When someone makes a conscious decision to live more
sustainably, it is easy to get discouraged by the mindset of “I’m just one
person. What difference can I really make?” But when it comes to being
sustainable, the Axiom “ the little things make the biggest difference” can
certainly hold true. Don’t get me wrong;
I still think much has to be done before humanity can reach a state of benign or
regenerative interaction with our natural environment. However, it is dangerous
for us to assume that our seemingly small actions do not have a meaningful, positive
impact. For example, it is easy to
equate turning the lights off when you leave the room to saving a few cents. No
big deal, right? However, when you factor
in the process energy used to harvest and transport the raw material used to
create your energy, the transmission losses from power lines, and all the carbon
emissions associated with this overall process, it makes turning off the light
seem more important.
Having the ability to measure the positive impacts of your
sustainable actions and track your progress is a great motivator to continue
being more sustainable. Knowing where
you started from (your initial energy usage, water usage, etc.) gives you a
baseline to compare improvements against (aka benchmarking). This allows you to see if your changes
(actions, energy retrofits, etc.) are indeed positive and can help guide your decisions
on where to focus future actions to make the largest impacts. Lastly, associating your sustainable accomplishments
(energy saving, water savings, etc.) with an easily comprehensible reference can
make them more palpable and rewarding. For
example, it is hard to know if saving 1 kWh is good or not, but when you
consider that 1 kWh could power a T8 fluorescent lamp for 31 hours and 15
minutes, it gives greater context to your accomplishments.
At IBE, we have been diligent about tracking information
from the projects we have worked on.
This historic data is helpful to us in multiple ways. First, it allows us to compare and contrast
different project types and their performance and to monitor how the
sustainability of our projects has progressed over the years. This helps us
know that we are on the right track to higher levels of sustainability. Second,
this historic data acts as a marketing tool for the IBE, allowing for us to
more easily convey the benefits of our services to clients and more accurately
predict what type of performance and savings our clients should expect. Lastly,
when this historical data is put in easily understandable terms or comparisons,
it can really act as a motivator for IBE staff/project stakeholders and affirm
the fact we are making a meaningful positive impact. For example, in total, projects that the IBE
has been involved on have diverted over 15,000 tons of waste material from the
landfill (the equivalent weight of 60 statue of liberties). These materials were recycled and reused in
various ways and reduced the amount of raw materials that would have been
harvested to meet the needs that this recycled material filled. In addition, the
aggregate of IBE projects on average save approximately 95 million gallons of
water a year (enough to fill 143 Olympic sized swimming pools (assuming a 2 m
depth).
If these aforementioned accomplishments seem large, well,
it’s because they are! And this is before considering the added energy/carbon
savings that come from not having to harvest, transport raw materials to
produce new materials or to treat and transport the water saved. At IBE we are proud of our
accomplishments but recognize that there is still so more to be done. We will not rest on our laurels and encourage
you to do the same.
In the global scheme of things the changes we have helped
instate might be small but they are far from insignificant. If everyone were to
view their own actions in this way then all these small actions will add up to
one big change.
