long delayed

Wow, this town is busy.  Not NY style, but just busy.  Every day there's a lecture, a hearing, a dozen meetings on any given topic we might think is important.  We finished up orientation with a bang.  And I started in at my office after two and a half weeks of sitting and listening to the local illuminati.  We were all getting fat from being wined and dined and told we were the most powerful science network in DC.  Well groomed, we headed off to our cubicles in our big buildings to get lost.

What I'm discovering is that DC really is about networking.  Your connections with people are important to getting things done.  I've been to a bunch of meetings now where I didn't hear anything concrete being said.  Lots of intuitive conversation, but not a lot of action decisions.  People here like to talk, and talk a lot.  And everything moves very slowly.  For example, the Obama administration put out  an executive order last year saying that 95% of federal purchases have to be "sustainable".  Now all of the agencies are dealing with figuring out what that means, but at the same time, so do suppliers. As the largest single purchasing entity in the world, the federal government has a big role to play.  But, it has to start out with just asking suppliers what their practices are. Then in a few months or next year saying, well, now you must account for your practices.  And in another year, now you have to meet some minimum standard for low greenhouse gas emissions.

You get the picture.  It moves slowly, and there are a lot of moving parts.  Each agency has it's own culture and policies.  Add to that the fact that there are political appointees and career administrators who sometimes do and sometimes don't have the same agenda.  At the EPA, the career and political heads are in general agreement, but what happens in a few years if we get an unfriendly administration?

On another note, I did go to a fascinating meeting last week.  It was called a "listening session", where stakeholders in the sustainable products markets (industry, non governmental groups, consultants, and others) got together and voiced their positions on the role of the EPA and federal government in the green market.  The federal representatives from EPA, FTC, DOE, and USDA sat and listened.  Big players were in the room, from timber industry, pharmaceuticals, chemical companies, green building and product institutes, standard setting organizations, etc.  Positions ranged from "Don't disturb the market", what you might expect from industry, to "don't confuse my mother" with too many labels, and "I have kids who want to know that we are going to do the right thing"  What was really cool was that while most industry reps were more conservative in their positions than some of the green institutes, I was surprised by how invested they were in making a sustainable market work.  Some of these industries have invested heavily in sustainability and want it to work.  Whether their motivations are cost reductions and profits, or doing the right thing, I can't say.  But it was great to be a fly on that wall.


I'll try to be more regular from here on out.  Thanks for reading, friends and family!