A crisis ththat may be good for us  –  Limiting financial spending while scrutinizing your carbon footprint can indeed be a fruitful yet sobering excercise. For years we have lived in the land of plenty, as our homes grew larger and our appetite for electronic gadgetry reached all-time heights. Now we’re faced with having to take a serious look at our surroundings.

Many of us will be affected by a global economic downturn in some form or fashion. Fortunately many of us have taken steps early on to be frugal, especially where it comes to recurring cost. The exorbitant electricity rates in this land have caused and perhaps forced many a new homeowner to slow down that electric meter. The high cost of water has incited the use of highly efficient appliances. The huge surcharges for shipping chemicals across oceans has stimulated the use of salt-chlorine generators for swimming pools.

Has our collective exposure to high pricing, low availability as well as our moderate climate prepared us enough for a true downturn? Perhaps not. The population of these island is made up of so many different nationalities, with so many people that have experienced downturns in their respective homelands that just maybe this looming thunderclap will just be one more reason to be more resourceful.

For years we have encouraged people to review their swimming pools and check the running times, sun exposure balance the water and use energy-saving equipment as well as plumbing systems. The efficiency of a swimming pool is comprised of many factors some of which are obvious. While maintaining exquisite aesthetics, good design can save water, chemicals, electricity and therefore money. This of course is true not only for swimming pools.

As if the global warming and high energy prices were not enough to encourage some, we now should all reflect on our surroundings and see where we can do better. The world first eco-island is about to be reality right here in these islands. Local architects as well as builders have already made firm commitments to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). Pricing of solar energy generation are coming down. For the incentives to gain a non erasable foot hold is economics . For decades these incentives and the use of our freely available resources (wind and sun to name a couple) have been under development. Every time that the prices of fossil fuels dropped again however so did the incentive to use renewable energy.

So when we hear that we’re in for the long run perhaps there is a silver lining to this crisis after all.