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The submissions to the Hearthnet Club reflect exactly the comments I've
heard and read from hearth retailers over the past year. I am no longer
a retailer, but did have a store for seven years and learned more then about
the important things--people and hearths--than before or since. I find the
conversations on Hearthnet important because these are the voices or real
people unfiltered through journalistic gauze; the rough edges and mildly
intemperate comments only make the conversation more real and human. I want
to share my concerns with you by stepping back and looking at the hearth
industry in the context of the economy as a whole and explore how the big
trends might be reflected in our business. If you don't mind, I'll just
provide a bit of context so you know where I'm coming from.
Many of us got into the hearth business because the Arab oil embargo of
the 1970s caused world oil prices to soar almost out of control. In the
ensuing panic over price and security of supply, the public embraced the
safety and warmth of the natural hearth, in the form of some of the ugliest
wood stoves ever seen, and so we got our start in a rollicking, turbulent,
yet fun and exciting business. We felt good because wood was recognized
as an environmentally-appropriate renewable fuel and people were saving
big money by using it instead of oil. Later, ugliness gave way to glass
air wash systems, better styling and attractive colors. The smoke and creosote
fires were largely replaced by slick combustion systems and we were again
on the right side of the environmental correctness debate.
Despite how funky it was to start with, the wood heat craze worked its way
into the public consciousness, ultimately pushing sales of decorative wood
burning fireplaces to new heights toward the end of the 1980s. Life--and
business--were good. Meanwhile in the broader economy, starting in the early
1980s, the so-called business agenda took center stage in the debates over
the role of government and management of the economy. Governments were scolded
for running up deficits and now, under enormous pressure from business leaders
and money markets, have begun to reign in their excessive spending. A social
consensus formed, peaking perhaps in the past couple of years, around the
idea that government could not do anything right, and should stay out of
people's lives and out of the market and just let business go about creating
wealth.
We have also been treated to the spectacle of political leaders--Newt Gingrich
in the United States and Preston Manning in Canada--whose popularity is
at least partly based on their rigorous dismissal of government as a credible
tool in the effort to achieve social and economic objectives. Politicians
whodon't believe in government--now there's a concept! In response to the
relentless attacks on their credibility by both business and the public,
governments have retreated from regulating and intervening in the economy.
Energy prices, for example, reached full deregulation in Canada in 1993,
and before that in the United States, to comply with the terms of free trade
agreements. Now, according to Canada's National Energy Board, the Alberta
field gate price of natural gas is today about half of what it was in 1980.
So reduced is government in credibility and moral authority that it cannot
muster the will to intervene effectively to protect the environment. We
have known for years that the spectacular increase in the emissions of green
house gases, principally carbon dioxide, would alter the global climate.
And while there is a debate about the exact mechanism of global warming,
its rate of onset and how long we have before climatic disruption gives
way to disaster, there cannot any longer be any argument about the increase
in atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases, which are, in the words
of one atmospheric scientist, "headed right off the chart" when
compared to historical global levels. Even corporate dinosaurs like the
Western Fuels Association, purveyors of coal to U.S. utilities, doesn't
resist, but instead uses full page ads in national magazines to argue that
"CO2 fertilization of the atmosphere . . . promotes greater crop yields
and more robust forests." Those who dismiss the threat of CO2 emissions
either profit from them or aren't thinking too clearly; in the case of the
WesternFuels Association, it appears to be both. Fossil fuel use is the
main source of greenhouse gas emissions--in Canada almost 80 per cent of
the releases are related to energy use. Coal is the worst CO2 emitter followed
by oil and then by gas. (Incidentally, I refuse to refer to gas as "natural"
because this substance is only natural-and by inference harmless-when it
remains thousands of feet underground in its natural resting place.) Since
more of the energy release of gas is from a hydrogen/oxygen reaction than
from a carbon/oxygen reaction, less CO2 per unit energy is given off. The
gas industry uses this fact to rather deviously imply that piped and bottled
gas are environmentally friendly. The industry also trumpets the fact that
gas burns cleanly, producing little impact at the point of use, while discretely
ignoring the massive environmental impacts upstream that occur in exploration,
extraction, refining and transportation to market.
In North America, energy is unregulated, and it is cheap-really cheap. Compared
in Canadian currency per litre (just less than a quart), gasoline costs
54c in Canada and 38c in the U.S., but the average price in the other five
G7 nations is $1.16 and the Japanese pay $1.42. The Japanese householder
pays at least six times as much as a Canadian for piped gas heating fuel.
Of course North American big business wails and threatens about the loss
of competitive advantage at the mere mention of raising energy prices to
reflect their environmental impacts. Yet the German and Japanese economies,
faced with far higher energy prices, are the most efficient and competitive
in the world. Clearly, the corporate sector cannot be trusted to be truthful
in discussions of energy, the economy and the environment.
Back to the hearth retailer here at home. As sales of their beloved wood
burning appliances fell in the face of steadily lower gas prices and ever
more sophisticated gas fireplaces, many specialty hearth retailers were
uncomfortable with the swing to gas. But once they decided to go with it,
most had some success selling gas hearths and began to see their positive
side. After all, we could not continue to sell thousands of strictly decorative,
inefficient and high-emission wood burning fireplaces into the big city
airsheds, which are already overburdened with automotive and industrial
pollutant loads. Surely it is better to sell a gas hearth to a city dweller
than no hearth at all. And as these gas fireplaces get more efficient, their
users are beginning to experience the inherent benefits of space heating
and of the pleasure of the glowing warm spot in the house.
Retailers have come to grips with gas hearths with their fake logs and manipulated
flames. Their conversation has turned to milliamps and gas valves when it
used to center around chimneys and creosote. They used to worry about chimney
fires and now think about explosions. But retailers are managing, although
many are choking on the so-called vent free appliance, which is perhaps
the most cynical hearth product ever devised. What galls, however, what
really hurts and what has prompted some of the submissions to the Club,
is the threatened transformation of the hearth into a commodity and of a
business with a conscience and a close relationship with its customers into
another faceless warehouse outlet. Retailers who used to exclusively sell
sexy cast iron and practical, substantial steel appliances now sell a lot
of sheet metal that has been tortured into a shape that resembles a fireplace.
It's hard not to be grumpy about the change. So, here we are with energy
prices so low that no one will conserve it, so low that renewable energy--even
wood--cannot compete. The gluttonous appetite for energy in Canada and the
United States continues to rise unabated despite our full awareness that
the impact of our actions on our children and on theirs could be--probably
will be--awful in the truest sense of the word.
We in the hearth industry are part of the energy business, which is to say,
we are part of the problem. I have painted a pretty gloomy picture here
and I did so intentionally. These are the things I worry about, that I feel
down in the pit of my stomach. Despite my concern, some of which I hope
rubs off on you, I do have some tentative suggestions for things that might
help to reclaim some of the self-respect and satisfaction that used to go
with each installation of a natural hearth. After fifteen years of trashing
governments and blaming everything on them, the tide is beginning to turn.
There is a growing awareness that the unfettered business elites, the corporate
sector, the international market--call it what you like--has duped the public,
as the purchasing power of wage earners falls steadily in the face of staggering
corporate profits. Corporate power, even the power to control the economy,
concentrates into fewer and fewer hands. Big business has had great success
in manipulating government and the public to the extent that democracy itself
is threatened. I have never been one to buy into conspiracy theories, but
lately as I reflect on the specter of greenhouse gas emissions in relation
to the global economy--which is, quite obviously fueled and greased by oil
and gas--I am beginning to think there are some big, bad dudes in control.
I think in terms of Exxon, Mobile, Shell and the others. I assume they talk
to each other, that they're part of the same club. The big energy companies
have a lot at stake and they want to continue plundering fossil fuel reserves.
Those who claim that the market is best left to its own devices have either
a lot to gain in the absence of controls, or have not learned anything from
history. Although the West crowed about the fall of communism and how the
socialist experiment didn't work, no one should forget that the market,
left to its own devices, is a cruel place that rewards the devious and the
greedy and victimizes the kind, the loving and the vulnerable. The proof
is right in front of us. It is time we all grew up and stopped taking the
easy route by blaming everything on government. Government, after all, is
us, and government is all we have to protect us from the excesses of the
market. We need to find ways that government can regulate cleverly, discreetly
and strategically. Government should not be in business, but it must be
the referee and the mediator that ensures the economy serves the interests
of the majority, not just the elites. And this includes the preservation
of the environment and earth's natural resources for future generations.
The basic ideas for the necessary mechanisms are already visible. For example,
it is now apparent that the insurance industry is taking on a greater role
in regulating business practice in the housing industry (including ours)
than does government. There can be many other examples in which the corporate
interests of one sector of the economy are such that they serve to control
and improve the behavior of another sector.
We need to devise a situation in which it is more profitable for companies
to do the right thing, just as it is more profitable for you to install
hearths correctly than to have your store sued out from under you. Let's
face it, we're going through a rough patch just now. But it is impossible
to predict the future, except to know that things will change. I am reminded
of the school teachers in the 1950s who despaired of the blind conformity
and trivial concerns of their students and who could not have foreseen the
upheaval of the sixties that was lead by a revolution of youth. So, what
can a retailer do? Here are my modest suggestions. Find a way to survive
with your knowledge of the natural hearth and your integrity intact--both
have great and lasting value. Try not to roll over in the face of blistering
pressure from the billion dollar gas utilities. Support those manufacturers
who show integrity and who are not afraid to stand up and be counted, examples
of which we have actually seen lately. Don't support gas appliance manufacturers
who market their products by distorting the truth about wood burning and
try to turn the public against this noble renewable energy that, if we handle
it properly, is one part of the solution to our environmental dilemma.
While concentrating on the survival of your business, try also to maintain
a longer view that accommodates the broad energy, environmental, economic
and political issues. They might be important sooner than we think. When
someone suggests a new and creative role for government, don't immediately
shout it down, but think it through in the context of the welfare of your
grandchildren. Business and technology will not bail us out of this jackpot
alone-only government, with our support, can muster the moral authority
to set in motion the mechanisms that can save the environment. All we can
hope is that the growing public anger over the excesses of the corporate
sector will allow for some reflection on the reinvention of government.
Consider this: it could be that in the near future people will tire of the
mind-numbing sameness and the superficial convenience of the gas hearth
and that their yearning for meaning in their lives will come to be associated
with the honesty of a real wood burning hearth. Perhaps a balance between
the various hearth options will be found, one that offers good quality gas
fireplaces for those whose circumstances demand them, but preserves the
most respected place for real fireplaces that burn wood in an environmentally
appropriate way.
I must concede that things look grim right now. But seeing the worries and
hopes and dreams of thoughtful retailers played out in the back pages of
Hearthnet has given me a curious surge of optimism. I can't explain it,
but it feels good. In solidarity, John Gulland
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