The Grass is "Greener"... on our side

Becoming Carbon Neutral

 

Among other New Year's resolutions I've made this year, I've resolved that in 2008 I'll become carbon neutral!

One option is to:

• Stop driving (i.e. walk to work - which is actually easy when you live 500m from the office)
• Fly less (I'll be glad to stay in SF for some time actually)
• And turn off the TV (US cable TV is full of commercials anyway)

But then again... (from previous experience with New Year's resolutions) I'm not sure I'll be able to sustain this.

So there's another option:

A quick visit to the carbon offset calculator - Where one can pay for each pound of carbon created, which goes towards a carbon offset project (i.e. tree planting, renewable energy plant, energy conservation, etc). So basically - you pay for someone else to do the work for you (an option I've always favored).

A simple calculation of my usage, resulted in the following:

 

$614 (!)

Then again... (from previous experience with New Year's resolutions) - I'm not sure I'll be able to sustain this method as well...

So what's the conclusion?

I think both methods are great - but both don't really work (they are good for creating marketing hype, such as the one going on all around us).

I don't subscribe to the view that people will need to change their lifestyle (or pay up) in order to save the environment. Its just not sustainable (like New Year's Resolutions), and not scalable to the mass population.

Not to mention that consumer usage behavior is not the main component of the problem (see on the right an interesting graph on this topic)

I think the consumer side of the equation will be solved only through technologies & solutions that are environmentally friendly, yet do not compromise quality of life, and most importantly, are at cost parity with existing solutions.

 

 

Technorati Tags: Carbon, offset, neutral, New Year, Resolutions, carbon calculator

San Francisco mornings

1. For anyone used to sleeping in late, working in San Francisco (or the US west coast) is not ideal.

Being located at (nearly) the last time zone in the business world (i.e. everyone ends the day before you) - means your days start early. Very early.

Today I started off with a 7:30am meeting… and Thursday I have a 6am (!!!) call. (Anyone who knows me, will understand this is not trivial, and much closer to the hours I am used to falling asleep at)

I was anticipating this could happen, so tried to not overcome the jetlag arriving from Israel (i.e. going to sleep early and waking up early). But that plan failed, having woken up Sunday at 1pm…

2. In San Francisco, breakfast meetings are the means of doing business

This is in contrast to the Israel business lunch or diner. This morning I had breakfast with the Founder of a company in the solar industry, who's about to get acquired. (great timing in terms of market hype)

The location was really amazing - A small cafe / restaurant called Boulettes Ladder located in the Ferry Building marketplace. Basically, great food, located on the waterfront, with seating at a large table situated right next to the cooking ovens and chefs.

(Its quite clear why some of the key Private Equity firms have relocated thier offices to this area...)

 

Technorati Tags: San Francisco, Breakfast, Boulettes Ladder, Ferry Building farmers market