Green Options

Indiana-based Bright Automotive has released some pretty impressive performance figures for its technically (and aerodynamically!) slick new IDEA cargo van. Aimed primarily at delivery fleets and in-town rental companies, the freshly-upgraded guppy promises to shave operating costs by thousands of dollars per year, per van.

More pictures, an official company press release, and my own opinions (that nobody asked for) after the jump.

There should be no secrets among those who continue to prosper in mostly non-financial ways despite the challenging economic times.  These people live (and perhaps work) following the laws of nature more than the “laws of supply and demand” of the increasingly dysfunctional “free” and global marketplace.

Here’s how to thrive in the abundance of renewable energy, organic food and a more healthy and sustainable lifestyle. While not all frugality rules, this approach to living more sustainably does require some degree of curtailment, scaling down and living within our means.  It means using credit cards less and relying on community members or family more.  However, the result can be a rich life filled with health and well-being, friends and family, more time to do the things you love to do (imagine that!), a greater sense of purpose, and, my favorite, happiness.

Below are a few suggestions to get you started or continue your journey.  Please add some of your own in the comments.  Maybe some of the BIG banks or BIG government folks might take notice that a few ideas do not involve printing and spending trillions of dollars to “spur consumption.”

•  Powering the renewable energy revolution

Times couldn’t be better for installing your own renewable energy system or improving your energy efficiency of your home or business (or both!), depending on the state you live in.  The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 extended the Energy Policy Act of 2005. These new acts extend and expand the federal tax credits available for energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements made in 2009 and beyond.  There are numerous renewable energy cash-back incentives, tax credits and low interest loans that can help ease the transition from a fossil-fuel based economy to one that thrives on solar income.  Check out the Database for State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency (www.dsireusa.org) to see what’s available in your state.

There’s more to buying that high-tech gizmo or fancy new clothes, especially if you put it on plastic.   If you’re anything like the so-called average American with combined balances on your credit cards pushing upwards of $10,000 per household, then you’re paying a lot more than the purchase price after factoring in an exorbitant interest rate on the unpaid balance.  Just one credit card with a balance of $15,000 and a monthly minimum payment of $300 based on an interest rate of 13 percent would take nearly twenty years to pay off, amounting to nearly $9,000 in interest, according to the website Cardweb.com.

To save or spend?

This raging debate among economic recovery pundits mask the reality that based on our current “free trade” global economic system, what we really mean by spending is consuming.  And in this global free trade system, ecological costs are “externalized” if we use the correct economist’s jargon.  As a result, we pollute, destroy and exploit where ever we can.  If you can’t do this in the United States very easy thanks to national laws and regulations, well then, export your manufacturing and service operations to places that don’t have many, or any, regulations.  Then import these products back into the U.S. to sell at a big box store, plopped down where there used to be viable farmland.  For example, these BIG companies move operations to places where poor people can sort through toxic junk computers for scrap or to places where throwing something away can’t possibly ruin our own clean air or water in our communities.

According to Emily Kaiser’s analysis for Reuters:  “U.S. President Barack Obama needs to convince Americans to spend now and save later in order to get the U.S. economy back on solid footing.”  It doesn’t have to be this way.

The Middle Class Task Force held its first meeting in Philadelphia and the focus was on green jobs. VP Joe Biden headed the task force and was joined by several cabinet members and…Leo Gerard, president of United Steelworkers. But where was a green small business representative? I first noticed that organized labor had a big seat at the green jobs table at the Green Jobs National Conference last month in Washington, DC. The conference was organized by The Blue Green Alliance, “a strategic partnership between labor unions and environmental organizations created to expand the job-creating potential of the green economy.”

When I asked for a press pass, BGA’s National Communications Director, Kelly Schwinghammer, couldn’t have been nicer. However, I followed-up with two emails to discuss the tension between small business and labor on the green jobs issue and have yet to hear back.

Earlier this month, CNNMoney.com asked: ”Will a union-friendly Congress hurt small business?” Nowhere does this question apply more aptly than to green jobs, where much of the growth is expected to come from ecopreneurs. The problem with too much of organized labor is that when it has to do with green jobs is they are in it for the jobs part, not the green part. In fact, organized labor supports all sorts of not-very-good-for-the-environment jobs, like clean coal; we know that clean coal is a crock (or to quote Van Jones: “We could have clean coal and we could have unicorns pull our cars for us.”)