Are you a sceptic?

I know so many people that don't think that the human has any kind of effect on the planet. Breathing Earth gives us a nice graphic representation of how many people are born, how many die and how much CO2 is emitted. I think you must agree that we do affect the earth!

Watch this and don't brush it under the carpet!

It's called the most terrifying video you'll ever see!!



Maybe, but only if you don't do anything... seriously, do you still not understand what I'm talking about? This video puts into words what I've tried to express so many times. Spread it!

China vs. us!!! Are we letting China win?

Hi Fella's!

I just came back from a trip of my tool supplier. The owner is a Dutch guy and we got talking about my new toy company that I'm just starting. He spoke very harsh words about where our world is heading. I'm trying to sort my thoughts, but it's really hard to put it down.

First of, I was telling him about my job (sound guy) and how I get to travel lots. We both agreed that it is a real life experience to travel and see other cultures. To get a different look at how we operate in North America from a different perspective. The conversation continued and I told him that I was about to start a new company, building wooden toys here in Canada. He didn't really seem to like my company idea. He advised me to always think of the fact that we do live in a capitalistic world and that I have to operate within the boundaries of it. My business will in fact fail, if I try to reinvent the wheel, he said.

Art (the fella I was talking to) was telling me about one of his clients that had gone to China to see some of the factory's where they are building little toys. He was telling me about halls filled with thousands of people drawing intricate little designs onto toys, everyone so concentrated on his work, that they did not even look up or flinch when the visitor was walking through the halls. "These people make 10 cents per hour!" said the factory supervisor. That's just $200/hour in labor for 2000 people. At the end of the hall a door "Do you know what's out there?" the tour guide said "2000 more people waiting for more work!" It's scary to hear that, and I refuse to believe that this is healthy for the planet.

This really got me to think. Am I doing something wrong? Will my business fail, because I refuse to operate within the materialistic world? Within the capitalistic philosophy?

I refuse to support the system that is unhealthy for the people and for this planet! "They will take over the world", Art said. I believe that is true as well, but was it avoidable? Can it be that we let Asia take over, because we are so greedy? Just because a few of us (the few that are rich) want to make more and more money, and are creating the big bad machine. Just because we refuse to work for less and keep the money in our countries, we triggered Asia to create new power over us. Would Asia ever have gotten there if we did not bring our industry there? I think we triggered them, to maybe become a capitalist world, by giving them a taste of the things that we have and the things that we desire!

What do you think about this? Do we have reason to be scared about this? Do you think saving the planet by not supporting this bad system is the wrong choice or even possible? Is this the end of our society, just like all the other big empires in the past have failed?

December 10th: Human Rights Day

Today is Human Rights Day and coincidentally, I came across a really interesting organization yesterday. There name is witness. If you would like to find out more about all the conflicts on earth, the different issues in the different countries, please visit their page. Some issues are really aggravating, but we need to hear about them, so we can start acting upon them.

Let's just do something...

Witness has their own channel on joost, this link will take you to the intro video of the channel.

I just need some socks!

Have you ever noticed that there's lots of pretty things and designer things out there that are made in environmentally friendly ways? What I am really missing is the simple things, the things that you need to live, for instance: socks!

I don't know where to shop for those, I have not bought socks in such a long time. I remember a long long time ago, I was buying them from Wallmart, but since I decided not to support them anymore, where do I get an inexpensive, non-designer pair, that has not been made using child labor or under bad labor conditions in China?

I think I will have to start a mini series here on rethinkable covering those every day things: socks, t-shirts, shoes (non fancy), soap, towels, just there every day things.

If you have any suggestions, please leave comments on products that you support.

United Nations Climate Change Conference

This is just a really quick reminder. From Dec 3rd to the 24th the United Nations Climate Change Conference is taking place in Bali. We should all follow very closely what is going on there, because it will influence the future if this planet and our future on the planet.

Please click on this to get to the official conference webpage.

Air Canada Saving Fuel

I was recently flying with Air Canada in the West and since a lot of the flights were short, I often ended up in a Dash-8. The Dash-8 has two turboprop engines and as soon as we landed and had slowed down to taxi to the gate, the left turboprop was turned of immediately. I met a pilot on one of the Dash-8 and he actually said that it was to conserve fuel.

I'm not sure if Air Canada is simply trying to save on fuel for money reasons, or to save the environment, but I really love to hope that it is for environmental purposes as well.

Give your old iPod a break

Have you ever thought what is going to happen to all those millions of iPods that have been sold so far that are apparently "outdated"? They still play music perfectly fine, which is what most people use them for. I thought I would quickly mention a really cool way to give your old iPod a boost, or even revive it.

The biggest problem is the battery. The batteries in the iPod die after about 1.5 years (mine has been fine for almost 3 years now), but lets say your battery dies, then you can simply replace it yourself. Many entertainment electronics stores like futureshop, will sell kits of replacement batteries with tools and instructions on how to open your ipod.

While you have the iPod open, you might wanna do another mod. Replace the harddrive with Flash memory. This will eliminate moving parts and therefor eliminate many possible errors in the future. If your iPod HD is broken, this is the perfect replacement. This mod will also prolong the battery life of the iPod, because by eliminating the moving parts, the storage needs less power to operate. ALSO, it makes the iPod faster in accessing the data. It's an allround boost to the iPod.

So lets all rethink our iPod use. Do we really need the latest technology? We might actually be happy with our old iPods.

For the mean time, if you do have any old 3rd, 2nd or even 1st generation iPods that might still work, but you are simply not using anymore, just send them to me, I'll mod them either for you, or for anyone else, so they don't have to end up in the landfill.

Cheers, Hans

Edutainment

This guy has some rethinking to do :-)

My thoughts on new marketing

It's so interesting to watch how marketing is changing. We are heading towards conversational marketing, where a company and the client are completely on the same level of conversation and communication goes in both directions (the company listens to the client and the client listens to the company).

One of biggest differences I think though was just mentioned in one of the podcasts that I listen to regularly.

Marketing has become a commitment!

That to me is key. A company has to be aware that they can't just simply "preach" to their customers through ad campaigns.

If you are interested in marketing, check out the following podcasts:

Jaffe Juice
Six Pixels of Separation
Managing the Gray

A long day has past

Hi Everybody,

A long day has past and I won the fight. Wordpress and some really useful widgets are now installed the "open source" company website.

May the games begin.

Just visit the "open source" company website and start commenting. For now, we're looking for a big one right from the get go:

a name.

So, if you are trying to take the credit for that one, shoot me a comment with your suggestions for a name.

Thanx.

The "open source" company

A little bit of self promotion. I've just a new company... not so exciting in itself, but this one has a twist. It does not have a name yet, it does not have a logo, just an empty shell web presence at this point.

The company will be making wooden kids toys in responsible ways, with proper (FSC) wood, paints that are not dangerous to the health and from power from 100% renewable sources.

This company is open source, not the software kind of open source, it's open source because anyone can contribute and is asked to contribute to the company. Have an idea for a name? Logo? Slogans? etc... you can contribute them. In a sense, YOU CAN BE MY BOSS!

Rethinking the desktop

Do you think it's time to reinvent the desktop on your computer? Maybe not the highest priority on your list of things to change, but there's a company that is trying to make handling files on your desktop more real life analog to how we deal with files and documents on our real desk. Check it out, it's really neat.

Alternatives to TV

Have you ever been annoyed at TV? As for me, I really dislike that fact that TV really is just a giant stream of advertisement. I'm sick of advertisement. With the amount of ads, shouldn't TV be free? I'm exaggerating a bit, but the TV stations are getting money from the customer and from the companies advertising on their channels. Does that sound iffy to you?

Well. But there is alternatives.

First, I'd like to tell you about Joost. It is like TV on your computer streamed using torrent technology. You can watch the shows at your own time, pause and fast forward them, similar to TiVo. It's free, and more and more channels are jumping on with them. Joost has just switched from an invite only beta testing to an open service. Please check it out, you will be amazed.

Second, this is just an example, more than an alternative. Tom Green (please don't roll your eyes...) has been broadcasting his own show from his living room. Unlike his previous goof shows, his show is really positive talk show and fun to watch, no advertisement break, and of course free of charge. He's had his ups and downs with some amazing and some boring guests, but this is an example of how we could have TV streaming over the internet in the future, bypassing expensive and useless technology (what are all those satellite dishes for?).

I'm excited to see what will come in the future. I'm sure there's lots more to come.

We are all loosers in the election

Hi,

I'm not a big politics kind of guy, because I don't trust it (and I think there's much more effective ways do influence politics other than voting). For all those not in Ontario/Canada, we had an election yesterday. I wouldn't be mentioning it here, if it wasn't for the referendum. One was the regular election, the other one a referendum. Ontarians had the chance to get a new voting system which in my eyes makes a lot more sense and is much more democratic than what we have. This country is so "un-progressive" it makes me sick. Canada has no backbone!!!!. The new proposed system would have been more fair for actually representing the people of this country. I'm not quite sure why the newer system (MMP) didn't win. It upsets me though, because I can't vote (because I'm a German Citizen). And in that matter all I'll say is:

IHR SEID DOCH ALLE FLASCHEN!!!

Finally Bullfrog Powered

I just received the email saying that our house is now running entirely of green low impact power. It's a wonderfull feeling to know that we are not responsible for polluting the environment through coal and nuclear generated power.

I encourage everyone to check into it. The difference in price is almost neglectable (in our case a max. of $20/ month more).

Please click on the link below to find out more and join the many private houses and companies that are already bullfrog powered. Together, we can make coal and nuclear power plants reduntant.

Click here to become bullfrog powered.

Green Music

Did you ever think about the fact that iTunes actually sells much greener music than your local record store? By buying music online, you are cutting down on emmissions for transportation and manufacturing of packaging.

There's also many other companies that sell mp3's that are well worth checking out.


Klicktrack offers DRM free music with much better compression rates than iTunes and Klicktrack is working toward compression free quality (full CD quality). Please check them out.

Can Starbucks hear me?

Hello,

This is a little different post from what I usually post here, but it could still be very interesting as a case study in the power of experiental marketing. The ideal outcome of this experiment is mentioned at the end of this post.

I'm using a passage of Max Lendermans book "Experience the Message".
I just sent an email to Starbucks:
_____

Hello,

I'd love to quote a passage in a book I recently read. The reason for this? You'll find it after the passage.

"Take Starbucks again as an example, this time as both a brand and an experience. As Lewis Carbone writes in Clued In, "if you are considering how you feel about Starbucks, you are thinking about the Starbucks brand. If you think about how you yourself feel as a result of a visit to a Starbucks, you are relating to the experience....What customers value is the experience. And that's what they associate with the brand (brand association)" (excerpt from the book "Experience the Message" by Max Lenderman).

When I went to Starbucks in downtown Montreal (#72118), I had walked by a few other coffee stores. Since I am a regular to Startbucks, I always keep a charged Starbucks "gift card" in my wallet so that I don't need any change. After walking past the Second Cups of Montreal, a few other chains and the local small coffee stores I finally found a Starbucks in the Chapters store. The store was still closed so I waited patiently for 10 minutes to get "my Starbucks". After I finally got my coffee I wanted to use my gift card to pay for the coffee. This specific store (#72118) does not have the system set up to take gift cards. I was not really disappointed, I simply paid using some change, but it definitely wrecked the perception of this specific store for me.

With this email I simply want to point out to you, that you rely on the experience that your customer has at Starbucks. I went out of my way to get to the store, waited patiently to receive a coffee just to have "my experience" and perception of Starbucks wrecked by a cashiers system. Is that worth your highest asset?

Best Regards, Hans
_____

I was not able to find the email address of the marketing departement, but lets see what kind of response I will get.

The only real response I'd like to get from them is, to find out that they are installing a new cashiers system in that specific store.

This experiment could be taken further if they don't install a new cash by spreading this post in the marketing community, seeing that Starbucks gets used as a role model very often.

But for now, lets see what happens. If this works out, this will definitely be a lesson in marketing. But already at this point I would like to point out that the experience that your customer has definitely matters and I would love to see more business that are offering environmentally responsible products be aware of the experiential marketing. One very positive example would be Whole Foods. Excellent products with an excellent experience. As a matter of fact, I have a friends that visit the store as a highlight of the day.

I will keep you informed.

PS: "Can Starbucks hear me?"

New Media: Sucking Us Dry?

I've been "studying" and thinking about new media a lot lately. It seems to be the big hype for marketing and it does show reasonable success for those who have it mastered. New media according to the marketers is supposed to enhance community and give you a richer social network.

We must all agree that any one person only has 24 hours per day, in my opinion a lot of lives are suffering under new media, rather then being positively affected and enriched. Husbands spend to much time in front of the computer, rather then spending time with the wife; Kids are showing up late at the dinner table, because the "really really have" to finish the myspace session; wives have to quickly check "one more thing" on facebook, rather then spending time with the baby, etc.

I think it's time to switch off and grab a coffee with our loved ones in real life, rather than having a cyber cup of coffee in second life.

That said, I need to really get of the computer myself. Enjoy your REAL life. :-)

Time Management Rethought

Hi everyone,

just a very quick note. I took some time off from this blog. I had to rethink my time management and I implemented the GTD method, which took some time. If you are serious about super charging your time management and your time usability, you should read this book: "Getting things done" by David Allen. I've only been using the system for 3 days now and I've already accomplished more in those three days then in the last 2 or 3 weeks.

You can also find lots more tips about the method on the webpage of Merlin Mann, lots of tips and tools to help with GTD.

I dare you to rethink your time management, supercharge your productivity and gain back some quality family time :-)

Best Regards, Hans

Kyoto what?

Do you know what Kyoto is all about?

I find that the word Kyoto is in everyones mouth, but there's not to many people that actually know what it is all about. I found a page that explains it very well: Kyoto 101. Go check it out!

From Your Muscles straight to the Outlet

say it like Arnold:

"Froom yooa Mussels, sträght to ze Uh-ootlet!"

Arnold would probably approve of this project very much and he would generate lots of power as well. I'd like to present to you: We'lo.

It's a project a friend of mine started, where they harness the power of gym machines, transforms it into "proper" power in order to light up non-profit, government and corporate organizations. At his point the power output is not very large, because humans don't really produce that much energy, but we need to keep it in mind. With LED lighting technology and higher efficiency dynamos (the part that produces the power on the gym machine), we might be able to create more relevant power in the future. It's these small changes I believe that can make a big difference in changing peoples minds... and their weight. Lets help We'lo in their wonderful endeavors.Dave McGhee powering up a display with the We'lo bike.

New Power Grids - a short summary

Recently a lot of articles about new types of power grids have been surfacing. Yes, we are talking green power here, but in a totally different new kind of way. Interestingly enough I've been thinking of some of the ideas myself. I'd like to give you a quick and easy overview of how such a new power grid could look like.

Let's start off with the question that most people have: What if the wind does not blow and there's no light for the solar cells?

Very simple solution, lets use surplus power (in times where not all the power is consumed) to pump water from lower levels into higher basins (just like any other hydro electric dam), and in times that we need more power than we can generate, we simply use hydro electric stations at those basins to create the power we need. According to research, Norway has the potential of generating 4 weeks worth of power for Europe, which would be more than enough to provide bridge a power lulls.

The biggest problem with this type of power grid is that we are currently using AC (alternating current) in our overland lines to transport power, which cannot travel the long distances required for providing areas with power that is being generated many hundred kilometers away. A few companies are currently building new power grids that will use DC (direct current) which can travel much longer distances.

It's now just a matter of creating these power grids. Anything is possible, we just need to will power to do this now.

If you would like to read up on this more detailed, you do that here:
The Economist: Where the Wind Blows
Long Power Connecting between Norway and the Netherlands
Long Power Grid in Scandinavia (with Map)

Wave Power Generators in Norway (another way of harvesting nature energy)

Even the Annoying Kid!

Revolutionizing your phone

Every now and then, someone actually scraps all of the blueprints and re-invents an already existing technology.

Ooma is a new way of using your home phone. Hopefully this one will take off... or, do we have to go even deeper and rethink it even further... can someone come up with an idea?

Well, until then, lets hope that ooma does a good job, I'm pretty sure the women will dig it, once they find out who the creative director is :-)

Let's go for a walk...

... But where are we walking to? If you're interested in walking some more, but don't really know what's all close by, just go on "Walk Score". You might be surprised what you'll all find within your neighborhood.

Le Nouveau TrailerTrash

Wow, who knew that even trailertrash is rethinkable. I actually wouldn't mind to be called trailertrash living in this one. Can it be that the walls are even made out of straw bales?

The only thing that comes to my mind is... can this still be called a trailer? As far as I noticed there's only about 60% of the subfloor that are from the original trailer. It definitely inspires me though.

Check it out and you'll wanna live in one of those.

You don't think farming is rethinkable? Watch this. It is!

Green Music

Did you ever think about the fact that iTunes actually sells much greener music than your local record store? By buying music online, you are cutting down on emmissions for transportation and manufacturing of packaging.

There's also many other companies that sell mp3's that are well worth checking out.


Klicktrack offers DRM free music with much better compression rates than iTunes and Klicktrack is working toward compression free quality (full CD quality). Please check them out.

Live Earth Wrap Up - Everyone 50+, please listen up!

Saturday has been an interesting day. Apart from the fact that Toronto totally dropped the ball on the Live Earth broadcast at Yonge Dundas Square, I have had some really interesting conversations with people at the show.

I've noticed an alarming trend though. A lot of people were complaining about that show and how this could not be environmentally friendly. I don't think that we will stop promoting concerts, because we have this global climate crisis. We will just have to adopt new thinking, and this event has demonstrated it.

I must say most of the critics were 50+ and after very little explanation they have noticed that I am very passionate about reducing greenhouse gases ("Who knew that their sound guy was a treehugger") - they were all hoping to have a self glorifying talk about how this global warming "thing" is all just a big hoax.

I urge all people (not only 50+), if you don't think this is a true problem to reconsider your opinion on that. To all people 50+, please think of the younger generations, because we will one day have to figure this mess out. You might be able to experience the beginnings of this crisis, but if we don't change our habits right now, we - the younger generation - will have to deal with problems of truely global scale!

Thank You for listening.

Even concerts are rethinkable!

Hi Everyone,

I'm just watching the live earth concert in Australia live on msn. It's so amazing to be able to watch a show live on the internet from Australia, and see that people are coming together in one cause.

I've been reading a lot of comments online about how people are upset at the fact that someone would promote a big show like this to promote environmentalism. All I have to say, you didn't read the live earth page properly, check out the green policy. Have a close look and you will discover that everyone has been asked to do their part of making this event a green event, even the hosting company, which claims to be the "only truly green web hosting company".

I'm a live sound engineer and I so happen to do the sound for the live earth broadcast in Toronto tomorrow morning. I'm proud to be part of it too, and by the way, I live in St. Catharines, but I'm taking the greyhound bus to Toronto, because my wife is already there and it would be silly to not take public transit to the show.

I've included a picture of the show in Australia (at the top). Did you notice something? Maybe not, but I did right away. They are using LED lighting, which means that they are only using about 20% (it's an estimate, it could be even less, lighting is what uses loads of power compared to audio) of the power that a regular concert is using.

So please, have a closer look at the live earth page, they recommend to use green power, environmental materials for their banners, reusable materials for the catering, etc.

Even concerts are RETHINKABLE!

___________

Lets remind them in 2, 5, even 10 years!

More than 150 large corporations just pledged to reduce their carbon emissions according to this news article on Reuters. Lets not forget about this pledge and remind them of their own goals. Something is happening and it's good!

Carbon offsetting rethinkable

EVERYTHING is rethinkable. Even Carbon offsetting.

Yes carbon offsetting is the big craze right now, you can virtually offset anything. I recently found this add in the tube in London advertising a carbon offset mortgage, but is carbon offsetting the best solution? Wouldn't it be better if we did not even cause the CO2 emissions in the first place?

So many of the environmentally friendly "solutions" are really just a transition to whatever technology we should use, i.e. electric car. Since we don't have the technology readily available yet, we can at least do something in the mean time, i.e. carbon offsetting, using a smaller car, reducing the usage of carbon emitting technology, using co-generation heat power units, etc. All these "solutions" should never be our final destination, and we should only be satisfied when we find the technology that is truly carbon free.
_______________________
Find out more about those topics:
Wikipedia: Carbon offset
My smart is carbon offset with a Clean Air Pass
BBC News article on how carbon offsetting is not the solution!
_______________________

Do we need to rethink our weather?

The answer is clearly: YES! According to reports, the weather is getting more and more crass all over the world. Even if winters become harsher in Canada, it does not mean that the average temperature is not rising, in fact it's rising at a faster rate all the time.

It really is time to rethink our actions that influence the weather change.

[image source: dailymail.co.uk]

Coffee is kicking my ass

Hi there,

I just found some coffee at a store got my attention. Probably because the name kicks ass. It's actually called Kicking Horse, but there's a donkey on it and there's talk of Kick Ass Coffee. Very cool.

I'm always torn with coffee. As an environmentally sensitive individual, should we be buying any coffee at all? All the transport that causes lots of CO2 emissions, in fact the kick ass coffee is brought to BC, where they roast and package it. Then it goes on a long trip to Ontario (for all those who don't know: 3 681 km) until it reaches the store.

The label on the coffee states that it's a "Product of Canada", which does not mean that it's grown in Canada. I don't think coffee could actually grow in Canada. If it would I would buy it. According to an article on cbc.ca "Under current federal regulations, goods can be stamped with a "Product of Canada" label if 51 per cent of the production costs are Canadian." This would mean that roasting and packaging (+administrative cost, maybe even transport) would be +51% of the actual product. Interesting!

Don't get me wrong, I really love coffee, but I feel very convicted to have it. Well, at least Kicking Horse does a lot of good claims about themselves. "We can change the way the world thinks." Everything is rethinkable!

Cheers, lifting my cup of coffee for a toast.

fast food vs. slow home

I just found a webpage that I need to report about. More and more people understand the importance of eating properly, now it's time to understand how it is to "house properly".

When we (my wife Carolyn and I) purchased our house in November it was very important to us that it was not a cookie cutter house. So we got a beautiful old house and renovated it to our liking with environmentally methods and materials. You should do the same, it feels so good to live in environment that is anti fast food.

Here are ten steps to creating your own slow home.

I will also post in the future, what I did to our house to make it a slow home.

[picture source: theslowhome.com]

The one question

Hi everyone,

I thought I would ask this question right from the beginning. I will return to it every now and then, because it will take time to find a solution for this one.

If we did turn off all non renewable energy sources and used only renewable energy sources, what would that look like? Do all sources complement each other? Would there be points in which we would have not enough or to much power?

Let me quote Albert Einstein

Hello everyone,

I would like start of by introducing you to a quote from Albert Einstein: "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."

I found this on the page of Grassroots - an environmental store in Toronto. Since I read this quote I was not able to forget it. It's so interesting to reflect on it.

I often get involved in discussions about our environmental issues and about possible solutions. One of the very common arguments I get to hear is: "Well, what are we going to do with ... [fill in whatever new waste product is going to be generated] when we are done with it?" ... It is very hard to get people to snap out of this kind of old thinking.

If we look back in history, we have found solutions for so many types of problems, so why don't we learn from it and trust that we will be able to come up with solutions. Lets go beyond our mental borders and find new solutions.

Here's an example regarding electric cars: Maybe we will one day exchange empty standard battery packs at "gas stations"/"recharging stations" with freshly charged packs. It's possible!

There is many different creative approaches to issues that seem to be to big to solve, let’s rethink our problems, because everything is rethinkable!

Yours truely, Hans