The Turning Point is Here: The New Deal is Green
Gerry Bingham, career environmentalist, answers Grist's questions
(even though they asked someone else)

Reinventing yourself isn't easy. I was once in an MBA leadership class where we conducted a self awareness exercise to simplify a description of our identity. It was called "write your own obituary" (answering the question: "If you are what you do, how do you describe what you've done?"). It was a bit morbid and more challenging than you'd think. But, I found it rewarding and constructive to organize my thoughts about where I'd been to see where I was going.

More lately, I've been thinking through my professional opportunities and what direction the world seems to be going and had been thinking of doing a refresher of similar What Color is my Parachute exercises to sort it out. Then, I recently saw an interview on Grist with an organic food advocate and it struck me as an opportunity to refresh that exercise in a more structured, and less death contemplation oriented way. After putting it all together, I'm left wondering what value might come from others seeing it (perhaps describing who we are by what we do as a country).

I know sharing this runs the risk of seeming self absorbed. But, I decided the benefit from helping others follow in my footsteps is more important than what people think of me and my ego. It's meant for inspiration, not self promotion. During these times I think we need all the ideas we can get. And when it comes to global warming, I think almost everyone now agrees, it's time for us all to begin re-writing our future.

-Gerry Bingham

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What work do you do?
I work at the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources as a senior energy policy analyst and the coordinator of an effort assisting the private sector with complete energy planning (including businesses, institutions, and non-profits).

What does your organization do?
DOER has a mission to create "a greener future for the Commonwealth, economically and environmentally." This new focus began with Governor Deval Patrick's new administration, applying the following elements for its policies and programs: seeking all cost-effective energy efficiencies, maximizing development of greener energy resources, strategies to assure reliable supplies and improve costs, and supporting clean tech companies and spurring clean energy employment.

This work takes the form of regulating the state's Renewable and Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards, advocating on behalf of the administration (and seeking results in the public interest) in regulatory proceedings, management of grant programs funded by the US Dept. of Energy and carbon trading auctions, assistance for business for comprehensive energy planning, and oversight of the state's utility energy efficiency programs and the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust.

Given the increased attention on the price and impact of our energy uses, DOER considers it imperative to help all sectors of the state's economy to begin addressing energy with a renewed motivation to be comprehensive and aggressive. While it makes good business sense to reduce our use of energy as it becomes more expensive, the unanimous acceptance that global warming needs attention has created a green wave of activity; everyone's greening up!

What are you working on at the moment?
For the last year or so, I've been giving presentations on the CERT approach and fielding calls for a variety of private sector types throughout the state. These "clients" have varied in size and focus. But, they are consistent in one respect: they are all struggling with fascinating challenges as they seek to find energy solutions that are financially responsible.

Some of my favorites to mention are names people would recognize: Boston Red Sox, Gillette Stadium, Boston Garden, Polartec, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Harpoon Brewery, and Crane Paper. But, there are other Energy Leaders that have been rewarding to work with even if they're not well known because they're really showing results.

How do you get to work?
I've been walking about a mile to the "T" to get to our state office in Boston. I was biking the 7 miles each way when the commute was happening during daylight hours. And I think a lot about getting a system down for inclement weather and dark commutes. But, it's easy to be lazy when you're so close to mass transit.

What long and winding road led you to your current position?
(take as much space as you need - this is the internet; digital text is low carbon!)
I believe every job I've ever had has been a part of the "long, winding road," whether it's the off-the-wall ones, like giant turtle wrangler in suburban NJ (age 9) and phone-a-friend operator/monitor during the graveyard shift (age 18), or jobs that are more logical parts of a career continuum, like canvass director at an environmental campaign and economist for state government regulating utilities. Every job has helped me appreciate the importance of responsibility and self awareness, as well as, giving me a grounded approach to working with a huge variety of personalities (not all of them as slow moving as a giant turtle, but, some have been darn close and surprisingly hard to wrangle!).

For my first job out of college I was a canvasser for the National Toxics Campaign (NTC), working to get polluting companies to pay their fair share of the Boston Harbor cleanup. My success in fundraising and managing a staff as field manager led to my advance as Canvass Director for the Citizens Campaign for the Environment in their Buffalo office, where we worked on drinking water quality, outfall pipe signage, and protecting Adirondack Park. Canvassing is grueling work with lots of (sometimes angry) rejection! But, I remain convinced that grass roots work remains the single most valuable way to understand public perception about the issues. Try finding support in Rochester, NY, where Kodak is the number polluter, but, also, the number one employer! Suffering a bad night in an area like that can kill your motivation. But, one hour of knocking on doors in Love Canal really served to build a renewed perspective on the big picture.

After leading a record breaking second year of fundraising, top among 50 organizations in the country, John O'Connor, the founder of NTC and environmental entrepreneur, asked me to help him kick off an incubator for green business in Cambridge, MA. This was exciting to a guy who was burned out on the trappings of campaign work: long hours, late nights, and (back then) an acrimonious relationship with business. I moved back to Boston to help Johnny O. with the first of ten start-ups acting as president for Lead Solutions in a converted warehouse in Cambridgeside that we named the GreenWorks Building (I actually occupied the only office for many months in this giant place before things really took off).

Creating a demand for lead testing kits and a publication on lead poisoning prevention we produced proved to be quite challenging for two guys with practically zero business background (my two years running a painting company during college hardly counted - besides, I would learn later, you don't create demand, you identify it and meet it!). So, desiring to make me better prepared for a myriad of recent business experiences (marketing, shelf-space, publishing, public awareness), Johhny O. sponsored my enrollment in a GMAT prep course to begin the process to get my MBA. And by the time I was enrolled in the BU School of Management for night classes, I had officially caught the green business bug. So, we closed down Lead Solutions and Johnny O. and I parted ways.

I wanted to learn all about business and sustainability from people experienced in the field. So, I moved on to work by day as an analyst for Kinder, Lydenberg, Domini (KLD), the investment firm that founded the Domini 400 Social Index in the early days of SRI (socially responsible investments). The task of conducting ethical screens and writing profiles on every company on the S&P 500 list was a great way to learn what businesses are doing to be green. It wasn't long before I discovered what (even then) appeared to be the most important environmental issue facing the world: global warming. What excited me most was the prospect that companies who get it were actually saving money! This "no regrets" approach to saving energy to save money had struck me as an obvious solution to this problem people were in adamant disagreement about.

And, so began a ten year career in the energy industry, working on many different environmentally and financially sustainable solutions to global warming through policies and programs. I first worked as a consultant for Environmental Futures, the private energy consulting firm of Joe Kennedy's Citizens Energy. Then, soon after finishing my MBA, I was hired as senior economist for the Department of Telecommunications and Energy (now, the DPU). My role helping to implement electric restructuring in the state gave me a window into the inner workings of electric utilities. The state's change to open markets for wholesale and retail electricity providers held a promise of a new energy landscape for the country (MA and CA were two of the first to restructure).

The prospect that free markets would begin delivering progressive energy products throughout the country made me want to test the theory that green power and energy efficiency would be delivered most efficiently using the internet. I moved onto Nexus EnergyGuide, where I was product manager for their energy choice Finder feature for users to plug in their ZIP Code and get information on rebates and green energy choices. Then the CA energy debacle happened (see Enron) and states in the midst of restructuring began to reconsider. After a big popping sound from a burst of the internet bubble and a revamp of Finder to limited states (we opened TX where Energyguide.com remains the state's licensed Finder to this day), I had inadvertently advised my way out of a job.

But, if not for those developments how would I be where I am today? After a few brief energy consulting positions, I was hired by the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (formerly the "Division") to lead a team overseeing electric restructuring policies in Massachusetts. That quickly evolved into policy development for distributed generation like solar power and wind, where we helped introduce the second uniform standards for interconnection in the country (which now serves as a model for other states). While continuing that work, I am now helping the new Patrick Administration with implementation of the Green Communities Act, a piece of state legislation with sweeping energy reforms, and supplementing it with coordination of the office's business assistance activities (see answer to question 3, above).

Where were you born? Where do you live now?
I was born in MD and, being a navy brat, I've lived all over during my childhood (including Japan, VA, CT, NJ, MA). I moved to Greater Boston after college and, after a brief stint running an environmental campaign office in Buffalo, NY, I moved back and have been in the Boston area since 1993.

Who is your environmental hero?
Though John O'Connor was a good friend and mentor for a time, Paul Hawken is one of the people I've followed that's had a profound impact on my life as a career environmentalist. His book The Ecology of Commerce introduced me to the concept of systems theory, something every environmentalist should know about. But, more importantly, he taught me the importance of being comfortable with reinventing myself to be the best I can be. Change for the better can be hard if you think you have to consider your former self to be inferior or a failure. It's all about recognizing that being who you are at various times in your life is integral to what you have experienced up to that point and makes you who you will be; and new experiences will only improve the agile at heart. This has become really relevant in my work with organizations seeking change, too.

What's your environmental vice?
I'd really like to get back on that bike. But, eating meat is probably my one vice with the worst carbon footprint.

How do you spend your free time? Read any good books lately?
I've been logging more computer time than I'd like to admit. Recently, it's been a combination of social networking (joined FaceBook a week ago) and professional networking (My LinkedIn Profile; 86 connections).

Most recent good read would be Roald Dahl's auto-biography Going Solo. I've been on a naturalists kick, too: Ernest Thompson Seton's Wild Animals I Have Known and Henry Beston's Outer Most House are two favorites (admittedly, not read recently). Greatest personal impact: Paul Hawken's The Ecology of Commerce; Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. Mind blowers: The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra, and E.O. Wilson's Consilience: The Future of Knowledge.

What's your favorite meal?
Our family breakfast on Saturday mornings: bagels with cream cheese and nova lox and all the critically important garnishing: cracked pepper, squeezed lemon, and capers. Oh, and I can't take my first breath without my freshly brewed coffee with cream and light sugar, of course.

What's your favorite place or ecosystem?
The Salem Valley in Connecticut. I have worked for over 15 years to help preserve family property that has ancestral routes dating back to colonial times. The geology and proximity to other protected lands in the CT River valley make it part of a unique "greenway" for a huge variety of flora and fauna. My periodic trips to a Leopold-style off-grid shed within the 2,000 acres of conservation land gives me pride from my accomplishments, solitude for self reflection, and a humble reminder of how small we really are (and how we need to make our impact even smaller!). After that, it's a tie between Machu Picchu, the Incan citadel in Peru popularized by my great grandfather's recently controversial Yale / National Geographic exploration, and the High Peaks Region of the Adirondacks.

If you could institute by fiat one environmental reform, what would it be?
Okay, you're about to learn why I'm not a politician. I think cars should be outlawed. I know it would never happen. But, since this is hypothetical, I admit that I daydream about what that would be like. And since I only get one, it might as well have an impact! Realistically, though, I realize how unfair that would be to certain economically strained rural areas. Maybe a more realistic one, a national system for carbon trading (this is going to happen! -- possibly as soon as 2009?).

Who was your favorite musical artist when you were 18? How about now?
My favorite musician when I was 18 was Carlos Santana; favorite band: CSN&Y. Now, I try to keep up with the new stuff (we were SOOO deprived in the 80's). Different stuff for different moods: Radiohead, Weezer, The Shins, Postal Service, Pavement, Flaming Lips, The White Stripes, The Strokes; and I love some of the new female vocal talent: Feist, Jenny Lewis, Tegan and Sarah.

What's your favorite movie?
I love movies. Most of my favorites pre-date having kids. As with kids, I feel it would be unfair to pick a favorite. But, if pressed, it would be a tie between Citizen Kane and It's a Wonderful Life. Here are some more that I feel depict important things -- The Big Picture: Mindwalk (based on the Fritjof Capra book The Turning Point); Determination: Burden of Dreams; Sociology: Grey Gardens; Environmental Justice: Erin Brokavitch and A Civil Action. Energy: Power Trip and The Smartest Guys in the Room; General: Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Being There, Say Anything, Grifters, Outside Providence, The Truman Show.

Which actor would play you in the story of your life?
My wife would laugh to hear me say it, because I look nothing like him. But, if anyone produced a movie about my life they'd have to get an actor who'd draw ticket sales. So, based on my story, it would have to be someone who could pull that off and attract viewers: Luke Wilson. If it were by looks, it might be Jeff Daniels. If it were a comedy about state workers, Will Ferrell. If I could pick, it would be John Cusack.

If you could have every InterActivist reader do one thing, what would it be?
Identify how you could reduce your carbon footprint by 20% and commit today to getting it done within 3 months! It's actually easier than you think. And who couldn't use the extra money from reduced energy use? For businesses, The Climate Registry could be the place where early carbon compliance can be banked and lead to real money for business!

(Grist could ask ...) What's next for you?
I'm thinking more and more about what it will take to get us all where we need to be on climate protection. It's now less about convincing people we have a problem and more about helping people break with existing patterns by simplifying information and boosting motivation ("Yes we can!"). It's clear to me that there are two factors that, prior to president-elect Obama's successful bid for the presidency, were almost completely ignored: our youth and the internet. I really look forward to being a contributor to innovative ways in which we can affect significant lasting change through forms of info sharing that really pushes the envelope. For instance, think about what could result from a social networking experiment on climate: maybe combining Princeton's Climate Stabilization Game with E.O. Wilson's Encyclopedia of Life and something like music map.

In the short term, I may just go visit the energy and environment section on change.gov and weigh in!