#530 Rich Environment

Sometimes paradigms shift.
Seas change. A watershed has its moment.
So it is with “Green.” Suddenly everyone is jumping on the green bandwagon.
People who’ve been condemned as treehuggers for years are being embraced by the humans who used to scorn them.
I was at a big business meeting a few weeks ago and the speaker—from Forbes magazine—was telling all those assembled, “Green is the future. I don’t care how you feel about global warming. I don’t care how you feel about environmentalism. The writing is on the wall and someone wrote it in black oil.”
The price of crude is going to be crude indeed.
At 100 dollars a barrel, the price of everything will go up. Because everything is transported by oil-burning planes, trains, automobiles—and trucks.
Goodbye to cheap shipping, online buyers.
So it was with great interest that I saw the Master Builders embracing “green” construction. There are actually some new “green” developments, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there wasn’t a “green” Street of Dreams in the works.
Kind of a different green house effect.
Because green will sell. Energy efficiency is such a big deal that even The Home Depot was giving away free compact fluorescent bulbs on Earth Day.
Of course, the next week they had a sale on riding lawn mowers.
At least they kind of got it.
But the builders have discovered something very important: They can charge a lot more for a green home. Energy efficiency can generate more up-front revenue to the builder.
And the consumer is happy to pay.
It’s what I call the Prius paradigm.
Environmentally concerned people are concerned enough to fork over more right now, in the expectation there will cost savings down the line. And that “down the line” includes a cooler planet and less overall stress on the ozone layer, the greenhouse effect, and pollution generally.
Some competing car salesmen laugh because by the time the cost savings in gas is realized in a Prius, its expensive batteries are due for replacement.
Of course that’s assuming gas prices stay at ONLY 3.50 a gallon.
Anybody up for any bets on that one?
I’m betting on green. It’s the color of money.
America ya gotta love it