Vision, planning, and hard work make good things happen. But don't underestimate the power of serendipity.

In an earlier blog post, I told of an old letter my wife found tucked inside a book in her office.  Written to her while she was Mayor of the City of Covington, the letter prompted me to reflect on my own memories of its writer, Dr. David G. Simons, and a presentation he gave to the Covington mayor and council back in 2008.  The subject of the letter and that presentation was Climate Change.

In a subsequent conversation with current Assistant City Manager John King, he told me Dr. Simons was his great uncle.  John also told me his father had an autographed original of the 1957 Life Magazine cover featuring Dr. Simons, which his father was lending to the  Covington Welcome Center.

At Christmas, I wrote a post titled Climate Is a Dickens of a Problem, in which I referenced the ghosts of climate past, present, and future.  This week, I encountered one of those kind and gentle spirits of our past in my own home.

My wife Kim and I were cleaning out our offices to prepare for home remodeling, when we found a letter tucked inside a hardcover volume on her bookshelf.  It was from David G. Simons, MD, an elderly Covington resident who -- as it turns out  -- was quite famous.  His photo once graced the cover of Life magazine.
 
Writing on November 13, 2008, Dr. Simons was following up on a presentation he gave to the City of Covington Mayor and Council.  (Kim was Mayor then.)  His urgent message warned local officials about the threat of climate change.  Reading the letter now, almost 15 years later, Bob Dylan's line from Tangled Up in Blue says it best:  "Every one of them words rang true and glowed like burning coal, pouring off every page like it was written in my soul from me to you.”

In his Ecocentrity Blog, Ray C. Anderson Foundation Executive Director John Lanier recently shared video of a speech by his grandfather, Ray Anderson, to illuminate a piece about our planet's crisis of biodiversity loss.  Like most recordings of Ray Anderson, this 2006 speech relating his 1997 "spear in the chest" moment after reading Paul Hawken's "The Ecology of Commerce" is profound. Everyone should watch the the entire seven minutes at the bottom of this page, but I found these words especially worthy of transcribing here.  Ray said:

"I had agreed reluctantly -- and I underline 'reluctantly' -- to speak to a newly assembled environmental task force of Interface people from around the world. I had been asked to offer an environmental vision. And I did not have an environmental vision. I did not want to answer this awkward question -- awkward for me because I could not get beyond: 'We obey the law, comply.' And I knew somehow that comply was not a vision."

In A Christmas Carol, Jacob Marley's ghost pays a Christmas Eve visit to his former partner Ebeneezer Scrooge to warn him of the torment awaiting in the afterlife.  Marley speaks of his own suffering penance for his deeds in life and implores Scrooge to change while there is still time.  Scrooge's reaction, of course, is to deny the reality of what he sees and hears with his own eyes and ears.  He is spooked, but persistent in his denial of the apparition before him.   Thankfully, for Scrooge, Marley's ghost is not yet done with him.  And a magical journey in one night ultimately changes the life of Ebeneezer Scrooge and transforms the world around him.

How did that happen?  And what is the lesson for those of us seeking to persuade family and friends to join us in striving to avert a different unpleasant fate.  One manifesting itself as our climate crisis.

If you’re reading this, odds are climate and environmental responsibility are important to you.  And with public opinion polls showing 75% of Americans are alarmed, concerned, or cautious about climate change, you likely have family and friends on your shopping list who would appreciate a thoughtful  gift given with sustainability in mind.
 
But shopping, wrapping, and getting gifts to loved ones on time is stressful enough!  Won’t fretting over environmental impact make that even harder?
 
It’s actually easier than you may think, and Sustainable Newton is here to break down the terms and offer up some environmentally sound gift ideas for the holidays. Let’s start by identifying some items that contribute to waste and often go ignored.

By Maurice Carter, Sustainable Newton Marketing & Communications Director

The financial model the City of Covington is operating under creates a $8.4M/year shortfall against the long-term maintenance and replacement costs for the city's infrastructure (roads, water and sewer lines, and electric and natural gas lines).  And that deficit will grow by that much every year it goes unfunded.  Put into practical terms, the city can ultimately only afford 46% of its existing 104 miles of roads inside the city limits.  That was the message delivered to elected officials, city staff, and citizens last week by Joe Minicozzi, principle of the consulting firm Urban3.

When my family and I embarked on our journey to Serenbe, we didn’t quite know what the day had in store. As we drove through the breathtaking countryside, I began to take note of my surroundings, making sure to soak up the atmosphere. The bustling noises of the city soon transformed into birds chirping and insects trilling. Sun-dappled roads lined with forest escorted us to our destination among the pines. As we inched closer to our destination, the serene and silent parade of electric vehicles signaled that our first-ever RayDay was just around the corner.

Speaking from the lens of one of the agricultural education teachers at Newton College & Career Academy, we are consistently looking to connect things. We strive to connect our students with curriculum, our curriculum with industry, and our industries with students. Ultimately that’s what sustainability is, right? Connecting things with one another? Webster defines sustainable as : capable of being sustained. Well, what does Webster say about sustained?  “Maintained at length without interruption or weakening."

That’s what I’m talking about. I don’t want our student’s progress to be interrupted, and I certainly don’t want it to be weakened. I want the experiences our students have to strengthen them as individuals, therefore strengthening our curriculum and local industries. Much like any type of braided wire or rope, we believe the more experiences we can connect with a student, the stronger that student becomes. Our students hopefully become more sustainable when they come through our program.

It's 10 o'clock (AM), and I have a feeling all's not well.

For a second straight late-December day, I'm sweating in shorts and a t-shirt, as thunder rumbles and heavy rain pounds my office windows.  Thankfully, the tornado watch expired at 5 AM, but it's still not a fit day out for man nor beast.  When I did venture forth between deluges, I was barefoot.  And, despite the drizzle, I still can't help stopping to marvel at a summer daisy blooming by our driveway...  at the bearded irises flashing purple April buds in December...  at the koi in our pond who -- instead of resting dormant in cold, deep waters as they should be this time of year -- are swimming at the surface mouthing "Feed me.  FEED me.  FEED ME!" 

Around the yard, thrift, black-eyed susan, and baby's breath are pushing out fresh blooms, and the annual herbs in our pots and beds remain abundant and green.

When we think about climate change, fossil fuels, and carbon footprints, the first culprits most of us think about are the vehicles we drive.  And those emissions are a big deal.  That's why you're seeing so much activity around electric cars and trucks.

But globally, according to Project Drawdown, 25% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions come from electricity generation.  So, to achieve zero-emission transportation, we must also transform how we generate power to charge those vehicles, light/heat/cool our homes, and run our factories.  In Georgia, ~66% of our electricity is still generated by plants burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas) that create those emissions.  The remainder comes from nuclear (26%) and renewables (9% -- primarily hydro and solar).

Renewable energy -- primarily wind and solar -- gets most of the press.  But there's really more to it.  Cost overruns and schedule delays with the additional reactors at Plant Vogtle reflect how difficult it is to scale quickly with nuclear.  But, until battery storage can be deployed at massive scale, the intermittent generation characteristics of wind and solar mean we need other options.   In fact, Project Drawdown has identified, analyzed, and quantified 32 different climate solutions in the Electricity Sector as part of our overall carbon reduction plan.  Understanding them all can get pretty mind-boggling!

University researchers and public policy experts in our state have banded together though Drawdown Georgia to narrow our climate focus to just 20 solutions with the greatest practical impact in Georgia over the coming decade (by 2030).  And five of those are in the Electricity Sector.  The sun shines brightly most days in Georgia, which is why both Rooftop Solar and Large-Scale (Utility) Solar are among the list of five.  On the other hand, our hilly terrain makes on-shore wind farms non-viable here.

The other three Electricity Sector solutions prioritized by Drawdown Georgia are less familiar to most of us:

• Cogeneration is an industrial solution where plants that use heat in their production processes capture it to create steam and generate electricity.
• Demand Response includes an array of methods to encourage or force the shift of electricity consumption to off-peak hours, which reduces the amount of electricity that has to be generated at peak times.
• Landfill Methane involves installing equipment to capture methane emitted by decomposing material in landfills and burning it to generate electricity.

From a carbon reduction perspective, solar and wind are easy to understand -- since the electricity they generate is 100% emissions-free.  With Cogeneration and Landfill Methane (and sometimes Demand Response), critics note carbon-based fuels are still being burned, and greenhouse gases are emitted.  But, in each case, emissions are already occurring due to existing processes (ie, manufacturing or solid waste decomposition), so using those processes to also generate electricity avoids the emissions that would have been generated elsewhere to satisfy electricity demand.  And the new processes are generally substantially more efficient.  So the net effect is less total emissions.

I recently spent time learning about Cogeneration through conversations with a local industry interested in using Combined Heat and Power (CHP -- a form of Cogeneration) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from their manufacturing process.  Those conversations included a meeting with a leading CHP expert, Marilyn Brown, at Georgia Tech’s School of Public Policy, who recently published extensive research on the current state and future potential for CHP in Georgia.  Dr. Brown is also a member of the core research team for Drawdown Georgia.

When I first heard about the project being considered locally and learned it would use natural gas, I was skeptical about the carbon reduction benefits.  But, since Cogeneration/CHP is a priority solution in the Drawdown Georgia framework, I was also open-minded and curious.

Both the US Department of Energy (DOE) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promote CHP as an energy efficiency measure and a way to lower greenhouse gas emissions/reduce environmental impacts.  On its website, the EPA provides an easy to follow explanation of the benefits from CHP, and the DOE offers technical assistance for installations through its Better Buildings program. 

In the future, CHP can potentially be fueled by an emissions-free energy source like hydrogen.  But today most systems burn either natural gas or bio-mass left over from the industrial process.  Still, even with a fossil fuel energy source, the graphic below from the EPA shows how a CHP system results in lower carbon emissions than a traditional scenario where natural gas is burned separately to power both steam boilers and electricity generation at a power plant somewhere else.

Reduced emissions are achieved through several factors:

• Accomplishing multiple tasks (industrial heating and electricity generation) with the same process.
• Using high-efficiency boilers in that process.
• Avoiding the roughly 4.5% of electricity lost during transmission and distribution from the central power plant to the facility where it is used.

In her paper, Georgia Tech's Dr. Brown writes "There is an enormous opportunity for CHP to save industries money and make them more competitive, while at the same time reducing air pollution, creating jobs and enhancing public health."

Also from her team's research:

If Georgia added CHP systems to the 9,374 sites that are suitable for cogeneration, it could reduce carbon emissions in Georgia by 13%. Bringing CHP to just 34 of Georgia’s industrial plants, each with 25 megawatts of electricity capacity, could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2%. The study authors, using modeling tools they developed, note that this “achievable” level of CHP adoption could add 2,000 jobs to the state; full deployment could support 13,000 new jobs. 

So, while solar has a sunny future in Georgia, less familiar solutions like Cogeneration, Landfill Methane, and Demand Response are an equally important part of the climate solution mix.  We know from science how crucial it is to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.  We have a lot of eggs to carry and will need every basket we can find.

Anyone living or working in Newton County has until November 30 (tomorrow) to view and comment on the county's Transit Master Plan, which we encourage you to do here.

As a climate activist, I support public transportation as a critical investment to lower greenhouse gas emissions.  Scientists working on Drawdown Georgia estimate 43% of our state's carbon emissions come from vehicles on our roadways, which is why they've pegged Mass Transit as one of five Transportation Sector climate solutions for Georgia.

But my inspiration is far more personal.  It's rooted in a promise I made to a friend before she died.  I'd known Vivian Harris when my wife served as Covington's Mayor from 2008-2011, but I hadn't seen her for years when I happened to attend a meeting Vivian instigated in 2015 for local citizens seeking to establish public transportation in Newton County.

By Maurice Carter, Sustainable Newton President

“It ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new."

Niccolò Machiavelli's words from his 1532 work, The Prince, have never rang more true than now.  Just ask President Joe Biden, whose climate agenda and proposed clean energy policies are the largest "new order of things" we've seen in America in our lifetimes.  For the world, decarbonizing economies to respond to the climate crisis -- as agreed via the Paris Climate Agreement -- is likely the largest single undertaking in human history.

Stop in the Name of Love (of Money)

By opposing President Biden's Clean Electricity Performance Program (CEPP), Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) casts himself as the visible face of the enemies Machiavelli noted.  Manchin is doing very well under the current order of things through the backing of the coal, oil, and gas interests who have done extremely well themselves for decades.

Across Newton County cities, one mayoral and 14 city council terms expire at year end.  But only two seats -- Covington's East Ward Post 1 and West Ward Post 2 -- have contested races in November.  The other openings will be filled in January by candidates who qualified unopposed.

Prior to advanced, in-person voting beginning October 12, Sustainable Newton invited the two Covington East Ward and two West Ward candidates to chat with us about climate change, sustainability, and their positions on issues such as rooftop and utility-scale solar and the adoption of electric vehicles.  We offered to send questions a week in advance and record each interview at the candidate's convenience without a live audience.  You can read our questions here.

East Ward Post 1 incumbent council member Susie Keck and West Ward Post 2 candidate Scotty Scoggins accepted our invitation.  You will find recordings of those conversations below.