Green Ideas

Consumerism has driven the globe to the staggering growth levels we have seen over the past 20 years.  Countries such as India and China with their massive populations and the burgeoning consumer populations have fueled growth rates as high as 12% annually respectively.  People in general love to shop and collect whatever makes them happy.  This is a common social trait among societies with capitalistic economies (yes China) that people want to keep up with the Joneses.  With all this growth however the downside has been the negative impact upon the environment.  India and China have been consuming tremendous amounts of Natural resources to fuel the growth and will even surpass the US as the biggest polluting nations. The one bright spot that I see is the opportunity to tap the social energy for growth and capitalism, specifically in a un-favorable global economy.  America wants things cheap and the rest of the world wants America to buy from them in order to keep their economies growing.

Enter Barak Obama and his plan to build Green Industries and technologies.  We Americans have always been at the forefront of innovation.  Whether the technology has been a benefit to the planet or not we come up with great ideas.  With funds being made available to innovate around green Ideas we will have a new wave of innovation.

As consumers we could shift our focus to how we can consume products that help us save money and dependence on external sources of energy.  We should not shift our focus from Keeping up with the Joneses however.  In order for this plan to work we will still need to be consumers.  That’s our system and we can’t change that very easily and besides don’t you like watching the super-bowl on a 52” LCD with 7.1 surround?  However this time we will consume the things that will make our energy dependence less than Jones next door.  Let’s say I replace my roof to instead be a solar energy collector with the most advanced collection technology.  Even wind based solutions could be looked at and everything could be made esthetically pleasing. And these technologies should really work and be cost effective.

The competition on the Manufacturing and support front will still be won by China and India.  We should be careful not to fool ourselves that we capable of doing it cheaper and this would also go against the system we have created over that past 30 years.  (The installation and maintenance jobs could not of course be Outsourced).  I digress, so back to the point.  We innovate we and own the technology.  We get the manufacturing done in lower cost economies and in turn sell the same product back to the countries that Manufacture the products for the US companies - this is doable, but tough since those countries don’t seem to have the same environmentally friendly initiatives.  The economy gets back on track we lower our dependence on non-renewable forms of energy and we get to keep the laws of consumerism in tact. It seems to be a win-win for all.  So this is the part whether you tell me I am full of it or I have something and you have ideas that can improve upon the one I just finished putting out there.

Let the Marketing exercise begin!