The top energy trend of 2009: Consumer Power

There might have been a time when the 13.8 quadrillion Btu of energy that Canadians consume every year seemed to magically appear in our electrical outlets, gas tanks and heaters. But in 2009, Canadian consumers proved they were starting to take a closer look at all those quadrillions of British thermal units and, more importantly, that they’re ready to manage their energy themselves.

Canadians are increasingly seeking out information on their energy at events like the Alberta Conference on Energy Literacy, and voicing their opinions at events like CanWEA’s annual conference. The Centre for Energy even took a virtual Canadian road trip with Norm to see how energy is produced and consumed in places across the country. Educated consumers make better energy choices, and Ontario proved the point during its Count Me In! Community Challenge where awareness did for energy use what diet does to those few extra pounds. Canadian consumers are taking control of their energy, and that often means finding ways to use less.

Over the last year, Flow has looked at a range of ways to improve your energy efficiency at home, from “spring cleaning” to laundry. Where consumers used to only interact with their electricity meters on a monthly bill, the increasing use of smart meters in Canadian provinces like Ontario, where the government hopes to have one installed in every home and business, provides a set of tools for energy-conscious Canadians. Even the way we get from point A to point B is getting more efficient, with both car and bike sharing programs reducing the energy required in the transportation sector, where 31 per cent of our country’s energy is consumed. Add in “hypermilling” driving practices and it’s clear that increasing control over Canada’s energy spreads from our homes onto our streets. Canadians aren’t always “warm” to energy efficiency, but the future still looks bright.

In the future, we can also expect energy to get even closer to home with microgeneration. Vancouver’s mandatory electric car chargers in new condo developments are will bring energy Vancouverites usually buy at gas stations directly into their homes. And as projects like the Enmax Solabode, a hyper-efficient home built using already available technology, show: we’re a lot closer than we realize to that future. That’s good news for a national consumer base hungry for more control.

In a national Canadian Centre for Energy Information survey conducted this year (376KB PDF) 92 per cent of respondents said the energy sector was important to the Canadian economy and 73 per cent said the energy sector was important to them. A full 59 per cent also felt disconnected from decision making on energy policies, but this year’s Flow articles showed that energy decisions are increasingly driven by Canadians themselves, sometimes one backyard at a time.

Yes, in my backyard

Decentralized power is one of the most fundamental ways that Canadian energy is changing. Instead of relying entirely on distant power plants and the thousands of kilometres of wire that connects their grid, Canadians are finding ways to literally generate power in their own backyards.

Because it can be installed on many of the surfaces that otherwise go unused on a home, solar power has provided early signs of the potential for decentralized power, such as in solar thermal technology designed to heat your water. Potential sites for solar power include otherwise unused rooftops and even mausoleums and outhouses. But it’s not just about putting existing technology to work in new places.

Newer technologies include paintable solar panels, panels designed for microscopic machines and, of course, a range of gadgets, gadgets and still more gadgets. Meanwhile, urban wind turbines might eventually transform the way our cities look, even while inventions like kinetic plates take advantage of the ways we already live by using of North America’s beloved drive-throughs.

The fight to bring energy even more completely into Canadian homes hasn’t always been an easy one, but with an increasing array technologies for power generation in our daily lives, it’s safe bet that the energy we use will increasingly be the energy we produce.

Praying at the pumps

Gasoline prices may rise and fall, but what remains constant is the desire, in the face of now-permanent triple-digit prices, to fall to your knees in frustration. But if most gasoline consumers are bowing down in defeat, at least one American group has a slightly different take on finding themselves prostrated by gas prices: prayer.

Called, simply enough, Pray at the Pump, the group of 50 Evangelical Christians believe, as their leader, Rocky Twyman, does, that prayer is literally the answer to all problems. Sporting a signature purple shirt, Twyman and his group meet regularly in front of gas stations, even providing a modified version of the iconic civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome” featuring the new verse “”We’ll have lower gas prices.”

According to the National Post article linked above, the group began at a Washington, D. C. where, after hearing the other soup kitchen volunteers complaining about the cost of gas, Mr. Twyman led them across the street to a Shell station to pray. The group’s visits have included stations around the United States, and they’ve even taken their crusade online with a petition.

So far their public call to “Pray Down the High Gas Prices” has only attracted 54 signatures agreeing that “Negotiations with rich Arabs have failed to end the high gas prices in America,” but the group has already attracted considerable attention online and even from comedian Jay Leno.

In fact, the famous late night host is now a subject of protest for the group after he quipped: “Hey, have you heard about this group called Prayer at the Pump? They’re a prayer group that sprang up, and they go to gas stations and they hold hands and they pray for lower gas prices. Otherwise known as the Bush energy plan.”

Reining in green claims

Any business with enough savvy to sell its product knows sales hinge on trends that shape its customers’ lives, from machismo to health claims. So, with an increasing emphasis on green consciousness, there’s a trend toward marketing that touts environmental benefits. Unfortunately, when it comes to “greenwashing,” those benefits are often outright fabrications.

Referring to environmental claims on products, greenwashing has become so widespread that a predictable raft of abuses has cropped up, notably identified in a 2007 report (88 KB PDF) by environmental marketing firm TerraChoice observing “The Six Sins of Greenwashing” in 1,018 surveyed products. (It does bear noting that TerraChoice is itself “the official management, certification and delivery agent of the EcoLogo,” one of the green certifications the report draws attention to.)

In response to false green claims, the Canadian Standards Association and the Canadian Competition Bureau, have released a guide (592 KB PDF) focusing on so-called “self-declared environmental claims,” which include any claim made by the manufacturers, importers, “or any person who promotes a product/service or business interest who is likely to benefit from the product’s environmental claims.” Specific examples of misleading claims would include calling a product “chemical-free” when chemicals were never a part of the manufacturing process, or unsubstantiated claims of “sustainability.”

Under the guidelines, advertisers have a year to change their current “green” marketing strategies to ensure their claims are “verifiable, accurate, meaningful, and reliable.”

But while the guide notes that products must still conform to the Competition Act, the Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act, and the Textile Labelling Act, it also notes: “This Guide is not a regulation. The Competition Bureau considers that the guidelines advocated in this document reflect ‘best practices’… deviations from the Guide might not, in and of themselves, represent a contravention of the Competition Act and/or the labelling statutes enforced by the Competition Bureau.”

However, some see voluntary compliance as an insufficient protection for consumers.

As The Globe and Mail reports, not everyone is content with voluntary guidelines. While some industry representatives protest the move, others suggest that more enforceable, specific regulations against greenwashed claims would be the most effective way of keeping green claims honest. After all, while green marketing is a fine incentive for consumers, businesses will always be motivated to pursue of another kind of green.