See Change Happen

Help me learn about the smart grid

 
Since many of the folks who read this blog also know a lot about energy and/or sustainability, would any of you like to help me learn about smart grid technology in the US? I'm especially interested in how changes in technology might influence how consumers think about energy consumption. 

Thanks in advance!

This is your brain on culture

With increasing frequency, I hear people joking about having ADD, or using it as an excuse for forgetting to call someone back or showing up late to an event late. There is obviously some truth to the-is idea of being distracted. Entrepreneurs continue to build platforms like Twitter and people continue to sign up. A friend of mine started the now famous online retail site, Gilt Groupe, which has transformed women into maniacal shoppers from about 11:58am - 12:15pm.  As we begin to better understand the commonalities in the brain, we also become much better at inserting ourselves, our product or technology into the user's life.

Today's New York Times did a story on how we difficult it is to process multiple inputs. The bright and flashy tend to grab your attention more quickly that the static and plain. (Guess we now know why advertising works). “It takes a lot of your prefrontal brain power to force yourself not to process a strong input like a television commercial,” said Dr. Desimone, the director of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at M.I.T. “If you’re trying to read a book at the same time, you may not have the resources left to focus on the words.”

What is so interesting to me is the duality of this race for the brain. As part of society races to create the newest best app for the iPhone, another group, is racing to find ways to deal with the added clutter.

The New Yorker recently published a story called "Cosmetic Neurology," which examines the growing trend of healthy people, not diagnosed with any mental condition, taking drugs that enhance mental functioning, including Adderall and Provigil. While much of the New Yorker story deals with the ethical implications of manipulating neurotransmitters, I'm more curious about neural plasticity and how taking a particular drug to ween you off of your Facebook addiction so to finish a work presentation will influence cognitive skills. Will the practice of focusing enabled by pharmaceuticals help the brain to learn how to filter out distractions without the chemicals present? Probably. It is like drinking a coffee before going to the gym - there is no muscular penalty for having extra energy. Makes me wonder what is the equivalent of yellow teeth for the brain?

Corporate Social Responsibility and Influencing Consumer Behavior

Good way to create incentives for a particular behavior. Well done IKEA.

More love for visualizations

As I've said before, I love visualizations. After being innodated with month upon months of Election 2008 coverage, this map of where news breaks seems particularly relevant. I think the giant red part of the map that looks somewhat like an uncooked  steak is NY. NJ, it's neighbor generates almost no news. And interestingly, very little news comes from Texas, despite a large land area and population. There are many more of maps featured here: http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2008/04/.

Help: They help people

I've been thinking a bit about developing a company ethos and how possible it is to retrofit a philosophy after a company has been around for awhile.

This new company called Help has a pretty simple ethos: to help people. They've done a fine job of integrating the message - in the name, in the products, and in the consumer experience. Although Help is a small company, they could be used as a model for what larger companies should be/do.

Their design is nice too.

What happens at 2,000 frames/second?

I'm posting this for no real reason other than I think it makes an interesting point about how messing with time can reveal just how much we can not see - and makes a bigger point about how much the human brain really understands or perceives to understand. http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/water-falling-a.html

Walmart is as big as...

A few months ago I saw this visualization in Good Magazine and have been meaning to post it ever since. It shows that the Walmart retail space covers an area larger than Manhattan. McDonalds, the next largest, seems tiny in comparision. (click to enlarge image)

Giving the finger to Hummers

At last week's SxSW I went to see climate change expert Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy, speak about how screwed we are as a planet if we don't change the way we live.

McKibben made one particularly persuasive point: if water levels rise as predicted, 140 million Bangladeshis will be displaced as a result of global warming. However, collectively, those 140 million people don't create enough CO2 emissions to register on the global fossil fuel meter. It's incredibly unfair.

This blog is the kind of thing McKibben would like - user submitted photos of people giving the finger to a Hummer.

http://www.fuh2.com/submissions.php

This is a cool job

When it was first being built, I worked on the Virgin America brand and have always thought I'd love to work for them someday. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm qualified for this position but maybe there is someone out there who is. **NOTE, a couple of people asked how to apply and unfortunately, I'm not sure. The posting was part of an email from Bay Area non-profit netimpact.org.

Virgin America

Bring a little fun back to flying

This is a unique opportunity to build and fly Virgin America's sustainability program.
And maybe Richard Branson will give you a ride in his hot-air balloon.

Job Title: Director of Sustainability
Type: Full time
Pay range: Based on Experience
Location: Burlingame, CA

Position Overview:

As San Francisco’s hometown airline, Virgin America is a next generation low-fare carrier that will serve as many as 10 cities within its first year of operation, and up to 30 cities within five years.

This role of this position will be to build a leading Environmental Responsibility and Sustainability Program. Specifically, this person will be charged with creating, leading, and managing the global environmental and sustainability program for Virgin America. This person should be a seasoned “green” expert who has established and worked with high-profile corporate teams. This person must also be someone who can influence all aspects of the company with cross-departmental leadership.

Duties & Responsibilities:

    * Create, lead, and manage the Company’s environmental responsibility and sustainability/“green” efforts.
    * Serve as a primary point of contact for the Company’s environmental responsibility and sustainability/“green” efforts.   
  * Create strategies, policies, internal/external reports on environmental responsibility and sustainability; establish and roll out related best practices through Virgin America and its business units.
  * Coordinate with relevant business team members to proactively maximize opportunities for environmental responsibility and sustainability—with an early focus on measures designed to reduce CO2/NOX aircraft emissions and create a company-wide recycling program.
  * Partner with appropriate business team members to find additional ways to make the company “green” in addition to ensuring full compliance with all local, state, and federal laws and regulations especially California and Federal air emissions requirements (e.g. EPA and airport conformity assessments).
    * Create and lead a network of Environmental Champions across the company.
  * Keep abreast of industry developments by reviewing trade journals and publications and by attendance at seminars and conventions.
    * Assist SVP-Legal & Government Affairs in analyzing relevant legislative and regulatory developments.

Skills and Experience Required:

  * Excellent academic and work credentials; College degree; Masters in Environmental Studies or Climate related issues, MBA, or J.D. a plus
  * Experience and knowledge of “green” best practices with a particular focus on jet aircraft operations and air quality issues
    * Knowledge and understanding of FAA, EPA, and California Air Board regulations.
    * Experience creating and managing successful environmental programs (either corporate or consultancy)
  * Proven track record in evaluating environmental responsibility best practices, determining applicability/relevance to an organization, analyzing issues, anticipating future trends
    * Deep knowledge of and ability to analyze and communicate about air emissions and environmental reporting - process, tools, trends
    * Ability to manage, influence and collaborate with cross-functional teams and mobilize organizations at all levels
    * Proven track record representing an organization and forging relationships with a wide variety of external stakeholders
    * Experience driving multiple programs and projects in complex, highly-regulated organization
    * Ability to influence behavior across large organization
    * Ability to communicate clearly and concisely, both orally and in writing, including public speaking
    * Minimum 5 years of relevant experience

The successful candidate will help drive sustainability at Virgin America. This person will build upon the established ground work of our existing efforts and shape a comprehensive program for California’s hometown airline.

GOOD Magazine Thinks

You see a lot of the same "big thinkers" mentioned in the "doing good for the world space" but what is interesting is how some of these thinkers keep coming up with new and and different ideas. Good Magazine did a feature recently on the A-Z of big ideas and some of them are worth checking out. http://www.goodmagazine.com/section/Features/big_ideas. Ideas that are incredibly simple and easy to do always intrigue me. Compost heaps? Probably not in my future, but changethemargins.com gives a simple suggestion: increase the margins on your documents before you print and you will save paper. That seems like sometime I can get into. According to the website,  and a "study done by the Penn State Green Destiny Council, reducing margins to .75” on all sides results in a total reduction of paper by 4.75%. This means that using these Efficient Margins on a ton of paper saves 19 reams of paper, which saves 1.14 trees." I'm not totally sure what that means on an individual level but I'm willing to give it a try.