In latest oil crisis ...

By Erin Nicholes of The Montana Standard - 08/20/2006

Kathy Hadley, executive director for the National Center for Appropriate Technology, stands in a hallway Friday that showcases photographs about NCAT’s work. The Butte-based center promotes sustainable solutions to reduce poverty, promote healthy communities and protect natural resources. Photo by Lisa Kunkel / The Montana Standard

When the Butte-based National Center for Appropriate Technology was born in 1976, the United States was in the throes of an oil crisis.

“We’ve come full circle in 30 years,” John McBride, a former and longtime NCAT worker, said last week at the organization’s local office.

For three decades, NCAT has promoted sustainability across the country through publications, outreach and education programs. Now, as the center celebrates a landmark birthday during another energy crisis, its mission is more relevant than ever.

“If you can develop technology that’s sustainable and renewable, it just makes sense,” McBride said.

Outside NCAT’s headquarters, located in a turn-of-the-century hospital on Continental Drive, a hallway show-cases photographs capturing the human elements of NCAT’s progress.

Men stand next to a towering windmill in a Montana field. Red hens peck the ground in an open-air coop. A Liberian woman smiles on the porch of a white Southern farmhouse.

“We’re not a big policy organization,” said NCAT executive director Kathy Hadley. “What we try to do is work with people and organizations to give them tools they need to make choices.” Evidence of the center’s success in meeting that goals thrives nationwide.

In California, for example, Liberian immigrants schooled by NCAT horticulturists are growing their own crops. And in Montana, NCAT installed solar panels on senior centers to reduce energy bills for people on fixed incomes. Across the country, low-income people have reduced costs through NCAT weatherization outreach.

The center has satellite offices in Missoula, Fayetteville, Ark. and Davis, Calif., and has 65 workers, including livestock specialists, writers and renewable energy engineers. Started with help from U.S. Sen. Mike Mansfield, NCAT relies on federal grants and foundations for funding.

“We help people help themselves,” Hadley said, adding that the organization emphasizes education and outreach for low-income people.

In the beginning, the center’s work was aimed toward community outreach programs teaching people about energy efficiency. More recently, NCAT has reached out to farmers eager to reduce costs with alternatives to diesel fuel and petroleum-based fertilizers.

“We’ve never lost our focus on energy,” Hadley said. “We just added agriculture.” Expanding on the idea of sustainable agriculture, NCAT established 275 agricultural publications as well as programs such as Grow Montana, which encourages institutions — such as hospitals and schools — to use Montana-grown products to help farmers, reduce energy consumption and costs.

“More than 50 percent of food consumed in Montana is in institutions,” Hadley said. “It amazed me when I heard that.” NCAT will carry its existing programs, as well as new offerings, into the next 30 years.

“When you think about the full-circle of sustainable agriculture, sustainable energy and poverty … one of the things we are really focused on is climate change,” she said.

And while the current energy crisis is frustrating for consumers, it empowers the organization.

“If you look at the energy basis of our society today, it’s primarily based on fossil fuels,” McBride said. “They’re going to be extremely expensive before they run out.” Erin Nicholes may be reached at erin.nicholes@mtstandard.com.