80% of the energy needed to make this product was from Renewable Energy

Worldwide and especially in energy guzzling developed countries, energy consumption and how to reduce pollution is garnering increased attention. The recent former US Vice President Al Gore’s movie “Inconvenient Truth” illustrates the problems of global warming.

As consumers become increasingly concerned about their energy usage they will demand products that are produced in an energy efficient manner. Consumers of the future will demand that products they buy are produced with the least amount of pollution. That is why I have titled this article with a product label outlining the renewable energy component of the product. In this article I will outline why this is important for Sri Lanka and why such labels will be crucial for our products to gain an edge in the global market place.

Many people will ask the question, what can we in tiny Sri Lanka do? Sri Lanka’s pollution level is very small; our impact on global pollution (even with a new coal plant or two) will always remain small. This is insignificant in comparison to the United States, which emits more than 20% of the world’s global warming carbon dioxide gases and other large rapidly developing countries like China and India which are emitting huge amounts of carbon dioxide and other pollutants from their coal and diesel power plants. However, the products we make still have to compete in the global market place. The main markets for our products are North America and Europe. Consumers in those countries are starting to becoming concerned about global warming and what the individual can do.

As a result of this even global retailers are seeking energy efficiency as key to growth and survival. Walmart, the goliath in global retailing, has unveiled an ambitious plan to reduce its carbon footprint. The carbon footprint of a company is a measure of the amount of carbon dioxide emitted directly or indirectly through all of its activities. Walmart plans on increasing efficiency of its vehicle fleet by 25%, reducing solid waste in its stores by 25% and eliminating 30% of the energy used in its stores over the next 3 years to reduce its carbon footprint.

At a more individual level, a recent article in the New York Times highlighted how a couple had a “green wedding” where they used bio-degradable products and calculated the distance that each guest will travel for the wedding to offset their carbon dioxide emissions by donating to programs that plant trees or preserve forests. Another such example is Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page buying carbon credits to offset miles flown on their private jet. To many, this may sound extreme, but increasingly affluent Western consumers are trying to reduce the carbon footprint they are leaving on the planet.

These are the consumers who are buying Sri Lankan products, since we can’t compete at the lowest end with countries such as China, Vietnam and Bangladesh our products are increasingly being targeted at middle and upper-income consumers. By establishing a strong label as a country geared towards “green production” of goods and even services, (solar powered, energy efficient office buildings), we can gain a huge marketing advantage over other countries. Therefore, by showing that Sri Lanka, despite having a relatively small carbon footprint, is environmentally concerned and producing goods using renewable energy, will earn us marketing and publicity points from the Western consumers.

The next question to ask is how this can be done. Sri Lanka being located close to the equator gets the most possible amount of sunshine that a country can get. Therefore, solar energy can be used on a large scale. Furthermore we have good programs of energy generation through biomass (such as glyricidia) that are easily adaptable and expandable.

One of the major problems with biomass generation is that the production facility or factory is far away from the power generation plants. For that we should have programs whereby large factories can fund the growing of such glyricidia farms and install power generating units close by. This is already happening in Sri Lanka. The next progressive step would be for the companies to be able to sell their excess power generated to the National grid. Regardless of this possibility, the companies would still be able to calculate that energy on their products.

There are many other renewable energy sources such as wind power and hydropower that we can harness in this manner. Utilizing any of these would allow Sri Lankan manufacturers to have a valuable marketing tool under their belt when they sell their products to foreign markets.

Many will argue that the costs are still too high for such projects. I will not get into the details here, but judging by the way prices for fossil fuels are rising and with the increasing possibility of carbon taxes in our major markets, this kind of investment will look very small in the long run, compared to the benefits. Businesses have so far ignored environmental pollution and degradation in their business models. But increasing carbon dioxide levels and the resulting global warming thrown in with the rising sea-levels are making governments and businesses think twice about not factoring in the environmental consequences.

Sri Lanka already has some world-class companies which have managed to thrive in a global economy despite various policy shortcomings and the ongoing violence. Expanding our use of renewable energy and trumpeting it to the world through the use of product labels such as mentioned in the title of this article is one way to be even more successful in the future.

The writer is a biomedical scientist affiliated to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. He has a special interest in renewable energy and sustainable development. He could be reached at ddesilva@aecom.yu.edu