Earlier in the week, Jonathan Axelrad, Co-Chair of this past weekend’s Jewish Response to the Energy Challenge (J-REC) conference held in San Francisco and broadcasted through out the United States and Israel, was asked if a “Jewish response to energy” wasn’t as superfluous as the Korean response to hurricanes.

As one of the few, if not only, gentiles I began the morning a bit skeptical, though after a day of thought provoking lectures and panels, I feel it was not another superfluous conference, and the concept of a concerted Jewish response could indeed be the seed of a terrifically successful piece of the large puzzle that will be the energy (and consumption) solution of the future. The core ideas behind why I agreed with the many bright panelists and moderators for why there should be a particularly Jewish response is because of the interdisciplinary and international nature of the energy challenge, the acute water and related energy challenge within Israel, and the Jewish concept of tikkun olam (loosely translated from Hebrew: the pursuit of things that avoid social chaos).

Early in my professional and social career I learned the benefit of quickly establishing a common ground with the person in front of me or on the other end of a phone call or email. By maintaining strong social and religious ties despite the global Jewish diaspora there is an opportunity to work with like minded people around the globe. Beyond international collaboration, this bodes well for the development of technologies and projects that require experts from a variety of professions – from law, to finance, to engineering, to politics. Like all business relationships, sharing common ground accelerates closing a deal.

It is no great secret that Israel does not share the petroleum reserves of its often weary if not hostile neighbors; it does however suffer from a similar water paucity – the desalinization of which is currently prohibitively energy intensive for all but the most energy rich of nations. Its abundance of sun, its relative isolation, its relatively concentrated population and its pursuit of water make Israel an ideal consumer of clean technologies in every form; from efficiency, to recycling, to desalinization, to energy generation. Despite a drive to innovation borne by necessity and a potentially high willingness to pay for services, due to its relatively small market, Israeli companies need to develop markets elsewhere to achieve economies of scale to bring down costs and amortize expensive R&D. What better way to access global markets than through existing social ties?

And lastly, on Sunday I was introduced to tikkun olam – a beautiful social concept variously translated on the internet as “repairing the world” or “perfecting the world.”  I appreciate how the concept was highlighted as a core belief, though in no means is it unique to Judaism. All the World’s leading monotheistic religions have a similar concept, and from my cursory understanding Hindu’s and Buddhists and countless other spiritual paths teach of the importance of striving to live in harmony with their surroundings.  As this week’s Economist makes note, religious leaders from various faiths have already come together to do what politicians have thus far struggled to do – and that is come together and provide guidance to their constituencies. Muslim leaders allegedly extolled their followers to seek less carbon intensive means for performing their pilgrimage to Mecca and Daoists were implored to use fewer sticks of incense.

We should all look at the energy and environmental challenges under our own lens, I don’t think the question should be “should the Jewish community have its own response” but rather, “what is my community, religious or otherwise, doing to capitalize on our skillsets, existing networks and values to respond to what is clearly one of the worlds biggest challenges.”

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Everybody is talking about “green energy” these days. It seems, anywhere in the world, the “green movement” has taken hold of individuals, companies and organizations. Individuals are making efforts to shift some of their consumption to renewable energy sources, companies are eagerly trying to develop or employ innovative clean technology and organizations are lobbying the green idea. Even governments are actively promoting and supporting the development of renewable energies.

With 64,500,000 search results for “green business”, 30,100,000 for “green energy” and 14,500,000 for “clean technology”, Google provides some insights into the dimensions of this movement.* Other sources give a clear picture: The International Energy Agency (IEA) indicates that investments in renewable energy will nearly triple from the current €40 billion to €115 billion by 2020. At the same time, employment in the overall sector will increase by 54% and even double in the solid biomass and photovoltaic fields, according to the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU).**

There are many centers of activity in this worldwide movement for a better (greener) world, and I don’t want to take sides for one or the other. However, I would like to share an observation:

The United States has been criticized for its high levels of energy consumption, lack of adequate governmental policies to curb usage and insufficient promotion of alternative energy sources. At the same time, it might be the country with the largest and most dynamic “green energy” movement in the world.

Truth of the matter is: There is a large and ever growing group of dedicated people out there in the United States who believe in a “green future”. These are people who want to make a difference, people who are fed up with the current legislation’s stance on energy. These people rally all over the country in a quest for change. And they are pretty good at it.

Close to 500 people attended the San Francisco fundraiser “An Evening to Reenergize America” that was organized by Cleantech & Green Business for Obama (CT4-O) on Monday evening. These are 500 people who not only believe in clean technologies and green business, but who actively support the green movement – not only through their work, but also through their monetary contributions (ticket prices for the San Francisco fundraiser were in the $250-2,500 range). I must say that I was pretty impressed by both the turnout of this event and the dedication these people showed.

The event was one of four galas and part of 220 house parties nationwide. All over the country, people organized similar events to benefit the Obama Victory Fund, hoping that their next president will create what is commonly referred to as a “New Energy Economy”, including millions of green jobs and substantial investments in renewable energy.

All of those 500 people who attended the San Francisco fundraiser this week showed great commitment and passion to their industry. They clearly succeeded in demonstrating the strength and breadth of the clean tech and green business constituency in support of building the new energy economy.

Sources:
* Search performed on October 22, 2008.
** BMU, “Employment Effects. Impact of the Expansion of Renewable Energy on the German Labour Market”, (Berlin, June 2006).

Watch Barak Obama’s pre-recorded message that he delivered to the audience:
Obama on YouTube

Some interesting links:
Cleantech & Green Business for Obama (CT4-0)
Official Obama site

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