DENVER--The Democratic Party has boasted that its convention here will be "the most environmentally-sustainable" gathering in the party's history, complete with a director of sustainability, low-power lighting in some areas, and calculations of carbon footprints.
Some of the goals include diverting 85 percent of waste that would normally go to a landfill, finding hundreds of people to sort waste into recycling-compost-landfill containers, and devising what The Wall Street Journal described as "lean 'n' green" catering guidelines that say food described thusly must not be fried and shall contain three of the following colors: red, green, yellow, blue/purple, and white.
That was the claim. And it has worked to a large extent: a troika of trash containers (again, recycling, compost, and landfill) dot the convention complex, even in areas that aren't officially part of the event. Drinking straws are made from corn and biodegradable. Room keys for hotels are made of wood. Delegates are buying carbon offsets.
But reality doesn't always match expectations. Bikes aren't permitted inside the convention's security perimeter, so golf carts and other vehicles are used. The wooden card keys proved buggy, and some were replaced with more-reliable plastic. Fried mini-donuts were prominently on sale inside the Pepsi Center. Party VIPs and celebrities told their decidedly non-green town cars and GMC Yukon XL mega-SUVs--rented from limo provider A Class Above Transportation--to idle, with engines and air conditioning on, in the nearby pickup area. (What self-respecting conference-goer wants to climb into a GMC Yukon when it's a toasty 93 degrees in the shade?)
Plus, a gathering of tens of thousands of people (and perhaps 70,000 for Barack Obama's Thursday acceptance speech) generate a whopping amount of trash. Even if it's sorted, recycling Obama-Biden signs takes energy, as does trucking in what the Journal reported to be 900 volunteers to monitor waste cans and perform the trash-separation, thereby taking them away from tasks that might be more productive.
Let us stipulate that the Democratic Party, perhaps because it was good marketing or perhaps because it was a sound principle, made an effort to promote recycling here. But whopping huge mounds of trash remain unavoidable--and the presence of idling SUVs--show that the concept remains more of a slogan than reality. (Then again, probably the only way to hold a "green" convention is to do it entirely over the Internet.)
These and the other photos were taken at the Democratic convention near the Pepsi Center. When you have tens of thousands of people, huge mounds of trash are inevitable.
(Credit: Declan McCullagh/CNET News)
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Clean-tech venture capitalist Nancy Floyd spoke at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday, saying Barack Obama's energy proposals would make the U.S. economy more competitive.
The speech by Floyd, founder and managing director at Nth Power, is a sign that clean energy and the environment are high-profile issues in this year's presidential campaign. Indeed, Hilary Clinton used her speech to tout "green collar" jobs.
Nancy Floyd, managing director of clean-tech venture capital firm Nth Power.
(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET News)Floyd has been doing energy investing for decades and often called on policy-makers to support the domestic renewable energy business.
In her talk, she took the same tack, arguing that Spain, China, Germany and other countries are taking the lead in the green technology field because of "smart, stable, forward-looking energy policies."
She said that the Obama energy plan, which he detailed in a speech in Michigan earlier this month, has the elements to support entrepreneurship in the field and address pressing environmental problems. An excerpt:
Green technology is where the computer industry was in 1984, the year the Macintosh computer was introduced. Think about how far we've come since then. That's how far-reaching and how transformational green technology will be. Thousands of new companies. Millions of new jobs. In fact, investments in wind and solar technologies have already created 2.4 million jobs.
Obama's proposals call for giving U.S. consumers a tax credit for purchasing fuel-efficient vehicles, a renewable energy mandate for electricity utilities, and a cap-and-trade system to regulate carbon emissions.
Floyd appears to represent many of her fellow clean-tech investors political leanings this year. A poll by Earth2Tech found that a majority of clean-tech venture capitalists support Obama.
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