Earlier this month, Patty and I received an intriguing invitation. The National Association of Women Business Owners in conjunction with the Indiana Business Diversity Council and Ice Miller's Legal Series sent out an invitation to "... join Ice Miller's Kristina Tridico, Paul Jones and Julie Williams as they discuss the legal aspects and bottom-line benefits of "greening" your business." Wow - Ice Miller; a prominent, conservative, Indianapolis legal institution was holding a conference subtitled "Why Green, Why Now". How could we resist?

At around 10:00 AM on the morning of Tuesday, February 19, 2008, we caught bus 18 at 60th and Central Avenue for a 25 minute trip to downtown Indianapolis hopping off at Ohio and Meridian Street. As a means of economy, we had planned to run a couple of errands prior to the Ice Miller event. I don't know how many of you were out and about that day but if you were you can remember that it was unusually cold due to low temperatures and high wind conditions. Nevertheless we walked from Ohio and Meridian Street to the Power and Light Building on the circle and then to the offices of Keep Indianapolis Beautiful near Pennsylvania and St. Claire Street to pick up materials Parry needed for a Low Carbon Diet workshop she is co-facilitating. We then walked to the offices of Ice Miller in the One American Square Building at the corner of Ohio and Illinois Street. We arrived early, with errands completed, over 13,000 steps chalked up on our pedometers, and a healthy vigor from the cold and exercise. As the remaining attendees filtered in, we selected our box lunch and waited for the room to fill. We could not help to muse as to how many of them arrived the way we did.

For Patty and me the presentation held little new. We were glad to hear that there are federal tax deductions of up to $1.80/SQ for LEED certified buildings as well as federal energy tax credits and that the Department of Energy has little used grant programs of $5,000 to $25,000 to promote renewable energy. We shared in the embarrassment when the discussion turned to the paucity of Indiana sustainability initiatives, legislative and otherwise. Nevertheless we were happy to see Ice Miller spreading the good word to the local business community and apparently, to many in the room who seemed to be hearing the message for the first time.

Under the heading of Corporate Opportunities, Internal Actions, the presentation hit a discordant note that points to just how long the road to a sustainable economy promises to be. It was noted that natural daylight in buildings not only conserves energy but brings many benefits to the occupants such as increased productivity, faster healing for hospital patience, higher test scores for students, and increased sense of well being. Yet what seemed to be of even greater interest was that when Wall-Mart installed skylights in certain areas of their stores, that area sold more products. I was tempted to make a reference to the Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard, which you can access through a link at www.greenbroadripple.org, but a gentle yet firm kick under the table from Patty dissuaded me from that course. Thus we were able to leave the gathering on good terms with everyone. We walked to the bus stop and a short while later were heading north to Broad Ripple. The ride afforded us a generous moment for reflection.

At this time the facing page of Livability is Consuming. We must find a way to turn to a new page - perhaps even to a new chapter where we might find the facing page of Livability is Conservation.