·      “                                Conservation is a great moral issue, for it involves the patriotic duty of ensuring                                                               the safety and continuance of this nation.”

--President Theodore Roosevelt

If you think about it, conservation and conservative come from the same root word. 

And what conservatives are all about is the process of conserving—conserving the best of our traditions, conserving our system of government, conserving the strength of our American spirit, and conserving freedom.

So why aren’t we also “about” conserving our natural resources?  Why aren’t we “about” handing off a world to our kids and grandkids that is at least as good—if not better—than we inherited from our parents?  In short, why have we ceded the moral high ground on the environment to the liberals?

Because of the generally bereft political agendas espoused by the far left, we have somehow put ourselves in the untenable position of opposing everything offered by the progressives, regardless of the merits of the idea.   

I have a number of friends who—like I do—consider themselves conservative or a politically right of center.

We recycle. 

We don’t throw trash out of the car; we don’t irrigate our lawns; we don’t waste energy; our thermostats are set lower in winter and higher in summer than the recommended levels.  Over time, many of us have changed to Energy Star® appliances to conserve water and electricity and we have put new insulation in our attics.  Most of us don’t drive vehicles that get 15-18 mpg or fewer.

In the manufacturing companies we run, we’re always trying to streamline processes and to reduce waste.  We talk about becoming more data-driven and constraint management and lean production.

Why should we not at the very least consider the same concepts in our personal and business environments?  Why should we allow talk-radio bombast to establish our environmental agenda?

The simple answers to those two questions are we should and we shouldn’t.

We should consider the concept of sustainability as we build the next house, our next senior housing unit, that next apartment complex, or that next shopping area or manufacturing facility. Why can’t we take a longer view in design and construction? 

The answer is that we now can. The argument in the past was that “building green costs more.”  That may have been true in the past, but we have commercial buildings in Springfield that can dispel that myth. In fact, I attended a press conference where an entire subdivision of new homes was being to Energy Star® levels.  Also, the local Springfield Home Builders Association has a prominent link on their home page about Green Building.  Green is becoming mainstream.  So where are my fellow conservatives?

Albert W. Atwood once said, “Waste is a tax on the whole people.”    Maybe there’s a little bit of common ground for all of us to explore in this green world.  Let’s explore together.