Green strategies for DNC unveiled
Ideas: Limiting paper, recycling equipment
By Jerd Smith, Rocky Mountain News
Published April 22, 2008 at 11 p.m.
Democratic National Convention staffers will use energy-saving laptops, forgo paper memos and rely on air conditioners less this summer in an effort to meet their pledge to shrink the political confab's carbon footprint.
Strict rules to use double-sided printing and to recycle equipment are also on tap, organizers said Tuesday at a briefing on the convention's green goals.
"We're only using laptops because they save up to 50 percent in power consumption compared to desktops," said Brook Colangelo, a convention committee technology expert.
About 50,000 people are expected for the four-day event in late August, and the committee will have 300 staffers running things.
In addition to using energy-saving devices, staffers will donate or re-use all of the equipment they bring in and the miles of cable that will be needed to wire the convention.
"None of it will go into a landfill," Colangelo said.
Such moves will help save energy, said Howard Geller, executive director of the Boulder-based South West Energy Efficiency Project, which promotes energy efficiency in six southwestern states.
"There's a lot to be done when you put your mind to it," Geller said.
Measuring what occurs may be one of the committee's biggest challenges.
"We don't have a baseline in place yet," said Damon Jones, committee spokesman. "We're still figuring out what all the pieces are."
But Jones said he expects to derive some kind of goal once the planning is complete.
"By implementing green initiatives, we're going to look at how much we could expect to save," he said. "It's hard to put a big number on that now because every convention is different, and we don't have numbers from the past."
The effort to reduce the convention's carbon footprint is an important one, said Stephen Saunders, president of the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization.
"Groups that are highly visible can play a huge role in raising awareness," he said.
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