Cost-effective. The concept permeates any discussion about energy efficiency choices, whether it’s choosing ENERGY STAR™ over generic or arguing about the right “pass” point in a code or justifying a concept to develop into a new product. Energy efficiency has to be cost-effective. Or so we have been led to believe. And for good reason – practically speaking, there is only so much money to go around. We have to make choices.
Interestingly, energy-efficient products have been backed into a decision-making corner by the very thing that makes them attractive – their cost-effectiveness. We’ve brainwashed our public into thinking that any energy efficiency measure has to pay for itself. If it’s not, why should we do it? I confess, even though I “know better,” I wind up either fighting with my husband who has a steadfast middle-America mentality or I fall into the trap myself.
Then I read this kind of headline and I remember why we should be energy-efficient and why I keep fighting the good fight: Welsh mine tragedy: Fourth Gleision miner found dead.
This story wasn’t sensational like the tragedy in Copiapo, Chile. These guys just simply died, in the pursuit of cheap black rock that keeps our lights and TVs and air-conditioners on. This Internet story is the 21st century equivalent of the single column report on page 5 in the local paper.
I have one of those clippings, kept by my family for more than 100 years. My great-grandfather died in a mining accident. Back then, it probably had a negligible impact on the price that Bethlehem Steel paid for the coal that kept its furnaces running to make the girders for that NYC skyscraper. But it had a huge effect on my grandfather. So much so that Grandpap chose to carry nitroglycerin for a living because “he wasn’t going to die underground.” It was only luck that we didn’t lose a second family member to coal. I’m sure it seemed like a major inconvenience that he had to tramp over to the restroom in the next building that fateful day. I’m sure when he came back, it took him a while to realize that his building really had gone boom.
I can’t help but wonder just how many families have paid the human price of power. Has yours? Has someone you know paid it? It’s a deadly business, this finding, extracting, using fuel. There are examples all around, whether they grab the headlines or are buried on page 5.
And yet, few seriously think we should stop this pursuit (just to be clear, I’m not suggesting it either). If anything, we’re ramping up efforts. Drill Alaska and the Gulf, frack Marcellus Shale, strip the Appalachians, cover the Mojave and Sonoran. For as many people who oppose these efforts, just as many or more support them. Their lives and livelihood depend on them. They have families to feed, so they willingly take the job and the hazard pay that goes with it. Without it, they have few or no prospects. With it, they have good paying jobs and it’s dependable, since “product” demand is certainly there. Energy has become a staple like food, clothing and shelter. In fact, in order to have these basics, we need power. So the pursuit continues because where there is a will, there is a way.
Which is why we should remember this human price of power as we “will” our “way” through decisions. It’s not really about doing the right thing. It doesn’t matter if you believe in global warming or if you think it’s a lot of mumbo jumbo hocus pocus.
What it’s really about is respect and honor for the everyman working man (or woman). Last week, our country honored thousands who died in the September 11th attacks. Why? Their sacrifice? Not that I mean to minimize their sacrifice, but most of them were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. It could have been any of us. Truly, we venerate the rescue personnel more, because even though it was their profession, even though they were getting paid, they chose to do something that could get them killed. Many of them were.
Do power workers deserve our respect and honor any less? In many ways, the miners and drillers and linemen face the same risks and pay the same price as firemen. It’s just that it’s smaller, more local, less sensational. But it’s still there.
I was going to write “how much you want to bet if you add up all the people who died from power related incidents, they would be as many as the rescue industry?” Then I thought, why does it have to be a contest? Isn’t one life enough? Isn’t one life too many? “To the world you may be just one person, but to one person you may be the world.” What happens when the pursuit of power takes your world away? In Saving Private Ryan, Tom Hanks’ dying character commands that Ryan “earn” the sacrifice that the regiment made for him. I tend to think the same way when it comes to power. Maybe it’s my family history, but when I make decisions about my power usage, I think I need to remember the risk that was taken to get that kW or Btu to me. When a sacrifice is made, I can know in my heart, I made that kW “worth it.”
In the glass and window industry, we’re fortunate enough to be able to produce, sell and install products that honor and respect these folks. We’re not going to stop the pursuit of power, but over the last decade, the decisions we’ve made and the will we have pursued resulted in more energy-efficient products. Whether voluntarily or kicking and screaming, the products on the market today and the processes that made them make the most of the power that we do have. They honor the workers that pursue power. We’re making their work WORTH MORE. Even further, my take-away from last week’s GlassBuild event is that companies continue to look for, produce and sell the next-gen efficient products. They’re pushing the envelope, literally.
That’s something to be proud of. Good job, keep it up, don’t forget. Here end the melodramatics.
