Welcoming
the new normal

Amid the specter of climate change, carbon footprints,
“peak oil” and economic crisis, this Earth Day portends
a tomorrow that’s unlikely to ever again be like yesterday.
But this is no time for nostalgia — the opportunity for
water resources professionals to make a difference is now.

The first Earth Day — April 22, 1970 — thrust environmental quality and conservation into the national dialog, symbolized a tipping point that shifted how we think about environmental systems and resources, and prompted laws and technical innovations to protect them.

In the 40 years since, critics have called Earth Day irrelevant, outmoded and misguided. Yet many today — me included — would argue that it has never been so vibrant or so necessary.

The issues that the first Earth Day helped push into our national psyche are no less important (much less solved) than they are now. Our understanding of Earth’s ecosystems and resources has evolved, but so have the issues. The world’s population is nearly double that of 1970, yet most of its resources — water and oil most notable among them — are in shorter supply.

As Earth Day 2009 approached, climate change, carbon footprints, “peak oil” and economic crisis have collided to cause another tipping point: Our awareness is heightened and, collectively, we recognize that never again will tomorrow be like yesterday. This is the new normal.

At an accelerating rate, organizations are measuring the overall impact of their operations and searching out opportunities to be more efficient and more sustainable. Some major companies have pointedly stated that greening their operations is good for business and the bottom line. In this new normal, the triple bottom line — financial, social and environmental — makes more sense than ever and is clearly the most relevant decision-making framework. (The environment is now in good company.)

Brown and Caldwell is working with organizations nationwide to shrink their carbon footprint, forge regional relationships that will help sustain their operations, recover resources from waste streams and treat wastewater more like an asset. In the new normal, environmental systems are on a par with financial and social systems — the third leg of our stepstool to greater sustainability.

For water resources professionals, our obligation to recreate and reinvent is as immense as the challenge of climate variability and resource conservation. Yet these are exciting times: the needs are real, the challenges are clear and the opportunity to make a positive and lasting difference is before us.

Happy Earth Day,

Craig Goehring
CEO
Brown and Caldwell