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OurBlook interview with Will Sarni, founder of DOMANI
Editor's Note: Will is based in Colorado as founder and CEO of DOMANI, an environmental consulting company. He has 30 years' experience in this field and has managed development projects throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia and has provided expert testimony on various issues. We thought him being in a clean-air, outdoorsy state would lend special significance to his views on this topic.
 What do you see as the strong points of the American Clean Energy and Security Act?
WS: The strong point is that it appears to be a bill supported by policy makers and industry. It is essentially an imperfect bill (not very aggressive in its goals) that has a good chance of passing. Moreover, it sends a signal to negotiators at Copenhagen that the U.S. has committed to reducing carbon emissions.
What do you see as the weak points?
WS: The weakest parts of the bill are that a high percentage of allowances are being given away and not auctioned.
Also, it would have been preferable to focus exclusively on a carbon cap and trade program (similar to the successful U.S. Sox trading program) and move the energy elements to a pure energy bill such as the Bingaman Renewable Energy Standards (RES) bill in the Senate.
In your expertise, what are the issues that will frame the Waxman-Markey legislation’s next steps through the halls of power?
WS: The key issues will include the percentage of free allowances, how these free allowances will be distributed by industry sector, the relationship of federal legislation to state programs and even product carbon labeling.
Who will the main players be?
WS: The main players will be the renewable energy, utility, transportation and agricultural sectors. This will also build out a service sector to support industries' move to a carbon constrained economy.
What issues will they be willing to negotiate on and what legislative provisions are considered dealbreakers?
WS: I believe that although every provision is negotiable, I would doubt that the timetable and emission goals would change. Changing the timetable and goals would potentially result in losing support from environmental NGOs (nongovernmental groups).
Any advice you would like to give lawmakers?
WS: Pass the legislation so we can move on to negotiating with China and India for emission reductions.
You have been an environmental consultant for many large corporations, including Coca Cola and Cisco, over the years. Can you give us some specific examples of how you have helped them operate more effectively? In regard to energy consumption, what are the most common obstacles organizations face? What advice would you give them?
WS: Effectiveness covers a broad range of efforts including energy and water efficiency projects along with developing broad-based sustainability strategies and new product development. Effectiveness with sustainability programs is identifying a program that supports (and creates value) for the overall company strategy, builds brand value and increases revenue.
Specifically, we have worked with numerous food and beverage, consumer product goods, chemical and diversified industrial companies in developing effective sustainability strategies and new products. Examples include working with Cisco in developing quantitative tools in highlighting the “sustainability performance” of selected products and product categories and working with a metal mining and refining company in developing a new product for the green building sector.
Obstacles include the most basic such as understanding current energy use by facility, by business unit and enterprise wide to the more complex such as funding energy assessments and capital projects. My advice is that the evaluation of energy projects should include a recognition that energy costs will increase, there is brand value associated with renewable energy projects and on-site renewables also provide protection from potential energy supply disruption.
You work out of Denver. What impact would this bill have on your city? Do you see it fostering any meaningful alternative energy projects there in a high-altitude, mountainous surrounding?
WS: The bill would primarily benefit the CleanTech industry in Colorado by providing the framework for increased innovation and deployment of technologies that have a lower carbon footprint. For example, companies involved in algae biofuels, solar PV and energy efficiency products would benefit.
Carbon cap and trade will encourage companies to move away from fossil fuels (high carbon emission technologies) and deploy renewables. The cost of carbon would now be factored into return on investment (ROI) calculations which favor zero carbon emission technologies.
Is there anything else you'd like to say about current environmental and energy issues?
WS: A low carbon (or carbon constrained) economy represents an enormous opportunity for business to develop new innovative products and services that can be exported. Companies such as GE and 3M are excellent examples of companies that are using sustainability to drive innovation in the CleanTech sector. Other examples of smaller companies that have embedded sustainability innovation into their businesses are Tennant and Interface Carpet.
(Mr. Sarni recently wrote a blog on this topic at http://www.domani.com/blog.)
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