activefreemedia

Sustainability Archives

Science and technology have created the possibility of renewable, closed loop systems that bring health and energy to people and the economy with absolutely no waste. Making it a mainstream reality is essential for the economy's long term survival, not to mention human life.

April 5, 2008

Social Innovation Camp in London this weekend

This weekend in East London is what looks like an amazing first of it's kind event that hopefully will be replicated across the world soon. Based on the Barcamp / Unconference events that have blown up over the last year or so, Social Innovation Camp puts teams of techies with social entrepreneurs whose 5 ideas have been chosen before the weekend event.

My housemate Seth actually submitted one of the selected ideas, which is Stuffshare, Freecycle meets Street Car . The idea that actually seems the most similar to my own vision for Open Green is Barcode Wikipedia:

A site for storing user-generated information – such as carbon footprint, manufacturing conditions and reviews - against a product, identified by its barcode number.

Even though I'm a bit disappointed to not have submitted an idea to the perfect event for my converging interests (too much of my time focused on my job), it'll be cool to attend the final session tomorrow afternoon.

Posted by Colin | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 17, 2008

Free Range's Open Value Chain Story

I've been psyched about the folks at Free Range Graphics ever since I saw the Meatrix back in 2002, and worked with Jonah when I produced the new Listen Up! website.

After getting an email about their 2008 Gratitude Grant, I found their Youtube channel which currently is highlighting a series of videos titled the "Story of Stuff," a straightforward look at the linear chain that is pretty much how things have been made over the last few hundred years. The next step of course is to more clearly tell the stories of (and financially support) the few innovators which are starting to use the new proposed renewable system.

Posted by Colin | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 10, 2008

Living Buildings & Green Realities with Ethan Timm

The first 'active conversation' of the 2nd season of the activefree podcast is with college friend Ethan Timm, an Architectural Designer for SERA Architects in Portland, Oregon.

Click here to subscribe to the activefree podcast in iTunes.

Among other things, the conversation includes his professional experience with one of the buildings in Cascadia's Living Building Challenge, his personal challenges of lenolium floors in his "green" house, and his interestingly cautionary views on the green product design craze.

He also mentioned the Kill-a-Watt, which is a simple product that measures how much energy your appliances are costing (you might be surprised).

Posted by Colin | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 5, 2008

OpenGreen - Draft Presentation

A draft presentation that seeks to demonstrate the value of open value chains for inspiring consumer behavior and demand toward a green culture and responsible economy. Definitely looking for feedback as I move this forward. Note: The audio for some reason became out of synch when uploaded to youtube, and will be corrected shortly.

Posted by Colin | Permalink | Comments (1)

January 8, 2008

Green Maps by Google

I am still searching for a great implicit footprint calculator, but while searching for it, I found the follow interesting post about a different kind of green mapping that Google seams to be up to.

Turning the map Green by ZDNet's Garett Rogers -- Google is a "Green" company — they care about the environment and now are they getting ready to create their own Green Map? According to the official website, the Green Map System is a locally adaptable, globally shared framework for environmental mapmaking — sounds like something Google would do doesn’t it? Green maps are designed to [...]

Posted by Colin | Permalink | Comments (0)