It's not easy being green

Diesel Progress North American Edition, Oct, 2004 by Mike Osenga

We recently sat through a presentation in which a speaker uttered the line, "reflecting today's current high level of environmental awareness and sensitivity".

The implication was today's interest in most things environmental was really somewhat of a fad. Like hula hoops, Nehru jackets or mullets, all this environmental sensitivity stuff will eventually fade.

Tell that to the EPA. I wonder what color the tulips are on his planet?

In one sense the speaker was correct, but not in the way he intended. Today's current high level of environmental awareness and sensitivity will pass. It will pass into standard operating procedure, into a way of everyday business life. In fact, it already has.

Is there any company; anywhere, planning on a future less environmentally aware than today? Can any administration afford to not have a green plank of some shade in their platform? Most lobbying today involves timing, not right or wrong.

Frankly, I'm as frustrated as anyone about all the bad science going around with diesel emissions being blamed for everything from the decline in American cinema to the continued use of the designated hitter.

But by 2007, with low sulfur diesel and particulate traps, it's going to be mostly moot anyway. Society said "clean it up" and the engineering community said, "okay." And is. Some want it sooner, others say later, but it's getting done. Not with rhetoric and threats, but testing and development.

Green is the hot color of the future.

Consider that anyone over 34 years old has never lived in a time without a Clean Air Act. And anyone under about 56 years old has never worked in markets without clean air regulations. Granted, they were always just kind of there, and then bang! they got all serious and restrictive on us. Such is life.

And frankly most industry-leading companies have long understood this and incorporated it into their planning, strategies and processes. To most it's not news, but obviously the speaker in question has been on vacation for the last decade or so.

The younger you go on the demographic curve, the more deeply ingrained environmental awareness and sensitivity is. But, I also think that we ubiquitous baby boomers, who in large part got the environment on the mass public agenda in the first place, are also going to move back up that curve.

We, for the most part, started out being environmentally aware and pushy. We kind of got caught up in life its ownself and it moved down the priority list. But now as we get older and near retirement, but living healthier and longer, things environmental may move back up the list. After all, how much golf can you play?

In just about every industry in the U.S., the EPA has moved strongly to clean up new products and new installations. In some markets, like these, the regulators are now looking at the equipment in operation as the next item on the clean-up agenda.

Whether you agree with it all or not--and there is plenty of quibble room for those so inclined--product development is now colored green, at least in part, and this too shall not pass.

Mike Osenga

mosenga@dieselpub.com