Noted solar advocate, designer and author, Steven J. Strong from Solar Design Associates (SDA) writes to The Green Reporter (www.thegreenreporter.com) about his reflections on Aspen's first Forum on the Environment.

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On March 26-30, the Aspen Institute hosted its first Forum on the Environment. I was invited to speak on renewables but was somewhat ambivalent about my participation. I’ve been to literally 100’s of similar conferences and we are super busy these days – would this one be any different? On the opposite hand, the Aspen Institute has built their reputation on a long and respected tradition of bringing diverse groups with differing viewpoints together to share ideas around key issues of the day with the overarching goal of forging consensus.

Why had they waited this long to address the environment? I wondered .

On the way out, United showed a video loop of stunning nature photographs – coral reefs, big trees, wildlife, waterfalls and rain forests. This was a welcome respite for the usual drivel placed in your face. Could it be that corporate America was finally getting the idea that the environment mattered or was this just another flavor of entertainment to soothe an increasingly restless captive audience?

Upon arrival, we were greeted by a line of black, super-sized SUV’s – it reminded me of our work at the White House. They were GM Tahoes – the new hybrid version – 15 in all, provided by the factory to chauffer invited guests and speakers during the conference. GM was, in fact,a major sponsor of the Forum and (apparently) felt this venue was a good place to roll out their new hybrid SUV line and test market their greener image.

I was immediately skeptical. This is the same GM that, not too long ago, brought together a world-class team of engineers to design and build what many felt was the smartest car on the planet – the all-electric EV1 - only to publicly crush them all when their crack team of corporate lawyers won the GM culture clash as to whether to innovate and move forward into the future or continue to desperately cling to yesterday’s vision still in their rear-view mirror. Was it going to be different this time?

At registration, we were given a hard-cover book of stunning four-color, nature photographs – this time of Tierra del Fuego, the island archipelago at the tip of South America. The book was compliments of Goldman Sachs – another major Forum sponsor – and documented their investment of a 700,000 acre tract previously scheduled for logging as a nature preserve. During the meeting, we heard from Goldman execs about a new era of corporate-led conservation and why this uniquely generous approach was a win-win for all concerned. Perhaps corporate America was indeed coming to understand that the environment mattered.

At Wednesday night’s opening session entitled: “Changing Planet: Where Energy and Climate Collide”, MIT’s Dan Nocera – distinguished for his research in molecular energy conversion – was asked to describe his vision of our energy future. He outlined a coming new era where we would be able to harvest solar energy “with roofs fitted with solar arrays” - sharing the surplus with the community.

Welcome back to the future.

I wondered whether he knew that nearly 30 years ago, his institute had commissioned the world’s first all-solar residence where roof-integrated solar-electric and solar-thermal arrays harvested all the energy needed to fully support a very comfortable home with surplus exported to the community via a then unique arrangement with the local utility that was to become known as “Net Metering”.

Back in 1980, I designed and constructed this all-solar home in eastern Massachusetts to clearly demonstrate that all-solar living was within our reach and continue to use it to illustrate that: “What exists must indeed be possible”. This effort, which was supported by the US Department of Energy, was one of the visible manifestations of President Carter’s vision of a new energy future. Those old enough to remember will recall that Carter also fielded a solar energy system on the White House.

Unfortunately, Carter’s vision and the urgency that accompanied it was vigorously discredited by the administration that followed. In one of his first public acts, Ronald Reagan had the recently installed and fully functional solar system removed from the White House and consigned to the dumpster – making it abundantly clear that renewables were not to be encouraged nor supported. For the three decades that followed, America has been largely sleep-walking into the future - squandering precious time required to refine and ramp-up these life-affirming, sustainable technologies that nearly all now agree are critical to the future of the human experiment.

When will we – as a society – actually get serious about this transition? Would this Forum really make any real difference?

Stay tuned for part two from Aspen….