July 12, 2009
Would you like to provide solar lanterns to a village in India?
It is estimated that about 1.6 billion people on this planet live without access to electricity, and 400 million of them are in India. The "Solar Lantern Project" aims to provide solar rechargeable lanterns to rural areas in India where electricity is still not available. This project has been advocated and promoted by Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, Director- General of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), India.
Solar lanterns not only contribute to improving the quality of peoples' lives but help prevent global warming by reducing CO2 emissions
Please help us make a difference:
http://www.iges.or.jp/en/news/event/2009solarlantern/index.html
投稿者 econetworks : 08:03 PM | コメント (0) | トラックバック
September 02, 2008
Livin' at the Mart
I've moved and I'm in Japan! I'm working at a place called IGES. It’s a four letter abbreviation like YMCA, but we also work on environmental policy. It's situated in Hayama, a famed resort town in Japan. Like many resort towns, you are surrounded by breath-taking scenery, beautiful houses, trendy people, and not too many places to get your groceries. Fortunately, for me, there is the Family Mart and the great news is that they are taking a major step to lower its carbon footprint!
For the last two weeks, I've been living out of the Family Mart, one of the largest chains of convenience stores in Japan. It happens that the two closest stores from my apartment is Family Mart. It's provided me with food and even shelter during the rain! Of course, IGES has a cafeteria that serves excellent food but it's always nice to get something quick in the morning and on the weekends you need to find your own food.
And so I was quite pleased to hear this bit of news. In this article from Mainichi Daily News:
Wooden structures can cut down CO2 emissions in the process of construction from 81 tons to 33 tons per store compared to steel-framed stores. FamilyMart is also going to use insulation panels to reduce annual electrical usage by 15 percent, including air conditioners.
It’s not clear how they came up with these values but I would presume they took into account the life cycle of the different building materials. Processing steel is very energy intensive and can contribute greatly to emissions. Depending on the where the wood came from and how it is grown, the overall emissions associated with the wooden structure could be as low as they suggest.
While Family Mart’s target of building a thousand of their stores using wood is commendable, this blog points out that this number is only a fraction of the nearly 15,000 stores already standing.
So, we may be left wondering, ”Is Family Mart really committed?” Is this greenwashing? Nevertheless, when a high profile corporation like Family Mart takes these initiatives, other corporations are tempted and perhaps compelled to follow.
One interesting fact I learned about my breakfast from Family Mart. I usually get an anpan and milk. It turns out that anpans have twice the calorie as a can of Coke!
投稿者 econetworks : 04:39 PM | コメント (0) | トラックバック
August 26, 2008
Site of the Week: Alltop Green
One of the great things about the web is how fast information (both good and bad) propagates. All over the world, the Internet is changing how we get our news. Now, anyone with an idea can self-publish with no review and news can be seen in real time. Well, Alltop Green is probably the most comprehensive site for aggregating rss feeds from blogs reporting on green news, updated continuously.
Google is helpful in finding popular and potentially useful content and they even have directories, but it's actually takes some time to know what kind of content is on each site.
For those of us who want a quick glance at the latest news and have an overview of the entire news-scape, Alltop is the place. Serial entrepreneur and creator of the site Guy Kawasaki calls Alltop an "online magazine rack."
On it's Green page, Alltop lists the 5 most recent stories from the various news sources it has identified as being green.
The sources include blogs at NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, but include many non-mainstream sources that have emerged because of the Internet. The big stories will get lots of coverage but what's interesting is the news that are lower profile but just as interesting and valuable to know. These come from sites like EcoGeek and the .
Besides, eco and green news, Alltop features everything from Egos to Yoga. There's even a page dedicated to Japan. If you scroll to the bottom of that page, you'll find news aggregated from Japanese language sources!
Clearly, the web is transforming how we get our news. While mainstream sources will undoubtedly have a role to play, blogs and sites that do up-to-the-minute reporting and editorializing are becoming a regular part of journalism, providing valuable information.
Alltop Green is really a dream come true for me. It has saved me the time of sifting through many sites. But the bigger picture is the opportunity for the web to help facilitate sustainable practices. Check out this great article by Max Gladwell, in which he says:
The Internet did for communication what cheap oil did for consumer goods. It brought the world seemingly close together. From the U.S., you could find people in New Zealand or China who shared your same interests and then build a global online community. It was liberating. And now social media has turned this on its head.
Services like Meetup and even the big social networks (Facebook and MySpace) are enabling like-minded people to find one another online with the express purpose of meeting up in the real world. In Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody, he recounts how stay-at-home moms are the number-one group on Meetup. He says they are reinventing the social infrastructure of small towns and neighborhoods. Perhaps they’re getting together at the farmers’ market to do some local, organic shopping? on how social media and sustainability can align.
投稿者 econetworks : 12:08 PM | コメント (0) | トラックバック
August 12, 2008
Tokyo not Eco-Minded?
It's very known around the world that Japan is one of the most energy efficient countries. Moreover, awareness of global warming and its human causes are also well accepted in this country. Yet, it seems that the residents of Tokyo may not be so willing to make sacrifices in order to lower their greenhouse gas emissions further. In an AFP article that a colleague of mine at cleantechblog noted, more than 90% of Tokyo citizens do not want to trade off on their lifestyle to stave off climate change.
In the article, the author says:
More than four in 10 Tokyo residents -- 41.6 percent -- said they "don't want to sacrifice a convenient lifestyle to prevent global warming," according to the poll results published recently by Japanese advertising agency Hakuhodo.
and furthermore
In a list of 27 daily activities considered to counter global warming, from taking only short showers to participating in tree-planting activities, Tokyo residents only scored above average for five of them.
In particular, Tokyo dwellers came last when it comes to studying about global warming or preserving the environment.
They also ranked lowest when it comes to buying eco-friendly products.
Of course this analysis is relative to other capitals around the world and does not necessarily reflect sentiments outside of Tokyo. Nevertheless, this makes me wonder how much work we have ahead to change the mindset of people to truly take action. In many ways, this is the same problem we have in the US. When it comes time for action, many people will not follow through because of the sacrifices they will need to make.
In one sense, because Japan is already ahead of the curve when it comes to efficiency, it may be harder for them squeeze more out but clearly the question is how can improvements be continued..
投稿者 econetworks : 05:56 PM | コメント (0) | トラックバック
August 05, 2008
Book Review: The Family Tree
How do talking dogs save the planet?
Ever since I was young, I've let my imagination run freely and pretend seeing invisible animals from the future! Some of my friends are amused while others are just perplexed. But, talking animals may not be as silly as one could think. I recently read Sheri Tepper's The Family Tree, a fictional novel about ecological fallout.
In this book, talking animals from the future tell us of mankind's environmental neglect and how human can once again become a part of the solution. Interestingly, the story starts in the present with our main character Dora, who is a cop living in a very ordinary town.
As she investigates the mysterious murders of three scientists, she also gains the ability to talk to trees. She is also involved in an unhappy, almost lifeless marriage. As she is confronted challenge after challenge, she awakens to the realization that she could be the one saving humanity's future.
What makes this story - albeit a fantasy - so engaging, is that Tepper subtly and not to subtly comments on our current industrialized state of the world, one in which not only is the environment threatened but the ability for people to live freely. Some can interpret it as a criticism of today's state of human rights, agriculture, equity, and self-determination.
In a sense, stories like these make me better articulate how solving today's environmental problems also requires genuine leadership. Perhaps at the root of our global challenges, is the necessity for people understand how they fit in the world community and how their choices have grave consequences to people and to lands thousands of miles away.
Similar themes are evoked in Al Gore's recent book, The Assault on Reason. Without fundamental participation in today's increasingly interdependent world, democracy in the participatory sense may very well be threatened, Many leaders, including Gore, believe that without this general participation, solving global issues will be much more difficult.
Seriousness aside, did I mention something about talking animals? You'll have to read Tepper's book to find out how they came to be. Just a side note but I participated in an improv acting class recently and one of the exercises involved passing along an invisible animal of your choice to another member of the class. Maybe I'm on to something...
投稿者 econetworks : 03:44 PM | コメント (0) | トラックバック
June 18, 2008
Book Review: Back of the Napkin
I still struggle to communicate to strangers, friends, and even relatives on why I think working on climate change is important. Even harder is what kind of solutions we should pursue. For that matter, even technical concepts are often difficult to express. Analogies are useful but sometimes it's hard to find the right ones. One recent book showed the power of visualization and how simple drawings - even those on the back of a napkin - could make all the difference.
The other day, I got a press review copy of Dan Roam's "The Back of the Napkin." Seeing how entertaining the pictures were in the book, I immediately called for an interview with the author but then I realized that my partner at the Berkeley Groks Science Show had already done one:
Nevertheless, I also looked through the book and was thoroughly impressed. Dan presented some very relevant ideas on communicating complex ideas and the power visualization. The more I think about it, even simple ideas often do not get communicated very well with just words.
The prime example the author gives is how the airline company Southwest got started. Evidently, the founder Herb Kelleher showed to investors a picture on a napkin: three dots representing Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio and three arrows showing flights between them. That was all he needed to sell his idea!
What makes the author so compelling is that visual thinking does not require any artistic talent. Roam sums up the book as follows:
"Visual thinking is an extraordinarily powerful way to solve problems, and though it may appear to be something new, the fact is that we already know how to do it."
The book explains how powerful our visual system is and how anyone can use it to express ideas and solve any problem. This reminded me of my high school chemistry teacher who always encouraged us to draw simple pictures when approaching any problem...and it always worked!
What got me excited was how useful this is for scientists and entrepreneurs (and anyone for that matter!) to communicate sustainability concepts to the public. It's easy to forgot how simple drawings can really facilitate problem solving and can be applied to all sorts of situations. Roam does an excellent job of codifying these concepts.
The book gives valuable lessons on developing and presenting a visual approach for solving problems and selling ideas. Roam discusses the 4 steps of visual thinking, the 5 focusing questions, and the 6 ways we see (and show).
For more information, check out Dan Roam's website at: www.thebackofthenapkin.com or you can also buy it on Amazon.
投稿者 econetworks : 02:42 PM | コメント (0) | トラックバック
April 04, 2008
Wall Street Getting On Board Sustainability
Are big changes on the way? What does it mean when corporate America starts addressing environmental concerns? These questions were asked at the recent ECO:nomics conference that was the first of its kind to be organized by the Wall Street Journal.
Already, there is a major corporate push for reducing emissions. Last year, the US Climate Action Partnership, a coalition of major US corporations, released a Call to Action plan, which urged the US to support market based solutions for greenhouse gas reductions.
Going one step further, this conference could be a harbinger of a trend towards looking at the bigger problem of sustainability. With dwindling resources and growing demand for practically everything, corporations realize the need for better practices that are sustainable for the environment, which ultimately the economy depends on.
Revi Schlesinger at ClimateBiz writes:
The roster of corporate leaders at the conference -- which included heads of General
Electric, Wal-Mart, Duke Energy, Dow Chemical, Archer Daniels Midland and many more --
clearly articulated the pressing reality of eco-concerns and the imperative for business.
The speakers offered a clear commitment to rapidly address energy use (appropriate
enough, given it was the conference's focus), but also other challenges that could be
more broadly framed in the context of triple bottom line sustainability, and to
accelerate change by identifying new technologies and resources, developing new ideas,
working with new partners to share information and offering incentives.
Acting on these commitments will send a strong signal to the US government and the rest of the world that action is not only needed to reduce the ecological footprint, but will bring multiple economics returns. Because markets are in many cases the best system for distributing resources and technologies, a corporate push to promote sustainable practices may be what's needed to truly carry out the changes that are needed.