Project Introduction - Greening Oil and Gas

I'm going to let you all in on a little secret.  Well its not a secret per se, but in my time pursuing a Master's of Sustainability and Environmental Management it's been something more of a selective disclosure.  I work in the Oil and Gas Industry. *Que sound effects* DUN DUN DUN!

Alright fellow environmentalists, don't stone me just yet.  I know I'm working for the enemy, but just try to think of me as a double agent (one true to team mother nature, of course).  But how do I live with myself you ask?  Just think of me as an agent of change working from the inside to push our point of view to help green the industry.  Let's face it, renewables are well on their way but it's going to be a while before they can shoulder the load of the world's energy needs.  In the mean time, we need resources to lead change in the "dirty" industries so we change perspectives and push for green innovation in today's technologies.

As part of my current class; Catalyzing Change: Sustainability Leadership for the 21st Century, I will be investigating the potential for and writing a proposal for my employer to install a green roof system atop our main manufacturing center in Houston, Texas.  I will be documenting the different steps of the project here in this blog and you'll be able to follow the progress every step of the way from conception to implementation of the green roof.

So what is a green roof you ask?  In general, it is a roof that has been adapted to facilitate the growth of vegetation on it.  One of the most widely known and best documented examples is the City Hall of Chicago, Illinois.  Urban areas contain 82% of the population in the United States and along with that mass of people comes billions of square feet of underutilized roof space.  The benefit to "greening" these areas is not just to the environment, but also economically and aesthetically.  Green roofs work to absorb rainfall, provides wildlife habitat, building insulation, reverses urban heat island effects, filters pollution, extends the life of the roof itself, and just generally looks great.  These outcomes help to fight run off and pollution while simultaneously saving significant cooling costs.

The above diagram shows the simplicity of a green roof system and helps to paint a picture of how straightforward implementation can be.  The company I work for is actually in the process of putting a new roof on the manufacturing building as we speak so like most every roof, the bottom two components are already in place.  Now I just need to sell them on adding the 7 layers from insulation up to vegetation.

Here is how I plan to do it:

Step 1:  Research similar installations throughout Houston and prepare a green roof installation plan for our manufacturing plant based on the existing structures in the area.

Step 2:  Prepare a cost - benefit analysis.  Nothing gets the attention of the decision makers like the benefit to their bottom line.

Step 3:  Identify and pitch the idea to my company's stakeholders to gain buy in and approval to examine the feasibility of the project.

Step 4:  Design a sustaining engineering project to test / prove the viability of the project to company management.

Step 5:  Gain approval for the project by presenting test findings and by showcasing the estimated annual savings and benefits to the company.

This project is certainly no small undertaking and knowing my organization it may be a drawn out process, but as an agent of change I'm ready to take the first of many steps.  Please feel free to provide your advice and feedback on the project and thanks for reading!