Change, the Status Quo, and Light Bulbs

I was working on a project the other day when I came across a store owner who displayed a sense of behavior which put me in a really bad mood.

I noticed this particular business could likely see a $50-75/month reduction in their electricity bill by simply changing their energy chugging 65watt incandescent light bulbs (which they probably had around 30 or more in use) out to 15 watt energy sipping CF bulbs (aka CFL's or compact fluorescent bulbs). Maybe I'm wrong, but in today's economy $50-75 can really be put to good use.

I told this shop owner that our SIFE team would not only research which bulbs should be replaced, but that we would also BUY the bulbs and help her install them if needed. We would then ask that she repay our microloan to our Ozarks Carbon Exchange Fund to keep it sustainable. Simple enough idea, we pay the upfront costs (maybe $100 or more) and she repays our microloan as she realizes the energy savings each month. We're not looking to really profit off the project, we just want to demonstrate the potential of such a project of energy efficiency microlending in this community.

But instead of being open to the idea the shop owner sharply and rudely said she was not interested because 1) she'd run the shop for 21 years and didn't like people giving her advice or suggestions and 2) she said she knows of the technology and was 'smart enough to figure it out' herself. I wished I'd have asked her, "If you're so smart then why are you still wasting so much of your money each month?"

Fortunately I know there are many people in this community who don't posses such change averse attitudes, and who knows, maybe this woman was having a really bad day that day. But if we really want to tackle the global challenges we're currently facing -a sinking economy and a planet in peril- we're going to need to open our minds and allow change to occur.

Obama ran on a platform of change but there's only so much he can do alone. My example is on a really small scale but assume the Obama administration enacts certain financing schemes which incentivize energy efficiency and renewable energy (such as the smaller scale example of our OCEF project). The business population as a whole will have to be smarter and more willing to change than this shop owner if they want to take full advantage of the opportunities that will likely exist under a new administration of change.