Get excited

[ JUNE 7, 2010 - OKLAHOMA CITY, OK ] - On June 11 and 12, the Oklahoma Sustainability Network is hosting its annual conference at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond to share incredible insights into smarter choices in everyday living. I promise, this isn’t one of those conferences where you go and get the goody bag full of pens and junk you will never use and wonder why your boss made you go. Instead, it provides attendees a chance to learn about sustainable decisions in daily life.

As a homeowner, a business leader, or a community leader, this conference offers the opportunity for you to learn about how you can become more sustainable, the Oklahoma way.

To give you a little preview of the presentations, there will be a workshop for homeowners that will help people see the benefits that proper landscaping, weatherization, and geothermal systems can have for their homes. Also, Katherine Hayhoe, a research associate professor of atmospheric sciences from Texas Tech University, will speak about the science behind climate change at a different workshop. Say what? Climate change is scientific?

Additionally, Michael Patton, the executive director of the Metropolitan Trust, which operates 12 recycling centers, will encourage, educate, and help facilitate a great dialogue about the practical effects of recycling – and I don’t just mean “paper or plastic,” but an in-depth look at what recycling really can do.

Participants will also have the opportunity to visit with the host of HGTV’s Gardening by the Yard with “The Gardener Guy,” Paul James. Paul will talk about organic gardening – we could all use a little more organic food in our diets after the Memorial Day weekend.

The president of the Oklahoma Green Business Alliance, Temur Akhmedov, will present another great workshop on energy independence, a subject vitally important to every American.

Last, but not least, my friends and colleagues at the Phillips Murrah law firm and C.H. Guernsey & Co. will discuss an innovative project on which we are working on behalf of OSN, the “Green Building Codes” initiative. This Oklahoma Sustainability Network project received just under $500,000 from a stimulus grant via the Department of Energy through the Oklahoma Department of Commerce. Our workshop will be geared at reviewing the grant project and discussing our goal toward pursuing greener building codes both at the local city level and the state level.

I suppose at this point it would be fair to ask, “so what?” Under the backdrop of what is the worst oil spill in our history, it’s fair to say that the world’s attention has been redirected toward the importance of living a sustainable life, and there is no better opportunity than now. For me, it’s not just about the major national policy reasons behind it like creating a better economy with job creation, or reducing our dependence on energy sources from abroad, but it’s also about the practical effects that this type of sustainable living can have on the individual.

I just recently built an environmentally friendly home and I love to brag that my latest utility bill was only $76 for a full month. If my utility bill was that much in college, I might have eaten out a little bit more instead of eating Ramen noodles. Not only does that save me some cash over the long term, it also reduces my consumption of energy. Many of these ideas I have learned at past OSN conferences.

The more we recycle, the more of our natural resources we can preserve. The more we draw on renewable energy sources and make our homes more efficient, the more we lower our utility costs and reduce our community’s dependence not only on foreign energy sources, but environmentally hazardous dirty ones that pollute our air and water. The more we learn about cleaner transportation options like natural gas and electric hybrid vehicles, the better off our air quality is. And the more we learn about the role of organic, locally grown foods, the healthier our families become.

This conference is about all of these things and more. Get excited, get smart and get registered. For information, visit www.oksustainability.org.

Jim Roth, a former Oklahoma corporation commissioner, is an attorney with Phillips Murrah P.C. in Oklahoma City, where his practice focuses on clean, green energy for Oklahoma.