How different would your profession be if you never held a fire hose again? Dr. Joseph Mancusi, founder of the Center for Organizational Excellence, asked this question during the National Executive Fire Officers Symposium a couple years ago, and it came to mind again recently when I read an article in Business Week.

Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens said in the article that “water is the new oil.” Pickens has invested $100 million in bringing groundwater to the surface and delivering it hundreds of miles away. Pickens also is aggressively building wind farms to produce electricity. “There are people who will buy the water when they need it,” Pickens said. “And the people who have the water want to sell it. That's the blood, guts and feathers of the thing.”

The recurring drought-like conditions in the West and Southwest have counties looking for sources for of water. The Orange County (Calif.) Water District opened a wastewater recycling facility. Chicago sells Lake Michigan water to suburbs more than 20 miles away. Surrounded by water, Florida continues to develop reclaimed water systems.

Soon each aspect of emergency services will come under the proverbial microscope of environmentalists, from the equipment and techniques used to perform services to the disposal and decontamination protocols that emergency responders use to the facilities that house responding agencies.

The 2008 Station Style Design Awards, starting on page 67, show an increase over previous years in fire stations that were Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certified. Architects say they've seen significant interest in LEED Green Building Rating Systems from local governments. But the cost of LEED certification is considerable. What impact will this cost have on building decisions in a down economy?

Will fire and emergency departments put off considering green options because of cost? Maybe, but green doesn't mean more dollar bills. In fact, building a sustainable facility can pay for itself.

This month, FIRE CHIEF looks at Colorado Springs (Colo.) Fire Department's effort to build a 12,000-square-foot satellite station that could go completely off-grid and be self-sustainable. (See page 40.) The fire station will be based on a geo-exchange system used in a nearby school system. Not every department will be able to re-create such a station, but hopefully it will open your mind to new ideas.

Fire service environmentalism extends beyond station design, however. Accompanying this issue of FIRE CHIEF is “Focus on Foam,” a supplement designed to educate fire departments on the use Class A foam, CAFS and gel in an environmentally friendly toolbox against fire. Water conservation and lesser contamination will force die-hard, traditional departments to consider foam's benefits.

How will the fire and emergency services contend with environmental restrictions? I'm talking about more than just going green and reducing carbon footprints. Being sustainable means more than recycling paper, glass and cans. It's now about using solar panels and geothermal systems in commercial buildings, exploring the use of windmills and incorporating gray-water systems.

Chief Rob Brown, Stafford County (Va.) Fire and Rescue, believes that much of the fire service's current energy consumption stems from being energy hogs, and that the time has come for firefighters to learn to work green.

The tech-savvy new generation of firefighters also is environment savvy. Subsequent generations will have an even more heightened awareness of the environment than this generation.

Next time you pull up on big, black billowing smoke from a fire, ask yourself what it's doing to the neighborhood and the environment. It's time to look at fire and the environment a little differently. It's time to look green.