April/May 2008

Executive Director's Corner

Fuel, Food and Famine - the Law of Unintended Consequences

By Deb Kleinman, Executive Director, USGBC Colorado Chapter

My great grandfather served in the Roosevelt administration in the 1930's as Deputy Governor and then
Governor of the Farm Credit Administration. He was tasked with relieving the financial difficulties of
the nation’s farmers. It was my grandfather and his contemporaries who helped to bring about the
global Green Revolution. This was a pivotal time in agriculture, in which the the tools of new technology
were being leveraged to end global hunger by dramatically increasing the food production capacity of land
and crops alike.

The optimism and faith placed in science and technology at that time, and the crisis it sought to address, was unprecedented.
However, no solution comes without its fair share of unintended consequences. The reliance on mono-agriculture and
chemical fertilizer is now understood to have far reaching effects on local human and animal communities, the environment
and the global food supply.

Alternative Fuels, Climate Change, and Food Security

Earlier this year, the United Nations released a major report on global agriculture. This report has made a tremendous splash
internationally, as it names a number of interconnected factors which are all contributing to a potentially devastating crisis
in food supplies across the world. Years of drought in Australia and other critical food production areas have already led
to severe food shortages in developing countries dependent on imports for feeding their population. As a result, violence
has broken out from Indonesia to Ethiopia. (NY Times, April 17, 2008)

Why write about poverty and the food crisis in our newsletter?             

The Built Environment and Climate Change

“Climate change will impose great stresses on the world’s ability to feed ever growing populations. This challenge
brings new threats to arable land areas, livestock reaing and fisheries through droughts, water shortages and
pollution of land, air and sea. It is, after all, agricultural and livestock production that provides the raw materials
that are basic to human existence – especially food.” - Kandeh K. Yumkella, Director-General, UNIDO

Buildings are a major contributor of greenhouse gasses, and thus have a profound impact on climate change - and are therefore
a major culprit in the looming global food crisis.  In the United States, buildings account for 12% of water use, 39% of CO2
emissions, 65% of waste output, and 71% of electricity consumption. Globally, buildings account for 17% of all fresh water
withdrawals, 25% of all wood harvested, 33% of CO2 emissions, and 40% of material and energy use. (US Green Building Council)

To the extent that green and high performance buildings reduce carbon emissions and positively impact land use decisions, there
is a direct link between our work in the green building movement and global hunger aggravated by climate change.

Moving from Widget Ways to Systems Change

In the United States, policies supporting the development and distribution of biofuel technology have been viewed as the perfect
opportunity to simultaneously address greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles while creating a viable market for the vast
hills of corn overproduced by industrial farms – all without addressing our entrenched love affair with the car.

Subsidies supporting biofuel production are proliferating in the United States and other developing countries for renewable biofuels,
and are at times a major component of efforts to reduce carbon emissions in the next couple of decades. However, these policies
have the unintended consequence of turning food crops such as corn into fuel. They also encourage deforestation, and planting
biofuel crops on marginal lands –both of which contribute to climate change and increase the pressure on global food supplies.

An article in today’s New York Times said it best: “The global agricultural crisis is threatening to become political, pitting the
United States and other developed countries against the developing world over the need for affordable food versus the need for
affordable energy.” (NY Times, April 17, 2008)

What Next

“Modern agriculture will have to change radically if the international community wants to cope with growing populations and
climate change, while avoiding social fragmentation and irreversible deterioration of the environment.” Salvatore Arico, a biodiversity specialist with UNESCO. Quoted in NY Times, April 16, 2008

The United Nations recommendations are far reaching, and include ways to produce food that is less dependent on fossil fuels, favors
locally available resources, natural fertilizers and traditional seeds, and tries to preserve soil and water supplies.

I am an advocate of consuming food that is less well travelled than I. But green building is not farming, so what’s the connection?  There are numerous ways that the green building industry can impact the global food crisis, by making smart land use decisions, and continuing the work of transforming our built environment to have less of a carbon footprint. But we also have to consider new and emerging technologies and strategies based on the broader context that we all live and work in – and to the extent we are able, we need to anticipate the unintended consequences of our actions beyond our immediate environs.

Deb

CBG /Apr.May 2008/ Page 5

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