This last week I was on vacation with some friends of mine in the Northern California foothills (Pinecrest Lake). My buddy John has a cabin up there that’s been in his family for almost 80 years, and it’s the perfect place for a bunch of aging dudes to act like idiots and talk politics. One issue came up that fascinated me: how much of a Social Change Artist are you? How far do you go to support your beliefs with respect to the economy, society, and the environment?
Diesel: It’s Not Just For Breakfast
My buddy Eric (the wrench-head I’ve talked about before) drove us 3 hours across the Central Valley of California, up to Pinecrest Lake in his massive Chevy Subdivision Suburban. The things is so big it can fit 7 grown men and all of their luggage for the weekend; it’s massive and is one of the most offensive vehicles ever made – second only to the Hummer.
But it’s Green. Very Green. Eric swapped out the entire fuel system and the thing runs on vegetable oil. It costs some money to do this, but the emissions are very low, very clean, and smell like french fries (or egg rolls, depending on where you get the oil from).
All of Eric’s other cars run on Biodiesel, which is made from ethanol, which is made from plants. Pesticide arguments aside, I commend Eric for at least trying to make a difference (his wife, too, who has to drive a 10 year old Jetta around which runs on french fries).
Converting your car to run on Biodiesel and vegetable oil is pretty simple, but does require some time and a little money. On the face of it, it seems a rather simple thing to do – heck after a while the costs even out (with fuel savings) and you start to make money. Seems easy enough to do…
Solar Surfer
Another friend who was up there with us (Mike) works with Solar Energy. His entire house is “solared up” with radiant heat built into the floor, solar water heating, and solar cell energy panels. This guy is completely wired up and almost totally free of the grid and is a complete solar fanatic.
I asked him to tell me more; specifically how much it would be to do that from scratch. Oddly enough, he had exact dollar figures for a typical American house:
Solar Water Heater
- Parts: $1900
- Installation:$800-1000
Solar Photovoltaic Array (power):
- Parts: $12,000
- Installation:$3000
That’s a total of roughly $18,000 – which is pretty expensive to be sure. However, there are some things to consider – I’ll use my house here as an example:
- I will save ~$200/month in electricity bills (it’s really sunny here and my current bill hovers around $375/month). That’s $2400/year and I get my money back in roughly 7.5 years.
- Installing Solar on your house raises your house value by (approximately) 20 times the annual savings of the system. Wow. If that’s true (and this is based on what appraisers say) then my equity just jumped $40,000.
- If you buy the system using your home equity, the interest is tax deductible and represents savings in and of itself.
Bottom Line: The cost is almost negligible if you work the numbers. It gets better – you get all kinds of rebates, tax incentives, and general love from the government and utility companies if you go solar (especially if you’re in California).
Eventually, you can begin to sell your own power back to the electrical company – in effect making money off of your solar investment. Over 40 US States have laws now that allow home owners to sell generated power back to the electrical companies:
As part of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Million Solar Roofs Program, California has set a goal to create 3,000 megawatts of new, solar produced electricity by 2017. CSI supports this goal with financial incentives to promote cleaner energy for the state and help lower the cost of solar energy systems for consumers. By installing solar on your home or business, you can benefit from these incentives.
Hmm. Seems too easy.
Investing In The Green
Under a warm, Sierra Nevada starry sky, we were sitting next to the fire feeling… “very happy” and started talking about what we were willing to do to help out environmentally.
It was easy for Eric and Mike to step up and say “Biodiesel!” and “Me and Solar BFF!” but for the rest of us, well, we like to recycle (which in itself is questionable, aside from cans) and do what we can.
Lots of things went around the discussion circle:
- Using Working Assets (telephone company) to indirectly support environmental goodness
- Walking/Biking to work or taking public transportation. In Oakland my friend Kaveh uses Ride Share – an impromptu drop off and pick up point for people commuting into SF from the East Bay.
- Volunteering with the Sierra Club on their trash pickup days, etc.
But then we got to the good stuff 
.
I asked my friend Todd:
What about your 401K (retirement account)? What do you invest in?
I then recounted a discussion I had with my wife when I got the job at Microsoft. It was the first time I’d setup a 401K in years, and I decided to go “moderately aggressive”. I looked over the growth charts and did some forecasting, then decided on which fund I wanted to go with.
I then asked my wife if she wanted to look it over, and she said to me:
Which companies are in that fund?
Ummm… who cares? This is my retirement fund and we’re talking money for the future here. I don’t know and don’t want to know. But I was curious…
Turns out that most of the companies were just fine with her. Except for 3 of them. I won’t name them explicitly, but I can tell you that
- One of them manufactures genetically-modfied foods. Something that, over here in Hawaii, is not something that we support AT ALL. Yes I know the arguments – it’s our preference .
- One of them is a massive Bio-engineering firm that has been caught in some bad business dealings over the last few years.
- One of them is a massive oil company
Now we’re not necessarily AGAINST any of these companies (well, I’m not – the wife… well another story there). But they and what they do certainly aren’t inline with things we believe in.
The GMO one was an interesting discussion. I am on the fence with that since, well, they do some really good work with respect to world hunger etc. At least that’s what they say.
However here, in Hawaii, one of these companies is one of the forces behind trying to patent the taro (the stuff that makes poi) that’s grown here – right in the fields near my house.
Farmers are concerned that genetically engineered taro would be patented and that they might have to pay a license fee to grow it.
And in fact, farmers wishing to purchase huli, or breeding stock, must sign a licensing agreement with UH. The licensing agreement states that “UH owns the taro cultivar…” It prohibits farmers from selling or breeding the patented plants, and requires payment of a royalty to the University
This kind of thing makes it tough for mainlanders like me to live out here. Granted it’s the University of Hawaii – but who do you think is funding this research? I’ll leave that part out.
Back to the point. If you consider that your 401K will likely grow into the 10′s or 100′s of thousands of dollars level (and for some you lucky ones – millions), that’s money you could likely be putting directly into the companies that you may oppose socially.
Are you willing to do something about that? If not – where do you draw the line? Why?
