Climate change is about economics, speaker says
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An advocate for responding to climate change told an audience of "sustainability champions" Tuesday morning that climate change is not an environmental issue.
"It's an economics issue and a work force issue," Daniel Kreeger, executive director of the Association of Climate Change Officers, told the 80 or so people gathered at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens.
Those aspects of sustainability have not yet been widely recognized, he said, because companies tend to organize themselves into silos -- departments that seldom interact with each other. Thus concerns about climate change or energy efficiency are isolated.
Mr. Kreeger's comments came near the end of a half-day gathering focused on corporate energy management that challenged attendees to break through those silos.
The event, convened by Champions for Sustainability, a program of Sustainable Pittsburgh, in partnership with the Business Climate Coalition and the Pittsburgh Climate Initiative, included a panel presentation by executives from local companies, describing how they had demonstrated cost savings and innovative practices in energy measurement and savings.
During the question and answer session that followed, Gary Hunt, head of facilities for the Bayer Corp., reinforced Mr. Kreeger's call for a shift in organizational thinking.
"What you have to have is a paradigm change, which is, you're responsible for energy in your area," Mr. Hunt said. "One person or one department can't do it all."
First Published December 8, 2010 12:00 am
