Green things to do in Denver

By Joan Vennochi
Globe Columnist

DENVER — Despite the hype, it's not easy being green.

Environmentally conscious Democrats call this the greenest convention ever. There's even a way to calculate your personal carbon footprint.

Mine felt like a Triple E, as the only passenger on a shuttle that transported me from my hotel to downtown Denver. And this wasn't a mini-van, but a bus big enough to satisfy a touring country music star.

The bus driver and the assistant who rode shotgun said they had been waiting for hours in a nearby parking lot — hopefully not with engine idling. At 4 p.m., I was their first passenger of the day. Because of a series of logistical snafus, they told me, delegates in surrounding hotels didn't have their credentials. Without credentials, they weren't allowed to board the bus. So the delegates were left to figure out alternative transportation, which at this convention boils down to an expensive and environmentally insensitive taxi ride.

After my credentials were checked and rechecked, the three of us took off on the approximately 18-mile trip to the Pepsi Center, made more circuitous because of security concerns. It left me feeling guilty, but grateful. While the trip wasn't "green" in the environmental sense, it saved me the green of cab fare, which would have been about $35.

Despite transportation realities involved in moving droves of convention-goers from outlying hotels to the scene of the political action, the green gospel is hard to escape.

The DNC hired a "director of greening" to oversee the operation. Handouts urge delegates to walk or bike, reuse hotel towels and linens, refill water bottles from the tap, recycle and compost, and "spread the green message." The city of Denver is also hosting a variety of green campaigns.

Party leaders like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also used the so-called green convention to tout their plan for energy independence, investment in renewable clean energy, and "green" jobs. Democrats are also calling for "a responsible domestic drilling program that ends royalty holidays for oil and gas companies, ends subsidies for profit-rich oil companies and requires Big Oil to drill the oil leases they already own."

But how green is the convention in reality?

A recent Denver Post column raised that question in light of the 300,000 extra pounds of lights and speakers added to illuminate orators, just one facet of the massive rebuilding of the Pepsi Center. The transformation also required miles of copper cable, data lines, and extra transformers. When the convention is over, the rebuilt Pepsi Center will be rebuilt again, back to the original sports arena.

Add to that the air conditioning needed to offset the broiling Denver sun. At times it is so cold in the media tent that even men complain.

Of course, no amount of air conditioning can offset the hot air generated this week by politicians and pundits.

Joan Vennochi can be reached at vennochi@globe.com.