By Steve Thomas, Johnson Controls

Big news in Chicago at this week’s American Council on an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) National Conference on Energy Efficiency as a Resource: Exelon Chairman and CEO John Rowe announced that his company will join the growing number of companies dropping out of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce because of that organization’s position on climate change regulation. The Chamber has opposed climate legislation approved by the U.S. House of Representatives and the EPA’s plan to regulate carbon emissions under the Clean Air Act.

Rowe also expressed frustration with both the Chamber and Republicans in Congress for backing away from Cap and Trade, which he called a "rational, market-based solution." Regarding legislation in Congress, he added "we have got to have this bill to get an energy efficiency market and to get incentives for the lowest cost solutions first."

In a statement issued later, Rowe said, “The carbon-based free lunch is over,” as he called for the U.S. government to establish climate change policy sooner rather than later so companies can determine how much it will cost them to curb their emissions.

Recently, Pacific Gas & Electric (California’s largest utility) and PNM Resources (which operates New Mexico’s biggest power producer) also withdrew from the national chamber. Nike and Johnson & Johnson criticized the chamber’s positions, but opted to remain as members of the business lobbying group.

It is not known if these high-profile defections will have an impact on the Chamber’s position. What is clear, however, is that there are major disagreements in the business community over climate change and what to do about it. And those disagreements are almost certain to heat up in the face of mounting pressures for the U.S. government to do something about climate change as the summit in Copenhagen nears.

By Clay Nesler, VP-Global Energy & Sustainability, Johnson Controls, Inc.

Thursday at the Clinton Global Initiative was the high point of a great week.  The opening plenary session included Jeff Immelt (GE CEO), John Chambers (Cisco CEO), Carlos Ghosn (Renault-Nissan CEO) and Kofi Annan (Former UN General Secretary).  It was a great discussion by some great leaders.  One interesting comment came from Jeff Immelt who noted that while companies compete on a 1-5 year timeframe, they should work together in the 10 year timeframe to help define and shape the future.  It is clear that solving the significant challenges we face will not only require the support of major corporations, but also their leadership.

My panel followed immediately after the plenary session and was focused on Infrastructure of Place – Sustainability and the Built Environment.  The session was moderated by Vijay Vaitheeswaran, global correspondent of The Economist and Co-Author of ZOOM.  The  diverse panel included Ritt Bjerregaard, Lord Mayor of Copenhagen, Nancy Kete, Program Director of the WRI Center for Sustainable Transport, Albina Ruiz, Execuitive Director of Ciudad Saludable in Peru and Ron Simms, Deputy Secretary, Department of Housing and Urban Development as well as myself. 

Lord Mayor Bjerregaard’s talked about a Climate Summit for Mayors to run in parallel to the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen.  Mayors from Delhi, New York, Hong Kong, Moscow, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro and Sydney and many others are participating.  Copenhagen has one of the largest and most successful district heating systems that supplies 97% of the city with clean, affordable heating recovered from waste heat from power plants and waste incineration.  Ron Simms was a great champion for the new inter-agency approach to promoting green communities and improving livability.  He described how green mortgages and other financial incentives are being bundled into larger grants to communities to seed programs that will be self-sustaining over time.

I was again asked about infrastructure support for electric vehicles (three for three) and then was finally asked to share experiences and best practices from the Empire State Building project.  This case study never fails to captivate and inspire an audience.  During a break-out, a challenge emerged of designing all new buildings to be carbon neutral and improving the efficiency of all existing buildings by 50%.  Projects such as our IDeAS project in San Jose, CA and the Empire State Building are cited as evidence that these goals may be achievable on a broader scale.

The final event that we participated in was a special session on infrastructure entitled “Building a Better Future.”  President Clinton participated along with Brad Pitt and Tom Darden of Make it Right, a non-profit focused on developing safe, green, energy efficient and affordable housing in New Orleans post Katrina.  This is a great story about building a community of 150 LEED Platinum homes in a devastated area of New Orleans seeing no redevelopment two years after Katrina.  Through thoughtful re-engineering of the entire design and construction process, these homes are being built at a cost of $150 per square foot which is competitive to conventional construction.  Monthly utility bills are in the $30-50 range due to the use of solar PV with some as low as $8 per month.  Bill McDonough later joined the panel made some provocative comments.  He asked that we not to start initiatives or projects with metrics as they naturally lead to benchmarking which drives to goals that are “less bad.”  He instead suggests starting with clear principles based on “good” outcomes like “no toxics”, “no waste”, “renewable energy” before defining strategies, actions and metrics.

Before the panel, Johnson Controls along with Jack Hidary, Jeff Tannenbaum and Bracken Hendricks were recognized by President Clinton for our commitment to PACENOW, an innovative energy efficiency financing model.  Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) was created to accelerate the retrofitting of America’s existing buildings through PACE bonds which allow commercial and residential property owners to finance energy efficiency measures and small renewable energy projects as a lien on their property tax bill.  The important role of companies like Johnson Controls in guaranteeing the energy savings was made by the President, who is a strong advocate for the approach.

This is my last update from a very busy and exciting week in New York.  (Check out my reports from earlier in the week in the Archives for this month.) There is much to be positive about including the role of energy efficiency in buildings and vehicles to help reduce carbon emissions and create a strong clean energy economy.   Onward to Copenhagen!

By Clay Nesler, VP-Global Energy & Sustainability, Johnson Controls, Inc.

It’s Climate Week in New York City, and a number of high-profile events are attracting more than 100 attending world leaders to come to agreement on a climate change treaty in Copenhagen this coming December.  Johnson Controls is participating in a number of these events sponsored by the Climate Group (of which we are now a corporate member), throughout the week, and I will be summarizing some of the highlights.

Monday morning started with a presentation of the Carbon Disclosure Project results for S&P 500 and Global 500 companies.  We have been reporting our greenhouse gas emissions, policies and plans for many years.  It was great to see that the overall response rate by the Global 500 to the CDP questionnaire was 82% this year, up from 77% last year.

The big opening event featured UN General Secretary Ban Ki Moon, Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Copenhagen conference chair Connie Hedegaard and the leading climate negotiators from the US, China, India.  There was also an appearance by actor Hugh Jackman.

Tony Blair did a great job framing the challenge.  He said, “the will is there, can we find the way?”  He asked that we not let “the best be the enemy of the good” and that any agreement that starts the world on a path to meaningful carbon reduction would be a good outcome.

The chief negotiators from China and India showed a renewed interest in supporting a compromise agreement that would reflect differentiated responses and actions based on differentiated responsibilities for climate change.

Later in the day, at a panel session focused on US-China clean energy cooperation, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass) gave a sobering assessment of the importance of climate change and the opportunity for businesses to profit from climate change solutions.  He mentioned that only five of the 30 largest clean energy companies are located in the US.  He said that the US is the worst of any country in the world with respect to energy efficiency and that energy efficiency is not being factored into the economic analysis of climate change.  Sen. Kerry also said that energy efficiency pays for itself and that smart companies are investing today.  He closed by asking, “What’s the worst that could happen if we get a global climate deal?  More jobs, cleaner air, less imported energy, more national security.”

At the last event of the day, I participated on behalf of Johnson Controls Power Solutions, our division that makes batteries, in a Climate Group-sponsored panel discussion on electric vehicles that included global technology companies, clean tech investors and government officials.  The consensus was that dramatic growth in electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles was inevitable over time but that a coordinated approach to technology development, infrastructure deployment and public policy was needed to reach the tipping point of widespread adoption.

Upcoming summaries will include highlights from a media event for the Copenhagen Communique and an address by President Barack Obama at the Clinton Global Initiative.