By KATE WILLSON
Observer Staff
Oct. 18, 2007

Daniel Beard appeared an ideal candidate when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., went looking for a chief administrative officer.

“She said ‘I’d like a green initiative,’” Beard recalled of their first meeting, when Pelosi asked him to come out of retirement and give up babysitting his granddaughter, a blond toddler whose photo adorns his Capitol office.

Beard taught natural resources at Dartmouth College before turning to civil service 30 years ago. He served the Senate, White House, Interior Department and Library of Congress before accepting a consulting position with Booze Allen Hamilton and finally retiring in 2006.

He hadn’t been out of work for long when Pelosi was named Speaker of the House and went looking for someone to make over the energy-guzzling Capitol.

“We cannot ask the American people to address global warming and climate change issues without first carefully examining ways to reduce our own energy consumption and develop a sustainable workplace,” Pelosi said in a letter to Beard.

Heat and electricity for the House office buildings emitted an estimated 91,000 tons of carbon dioxide last year, according to a study done by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. That’s the equivalent of driving 17,200 cars for a year.

With Pelosi’s intentions in mind, Beard set out to remake the House into a “carbon-neutral” operation.

His “Green the Capitol Initiative” sets out three strategies: buy renewable power, reduce energy use, and offset the rest.

“When I started this I thought it would be nice if at the end of five years, we could be carbon neutral,” Beard said. “But the more I looked at it, I realized we could do it fairly quickly.”

Some changes came quickly: replacing 12,000 light bulbs with compact florescent bulbs and ordering the House to no longer purchase conventional bulbs. Other changes will come as things break down or run out: buying Energy-star products and environmentally-friendly cleaning supplies.

The Capitol gas pump is being modified to store ethanol, which House employees can use to fill its fuel-guzzling fleet of 25 Chevrolet Suburbans.

But some of the changes were put on hold until funding becomes available: installing and upgrading the steam and chilled water meters, or retrofitting motors, fan drives and pumps with energy-efficient models.

The carbon that couldn’t be cut from operations, Beard translated into dollars and began looking for a carbon-reducing investment.

He initially considered investing the money in an animal dung-to-methane project at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. But he worried about the ethics of further funding an institute that already receives government money.

“It was apparent the more we talked that we weren’t in the business of knowing what was the right project,” Beard said. “So I invested with the Chicago Climate Exchange.”

The exchange is a voluntary but legally binding carbon offset marketplace for companies that submit to third-party oversight. Later this month the exchange will auction $95,000 of House money to fund a carbon-reducing program.

He said if the House continues to reduce energy use, it can pay less and less to offset its carbon use. But Beard hasn’t factored House travel into his carbon calculator.

The house spent $26 million last fiscal year to shuttle representatives and staff around the country. Beard said he would begin tackling that beast next.

Beard said he was late coming to terms with the reality of human-induced global warming.

“I was a slow convert to the idea of climate change,” he said. “I was a slow convert, but I’ve been a big convert because of economic reasons. And it’s the right thing to do.”

The chandelier in his windowless basement office is outfitted with 18 compact florescent bulbs. Beard also stocked the House store with energy efficient bulbs, selling them to employees at wholesale prices for their homes.

“I paid $7.50 for each bulb up here,” he said pointing to the chandelier above his head. “But in three months that pays off, and then I’m saving money.”

On his wall hangs a political cartoon published this summer in Roll Call. R.J. Matson drew “Blueprint for a Greener Capitol” after Beard announced the initiative in June. It depicts a Capitol topped with a wind turbine and solar panels.

Beard was so tickled he called the publication and persuaded it to sell the original drawing to him for $250. Now it hangs framed above pictures of his family.