Simple Living with Wanda Urbanska

Wanda's Diary Entries

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

I’ve shared the same “space” with Al Gore three times in my life. My first occasion was in 1988 when I attended an intimate fundraiser for Gore, then a United States Senator from Tennessee, in suburban Washington DC after he’d thrown his hat into the presidential primary ring. The second time I saw him (from afar) was on July 30, 1998 — my son Henry’s first birthday — when he and then President Bill Clinton came to North Carolina to designate a portion of the New River in Ashe County as an American Heritage River. (My fantasy had been to get a photo of the president and vice president holding baby Henry, but alas, at the end of the day, I was just relieved that our party survived the crowds and scorching sun without my elderly mother and stepfather passing out from heat stroke.)

My third encounter with Al Gore came a week ago Saturday, September 27, in San Jose, California, when I heard him give a rousing keynote address at West Coast Green, the nation’s premium green building show, in which I was participating. I don’t remember exactly what Gore said in 1988 or 1998 (can’t find my notes) but I came away from this 2008 presentation with the feeling that Gore was solidly in his element, uncompromised, and passionate about working to retool the global economy into a green economy, with planetary protection front and center.

That Saturday morning program — to a crowd of 3,000 in the historic, Mission-style 1936 San Jose Civic Auditorium — was the moment to which the conference had been building. It was the time that the swarms on the floor left their meandering (or posts) for a cup of inspiration.

Former California Governor Jerry Brown — now the state’s Attorney General — was the opening act. “Every election is about change,” Brown observed, “but government is never about change.” He recalled his own dismissal by the critics in 1975 as “Governor Moonbeam” for what at the time seemed like pie-in-the-sky ideas (such as developing solar and wind energy) that today are quickly becoming mainstream. California is now “the most energy-efficient state” in the nation, he said, while noting that the federal government has been “at war” with its efforts for more than a quarter century. “I said we’re entering an era of limits; they said, ‘Brown’s against growth.’ “ What we need today is “a big shakeup.” The word among Californians is that Brown can run hot or cold on the podium, but no doubt about it, he was electrifying that morning in San Jose.

Al Gore was equally explosive, pacing the stage as he spoke, alternately light-hearted and deadly serious, invoking calamity and hope. “I’m a recovering politician, step nine,” he quipped, in his trademark deadpan tone. The talk of the hour was the massive federal bail-out of financial institutions. Al Gore turned the idea on its head by proposing even grander solutions to the crisis, such as “bailing in” renewable energy and green building. Why not create “Connie Mae,” he proposed, “the carbon neutral mortgage association” to underwrite green mortgages?

“We’re running out of fossil fuels,” he said. “Unfortunately, we have enough to incinerate the planet.” However, hope and change are at hand. “The green revolution is the solution to the financial crisis and the national security crisis and the debt crisis.” The time is right for “bold moves,” Gore said. Why not set the goal of obtaining 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy in ten years? “There is nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come. There are moments in history, when one era ends and another begins.” The present moment, he made clear, is one of those moments.

Representing NCFI, I spent most of my time at West Coast Green, near the SG Blocks ™ Harbinger Showhouse, which was constructed from reused shipping containers with NCFI’s InsulStar® closed-cell spray foam insulation. InsulStar® –considered “the greenest of the green” – was selected to provide significant energy savings to the model home.

Walking around the floor was a feast to the senses. Innovative products and booths and amazing people were to be found at each turn of the bend. At the Caroma booth (home to the world’s leading supplier of water-saving dual-flush toilets), I met Glenn Sheargold who explained, that the dual-flush commode (designed by one of his friends) is “Australia’s little gift to a thirsty world.” I remembered seeing a Caroma toilet when our crew shot at Ed Begley Jr.‘s house. Having had poor luck with my own recently installed dual-flush commode — but very much committed to the concept — I turned to Glenn for advice. What else could he do but recommend one of his models?

Though this was my third West Coast Green conference, it was the first time I had the chance to meet its founder, Christi Graham, and program director Karen Jackson — lively, lovely, visionary women both. I bumped into friends and colleagues David Johnston, Sarah Susanka, Kathleen Redmond and Scott Terrell. SIMPLE LIVING National Advisory board member Stan King biked 15 miles from his home to the San Jose Convention Center to attend the roundtable I hosted about transforming business by becoming an inspirational role model. To me and my colleagues, the entire West Coast Green conference was an inspirational role model, a portal to a new way living and being.