By Matt Bogoshian

Could such a story be true?

NASCAR just held their Green Summit this week in Chicago where I was lucky enough to represent EPA with an impressive group of change makers that included, of all people, Al Gore!

I’ve heard a few people question why EPA is helping NASCAR, but I like to think it fits into the story of the future, a story where all of us are on a continuous improvement path toward an America that’s built to last.

I just read Daniel Pink’s new book, To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others, and he talks about the ways people are moved to take action. One way he describes is to tell stories the way Pixar tells stories, so here we go. Using the Pixar way, here’s one way to tell the story of the future:

Once upon a time, we built a strong and rising middle class powered almost entirely by fossil fuels, not realizing that our over reliance on them would hurt us in the long run. Every day for generations, we burned lots of fossil fuels to make stuff, build stuff, eat stuff, go places and have fun. Year after year, auto racing became more popular and NASCAR became part of the fabric of American sport. Then one day, everything started to change and more of us ended up finding new ways to get ahead using fewer fossil fuels and creating less waste. NASCAR joined the effort to improve their own practices, and help their fans learn new ways to save money, that also protect people’s health and the planet. Because of that, more kids learned new innovative skills and had better health. Also because of that, more people found better jobs and created their own businesses to make things that solved problems and added joy to life. Finally, we realized that by enlisting every American and every organization to work together, we could build a low carbon, low waste society that will create a rising and thriving middle class for this and every generation.

Make believe? Together, we’re on the road to find out …

You can help out, too, by using some handy tools found on our new online Green Sports Website. Next week is Pollution Prevention Week. Take steps to prevent pollution by committing to health, planet and money saving action!

Green for Go!

About the author: Matt Bogoshian is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Senior Policy Counsel in the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention where he leads EPA and Obama administration efforts to help manufacturers and their supply chains profit by adopting more sustainable practices while harnessing the power of consumers to demand smarter products and services. Mr. Bogoshian combines strengths of efforts such as the E3: Economy, Energy and the Environment framework, the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge, the Design for the Environment (DfE) program, the EnergyStar Industrial program and the SmartWay Partnership to optimize collective benefit for American manufacturers and their communities. Bogoshian helps lead the President’s Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership initiative, designed to accelerate the resurgence of manufacturing and create jobs in communities across the country.