycling program
Compost
Environmental cleaning products
Recommended types?
Fair trade products
Plant trees
Low maintenance plants
Rain barrels
Community garden
Congregation participation
Medium Green
more time and money
longer term payoffs
educate congregation
structural engineering analysis
churches are landmark buildings
lead by example
High efficiency furnace
Geothermal or ground source heat pumps
HVAC
Sophisticated distribution system
Natural lighting
Skylights
Deep Green
long term project; time to deliberate
LEED certification
Reuse of materials to divert waste
Daylighting
Reducing water use
Link between architecture with theology
Passive solar collection
Displacement ventilation
Cool air from raised floor
Fake floor; plenum
Hot air rises and is redirected
Into floor plenum in the winter
Outside in the summer
Living wall
Fundraising
Volunteering
Congregation involvement
Four Major Barriers
Following the video, Rory discussed the major barriers to greening sacred spaces.
Motivation
For those not convinced of the social or environmental purpose, good energy conservation is just economic sense
Knowledge
Guidebook available on website http://www.faith-commongood.net/docs/gsspracticalguide.swf
Maintain HVAC systems
Retrofit
Energy audit
Organizational
Develop a green team
Financial
Audit can cost thousands
Recommendations can be very expensive
Long term benefits provide whole picture and convince it is worth while
Energy Audits
Green Communities Canada is an umbrella organization of Canadian energy auditors. Hamilton’s own Greenventure is a founding member (http://www.greenventure.ca/gv.asp?ID=100). A guidebook for going green is provided on the website of Faith and the Common Good, and it includes a “walk through” energy audit template. He strongly supports a professional audit, suggesting that the walk through audit starts people thinking and prompts behavioural change.
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