Cindy's Blog

Well, I'm certainly a few days late posting on the Brookings institution study, but better late than never, I suppose. In case you haven't heard by now, the study released last week by the Brookings Institution, "Shrinking the Carbon Footprint of Metropolitan America", Richmond definitely does not fare well at all.

In the study, Brookings took a look at the per capita energy consumption in the largest metro areas based on the amount people drive and their home sizes, and used the logic that people who drive farther burn more gasoline and those who live in bigger houses consume more electricity on heating and air conditioning. Out of the 100 largest metro regions, Richmond rankekd 86th in efficiency, effectively placing us in the 15th spot of worst culprits in the battle to lower energy usage, at home and on the road.

I suppose I'm not surprised, but it is still very disheartening. Having been born and raised in Richmond, then moving away for years to return, I have some perspective on this, my hometown (and there is really no place I would rather live...except New York, if I had tons of money and was friends with Regis, or Paris, pretty much anywhere).  Anyway, I digress.

Richmond definitely has some "issues." As much as I love it, I know that there are lots of things that make it more difficult for folks coming from other areas to figure it out, and we are, as a city/ region pretty stubborn in our traditions. One of those traditions is, unfortunately, driving. We seldom seem concerned with the distance of our commutes, and it seems that 20- 30 minutes has become more or less the norm. Given that the commute is not usually downtown, where public transportation is at least more accessible, there is not very much carpooling, and even less use of public transportation.

What the report determined was that the average resident in metropolitan Richmond emitted 3.039 tons of carbon from highway transportation and residential energy in 2005, earning us the less than distinguished ranking of 15th worse. Our carbon emissions compared to an average of 2.24 tons of carbon emitted by residents of all 100 metro areas.

There are a few things that, in my opinion, cause much of this. Part of it is that there has been (up till very recently) little interest in green building on any sort of consumer scale in this area- There are so many ways to make a home more energy efficient, but they don't often dovetail with the "ideal" palatial master bed/ bath, huge bedrooms, two story foyer, and countless other areas of wasted space that everyone seems to not only just want, but feels that they need.

Combine these things with the fact that everything has to be bigger, better, and further west, and we end up with quite alot of inefficient housing at a great distance from where folks work, no public transportation to get to work, and having to drive a fair distance to get just about anywhere.

Couple this with the depressing shells of past development, and the way companies will build a brand new store a mile down the road from a shopping center that's 1/2 empty and a year old. (One of my major pet peeves)

I don't mean to rant, but I think that it is pretty shameful that we are as wasteful as we are, without thinking, as a community, of ways to make it better, or pay more attention to smart development.

I do think we are starting, I hope, to make some inroads, but it's slow going. Most of the builders building new "green" homes, are doing it out west, so there is a plus and minus to that. The homes themselves will be better on the environment, but there will still be a significant amount of driving to get anywhere at all. Our public transportation is not great, and in the counties, where many of the businesses are, it's more or less non existent. Until we as a community and a metro region stand up and make a significant change, we won't see one. If everyone still wants to move further west, builders will still build there, and it will be a cycle that continues.