Let's Bring It All Together

Andre McEwing was out final speaker during our December 22nd class. He is currently the Purchasing/Procurement Department Manager at Tarrant County Community College and coincidentally, he used to be the Executive Director at Southeast Fort Worth Inc. before Allen R. Smith. He is a graduate of Morehouse College located in Atlanta Georgia and also an alumni of TCC.

Mr. McEwing came in a reinforced everything we had learned throughout the day. After his introduction, he revealed to us that the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index contains over 300 holdings in addition to 26 Green Investment Funds that have been created since 2009. He also listed the immediate and long-term advantages of Green buildings. As a quick and obvious example, lower operating costs and improved indoor air quality were a no brainer. Improved risk management, enhanced productivity, enhanced recruitment and reduced absenteeism are advantages that I would not have thought of right away. It only makes sense that a happier and cleaner place would make the environment more enjoyable for everyone. If there is a clean environment then employees would enjoy coming into work and enjoy the duties and responsibilities they each perform. In addition, employees and recruiters would be proud of who they work for and immediately spread the word about such great company. For long-term advantages, the creation of Green-collar jobs would be very beneficial. There would be improved public health, reduced peak demand for electricity and potable water, reduced utility costs for businesses and consumers among others.

Mr. McEwing also stressed that over 75% of cities in the U.S. are changing building codes to encourage green/sustainable buildings and 88% of cities are educating the public about the need for sustainable buildings. To top it all off, Dallas, our own city, has the number one "Greenest" building program in the nation tied with San Francisco and all city funded buildings are LEED Gold Certified. In remembering all of this, there has to be a good size payback in the end for the large efforts and expenses some of these projects undertake. Cost-Benefit Analysis, Microeconomics, Macroeconomics among others are all involved into building for sustainability.

If there is something Andre McEwing can convince you on, that would be to go Green!