The balloons are a problem. Though billed as biodegradable, they’ve sat in a steaming compost heap in Denver with nary a sign of breaking down.
But even Andrea Robinson, the first-ever director of greening for the Democratic National Convention, concedes it would be going too far to ban them. Balloons, after all, are an all-but-mandatory backdrop for crowning a party’s presidential nominee in the television age.
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“The balloons will be there,” a weary-sounding Robinson assured The Wall Street Journal’s Stephanie Simon.
Such are the daily headaches of the woman deputized to reduce the greenhouse emissions of the 2008 Democratic convention slated for Denver’s Pepsi Center August 25-28.
Still, Robinson, who oversaw the greening of last year’s Live Earth concerts to raise awareness about global warming, promises the 2008 Democratic National Convention will be “the most sustainable political convention in modern American history.”
She is part of the budding world of environmental advocates who are being snapped up by businesses, as well as by nonprofits, to guide their efforts to go green as the movement gains political currency.
According to Robinson’s profile on “Meet the Green Team” at the Democratic National Convention, she has worked in the environmental field for more than 25 years since getting an environmental sciences degree at the University of California Santa Barbara and writing an honors thesis on Biodiversity and the United Nations Earth Summit.
The profile touts her work with the Sierra Club and Environment Colorado, as well as with Bill Clinton’s Global Initiative. But in the past, that work has not been a full-time gig, since she has also worked as an actress, playing Nurse Nancy Nichol on Doc, as well as having bit parts in CSI and the West Wing, according to her profile on IMDb.
This job, which began last September, is more than full-time. Robinson has set a goal to reuse, recycle or compost at least 85 percent of all waste generated during the convention, in part by signing on 900 volunteers who will hover at waste disposal stations to make sure delegates properly separate their glass, paper and metal. A portion of the festivities will be powered with solar energy and biodiesels, and a nonprofit is providing 1,000 bicycles for use by conventioneers.
She also signed an official carbon adviser to the convention - Camco International Group - which will measure the greenhouse-gas emissions of every placard, mevery plane trip and every hour of air conditioning, and make recommendations to the DNCC about how to minimize or offset them, and assist with the procurement of carbon credits.
Democratic leaders have asked delegates to compensate for their energy use by buying carbon offsets from a Vermont-based group called Native Energy, that will use the money to invest in the building of renewable energy sources around the country.
As part of something called the “Green Delegate Challenge,” announced by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, state delegations with the highest percentage of members offsetting the carbon footprint of their participation in Denver will be recognized in their seating section on the floor of the Pepsi Center.
Delegates and visitors will also have the opportunity to use bicycles rather than taxis. Styrofoam, plastic and fried food have been banned.
Which is not to say that the 50,000 visitors expected to attend the convention will be asked to forego creature comforts.
Robinson told Stephanie Simon of the Wall Street Journal that they will enjoy air-conditioning and cases of bottled water (despite environmentalists’ efforts to ban them).
Republicans will also be pushing conservation when they meet in Minneapolis-St. Paul the following week. Like the Democrats, they’re cutting way back on printing by doing as much work as possible online; and urging employees to walk or take public transportation to work.
But while the Sierra Club has praised both political parties for their efforts, not everyone is impressed.
Fred L. Smith Jr., president of the libertarian Washington think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute, suggested the parties might accomplish a lot more if they really thought outside the box.
“Just have everyone stay at home with their laptops, sitting in their pajamas, interacting through their avatars,” he said.
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1 Comments
#1. Gregg Dart 07.17.2008
Andrea Robinson, Please contact me if you are serious about solving the latex balloon problem. If these balloons have not yet been inflated, a cost-effective manner exists to mitigate the potential non-degrading aspect you mentioned during your interview on [National Public Radio] “All Things Considered” aired June 27, 2008. Best Wishes, Gregg Dart/www.TotallyCreativeConcepts.com (503) 551-4422
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