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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

On Friday, I had lunch with Professor Shireen Musa of State University of New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology. Her job is to make sure as many people as possible who are entering the fashion industry understand the basic components of sustainability. As one might expect, there are several ingredients to sustainable fashion, but at the top of the pyramid is this: everyone shares a responsibility to minimize abusive work practices around the world. We need to refuse to buy products or components from organizations that deal in slave or child labor, or that systematically abuse their employees. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

A note from a reader:

I wonder if I might ask your advice quickly on a matter. I am a young man who has recently developed an interest in the renewable energy sector, and sustainability generally. Could you recommend some reading material that gives a good introduction to the industry and how it all fits together financially from a potential employee’s point of view?  I have gathered some good material on the major issues, points of debate and themes in RE but have not been able to find so much on the different companies operating within the sector, what kind of jobs are available and how these companies go about making money.

My response:

I’d really love to help you, but I don’t think I have anything specific to offer. I’m sure you know that there are websites that specialize in this type of thing, e.g., SustainableBusiness.com, run by Rona Fried, a personal friend, and a terrific person.

But to put it in a few words, right now, the fossil fuel industries have a significant cost advantage over clean energy, due in part to 80 years of subsidies and their own internal efforts to secure their monopolies.  Together, these actions have built them into superpowers that sport the most forceful lobby in the known universe. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I was delighted to meet Nancy Pearlman yesterday, award-winning broadcaster, environmentalist, college instructor, anthropologist, editor, producer, on-air personality, and outdoorswoman.  Nancy safeguards the earth’s ecosystems, both as a vocation and an avocation, having worked with hundreds of conservation organizations, serving as administrator, founder, member of advisory councils, participant, and member of boards of directors.

We met at her house in Los Angeles for an interview which we taped a show for some of her numerous radio broadcasts; I’ll post a link when it’s available.  It was instantly apparent why Nancy has won these awards for her broadcasting.  In the dozens of questions she asked in the half-hour show, she showed a terrific command of the subject (clean energy), and phrased every one of her queries so as to elicit something of value and interest to the listener.  Perhaps most important, I felt a sort of warm kindness in her smile, making me feel very safe and at home, which served to make me even more forthcoming than I would have been if I had felt myself pressured or stressed.

Thanks for the opportunity to be a guest on your show, Nancy.  It was a great honor to meet you.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Ever hear of upcycling?  It’s a term coined by a professor of a German university in the 1990s, meaning the repurposing of material that is deemed to be worthless, and adding value to create a product that can now enjoy a new life.

Think of how few things were thrown away during the Great Depression.  Think of some of today’s cultures, say Native Americans, and the deep abiding respect they maintain for nature, and how unwilling they are to buy, consume, and discard “stuff.”

I came across Looptworks the other day, a company that takes dozens of different materials that would have otherwise been discarded and sent off to landfills, and reprocesses them into new, high-value and really cool products.  Scrap neoprene from waste in the process of making surfers’ wetsuits becomes cases for laptop computers.   Scrap cotton becomes new T-shirts and other clothing.

Looptworks rep Cy Cain made me aware of the ecologic impact of making a cotton shirt in today’s world, based largely on the water required to grow the cotton in the first place.  “We’ve already paid the price of bringing that cotton into the world.  Now that we have all that material, it seems senseless to throw it away.”  Makes sense to me.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainable Building

Attending the Opportunity Green conference in Los Angeles yesterday gave me the opportunity to meet some terrific people and get aquainted with some incredible business concepts.  Check out IndoTeak, a company that turns out wonderful, attractive, super high-quality products made from reclaimed teak.

When many of the old large buildings in Indonesia are razed or renovated each year, IndoTeak employees are there to deconstruct them and salvage the old teak.  Every bit – and I mean every splinter (there is literally zero waste) — is reprocessed with eco-friendly glue into one of dozens of different types of products.  The very top quality goes into high-end furniture, but the vast majority into any of different types of beautiful flooring. Even little bits of wood wind up in the flooring’s lower layers.

Now of course anyone could do something like this with a cost structure from hell, and wind up selling the flooring at some ridiculously exorbitant price.  But most of this stuff is $9 – $10 a square foot!  IndoTeak employs 500 semi-skilled people, and pays them three times what they have been making if they were working in the fields.  Good things all around.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I spent many happy hours milling around the Opportunity Green conference in Los Angeles yesterday, meeting people who represent many dozens of different eco-friendly businesses. How many will succeed in the marketplace? That’s a function of the level of appetite we have for taking care of the environment and for each other. And the jury’s still out on that one; green products that cost more than their eco-toxic counterparts may be a tough sell—especially in today’s economic climate. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

If you’re willing to take part in a very brief survey, I think you’ll find this one particularly interesting.  Here, in our continuing quest to understand why the world (especially the U.S.) is moving so slowly in the direction of clean energy, we explore the proper role of government in engineering such a transition.  Thanks for your help; I’ll make sure the report of the results is made available to you as soon and I knock it out.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

I try to keep my “networking” hat on, attending seminars and meetings, and generally getting to know as many people in the industry as possible. The concept is certainly not lost on the folks at Opportunity Green, who recognize that only good can come from putting people with similar interests in sustainability.

Unfortunately, they are not listed my “Bible” of energy conferences linked here, and so I’ll have to skip this one.  I try to attend the local conferences, or those that fit in neatly with my travel schedule.

Note, however, that most of these are in some pretty far-flung locations.  It would require a substantial opportunity to get me on a plane bound for Rwanda, and the 4th International Scientific Research Conference does not qualify.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

It’s good to see MoveToAmend.Org gaining steam.  On Tuesday, an overwhelming 75 percent of voters in Missoula, Montana said that corporations aren’t people, and shouldn’t receive the same legal treatment as people.

The referendum’s sponsor, Councilwoman Cynthia Wolken, is apparently pretty happy too. “I’m over the moon about it,” she told reporters.

The measure – similar to others across the country – calls on the U.S. Congress and state leaders to amend the U.S. Constitution to say that corporations are not human beings. It earned 10,729 votes in favor and 3,605 against.

Again, if there is any hope for a just and productive future for America, it means ridding our government of corruptive influence, and MoveToAmend offers the only effective way to make this happen.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Last night’s talk at Catalyst for Thought was on the subject of validating one’s market, which happens to be the core of the business I ran for almost 30 years. Thus I heard a great number of my own words reflected back to me, e.g.,

Where most new businesses go through the steps: 1) design, 2) build, 3) sell, it’s a good idea to consider this drastic re-write: 1) sell, 2) design, 3) build.

So many times I’ve asked people, “So you think you need to raise a few million dollars of venture funding, which, if you get it at all, will come at an enormous cost to you? Wouldn’t you rather have a few million dollars in purchase orders from customers?”

Bottom line: you can have a very short business plan if you have a very long customer list. And it’s not as hard as it seems.

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