Happy New Year!

I suspect the vast majority of folks are eager to close the book on 2009 as the year of the Great Recession.  While it may have been difficult or uncomfortable, we focus on the blessings that the year brought, whether they be simple joys or valuable lessons learned.  As we celebrate the new year, think of all the positive ways you can initiate change in your life.

As we watched the New Year’s Eve Ball drop in New York last night, I shared the story with my friends that the 2010 light display in New York’s Time Square was ultimately powered by pedal power.  Since the week of Thanksgiving, visitors to the Duracell Smart Power Lab in Times Square pedaled six “power rovers” to store energy in batteries to power the lights on New Year’s Eve.  It took almost six weeks to generate the 32 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity the lights consumed in 30 minutes last night.  To put things in perspective – that’s what the average home uses in a day, and it required about 1,000 hours of pedaling!

Clearly we need more than human energy to power our world.  It will take a combination of conservation (putting reasonable limits on our use), efficiency (making smarter use of what we consume) and clean, renewable energy to create a sustainable lifestyle.