[Greenbuilding] ENERGY STAR Clothes Dryers Program Launch

[Reuben Deumling]

On Sun, Jul 22, 2012 at 7:10 PM, Benjamin Pratt
<benjamin.g.pratt at gmail.com>wrote:

> We could all live without dryers, cars, airconditioning, central
> heating, electric lighting, lawn mowers, computers, airplanes, etc etc
> etc. While some people may chose live without these things, and others
> may do so because they have no choice,* I don't think many people can
> be convinced to live without these conveniences because it is the
> right thing to do. *Technology continues to advance, the population
> keeps growing, and the the worlds ecology continues to suffer.* I think
> the best we can do is slow it down.*
>


This sounds to me like we're giving up the game before we ever tried to
join. You are articulating a theory of human behavior that is quite
familiar, but I'm not sure it is any truer for being oft heard. I see this
as a dynamic problem. We didn't always use energy in the ways we do now.
And our habits won't remain stuck in this moment either. Will we have
more--and more energy efficient--clothes dryers in the future, or will
clothes lines/drying racks make a comeback? What will this depend on? What
can we as leaders, opinion makers, professionals, do to affect that outcome?

Then there's the concern with stranded assets. What if the greenbuilding
community gets on the Energy Star clothes dryer bandwagon, or the high
efficiency natural gas band wagon, or the hybrid car band wagon, and in
three or five years we finally take seriously the International Energy
Agency's warnings (from Nov. 9, 2011) that 2015 is the last opportunity to
reverse increases in GHG concentrations to avoid irreversible or dangerous
or catastrophic climate change? What do we tell our friends, our customers,
our publics then? How do we help them make sense of the $2,000 they just
spent on the high efficiency dryer, when the clothes line was an option all
along and cost $5? I guess what I'm saying is by leaving clothes lines (or
any non-fossil fuel option) out of the discussion we're doing ourselves and
our peers a disservice in light of what I suspect is in store.

But I take comfort in the fact that we're having this lively discussion
here.
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