Even though the excitement and adrenalin of Doug Horn’s cross-country mountain bike racing days are behind him, mostly, Mr. Horn is still a committed cyclist. He commutes five days a week in rain or shine and rips it up on the weekends. Perhaps it’s no surprise then, that Doug is a committed environmentalist too. When asked how he came about his green consciousness he easily answers, “a lot of it came from racing and the people involved.” Well it seems that all the riding he’s done and the people he has met along the way have influenced his current situation. After years in a high paying career, Doug is back in school learning about environmental building design.

Maybe it’s from all the hours on the bike, but Doug looks far younger than the 44 years he’s spent on this planet. And in that period of time he has had a variety of jobs – including a stint as a grease-covered, callous-handed rig-operator in Alberta’s now contentious oil patch. As an oilrig worker the money was good, but Doug knew he didn’t want to end up like some of his co-workers – hardened, alcoholic and old beyond their years.

Checking out of the oil patch, Doug checked into a computer technician program, and for the last 20 years he has been an information technology professional. The past eight of those years have been spent plying his trade at HSBC where, according to Doug, “the money was good to really good … if you wanted to make a ton of money you could. You’d work hard, but it was available.”

Easily then, Doug could have stuck it out at HSBC, earning both a high income and retiring comfortably. “It just came down to realizing that I didn’t want to get to the point where I really hated the job. I could see that was going to happen in a few years so I had to make a change.”

What gives? What’s here to be dissatisfied about? Here we have a person, who, for all intents and purposes, is successful by every social standard: he’s got money, he’s got security, materially speaking, he’s got it made. But for Doug, he needed something more than a paycheque: “I was continuously thinking, “What can I do to be working in something I’m much more passionate about? I really wanted to be involved in something that I could do seven days a week and I wouldn’t care – that I’d still enjoy.”

Doug started thinking about what he could do that would combine his environmental concerns with employment. “I was frustrated with people and the way the world is with waste and how it seems that no one gives a shit. So I got more involved with alternative energy and energy efficiency, specifically in construction. Then I thought it would be really cool to be working in that field.”

All that thinking took him on a bit of a journey – through the available literature on sustainable architecture and construction, to conferences on environmental housing design. “50 to 60 percent of energy we use goes into constructing and maintaining buildings. I thought if you’re going to make a positive environmental impact this seems to be an area where you can make a lot of difference.” Eventually, Doug found his way to the Architectural and Building Engineering Technology program at BCIT. As its name suggests, this two-year program centers on architecture and building science – the basic tools that will help Doug create energy efficient and environmentally sound buildings.

But all best intentions aside, our culture remains largely unaware of its wasteful and energy inefficient ways. As Mr. Horn notices, like many of us, “anytime anyone leaves their house, they get in their car and they drive. And it just floors me that people don’t ever think twice about it.” How are we, then, to deal with the problem of waste as it relates, in this case, to the internal combustion engine. For Doug the answer is easy: “double the price of gas.”

Which brings us back, circumlocutorily, to cycling.

It’s not surprising that Doug feels the way he does. Mountain biking, or any kind of cycling – whether it’s for thrills, or for commuting – seems to contribute to environmental awareness. For Doug, his awareness of how energy inefficient and wasteful we are as a culture compels him to ride his bike regularly. Mr. Horn might be an exceptional example of environmental commitment, but as he says, “people don’t have to change their lives that much to be more environmentally friendly. If enough people were to make subtle changes in their lives it would have a huge impact on planet.”

Riding a bike is a good start. You might have a good time as well.