Waste and Opportunity (or how to sharpen your saw)

Cincinnati is a wasteful city. This is the single most important fact in understanding our local economy.

What does it mean to say that Cincinnati is a wasteful city? Let's look at a couple of basic examples:

• the average car in Cincinnati and throughout the U.S. gets about 24 mpg, while the average car in Japan gets about 48 mpg, so half of each dollar we spend on gasoline is wasted.
• the average building in Cincinnati and throughout the U.S. can reduce its energy usage by more than 30% using energy efficiency improvements that pay for themselves in 3 years or less, without changing the quality of life of the building's occupants, so 30% of each utility dollar is wasted.
• food consumed in Cincinnati travels an average of 1500 miles from farm to table, while fertile land in our own community lies vacant.
• Rumpke landfill receives 2 million tons of material each year, and 60 percent of that is material for which there are established commodity markets with buyers ready and willing to pay a good price. More than a million tons per year of valuable natural resources are being wasted.

Now that we know what it means to say that Cincinnati is wasteful, why is that fact important?

Cincinnati's economy, like that of the nation and the world, is currently in the doldrums. People are struggling to understand: how to re-energize the economy; how to make the economy sustainable for the foreseeable future; and how to create an economy that can support an adequate standard of living for all of our City's inhabitants. These are the right questions to be asking, and the answers lie in eliminating waste.

The global economic slowdown started at about the same time that oil hit $140/barrel. Coincidence? Consider that every dollar we spend on petroleum is a dollar that leaves Cincinnati for some other part of the world; that every dollar we spend on food is a dollar that leaves Cincinnati for some other part of the world; and that every ton of natural resources that we bury in the landfill represents destruction of our own wealth. Is it any wonder that Cincinnati has not enough dollars to meet its needs, and that Cincinnati's economy and that of the whole nation needs massive infusions of cash (federal stimulus) to keep functioning?

Is now the right time to try to eliminate the waste in our economy. The story of the woodcutter comes to mind. This woodcutter had a contract to saw 10 logs per day, and he was very happy because he could saw 10 logs in 6 hours. But as time went by, the woodcutter's saw began to dull, and it took him 7 hours, then 8, to saw his 10 logs per day. Before long, the woodcutter was working feverishly from sun up to sun down trying desperately to fulfill his contract and deliver 10 logs per day. A friend asked him why he didn't sharpen his saw. Without looking up, the desperate woodcutter replied that he was far too busy to stop for even a moment, and went on working with his dull saw.

Some would argue that a recession is no time to worry about energy efficiency investments, urban gardens, or other extravagances. That perspective overlooks the fact that our inefficiencies are an important cause of our economic problems, and that eliminating waste is the best hope for enabling economic recovery. Like the woodcutter, if we make a small investment in improving the efficiency of our process, there is good reason to be optimistic about the future. If we decide that hard times are the wrong time to change, we can be sure that our situation will continue to gradually worsen.

Larry Falkin
Director, City of Cincinnati Office of Environmental Quality
larry.falkin@cincinnati-oh.gov


Hear Lt. Governor Lee Fisher and learn from representatives from leading local Company's on how to sharpen your saw. www.3esummitcincinnati.org/ October 2nd 8am-noon at the Duke Energy Center