One thing I noticed while preparing to write Smart Green was the wide discrepancy of the level of understanding and application of the principles of sustainability.  While opening a sustainable home renovation store may fly in Portland, OR, it may not have the same appeal or staying power in rural North Carolina. However, since the state of North Carolina produces approximately 650 million chickens, 50 million turkeys, and 19 million hogs per year, there is great economic incentive to capture the fecal methane for fuel.  According to an analysis from NC State University, one dairy cow, beef feeder, market hog, and layer hen would produce close to 50,000 BTU’s of energy daily (one gallon of gasoline = 120,000 BTU’s).  The regional needs, economic conditions, type of biosphere, and the level of understanding of the principles of sustainability determine a region’s “Level of Greenth”.

The concept was born out of the realization that at this stage of our global history, whether we realize it or not, we are all on the spectrum of response to how we create a more sustainable world.  On a scale of 1 to 10, there are many people, organizations, and governments at level one, while others are much further along.  It is important to realize where your organization is on the spectrum – determine your own Level of Greenth – but also the Level of your community and region.

For example, I had interviewed many companies that provide green building services in and around the Triangle area of North Carolina.  Most of them indicated that not until 2006 – with a groundswell in interest from buyers, other developers, suppliers, and state government in the form of incentives – was it possible to consider being profitable.  Many of these same companies had tried to introduce green building concepts 10 and 15 years ago without success. “There was no interest, no market.”  Now there are green building supply stores and recycling centers cropping up, new demand for solar water heaters, rain catchment systems, and alternatives for sustainable landscaping with enough consumer interest to be profitable.  As an expression of the region’s Level of Greenth, Bon Appetit recently designated Durham-Chapel Hill, NC as “America’s Foodiest Small Town” where restaurants source more local and organic products for their menus than any other.

The concept of the Level of Greenth simply means discovering where you and your community are at on the spectrum of sustainability awareness and choosing practical, achievable goals to steadily move up the spectrum to ensure stability and the ability to follow through with increasing changes year to year.  Don’t be daunted by the advances being made in other regions or compare the levels of change from one state to another.  Find the strength of your community or region, plan for actionable goals and capitalize on them – such as the collection of methane from the poultry, dairy, beef, and pork industries in North Carolina which could position the state as a major biofuels producer.