Ethical Ideas Raises another million for clients

Ethical Ideas is pleased to announce that a grant funding request to Compete Caribbean has ascended to the next level of consideration with a USD $50,000 grant to prepare a Cluster Competitiveness Improvement Plan (CCIP). The plan, when completed, will be presented to an investment panel to obtain up to USD $500,000 for implementation. The successful application was predicated upon a grant proposal to implement the Hotel Sector Economic Recovery Plan funded by the Canadian Government and drafted by Ethical Ideas.

In addition, Ethical Ideas has recently learned that another Caribbean Fund is in the final stages of approval (awaiting Board Signature) with a value of USD $300,000. This grant is particularly valuable to the hotel sector, because it involves grant funding for energy efficiency and renewable energy investments. This kind of pragmatic, results oriented investment is rare from donors, who generally prefer to spin wheels with consultants rather than investing money on tangible change making activities. You can rest assured that when this fund is officially launched - I will be posting and raving about this donor!

Combined, the value of these two grants will be in excess of XCD $2 million with even more funds expected that are still in the early stages of the approval process. By the time all the grants come in, the Hotel Sector should have access to XCD $10 million to support economic recovery and energy use reduction.

The best news of all is of course that Grenada's hotel sector is one step closer to their zero carbon goal, and that this environmental solution is directly linked to economic prosperity. The Hotel Sector will be ending this great week with a cocktail party that brings stakeholders from tourism and agriculture together to strengthen the links between the two sectors. Sustainable initiatives that are just 'happening' more than being initiated are so thrilling!

Inconvenient Truths Key for Planning Island Economies Future

North Korea is rattling nuclear sabres; Canada has pulled out of a major UN convention to combat land degradation; the Sea Shepherd Society have been named pirates by a US court; dolphin safe tuna is considered a trade barrier; and yet another strain of bird flu is causing human deaths and forcing the massacre of thousands of birds.

Sounds biblical - if you believe in that kind of thing. But I don’t subscribe to the school of thought that defers my personal responsibilities to God [insert your deity of choice here]. God will do God’s job, I will do mine.

In the eyes of a sustainable development expert, it signals what happens population pressures clash with environmental capacity. No species is immune to its dependency on the environment that supports it. So how does this seemingly esoteric thought lead us back to the realities of development on a small island state?

There are several ways:

I would posit that all the small island states should be structuring their economies in keeping with global trends such as regionalism and market diversification; just enough to keep up with the pack, so to speak. Since you don’t want to pull the plug on what is before you know what you’re heading into. But I would also hazard that any economic planning that is going to carry small island economies into the future must prepare for the CUT OFF.

Imported: Food, medicine, clothing, building supplies, water, seeds, fertilizers, energy, transportation, technology….access to shipping, air travel, free movement of people…

The industrial honeymoon is over and the disturbing world trends mentioned above are only a two week snapshot of headlines.  Anyone that tries to move into the future with a business-as-usual approach will be planning for social, economic and environmental failure.

So what is required to plan for a future unknown to us that balanced between the optimism needed for socioeconomic prosperity and the realism needed for survival? A great place to start would be to recognize the inconvenient truths (Thanks for the phrase, Al, it’s really applicable to so many things!) around us, and then to turn those truths into opportunities before they kick us in our collective ass.

Regardless of why, our climate is changing. So whatever we plan to do our economies it had better be packaged with a high degree of resiliency.  Building codes need to reflect the realities to come, land use planning needs to prioritize food and water first – as a long term profit plan rather than a short term one.

Regardless of why it is happening (psst hint: population pressure, mad scientists, dozy doctors), we are have an ever increasing vulnerability to disease. So whatever we plan had better take this into consideration such as our concepts of productivity, the length of a work week,  sick leave, survivor benefits – and not just quarantine procedures.

We need innovators, not followers. Education needs to generate the intellectual capacity for effective systems management in a small island state so that prosperity can be achieved within our domestic and regional means. The Caribbean follow-the-leader teaching methods need to be expunged from our educational culture as quickly as possible.

And we have to be prepared for the likelihood of a large-scale war as the squeeze between population and resources continues to climb. This means ensuring we have developed core capacities in medicine, science, engineering, agriculture and energy. If we train good doctors but leave ourselves reliant on pharmacological trade cut off by a world war, that’d suck. Ask anyone who’s lived through a cholera epidemic how ‘crappy’ it is to have large scale death for people who can’t access drugs that can cure them. And the argument can be made over and over for all the systems that support the lifestyles we live now.

One very bright lining to this rather troublesome train of thought is that Island people are far more resilient that your average city dweller. We still know how to build our homes, grow things, fix things and do things that a few generations of city dwellers have long forgotten.

Island people are survivors.

Look at Cuba as an example – they may not have an automotive engineering industry, but they sure have succeeded in keeping cars on the road long past their shelf life. Grenadians rebuilt an entire country in three years after 90% of the country’s infrastructure was leveled by Hurricane Ivan. Go there now and you’d never know the event occurred as recently as 2004. And Haitians who have every reason in the world to throw up their arms and give up, defy the obstacles in their way and keep forging ahead.

In many ways, we’re better positioned to ride out the future than most countries in the world, but our success in doing so will depend greatly on our foresight and whether we take inconvenient truths into consideration when governing our countries and planning our economic future.  For now, we need to invest in tourism, create jobs, reduce our debt and keep our island safe. But, while we’re doing that, we must plan to achieve food security, energy security, water security and social security as successes defined by our ability to meet these needs without outside help. If any of our Islands in the Region are able to achieve this in the next ten years – our future will be bright indeed.

                                                                                                                                                        

THE BLUE ECONOMY

I am not really a big fan of changing labels on global movements, because it takes an awfully long time for new ideas to catch on. 20 years ago, my classmates in the first graduating class of Environmental Studies at York University Canada were talking about 'green economics'. Precious few others were. Now, the concept of a 'green economy' is starting to go mainstream....which is good! But like most things, once it goes global and has a bunch of hands on it - the original concept gets washed out.

So as the Green Economy gets muddied by the Brown Economy (brown refers to the status quo for anyone asking) - the concept is revitalized with a new label:

THE BLUE ECONOMY.

I like it. And I like this minimalist video that explains so succinctly the common sense foundation to it all.

I am expecting to embark on a contract to draft an Economic Stimulus Plan for the Hotel Sector in Grenada starting Monday. I will do my best to integrate as much of this thinking into it as possible because it will save my clients money, open up new markets and protect the environment.

Let's see what a good saleswoman I am!?

Ethical Ideas Declares Energy Campaign a Success

In April of 2012, Ethical Ideas Consulting embarked on a journey with the Grenada Hotel and Tourism Association to address the major challenge of energy in the small island state of Grenada. Ethical Ideas started the campaign by facilitating agreement among members for an “Earth Day Declaration” that articulated the following:

Desire: Reduce Energy Costs


The Result: Grenada’s Hotels now have the opportunity to invest in 100kw renewable energy systems with net metering and a set price of XCD $0.54 cents per kilowatt hour.

Prior to the Campaign: Hotels could invest in renewable energy systems, but they had to sell 100% of the energy produced to the utility and buy it back with more than a 100% mark-up in cost.


Desire: Liberalize renewable energy, regulated by the Eastern Caribbean Electricity Regulatory Authority (ECERA).


The Result: Renewable energy has been liberalized through the use of ‘special purpose vehicles’ which are companies that are set up for a specific purpose (in this case it would be producing renewable energy). The new energy framework will be regulated by ECERA.


In addition to the lobby with the Government and GRENLEC, Ethical Ideas led the appeal on behalf of the Tourism Sector to have the Clinton Foundation come to Grenada. In addition to giving my most passionate elevator pitch ever to one of President Clinton’s Aides, several project outlines that have been developed for several Ethical Ideas clients were submitted to the Foundation to illustrate the sustainable potential of this small island state. Check them out, the Foundation is a GREAT organization: http://www.clintonfoundation.org/

The Minister of Finance informed the audience at the consultation for the New Energy Framework, that a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed between Grenada and the Foundation. Negotiations of this type take place at the highest levels, and details have not yet been shared with any non-state actors.
The SIDSDock Proposal will hopefully be reviewed in April, and if that happens, the Sector should benefit from some grant/soft loan support for Energy Audits and retrofits. This will be great because it can yield 50% reductions in energy consumption.

All of this helps the Hotel Sector reach their goal to become the first zero carbon hotel sector in the Caribbean. Ethical Ideas is very pleased that the exhaustive lobby (captured in previous posts on this blog) has been successful and that all the players who dedicated themselves to making their desires heard have been rewarded. Politically motivated detractors might claim that realizing every single lobby point is luck – but in my experience – luck isn’t that thorough.

I wish I could thank everyone that helped on this campaign personally, but naming names on this small island state is a much bigger political act than anyone in a large country could imagine, and an election is on. So I will have to figure out how recognize people's efforts without blowing up a sand storm in the process. It may have to stand for now recognize the obvious fact that the nature of lobbying requires the input of others so there's a long list of people to be Thanked.

Government Consultation on Energy

The Government will be hosting a 'Public Discussion' with selected stakeholders (I am among them) to go over the contents of the 'A New Development Framework for the Energy Sector'circulated by the Government on December. This is being welcomed by all, since the published document raises as many questions as it answers. Recent statements made in the media by persons connected to this deal also suggest that the sale has not been officially completed. If there is a need to update or correct my previous posts on the subject following this meeting I will - so watch this space!

Greece: The odyssey - People & Power - Al Jazeera English

Greece: The odyssey - People & Power - Al Jazeera English


The link above will lead you to an interesting news documentary presented on Al Jazeera that profiles how Greek professionals - marginalized from their city jobs - are returning to the land with sustainable, entrepreneurial ideas. Grenada shares many economic similarities with Greece, including a culture rooted in the land.

MAJORITY SHARES IN GRENADA'S ELECTRICITY COMPANY SOLD OVER CHISTMAS

On November 27th, a Successor Agreement between the Government of Grenada and the Barbados based Light and Power Holdings Ltd. (LPH) was signed. This means that the majority shareholder in GRENLEC, which had been WRB Enterprises/Grenada Private Power Ltd has now sold their shares to a subsidiary of Canadian based EMERA. The subsidiary, Light and Power Holdings has purchased 61.4% of GRENLEC shares. The Government has one year to purchase the 11.4% shares to ensure EMERA/LPH are compliant with the 50% ownership policy. The Framework does not clearly stipulate the consequences if this did not happen.

The initial response by Grenadians following developments in the nation’s energy sector has been positive; as several local news and social media reported with a measure of jubilation that Grenada’s energy monopoly had been finally broken paving the way forward for renewable energy liberalization.

Has It?

It is commendable on the Government’s part to have released the most comprehensive map of Grenada’s energy framework that has ever been available to the public, although it was shared after the deal was signed. Analysts will certainly appreciate the detailed ownership profile and contextual background provided, that was intended to enable the public to understand the details of the transaction as they have occurred. But there is little question the intricacies of the Framework are still not simplified enough for general public consumption.

In the (apparent) attempt to be transparent, generalized statements and contradicting information has been presented, leaving a scrutinizing reader with as many questions as there are answers provided.

Our Renewable Future

The Successor Agreement between the Government and EMERA include a new interconnection policy that will provide an opportunity for citizens to invest in renewable energy, such as solar panels for systems up to 15 kilowatts. That’s great, since most households don’t need more than that, and the new policy allows householders to take the first draw of power on their systems and sell a portion of their surplus energy (if there is any) at a fixed rate. Hopefully, that will do a lot to stimulate business for solar energy retailers targeting the domestic market. There’s a ceiling to the growth however, capped at 5% of the peak demand (which is 30MW), until grid impact studies are done.

The questions raised in the new interconnection policy however include:

- Since the 5% cap will ‘be revised after consultation with GRENLEC on studies on grid stability thresholds’ we have to wonder who will conduct these studies? Will there be an independent review? Or will the lucky 5% be the only 5% that benefit from this policy?

- If we assume that a reasonable portion of the 5% would be reserved for household use, based on the cap established approximately 10 businesses could take advantage of the 100kW offer.

- Renewable Energy Special Purpose Vehicles (RESPV’s) are traditional renewable energy financing instruments, but they are also commonly used to financial liabilities that can skew corporations financial profile such as ENRON did. Does Grenada have sufficient financial legislation to protect the public from any inappropriate use of SPV’s?

- Who has the final say on who the RESPV partners are going to be?

Does Civil Society Get a Second Chance at Investing in Solar Farms?

One of the positive highlights could be the introduction of the RESVP Framework since it provides a policy opening for civil society stakeholders to invest in a renewable energy facility perhaps in a shared partnership with another private company and GRENLEC. The RESVP framework was likely agreed upon to facilitate Geothermal energy development and private equity investments in renewable energy. But - this might actually represent the lifting of the barrier my Hotel and Tourism clients faced when I tried to get a community solar farm set up for them. In 2012, independent energy generation was a NO-GO! Will we be able to re-open this door to reap the benefits of climate financing, collect undesignated revenues for social programming and economic growth while advancing a carbon neutral goal?

With respect to how the sale of the majority shares will affect Grenadian consumers on a more personal level, there isn’t much good news [yet]. EMERA has a controversial reputation in the other markets where they operate subsidiary utilities. One market even has their own consumer site operating, which can be found at this link: Grenadians might find themselves singing the words of Joni Mitchell “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone” but hopefully the strong and committed technical and management team at GRENLEC will help keep potential consumer concerns at bay as they begin operating with new owners.

There is no question ‘The New Developmental Framework for the Grenada’s Electricity Sector’ has several areas that require clarification. Recognizing that the Government’s announcement was trying to capture an enormous amount of information in a very short document, ambiguities are to be expected. The Government has organized a stakeholder consultation early next week, so further analysis on this aspect of the transaction will be reserved until then.