An article by Bill McKibben in the June 29th issue of New Yorker caught my attention during my summer recent summer catch-up reading. McKibben, a writer, environmental activist and Middleton College prof., was one of the first to write about climate change and has been a lead in the anti-Keystone XL pipeline movement.
The article describes how the Borowski family, customers of Green Mountain Power (GMP) a Vermont distribution utility, reduced their household carbon footprint by 88 % in a few days – NO exotic technology, NO money laid out by the homeowner. Like most folks, the family did not have the surplus cash to make a plain Jane house affordably green. The utility did the makeover as a package, co-ordinating with 3 different contractors. The Borowskis are paying for the improvements on their electric bill using some of the energy savings. The utility gets the ability to peak load shift, saving capital cost and avoiding their generation supplier’s peak power rates and reducing carbon impact. GMP also reduced its electrical rates by 2 % in 2014.
The GMP story has a strong Canadian connection. The August 29th “The Lunch” column in the Globe and Mail Business section profiles Sophie Brochu, CEO of Gaz Metro. Under Ms Brochu’s leadership Gaz Metro has bought several US utilities including Green Mountain Power. When natural gas prices were at peak levels, the Quebec utility “implemented one of the industry’s first energy efficiency programs to help clients consume less” natural gas. The innovative GMP program is spin on the Canadian Gaz Metro program.
Ms Brochu believes in “slow companies – business that deliberately sacrifice maximum profit to build wider social support for their activities”. Gaz Metro has doubled its assets under Ms Brochu’s leadership and in a regulated industry that means regulated profits have also grown.
The Obama administration, through the EPA, have set goals for the USA to reduce carbon emissions by 28% of 2005 levels by 2025. US federal legislators and bureaucrats have been visiting the Borowskis to learn more about the GMP program. Canadian leadership should visit Gaz Metro to learn how to do it in Canada.
