Green hospitality thrives in Vieques

Find out how John Hix went green with his Hix Island House, an eco-friendly hotel in Vieques that stands as an example of green hospitality for others to follow.

Going green in Vieques

The new thing: connected communities

Cisco has partnered with Mantri in India to set an example of connected communities for developers and cities around the world to follow, as the IT giant moves to provide greater productivity and convenience to residents in the broader context of green communities.

Cisco makes presence felt in connected communities

As fuel efficiency rises, hybrids take back seat

2012: The big test year for hybrids

By : ALEX DÍAZ (from http://www.cb.pr/greeneconomy)

Fuel efficiency by conventional vehicles, new-normal value buying by consumers combine to soften demand for hybrid vehicles; will Toyota lead a comeback?

Toyota takes a big step this weekend with the launch of a month-long promotion in the former Borders space in Plaza Las Américas in San Juan, called the Technological Rainforest Expo, touting the automaker's green vehicles, mainly its industry-leading line of hybrid cars and SUVs.

It's a big deal because sales of the energy-saving cars, the industry's big hope to satisfy both the consumer and the planet, have languished since the heyday of the mid-2000s, and industry experts have been left wondering about the future of what once was the future.

In Puerto Rico, after peaking at 632 units sold in 2006—with the Prius, Highlander and Camry Toyotas, and the RX400h, GS450h and LS600h Lexus models—sales fell significantly below that figure every year since (see chart on page 51).

But the expansion this year of the Prius line, mainly the budget-conscious C model, has already boosted sales to 325 units in the first three months of 2012, suggesting the 2006 record will likely be shattered.

And with the economy improving, gas prices rising, more models emerging and consumer adoption mainstreaming, company executives smell blood.

"We're feeling pretty good about the growth of these vehicles," said Albert Antongeorgi, technical education specialist at Toyota Puerto Rico and likely the person who most knows about hybrids and all-electrics on the island, as the category go-to guy in the segment-leading company since hybrids first rolled into Puerto Rico.

"Our hybrid buyers," added Saskia Gómez, company public relations executive, "are educated, concerned about the environment, tech savvy and mostly professional. It's the market we feel will best respond now that the economy is recovering, and we're bringing in more models."

YES, BUT THE PRICE…

The economy's slide has had a lot to do with the sales slide both in Puerto Rico, where the recession began in 2006, and across the U.S., where the downturn began two years later and ended two years sooner.

After peaking at 2.8% of total stateside car sales in 2009, hybrid sales fell in 2010 and 2011 and stand at less than 2.4% today, according to the Edmunds car-buying guide.

It isn't that automakers are putting fewer hybrids on the road. From 17 in 2009, the number of models in 2011 turboed to 30 (only a few of which have been introduced in Puerto Rico), according to a recent CNN Money article.

The problem, U.S. experts agree, is twofold. First, hybrids and the up-and-coming all-electrics remain higher priced than conventional vehicles.

"Here in Puerto Rico, hybrid buyers receive a $2,000 rebate from the government," Antongeorgi said. "But even after that, it's true; a hybrid tends to be more expensive."

He didn't want to speculate on the payback period, or how many years it takes for consumers to recover the premium by paying less in gas and maintenance over the life of the vehicle. "It's sooner than most people think," is as far as he went.

"That's one of the things we want to educate consumers about during the expo," Gómez added.

What consumers seem to be finding out on their own is the second reason hybrids have been undershooting expectations: the historically high fuel efficiency of most new conventional nonhybrid vehicles.

As it turns out, you no longer have to buy a hybrid to save money on gasoline. Prompted by tough new federal and state government standards, most new vehicles are now made with lighter materials, turbocharged fuel-efficient engines (for gas savings and performance) or are just plain smaller.

To be sure, consumers always go small during times of recession and return to gas-guzzlers when the economy picks up speed. But this time, the small-is-good trend appears to have taken root, in line with the new normal so talked about by marketers in Puerto Rico and beyond.

So harsh was the recession and so high the price of oil, that consumers seem to have made a long-term turn to value buying in the consumption of everything.

Traditional sport-utility vehicles (SUVs), for example, are now 5% of total sales on the U.S. mainland, down from 20% before the Great Recession, according to IHS Automotive Research Director Rebecca Lindland, as quoted in a recent National Public Radio report. And the new SUVs provide better gas mileage.

Which makes the payback on hybrid premium prices that much longer by comparison. Unless, of course, the price of hybrids comes down.

"It will," Antongeorgi surmised. In fact, he continued, a bit more excited now, "it already has, with the new Prius C we're bringing in."

The more compact Prius, which starts at $21,000 in Puerto Rico ($19,000 after the government rebate), already accounts for more than half of total Toyota/Lexus hybrid sales so far this year (see chart).

Even with the C-driven spike, sales of all hybrid models on the island amount to barely half of one percent of total car sales, a fraction of the 2.4% in the States.

IN A STATE OF LIMBO

To Toyota executives, that only shows hybrid sales have nowhere to go but up, "especially if gas prices keep rising, as they're expected to," Gómez said.

Perhaps. But so will every other gas-saving conventional vehicle, which now includes a record number of models, and will soon include the all-electrics, placing hybrids in a sort of market limbo.

A sign of the success automakers have had selling across-the-board gas savers is the long-term drop in the use of gasoline in the U.S. that began in 2006.

A recent report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration projects a 7% decline over the next 25 years, an estimate the agency believes will prove conservative given more stringent federal efficiency standards (including the upcoming 54.5 miles per gallon requirement) and continuing improvements in vehicle engineering.

The big hope for hybrids now isn't necessarily what it once was, to be the segment that leads the future, but to join other segments now leading the way, as they all rise in the coming months and years thanks to post-recession pent-up demand.

With the recession having pushed consumers into delaying the purchase of a new car—the average age of vehicles on the road in the U.S. is now the longest since World War II, at 10.8 years, according to John Voelcker of Green Car Reports—automakers expect all categories to move well in the coming months.

At the Rainforest Expo in April, Toyota is hoping that includes a jumpstart for its leading line of hybrids.

Way of doing business has changed, says author

A new book by author Bob Willard confirms once again the unequivocal advantages of going green, both in big savings realized and new sales made. So many businesses have seen the light and made the switch, Willard says, that sustainability has already changed the way business is done. Forever.

Going green: unequivocal advantage

New brand of green home hits the market

If you're in the residential construction business and are looking for new alternatives to offer home buyers, here's one. Called an active home, the design combines the best of indoor environmental quality with structural integrity and a slew of energy and material efficiency and power generation for today's smart, modern lifestyle.

Active homes yield better results

Landmark study shows way to denier conversion

Ah! The Big Frustration. Convincing those deniers. And getting believers to move!

For everyone engaged in the struggle to reverse climate change and resource depletion, on time for the 2020 deadline scientists remind us about with each passing study, this is easily the most daunting part. Because the principal obstacle to faster progress is the assumption by far too many that climate change and resource depletion are either not happening at all, are happening but are part of a natural cycle we're not causing and can therefore do nothing about, are happening but on a schedule that allows plenty of time to solve it, or are happening so fast that we're too late so why bother.

The result in all cases is slow or no action.

Of particular concern are the folks in the first and second categories, the ones generally called deniers. In the United States, they have huddled radically in the Republican Party and have effectively paralyzed all large-scale national policies to deal with the issue, the same polices being implemented at the state and local level and in countries the world over.

Those of us who take a look at the overwhelming scientific consensus and choose to take action can only be baffled by the daily statements coming from Republican presidential candidates and House leaders. When we converse physically or digitally with deniers, we can only scratch our heads at their seeming and absolute irrationality, and walk away wondering, trying to figure out, how to bring them around.

The going assumption of late is that we can't, and in any case are fast running out of calendar for the time it would take to persuade the massive numbers that would make a difference. So let's focus instead on outshouting them, this theory goes. Let's be more vocal, because the vast majority of people are believers and need only for us to be leaders, in our homes and workplaces, schools and communities, places of play and worship -- everywhere we come into contact with anyone. Create enough noise and the silent majority will rise and move corporate captains and politicians into action... fast!

That is, in fact, an indispensable approach. But some of us can't let go. We can't just give up on the denier population. There HAS to be a way!

And wouldn't you know it, along comes a group of four social scientists and shows us how, in a November 2011 paper you can access here:
Changing climate change deniers

The study is pretty dense and academic, so I'll try to summarize it. After arriving at the DNA of denialism, the social and psychological forces that produce denial, the study concludes that these folks are indeed persuadable given really smart and effective communications.

That's the first piece of good news.

The second is that when we take a close look at that DNA, it's easy to see the path to the massive speed and scale of change required to meet the 2020 deadline -- complementing the Get Loud strategy, of course. Notice that on both counts, Get Loud and the study, the answer is a different, next level communications to the one taken in this struggle to date.

First, the DNA. The study points to seven significant "predictor variables", the mix and weight of which determine the degree of denialism -- how unshakable or persuadable each person is. They're captured in the graphic below:

The unshakable denier has such a firm ideology and set of beliefs, such a deeply held worldview, that no argument will do, so little is served in trying.

But take a look at the other items, because not all deniers fit that bill. Most, in fact, are more open.

The pair of Science Views and Information Involvement is a case in point. This is where a person takes a look at the science, even a very close look, and comes away persuaded to deny. What tends to happen is that they look closely only at the interpretation of the science that casts doubt on warming and depletion. That is, when the science is reviewed as selectively as deniers do, denial is easy to understand.

And to counter. The study found sufficient people who are willing to take a look at all sides, as many Republicans already have and thus stand firmly with us as believers. It just takes knowing which points to press with whom.

Risk perception and self-efficacy also go hand in hand. They entail the notion that climate change and resource depletion are of such immediacy and/or magnitude as to hopelessly overwhelm any effort a single person, community, company or country can undertake in response. To the question "What can little me do?" the answer is "nothing, so why bother." Some people then shift almost robotically to denial as a defense mechanism in dealing with the deep emotional and mental duress. Believers, by contrast, deal with the stress with a combination of despair and resignation.

In both cases -- and notice that here we're addressing both groups -- the argument is simple. We CAN do something. We ARE on time. Barely, granted. But we are. (In 2008, we used to say Yes We Can...) And there are all kinds of things being done by all kinds of people and entities in all kinds of places globally and locally to show the way.

Notice that the science part of this communications project gets us into the technical. This can-do part gets us into the inspirational. And inspiring it is, when we showcase all the hopeful things taking place.

The last item is the one at the top of the graphic, and it is there for a reason. Because it's the single most important one, the one that captures and catapults the others.

Deniers, the study shows -- as applies to everyone on Earth -- are part of intimate, intricate and interconnected social networks. Family. Neighbors. Friends. Coworkers. Church goers. Schoolmates. Our lives are organized around circles and groups, and those circles and groups interconnect with one another.

The study reinforces what behavior scientists and marketers have long known and has been voluminously established as social science by previous studies: Much of what we grow to believe (including climate and depletion denial) is a direct result of what we're persuaded to believe by the people we trust and follow within our various circles.

By the people we trust and follow. See where this can take us? The study shows that most deniers are open to persuasion by people within their circles who they trust and follow. The influencers in their lives. Their leaders at home, work and church. Their coaches and mentors.

That's you. And me. And everyone. We're all in circles. Physically and digitally, though physical circles work best when persuasion goes this deep.

So, if every believer were to read this column and absorb the study, and got on with the task of engaging the deniers and passive believers in their circles, and helped turn around their risk perception, convince them that their actions CAN make a difference, parade the right science (there are various extraordinary web resources to help us simplify the technicalities) -- if enough of us do this, AND get loud about it, in every home, company, community, city and country in the world, there can be no question we would get this done.

We will persuade enough deniers and activate enough believers to make THE difference and save the day.

Before 2020.

But this means we must move really, really fast. Urgency is the new currency. Visionary companies, governments and marketing agencies have a particularly important role to play, for they have the human, capital and creative resources to trigger even faster and more global contagion, starting with their own huge circles of stakeholders: employees, customers, citizens, communities and suppliers.

It takes everyone everywhere. And it takes starting now.

Are you in?

By Alex Diaz
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