USU wind documentary doesn’t blow over
Marketing professors at USU’s Huntsman School of Business premiered their documentary “Scaling Wind” on Nov. 2 at the Intermountain Bioneers sustainability conference.
The documentary is the sequel to “Wind Rising,” as a two-part project to develop wind education outreach in Utah. The funding was provided through a grant from the Department of Energy, awarded to professors Ed Stafford and Cathy Hartman in 2005.
In 2006, President George W. Bush announced the “20 percent wind by 2030” initiative for the US, a speech featured in the film with his line, “We’re addicted to oil.”
Stafford said Utah has been slower than many states to embrace the renewable wind energy shift.
Utah is a coal-based state, according to Stafford. The power is exported to California, but they have started cutting off coal contracts with Utah due to their 33 percent renewable energy portfolio by 2020.
The professors intended to inform the people of Utah about wind as a renewable resource, finding documentary as the best method for disseminating the information.
“We are pioneers in use of documentary for taking academic work and having it brought to the people,” Stafford said.
The team published many academic articles throughout their research and endorsed several economics students who participated in it. Two USU graduates, Sandra Reategui Halvatzis and Jeffrey Parker, have been heavily involved, according to Hartman.
Havatzis was featured in the film. She received an economist job at National Renewable Energy Laboratory due to her research on the impact of wind development on rural Utah economies, Stafford said.
Parker was the first student from the Huntsman School to present to the Clinton Global Initiative in 2012 in Washington, D.C. on his economics research. Stafford said they were proud of both of the students and their accomplishments.
They adopted a practical business approach for wind energy, focusing economics rather than environmental advantages, which don’t resonate well with legislators, Hartman said. She said wind prices are stable, and they hope to communicate the fact renewable energy is going to create jobs in the future.
“We want people to realize this is not just green issue,” Stafford said. “This is energy security and economic development.”
He also said they tried to portray wind energy as a the bipartisan effort it is, embraced by both Republicans and Democrats.
Initially, Stafford and Hartman’s research began in 1995 with case studies in
real life situations. They looked at what businesses did to make existing practice more sustainable and looked at next level of change.
“How can entire industries be started around sustainability initiatives?” Hartman asked.
They chose to initiate a project in Utah from the ground up. Wind energy became their focus.
“We need to use marketing for consumer adoption of ideas,” Stafford said.
The professors worked with GreenTech Film’s Michelle Nunez to produce the documentaries. They procured funding and resources, outlined the films and arranged interviews. The team had hundreds of hours of footage, all condensed to a 30 min. documentary finished this summer, Hartman said.
There are currently two areas in Utah which have adopted the renewable energy initiative. One is in Millford, a 300-megawatt project, and the other is in San Juan County, which has three projects.
“Wind Rising” focused on the Spanish Fork project, which took four years to complete.
Since its release in 2009, the documentary screened 70 different venues with the professors hosting question and answer sessions and more than 150 times total, from Hawaii to Vermont, where protesters attended, according to Stafford.
Hartman said the hardest part of this process was thinking the project was going to be implemented, and then something else would fall through. Despite this, she is always encouraged by the way people can resolve issues.
“We don’t always have to have a direct benefit, but we do this because there is a level of social value,” Hartman said.
This has been a major research project for Huntsman School of Business, and the professors said they hope “Scaling Wind” will reach the people and legislators of Utah.
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