Running Head: SOFT-TECH SOLUTIONS IMPROVING LOCAL SUSTAINABILITY IN THE U.S. 1. Soft-Tech Solutions Improving Local Sustainability in the U.S.

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1 Running Head: SOFT-TECH SOLUTIONS IMPROVING LOCAL SUSTAINABILITY IN THE U.S. 1 Soft-Tech Solutions Improving Local Sustainability in the U.S.: Lessons Learned From a P3 in Cookeville, Tennessee. Samantha Mosier Department of Political Science Colorado State University

2 Soft-Tech Solutions Improving Local Sustainability in the U.S. 2 Executive Summary This paper examines the role of soft technology in transforming U.S. municipalities environmental sustainability policies. Soft technology presents the opportunity for towns and cities to gradually reassess the processes and normative expectations of the community regarding environmental and economic values. Through an examination of the Unplugged Challenge partnership, we can see that soft technology has the potential to alter and spur sustainable development in U.S. municipalities. Cookeville city officials were able adapt private sector knowledge and skills to the needs of public sector to achieve cost-savings and lay the foundational political support for future environmental policy objectives. Furthermore, the case also demonstrates how the private sector can still contribute to soft technology development and transfer for sustainable development efforts. 2

3 Soft-Tech Solutions Improving Local Sustainability in the U.S. 3 Technology, both hard and soft, is broadly conceived as a tool for solving the challenges associated with the environment including climate change, energy, water, and agriculture. Hard technology is grounded in the natural sciences, scientific techniques, and improves upon tangible or physical structures. In short, hard technologies exist outside human processes and behaviors. Soft technology, however, moves beyond just the physical structures to include a range of human behaviors and intelligence. It accounts for the human element in problem solving and can include such dimensions as information building, skills, management styles, procedures and processes. More often, unlike hard technology, soft technology is developed according to the needs and values of a community (see Faulkner and Albertson, 1986). Soft technology is part of the broader appropriate technology movement, which often focuses on technology transfers and sustainable development in developing countries. It may be conceived that hard technology alone cannot address environmental problems, and soft technology plays a significant role in sustainable development by addressing underlying human processes that hard science depends upon. This paper will focus on the role of soft-technology in U.S. municipalities by evaluating a publicprivate partnership between Cummins Filtration and the City of Cookeville. 1 While this may depart from previous research on soft technology in developing countries, focusing on U.S. cities is crucial to addressing environmental sustainability for a number of reasons. First, the environmental impact of the U.S. lifestyle and consumption patterns is high even in comparison to other developed countries. The current consumption and waste production patterns of the average American is simply unsustainable at the global level and evidence suggests certain planetary boundaries have already been transgressed (Daly, 1990; Rockstrom et al., 2009: Vitousek et al, 1986). Second, environmental policy is gridlocked at the federal level in the U.S. thereby leaving states and local governments as key venues for advancing environmental policy (Kylza and Sousa, 2008; Betsill and Rabe, 2009). As Betsill and Rabe (2009) note, sub-national government actors have become central to climate change governance through states 1 The city of Cookeville is a community of approximately 30,000 residents located between Nashville and Knoxville, Tennessee. 3

4 Soft-Tech Solutions Improving Local Sustainability in the U.S. 4 developing renewable energy portfolios, seeking federal waivers for vehicle emission standards, and developing programs to promote ethanol and other non-carbon fuel sources. Similarly, municipalities have focused on economically beneficial environmental policies to install LED lights, recycling and landfill gas generation, developing LEED certified building, and developing green purchasing requirements. Furthermore, some place emphasis on the role of local entities for being better prepared and able to address emerging environmental problems (Ostrom, 1990; Busche, 2010). Finally, there is an inherent tension between balancing environmental concerns and economic concerns in U.S. policy. As noted by Scholsberg and Rinfret (2008), U.S. policy features a stand-off between economy and environment but where economic values are typically placed as a higher priority than environmental values. The more recent energy polls conducted at University of Texas at Austin (2011, 2012) confirms this preference even in consumers. In both the March 2012 and the September 2011 energy polls, consumers indicated more concern over economic rather than environmental concerns. Considering the impact of the Great Recession perhaps there is the immediate need to consider how to reconcile these two competing values within U.S. to achieve a win-win scenario. Using soft technology in municipalities may be one avenue to achieving this end through a bottom-up transformation the environment-economic policy paradigm from adversarial to complementary. The private sector emerges as one potential partner for acquiring soft knowledge as private enterprises often have more flexibility and ability to develop creative solutions to emerging problems. A Brief Overview of the Unplugged Challenge Public-Private Partnership Cummins Filtration is global manufacturing company of filtration, coolant, and fuel additives for commercial engine systems. Corporate headquarters for the company are located in Nashville, Tennessee with 23 production plants and 16 distribution centers around the globe. As part of the company s overall initiative to improve the environment and address climate change, the company implemented the Unplugged Challenge in late The program challenges facility sites, both production and distribution, to reduce energy waste through a combination of facility system power-downs and employee conservation steps. Each year the best performing sites receive recognition for their performance. For the 4

5 Soft-Tech Solutions Improving Local Sustainability in the U.S /2011 challenge year, the Cookeville, Tennessee Cummins Filtration production site won the Best Cost Reduction award (savings of $39,755) and the Best Greenhouse Gas Reduction award (419 CO 2 e abated) (Cummins Filtration 2011). Considering the success of the Unplugged Challenge, the Cookeville Cummins Filtration production plant facility leaders worked to develop a public-private partnership with Cookeville city officials to transfer the program knowledge on how to reduce energy waste from the private to public sector in late Cummins Filtration would provide all the necessary training and related resources in the partnership. However, a number of alterations were necessary to adapt the Unplugged Challenge program for the public sector. As implemented at the Cummins Filtration facility sites, the Unplugged Challenge presented a particular approach to skills training, information objectives, management styles, and hard technology adaptations that was not achievable in the public sector. For Cookeville, it would be necessary to adjust the soft technology approach to accommodate for the underlying values of the community and the differing values and expectations of public service. Prior to the partnership, the City of Cookeville was not actively pursuing environmental sustainability policies. City leadership understood the possibilities and complications in pushing for an environmental program into the community. At the time, the city lacked existing policies or political support to implement environmental initiatives and programs. Like many governments in the Southeastern U.S., environmental policies have historically been met with skepticism and have generally been perceived as lagging behind other regions in the U.S. Yet, there are more recent indications of environmental progression (Breaux et al., 2010: 19; Klyza and Sousa, 2008: 28; Emison and Morris, 2010: 2). Therefore, the Unplugged Challenge partnership and program was primarily promoted by city leaders from an economic development framework. The city pitched the program as an opportunity to save the city money during hard economic times (Hoegeman, 2010). The added benefits of the program were the community becoming more environmentally conscious and open to other environmental programs. Cummins Filtration adapted the Unplugged Challenge to account for the goals of city departments and facilities through low-cost, low-tech conservation steps during shut-down periods (i.e. 5

6 Soft-Tech Solutions Improving Local Sustainability in the U.S. 6 holidays, weekends, etc.) to reduce energy consumption costs. By preparing city employees to become Energy Leaders through a ten week training program, the city relied on manual power-down of all lights, computers, and other non-critical appliances during shut-down periods instead of investing into building management computer systems. Similarly, the city also invested into energy switch plates that reminded employees of the annual and hourly energy costs for leaving on lights and appliance; have encouraged city-wide participation in Earth Hour and Earth Day; and have challenged employees to participate in the On-Line Energy Audit. The immediate benefits of the transfer of soft knowledge from the Unplugged Challenge could be seen through the city s cost savings. For example, the Water Department saves approximately $4,000 annually by turning off watt bulb fixtures that had been left on year round previous to the Unplugged Challenge. Furthermore, the city also began implementing a number of low-cost technology upgrades as part of the Unplugged Challenge including installation of LED fixtures in municipal parking lots, installing motion sensors in restrooms and storage areas of recreational facilities, and working to develop a plan for when the 50-year-old HVAC system would fail. This seems to indicate the integration of hard technology improvement coinciding with the soft technology transfer of skills and information from Cummins Filtration to Cookeville city leaders and employees. The long term benefits and implications of the soft technology transfer (i.e. the skills training and information transfer of energy waste reduction) may speculatively be more than just cost savings. There is evidence to suggest that the Unplugged Challenge partnership may have shifted paradigm for how environmental policies are approached. City officials indicate that the partnership has been able to dispel many of the misconceptions of environmental policy in the broader community by establishing grassroots support for future endeavors (M. Keifer, personal communication, February 10, 2012). In addition, the program has taught the community that the average individual can implement low-cost and low-tech procedures that address environment and economic concerns simultaneously. In essence, the soft technology transfer appears to diminish the tension between economic and environmental values present in this community. 6

7 Soft-Tech Solutions Improving Local Sustainability in the U.S. 7 Recommendations and Future Considerations There are a number of lessons that can be derived from introduction of soft technology to the City of Cookeville. First, it is clear that the introduction of new soft technology can challenge and improve upon existing processes, management structures, and skills. In the case of Cookeville, it is evident how energy consumption processes were altered by incorporating employees into the learning process. Furthermore, by integrating low-cost and low-tech projects into the learning process, employees and the broader community may not have felt threatened by the gradual changes. This, in turn, has led the groundwork necessary for larger scale environmental policy projects and policy by diminishing the tensions between environment and economic values. Second, soft technology transfers between private and public sectors can still be beneficial in improving government performance. While it has been a little over 30 years since privatization and the new public management movement began, there are still a number of lessons to be derived from the private sector that may enhance the quality of environmental sustainability without altering the underlying values of public sector. While not all soft technology transfers and adaptions may occur from a publicprivate partnership, learning from the private sector can be fruitful when seeking creative and flexible ways to address a myriad of environmental concerns. Drawing from best-case scenarios, some businesses have created complementary economic and environmental objectives. Cookeville is one such city that seized upon an opportunity to adapt successful private sector practices to public administrative needs. The outcome of soft technology transfer resulted in a gradual but significant change in the paradigm for how the city approached energy consumption by city departments and facilities. 7

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