Leadership Briefing from
CST IV
Publication Date: January 2002
"Terrorism and the Ultimate
Corporate Environmental Strategy"
By Peter Asmus
Former AHC Group Senior Associate
ABSTRACT:
This article points to the signs of a shift from the model of an over-dependence on central power plants to a distributed renewable energy system, and discusses the major growth opportunities for businesses developing new technologies.
EXCERPT:
Our electricity grid, with its emphasis on large polluting and centralized power plants that inefficiently send power long distances over transmission lines, is an artifact that is over 100 years old. The architecture of the existing transmission grid is the antithesis of distributed networks being made possible by the Internet. The future of America's electricity supply can no longer be held hostage to a centralized network of polluting power plants that represent high-profile terrorist targets and carry huge economic and environmental liabilities.
A few forward-looking companies are investigating the installation of new cleaner and smarter power sources as a way of generating premium grade clean electricity right on site — without harming the environment and upgrading our energy infrastructure to take advantage of 21st-century information and communications technologies.