The cost of being green

Many people in the culinary world were therefore shocked and appalled when Delia came out of retirement with a new series, in which she undoes all her hard work by telling us that we might as well not bother with all the effort of fresh produce and actually chopping and stirring. No, Delia understands that people today don’t want to bother with all that, and instead would much rather buy vegetables that were already chopped for us, meat that’s already been seasoned for us…. It’s not really cheating, no, it’s just that someone’s already done the work for us.
So when during a commercial break in the aforementioned TV show I saw an advertisement from a particular energy company, telling us that if we installed solar panels on our house they would help us obtain the tax rebate that one can earn from doing so, I thought to myself, ‘Well, why do we have to be the ones to install the solar panels? Why isn’t it like Delia says: have someone else do the hard work, and we can just reap the benefits?’ Because it’s not that we don’t care about global warming – we do! Opinion polls around the world show that it’s one of the issues people are most concerned about. But well, we’re all a bit lazy really, and it’s a bit expensive, and you know, there are so many other things that need doing….
So why isn’t there someone, some company out there that’s ready to be the ready-meal equivalent for the home, do all the pre-packaging and processing and take all the effort out of ‘greening’ our homes? That’s to say, why don’t new houses come standard with solar panels? Why do we have to be the ones to figure out how well insulated our house actually is, and then go about improving its energy efficiency?
One city that’s actually doing something is Rotterdam. I applaud them for their initiative in sending all residents a set of energy-efficient light bulbs. Clearly they understand that while most of us are all for saving the environment, we also don’t always keep that in mind when doing the shopping. However, what makes this an even more inspired idea is that it highlights one important aspect about going green that most people neglect, namely, the cost of it, and how it affects the economy. Economies of scale means that the more of a good you manufacture, the cheaper it becomes to manufacture, and so the cheaper you can sell it for. The cheaper something is, the more people will buy it, and the more money a company makes. So when Rotterdam Municipality went out and bought all those light bulbs, the municipality contributed, in some small way, to making those light bulbs cheaper and hence more affordable for the rest of us.
Because lets face it, money makes the world go round, and most countries, companies and people would rather bury their heads in the sand than sit down and face the harsh realities of what really needs to be done to make any impact. For the policymakers involved, any hint that economic growth must be sacrificed at the expense of ‘going green’ is a non-starter. What we need to do then is figure out how to make money while still being eco-friendly. So picture the scene: a new housing complex is being built. Every house has solar panels. How many solar panels would that be? Lots. To produce all those solar panels would require a factory somewhere. And that factory would employ people and generate income. So not only have we created a new industry, but people can move into new homes replete with energy saving light bulbs, solar panels and perhaps a wind turbine somewhere in the distance, while knowing that they’re doing their part to fight global warming, as the government rakes in the cash while doing their bit against global warming. A win-win situation all round.

Lucia Wamiti, from Kenya, is a BSc student studying Aerospace Engineering.