Don't Fear Technology Davis Publicist Says
Davis Enterprise
by Kathy Robertson
March 10, 1991
A former employee of futurist designer and philosopher Buckminster Fuller, Davis resident Robert Kahn now heads a public relations firm that follows "Bucky's" precept that technology can be a positive agency of change.
Robert D. Kahn & Company is an environmental public relations firm that specializes in technology, resources and energy. Now based in Sacramento, the company was started in 1982 by Bob and his wife Cathy.
Clients have ranged from the Independent Producers Association, a group that is exploring energy alternatives for California, to Alternegy, a Danish firm that is the largest manufacturer of rotor blades for wind turbines.
Locally, the firm has done public relations work for the city of Davis, Calgene, the Yolo County Flood Control & Water Conservation District, Thermo Electron Energy System’s Woodland biomass plant and others.
“Our niche is companies or public agencies that are involved with the environment in one way or another,” said Kahn.
“We act as bridges between our clients and the communities in which they do (or hope to do) business. We’re there to help each understand the other better.”
Kahn’s interest in technology stems from a stint as a research assistant for Fuller in the early ‘70s. He says there are two schools of environmentalism, one that mistrusts technology and another that sees it as a useful agent of change. Fuller espoused the latter.
“The idea is by doing more with less, we create less of an impact,” said Kahn, referring to Fuller’s concept of Spaceship Earth.
“He popularized the idea of ecology as a principle and never saw a contest between technology and the environment. Rather, he saw its ability to make change. I come from that school.”
Kahn’s connection with Fuller is a Cinderella story that dates back to undergraduate days at Colgate University. An active protester against the Vietnam War, Kahn became disillusioned with politics, instead gravitating to Fuller’s writings. After reading all of Fuller’s work, Kahn asked him to come to the university to lecture.
“I was his tour guide and at the end of the visit, he arranged for me to go work for him,” said Kahn, who moved to Philadelphia and worked for Fuller between 1973 through 1975. During that time, Fuller was completing his magnum opus, “Synergetics,” which uses geometry to explain natural phenomena.
After two years, Kahn felt it was time to move on. He was attracted to the School of Education at the University of Massachusetts, which offered a program in future studies.
“I went there because the program was one of two places in the country in which people were trying to figure out how to educate the community regarding environmental protection and technology transfer,” said Kahn.
While at Umass, Kahn edited “Buckminster Fuller: On Education” and earned a doctorate degree. He never intended, however, to go into academics or education, pursuing instead a round-about route to a profession that seeks to educate the public about technology.
“I understand how people learn and how people deal with technology. It was a logical, if elliptical, development,” he said.
The step to California was made in 1980, when Kahn accepted a job as publications and information manager for Gov. Jerry Brown’s Office of Appropriate Technology. When the Brown administration ended in 1982, Kahn began his own firm.
He says the client base is self-selecting, and the firm hasn’t represented any company or agency that doesn’t contribute to making the world a better place.
“Not everyone will necessarily agree with that – but otherwise we wouldn’t have been needed. Not everyone has the same degree of comfort with technology,” said Kahn.
Sometimes there are trade-offs between what kind of technology is preferred from an environmental perspective. Kahn offered the Harwood family lumber business as an example.
In 1988, the family had plans to build a 10-megawatt power plant in the town of Willits. The idea was to provide electricity from a renewable resource by using bark, sawdust and shavings from its mills.
The plan polarized the community; half the residents were horrified. Opponents saw risk to their health and the environment with no benefits to the community.
“They saw the plant as an environmental disaster, I saw it as an environmental benefit,” said Kahn.
One of the benefits, he said, was to offer an alternative to nuclear power. Kahn was arrested at the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant in 1977 and has opposed this kind of power all his adult life.
“I believe nuclear power is a tremendous risk to the environment and feel a sense of responsibility that if you are going to oppose something, you have to offer something else,” he said referring to the credo, “Never yell ‘fire’ in a movie theatre until you first open the exit doors.”
“Never yell ‘No Nukes’ until you have an alternative.”
The Harwood proposal was defeated, but Kahn still believes what he said to a protester who asked him “Would you live in this town?”
“Yeah, I would. I’d rather live in Willits with a power plant that San Luis Obispo with a nuclear power plant.”
Kahn said the frustration of is job is finding people you’d expect to be your friends are not. Many supporters of the projects he tries to sell are of his parents’ age rather than his own. Having reached maturity in the ‘60s, he wishes more of his generation were in his camp.
“They have a built in skepticism regarding technology and private companies,” he said.
“They don’t have faith in government to protect them – or in technology that it’ll work.”
The Thermo Electron Energy Systems plant in Woodland is a happier story. The parent company is a Fortune 500 firm in the business of producing clean, efficient systems to burn biomass material for energy. The local company burns orchard prunings, almond shells, clean urban wood waste (from construction) and some wheat/rice stubble.
“We have a plant that is the model for California in this technology and I’m really proud of having had something to do with its approval by the Woodland City Council in 1988,” said Kahn.
The community relations campaign to allow a controversial field trial of Frostban by Advanced Genetic Sciences, Inc. is probably Kahn’s most well-known job. His company was able to help turn around public opinion regarding trial use of Frostban and other genetically engineered agribusiness products.
“I’m an environmentalist who is not afraid of technology. We need to have proper alternatives if we are going to reduce our dependence on agricultural chemicals,” said Kahn.
A concern for the future of Yolo County is one reason for Kahn’s support of the Conaway Conservancy Group, a major client. The group envisions dividing use of an 18,000 acre parcel in the county so that some land is dedicated to wetlands preservation, some will be set aside for agriculture and about 3,000 acres of less productive land near the city of Woodland would be made eligible for development.
“I basically prefer a proactive stance when it comes to development,” said Kahn.
“Here are bad soils adjacent to the city. They can’t be farmed. That’s where people ought to go. There is a willingness on the part of the client to set aside permanent ag land and space for wetlands. I can advocate that,” he said.
Kahn sees his role as one of trying to explain to politicians and other decision makers, as well as people who have a direct interest in the project for one reason or another, whether it be a financial stake or other concern. Kahn meets with county supervisors, farmers, environmentalists, the media and the general public.
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