The United States has amazing potential for solar energy in the Southwest and at the same time the largest area of usable wind in the Midwest. What will be needed for us to harness this amazing richness is a distribution system. In my subscription to the magazine Popular Science I found some interesting material that I want to bring to my readers in the next few weeks. Here is the first part, originally written by David Roberts on 23 June 2009:

Please click on the picture to enlarge and read all the details

New Power Grid

The American electric grid is an engineering marvel, arguably the single largest and most complex machine in the world. It’s also 40 years old and so rickety that power interruptions and blackouts cost the economy some $150 billion a year. The idea of building a connected “smart” grid that can route power intelligently is beyond daunting, no matter how much stimulus money gets thrown at it. But if we want to cut carbon, we have no choice. Today’s grid simply cannot handle a large-scale rollout of the clean-energy sources outlined in this series.

In part that’s because we need new high-voltage power lines to connect parts of the country where renewable resources are abundant (the sunny Southwest deserts, the windy Great Plains) to the cities and suburbs where more people live. But the more fundamental problem is that most renewable power sources don’t behave like fossil-fuel sources — they can’t be turned on and off on demand. Wind farms produce power only when the wind blows; solar, only when the sun shines.

This is problematic, because power demand is twofold: We need “baseload” power that’s predictable and steady, and “peak” power for daily spikes in demand (when, say, everyone arrives home and turns on their air conditioning). Intermittent renewables are not well suited to either. But with more power lines connecting power sources over a broader geographical area, renewables can simulate baseload power. (The wind is always blowing somewhere.) And a smarter grid cleverly shifting power demand around can redirect enough clean electricity to handle it when demand increases suddenly.

Smart Control

The idea behind the smart grid is to embed the system with sensors and computers so that utilities and consumers can precisely control power usage and delivery. Wireless nodes (on substations, transformers and wires) and smart meters (on homes and businesses) will communicate over the Internet to you and your electrical supplier. That way, when everyone turns on the A/C, the electric company can lower the power headed for other appliances, or even draw electricity stored in the battery of your plug-in hybrid, which, when parked, would act as a backup power source.
The Environment, electricity, energy, future of energy, july 2009, power, power grids, smart grids
Rebuilding the entire grid and all its components could cost trillions, and it will require the coordinated efforts of hundreds of state and regional agencies, power-plant owners and electrical utilities. But the smart grid is already appearing piecemeal. By 2012, Southern California Edison, one of the country’s largest electrical utilities, will install 5.3 million smart meters throughout San Diego and Los Angeles that will tell homeowners exactly how much power they’re using at any given time — an important first step.
The city of Boulder, Colorado, will soon finish building the country’s first smart grid, with smart metering and a variety of sustainable energy sources. And President Obama’s stimulus package includes $11 billion for smart-grid technology, to be used for research and demonstration projects.

Finally, a smart grid and a new network of high-voltage power lines to support it will make rolling brownouts a thing of the past. Let’s get to it.

While we are trying to figure out how to overcome the current economic and fiscal crisis in the United States, another crisis is growing in the 5th largest oil exporting country in the world, Iran. It would be foolish for me to try to write what Friedman expresses so brilliantly. Here is what he wrote on June 23rd, 2009

There has been a lot of worthless chatter about what President Barack Obama should say about Iran’s incipient “Green Revolution.” Sorry, but Iranian reformers don’t need our praise. They need the one thing we could do, without firing a shot, that would truly weaken the Iranian theocrats and force them to unshackle their people. What’s that? End our addiction to the oil that funds Iran’s Islamic dictatorship. Launching a real Green Revolution in America would be the best way to support the “Green Revolution” in Iran.

Oil is the magic potion that enables Iran’s turbaned shahs — “Shah Khamenei” and “Shah Ahmadinejad” — to snub their noses at the world and at many of their own people as well. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad behaves like someone who was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple. By coincidence, he’s been president of Iran during a period of record high oil prices.

So, although he presides over an economy that makes nothing the world wants, he can lecture us about how the West is in decline and the Holocaust was a “myth.” Trust me, at $25 a barrel, he won’t be declaring that the Holocaust was a myth anymore.

The Obama team wants to pursue talks with Iran over its nuclear program, no matter who wins there. Fine. But the issue is not talk or no talk. The issue is leverage or no leverage. I love talking to people — especially in the Middle East — on one condition: that we have the leverage. As long as oil prices are high, Iran will have too much leverage and will be able to resist concessions on its nuclear program. With oil at $70 a barrel, our economic sanctions on Iran are an annoyance; at $25, they really hurt.

“People do not change when you tell them they should; they change when they tell themselves they must,” observed Michael Mandelbaum, the Johns Hopkins University foreign policy specialist. And nothing would tell Iran’s leaders that they must change more than collapsing oil prices.

Mr. Obama has already started some excellent energy-saving initiatives. But we need more. Imposing an immediate “Freedom Tax” of $1 a gallon on gasoline — with rebates to the poor and elderly — would be a triple positive: It would stimulate more investment in renewable energy now; it would stimulate more consumer demand for the energy-efficient vehicles that the reborn General Motors and Chrysler are supposed to make; and, it would reduce our oil imports in a way that would surely affect the global price and weaken every petro-dictator.

That is how — as Bill Maher likes to say — we make the bad guys “fight all of us.”
Sure, it would take time to influence the regime, but, unlike words alone, it will have an impact. I believe in
“The First Law of Petro-Politics,” which stipulates that the price of oil and the pace of freedom in petrolist states — states totally dependent on oil exports to run their economies — operate in an inverse correlation. As the price of oil goes down, the pace of freedom goes up because leaders have to educate and unleash their people to innovate and trade. As the price of oil goes up, the pace of freedom goes down because leaders just have to stick a pipe in the ground to stay in power.

Exhibit A: the Soviet Union. High oil prices in the 1970s suckered the Kremlin into propping up inefficient industries, overextending subsidies, postponing real economic reforms and invading Afghanistan. When oil prices collapsed to $15 a barrel in the late 1980s, the overextended, petrified Soviet Empire went bust.
In a 2006 speech entitled “The Collapse of an Empire: Lessons for Modern Russia,” Yegor Gaidar, a deputy prime minister of Russia in the early 1990s, noted that “the timeline of the collapse of the Soviet Union can be traced to Sept. 13, 1985. On this date, Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, the minister of oil of Saudi Arabia, declared that the monarchy had decided to alter its oil policy radically. The Saudis stopped protecting oil prices, and Saudi Arabia quickly regained its share in the world market.

“During the next six months,” added Gaidar, “oil production in Saudi Arabia increased fourfold, while oil prices collapsed by approximately the same amount in real terms. As a result, the Soviet Union lost approximately $20 billion per year, money without which the country simply could not survive.”

If we could bring down the price of oil, the Islamic Republic — which has been buying off its people with subsidies and jobs for years — would face the same pressures. The ayatollahs would either have to start taking subsidies away from Iranians, which would only make the turbaned shahs more unpopular, or empower Iran’s human talent — men and women — and give them free access to the learning, science, trade and collaboration with the rest of the world that would enable this once great Persian civilization to thrive without oil.

Let’s get serious: An American Green Revolution to end our oil addiction — to parallel Iran’s Green Revolution to end its theocracy — helps us, helps them and raises the odds that whoever wins the contest for power, there will have to be a reformer. What are we waiting for?

As often before, I totally agree. The eco-conscious pioneers I am working with and new ones we hope to attract will do their part to move the green revolution forward. Please join us - together we can make a difference!

20 June 2009 

Plan Designed by Leading Architect to Revive Staggering Economy-
As the market recession rolls on, the housing industry is one of the many trades at a standstill. Founded by distinguished architect Edward Mazria, Architecture 2030 is a “One Year 4.5 Million Jobs Investment Plan” to help America invest in green homes building and revamp present homes to make them more energy efficient.

A place to start

Mazria claims that the private building division is the biggest solution toward enlivening the United States economy and creating green jobs, as the industry accounts for about 10 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product. Construction produces demand in every division of the economy such as wholesale, retail, distribution, manufacturing, constructing, banking, development and professional services; utilizing expensive products such as rubber, steel, glass, insulation, lumber, electrical appliances, heating/cooling appliances, fabrics, paint, windows, tile and metal.
Apart from tax credit incentives applied to first time home purchasers, the $787 billion stimulus funds didn’t do much to support the housing market; causing many American residential home builders to feel the impact of layoffs. The Architecture 2030 Plan entails energy efficiency incentive grant offerings to “buy down the interest rate” on home mortgages used to buy new energy efficient homes or to remodel exisiting homes, proposing a 1 percent full interest rate buydown for a new home that uses 50 percent less energy than present energy standards, or a home energy modification that would lower energy consumption of an already existing residence to 30 percent below current requirements.

For example, if your mortgage interest rate quote is 4.75 percent, the plan would offer an interest buydown which would lower the interest rate a full percentage point, to 3.75 percent. The Architecture 2030 Plan is one of intelligence and fervor which may possibly guide the way out of America’s lingering recession; we can only wait to see how the Obama Administration and Congress respond to this powerful proposal.

Solar Roof of BMW-Welt

As we have heard over and over again in the media, the world is suffering from recession and a global economic crisis. The impact of this crisis is different from country to country, and region to region, mainly because the systems of commerce are different. When Americans can pile up credit card debt across multiple cards from Visa, Master Card, and American Express, purchases made with credit cards by German customers are paid in full directly from their bank accounts at the end of each month. There is no such thing like credit card debt.

Similarly, there was no real housing bubble in Europe, except for Britain, which uses a similar system like the United States. Still, economies across the globe are suffering and one of the biggest impacts has come to the auto-industry.

Double-Cone Munich

We have all read and heard the stories about GM and Chrysler. All the money that was provided by the US government ultimately didn’t avoid bankruptcy for both of these former giants. Now the question is: What shall we do and what should we safe? Where does it make sense to spend more tax payer money?

A highly respected German magazine (Focus Money) recently compiled a special edition looking into the impact of alternative energy industries, specifically solar energy. Compared to the sunshine state, or places like Arizona, Nevada, Utah, California, and New Mexico, among others, Germany is not particularly blessed with sunshine. Still it is dominating the world market in solar technology.

World Sunshine Distribution Map

Here are some perplexing facts from the special edition of Focus Money:

• While more than $11 Billion have been spend to support Opel (a GM subsidiary) and pay for new car incentive programs directly by German tax payers, government funds are provided to energy companies (similar to PG&E or Edison) to subsidize the generation of green power only when system actually produce.
• There are now more jobs in Green Technology in Germany (1.2 Million) than in all engineering firms (approximately 1 Million) and the automobile industry (about 760.000).
• The cost for an average household to pay for the government subsidies to green energy generation is 1 cent per KW/h on the utility bill.
• The prices for solar system installed on privates homes fall 8% - 9% per year while the companies providing the systems still keep a profit margin of 20% plus.
• The solar and green technology industry is growing, even in the current crisis, while all other industries are either contracting or stagnating
• Investments in technology and research pay huge dividends. While wages in Germany are high compared to competitors in China and India, the German systems have top market share because they focus on quality and efficiency versus lower prices.
• A recent test solar system at the cutting edge of research produced a world record efficiency of 41% while typical systems in use reach 15- 17% efficiency.

In comparison to what has been happening in solar energy research and system installations in Europe, the US market is still very small. Wind energy installations have caught up by annual installation standards, although they have been hampered by the fact that US banks don’t lend money but use government handouts to prop up their balance sheets, something that doesn’t just apply for alternative energy companies, but all businesses and even private home owners who want to get financing.

Today Market Watch reported that it has never been harder to receive a small business loan in the US than it is in the current environment.

We will need a modern and successful auto industry in the future. That makes it sensible to provide some funding for it, provided the money will be used to find new approaches, new technologies, and new systems to protect the environment. At the same time it is important to realize that we should pay way more attention to modern technologies like solar, wind, and others.

The regions and countries we have traditionally competed with, like Germany, Britain, Italy, etc. have a huge lead in these technologies, and they are joined faster and faster by countries like China, India, and Japan.

There is nothing wrong with having more people employed inventing new solar and wind systems, installing them, and providing all the services related to them, than will ever again work in the US auto industry. Yes, the workers in these companies will use cars and trucks to get to work and back home. If we want to be successful and competitive in the future, our focus should shift and our funds should be spend where the potential is high, like solar, wind, wave energy, etc.

Preserving the old industries is like hoping to regain economic leadership with steam engines and horse buggies. That wouldn’t have worked in the 20th century, and hoping to use the broken auto industry to restart the economy will not work now.

We will know that we are on the right track when the cars we drive generate part of the green, clean energy, that power our houses, together with solar panels and other suitable systems.

Today, June 7, 2009, when reading the local paper Santa Barbara News Press, I found a story that looked to me like part 2 of what I had started recently. Here it is for you to enjoy, written by a fellow consultant and adjunct professor, and one of his collegues from University of California in Santa Barbara. Maybe it’s just coincidence, but maybe we are on to something the public should be aware of and begin to take appropriate action.

A call to action: Peak oil should be at the forefront of global concerns

We are being lulled to sleep by temporarily low oil prices caused by the global financial crisis. In fact, low prices may lead to an increased level of consumption and accelerated exhaustion of oil reserves.

“Peak oil,” the point at which global oil production peaks and then rapidly declines, is still not sufficiently on the minds of the American public and policymakers. We don’t know exactly when peak oil will arrive, but it is very likely to occur within 10 to 20 years. Some say that it may even be here now. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, for example, wrote in a 2005 report: “We are at or near a peak in global oil production.” Peak oil should be at the forefront of everyone’s mind. Here’s why:

As soon as the global economy recovers, we can expect oil and other fossil fuel prices to shoot right back to where they were last summer, and probably far higher. The International Energy Agency (IEA), formed in the 1970s to act as an energy watchdog for western nations, stated in its 2008 World Energy Outlook:

“Current global trends in energy supply and consumption are patently unsustainable . . .The future of human prosperity depends on how successfully we tackle the two central energy challenges facing us today: securing the supply of reliable and affordable energy; and effecting a rapid transformation to a low-carbon, efficient and environmentally benign system of energy supply.”

This is a call to action of the most urgent kind and we dare not ignore it.

United States oil production peaked in 1970 and has declined ever since, apart from a small and short uptick in the late 1970s, and oil imports have increased steadily. We now produce half of what we produced at our peak and import about 60 percent of our oil.

What is the global situation? The United Kingdom struck oil in the North Sea in the 1970s and became a major world producer. But oil production peaked without warning in 1999 and the U.K. suddenly transformed from an oil exporter into an oil importer just seven years later. U.K. North Sea oil production is now down almost 50 percent from its peak.

The same pattern occurred in Indonesia, formerly a member of OPEC. Norway, Russia and the majority of other oil producers also are past their peak. This is why the IEA regards the situation as so dire: existing oil fields are declining very quickly and new oil fields are not coming online quickly enough to replace them. The IEA concludes that we need three or four additional Saudi Arabias to meet projected demand by 2015.

Cambridge Energy Research Associates, a respected oil forecasting firm that has been very skeptical of the peak oil discussion, also recently forecast that oil projects worth 8 million barrels per day have been canceled or delayed since the global recession hit, exacerbating the mid-term situation further.

Oil production is not the only issue, however. Natural gas production will follow a similar production decline, probably just a few years behind oil. Natural gas currently constitutes about one-quarter of the world’s energy consumption, so this cannot be forgotten in the discussion.

As we’ve seen with food exports such as rice, when fears grow over the domestic availability of key resources (like food, oil or gas), nations will change export policies overnight. Last year, Thailand, the world’s second largest exporter of rice, temporarily outlawed rice exports.

The same thing could very well happen in oil- and gas-exporting nations. As soon as the global economy recovers and the supply shortage becomes clear, major exporters can simply forbid exports, keeping their precious oil and gas for their own use.

Similarly, some countries’ oil and gas exports are already declining quickly. Mexico, while struggling with a major drug war, saw its oil exports plummet more than 20 percent in 2008 due to the decline by 33 percent in just one year of its major field, Cantarell. Mexico is the third largest supplier of oil to the U.S.

Mexico’s oil revenue has fallen off a cliff as its oil exports and oil prices more generally have plummeted; 40 percent of Mexico’s government funding is oil revenue. Clearly, Mexico is facing a formidable future and may not survive as a functioning nation, a conclusion also reached by the U.S. military’s Joint Forces Command in a 2008 report.

The time is now to invest heavily in alternatives to oil and gas, such as energy efficiency, conservation, renewable energy and more efficient transportation. Our own dream is a sustainable energy future powered predominately by solar and wind energy, backed up with energy storage and baseload geothermal, biomass and hydro power.

Much is happening in these areas already, and this is hopeful: the Obama administration has budgeted billions of dollars for these efforts and has made energy reform one of its three top priorities. Individuals and communities around the world also are springing into action through various initiatives.

But much more needs to be done. As the IEA concludes: “What is needed is nothing short of an energy revolution.”

Walter Kohn is research professor of physics and chemistry at UCSB and a Nobel Laureate in chemistry . Tam Hunt is a private consultant and a lecturer in renewable energy law and policy at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at UCSB.

“Failing to Notice” the “Peak Brothers?”

*In a Foreword by Stephen Covey for Alex Pattakos, Prisoners of Our Thoughts, Viktor Frankl’s Principals at Work. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2004.

No one’s failed to notice the results on the election.  Undoubtedly, there is new energy and excitement that India will get moving again, and rightly so.  And certainly the ICMCI India community will be busy supporting many companies as they seek to grow domestically and internationally.�
Amidst this excitement, might there be something we’ve “failed to notice?” 

Perhaps we’ve not really notice the “Peak Brothers:” Peak Oil, Peak Phosphates, Peak Lithium and Peak Water?  Back in 1956 M. King Hubbert, a geologist for Shell, computed the availability of petroleum resources in the US and came to the conclusion that have of these would be used up by the early 1970s.  He was on target, as the US resources peaked in 1972.  Next he applied his model to the world and in 1976 showed this graphic:

Look carefully at this graphic.  King says if we go back 5 thousand years and ahead 5 thousand years, the “Washington monument like spike shows the episode of our discovery and use of petroleum projects.”  He added, “This is the most disturbing thing in human history!”   

Do we know this or have we “failed to notice?” 

In a similar way, if we put “Peak Phosphates” into Google, we’ll find that this resource is about to peak just at a time when we need more fertilizers to feed another billion people coming in the next 14 years.�
Likewise, try “Peak Lithium” and we’ll find that the key ingredient for electric cars is more limited than we might have though.  And yes, there’s still a lot of water, but only about 1% is readily accessible, so “Peak Water” is a growingly troublesome challenge.  Certainly, as the glaciers on the Himalayas melt, one of India’s key rivers will be profoundly impacted.

Might the ICMCI Delhi “notice” the pending impact of these “Four Peak Brothers” and begin to help your clients prepare for the challenging times ahead?  After all, with wise judgment, we might be able to live on this planet for the next 800 million years.   But certainly not if we don’t “notice” these four challenges!
Dr. Charles M. Savage, Munich, 2009

If you like to review some more infomration on the topic of the “Peak Brothers”, you might want to start by spending 10 more minutes with this video:

Axel Meierhoefer

CRUCIAL LEADERSHIP WISDOM COURSE

Lesson 1

A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up her shower, when the doorbell rings.

The wife quickly wraps herself in a towel and runs downstairs.

When she opens the door, there stands Bob, the next-door neighbour.

Before she says a word, Bob says, ‘I’ll give you $800 to drop that towel.’

After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her towel and stands naked in front of Bob, after a few seconds, Bob hands her $800 and leaves.

The woman wraps back up in the towel and goes back upstairs.

When she gets to the bathroom, her husband asks, ‘Who was that?’

‘It was Bob the next door neighbour,’ she replies.

‘Great,’ the husband says, ‘did he say anything about the $800 he owes me?’

Moral of the story

If you share critical information pertaining to credit and risk with your shareholders in time, you may be in a position to prevent avoidable exposure.

——————————————————————————–

Lesson 2

A priest offered a Nun a lift.

She got in and crossed her legs, forcing her gown to reveal a leg.

The priest nearly had an accident.

After controlling the car, he stealthily slid his hand up her leg.

The nun said, ‘Father, remember Psalm 129?’

The priest removed his hand. But, changing gears, he let his hand slide up her leg again.

The nun once again said, ‘Father, remember Psalm 129?’

The priest apologized ‘Sorry sister but the flesh is weak.’

Arriving at the convent, the nun sighed heavily and went on her way.

On his arrival at the church, the priest rushed to look up Psalm 129. It said, ‘Go forth and seek, further up, you will find glory.’

Moral of the story

If you are not well informed in your job, you might miss a great opportunity.

——————————————————————————–

Lesson 3

A sales rep, an administration clerk, and the manager are walking to lunch when they find an antique oil lamp.
They rub it and a Genie comes out.

The Genie says, ‘I’ll give each of you just one wish.’

‘Me first! Me first!’ says the admin clerk. ‘I want to be in the Bahamas , driving a speedboat, without a care in the world.’

Puff! She’s gone.

‘Me next! Me next!’ says the sales rep. ‘I want to be in Hawaii , relaxing on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of Pina Coladas and the love of my life.’

Puff! He’s gone.

‘OK, you’re up,’ the Genie says to the manager.
The manager says, ‘I want those two back in the office after lunch.’

Moral of the story

Always let your boss have the first say.

——————————————————————————–
Lesson 4

An eagle was sitting on a tree resting, doing nothing.

A small rabbit saw the eagle and asked him, ‘Can I also sit like you and do nothing?’

The eagle answered: ‘Sure, why not.’

So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the eagle and rested. All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it.

Moral of the story

To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.
——————————————————————————–

Lesson 5

A turkey was chatting with a bull.

‘I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree’ sighed the turkey, ‘but I haven’t got the energy.’

‘Well, why don’t you nibble on some of my droppings?’ replied the bull. They’re packed with nutrients.’

The turkey pecked at a lump of dung, and found it actually gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree.

The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch..

Finally after a fourth night, the turkey was proudly perched at the top of the tree.

He was promptly spotted by a farmer, who shot him out of the tree.

Moral of the story

Bull Shit might get you to the top, but it won’t keep you there.

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Lesson 6

A little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold the bird froze and fell to the ground into a large field.

While he was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on him.

As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, he began to realize how warm he was.

The dung was actually thawing him out!

He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy.

A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate.

Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung, and promptly dug him out and ate him.

Morals of the story

(1) Not everyone who shits on you is your enemy.

(2) Not everyone who gets you out of shit is your friend.

(3) And when you’re in deep shit, it’s best to keep your mouth shut!

THUS ENDS THE QUICK MANAGEMENT COURSE

I hope you enjoy your long weekend and take time to reflect on the important new wisdoms you gained from this crucial course.

It starts with the place we spend a considerable amount of time each day, assuming we are lucky enough to still have a job. Creating an office or a workplace that is not just functional but green is a challenge for most people. Here are a few ways that you can start to help your company/business to switch to green.

Steps to start switching green:

• Have an Eco-friendly office space- I know how much you are longing to have the best set of furniture for your office, but you don’t have to worry. There are a number of furniture companies in the market right now that can provide you with a wide variety of exquisite furniture using recycled materials. There is definitely no harm in trying.

• Avoid the use of lead in your office- Go natural! You don’t need to paint furniture’s and offices with those lead containing materials, because aside from destroying the environment, it will also harm your health as well. If you want to decorate your office you can go for pictures and added ornaments that are eco-friendly as well.

• Switch to using eco-friendly office materials- Nowadays mouse pads, clipboards, binders are now made of recycled materials. These materials are now made of old computer motherboards and circuits. Though they may be a little bit pricey, but always bear in mind that being eco-friendly can definitely help and that is beyond price.

• Switch used papers into new and reusable ones- a lot of companies are very guilty of using too much paper, offices and hospitals for example use to much paper even for just a few scratches. It may seem a bit expensive to hire a recycling company. But this would be a good option, you can ask them to collect all the used paper that you have and recycle them, this way it would be cheaper and you are also saving the environment.

• Switch to refillable inks- computer inks are like water for a growing company, so it would be best to use those refillable inks. This way you do not use up much of those plastics that are used when you buy the brand new ink cartilages. You can also save much because it will then be cheaper and at the same time you’re saving the environment.

With the “Switch to Green”- program, which more companies are now taking part in, it won’t be long till we will be able to change the fate of our depleting ozone layer or the unpredictable weather caused by global warming.

So if you would want to be certain that we all have a realistic chance to survive this global challenge and save our Mother Earth, not just for us; but for our children; - then take the steps I have listed for you, and begin your own Switch to Green.

Many organizations worldwide, including fortune 500, turn to AMA as their trusted partner in professional development and draw upon its experience to enhance skills, abilities and knowledge with noticeable results from day one.

Their mission: to train companies that has never been more critical for advancing careers and achieving organizational success. These ongoing learning’s will enable managers to continuously enhance their professional and personal development and increase their value to their organizations.

AMA has consolidated the five closely related national associations (1973) which are all dedicated to management education into one organization. With this the regents of the University of the State of New York granted recognition to AMA as an educational institution.

They provide managers and their organizations worldwide with the knowledge, skills and tools they need to improve business performance. They also help to adapt to changing workplaces and how to prosper in a complex and competitive business world. AMA also serves as a forum for exchange of the latest information, ideas and insights on management practices and business trends. It disseminates content and information to a worldwide audience through multiple distribution channels and its strategic partners.

Their approach is in improving performance and combining experiential learning with opportunities for ongoing professional growth at every step of one’s career journey. AMA also supports the goal of individuals and organizations through a complete range of products and services which includes seminars. They also have Podcast, conferences, corporate and government solutions and webcast as well.

A webcast (http://www.amanet.org/editorial/webcast/2008/green-leadership.htm#)

has been out in the internet wherein it explores how smart companies are using environmental strategies to innovate, create value and build competitive advantage (American Management Association). In the webcast you will learn about how environmental pressures such as climate change and powerful stakeholder are being driving companies to this go green program. It also describes the strategies and tools the world’s best companies use to innovate and profit in this new environmentally sensitive world.

Still in the article found in the American Management Association, the webcast provides a clear perspective on the AMA’s top 12 most commonly used sustainability-related practices and at the same time illuminate the hurdles that companies face when trying to go green and the reasons why some environmental initiatives fail.

            Andrew Winston, founder of Winston Eco-strategies, along with several leading companies, has worked to encourage companies to use environmental thinking to drive growth. Mr. Winston is a highly recognized expert and highly sough-after speaker on green business. He has consulted with start-ups and fortune 500 companies such as Band of America, Cisco, and IKEA. He is the coauthor of the bestseller, GREEN TO GOLD, which highlights what works and what doesn’t, and Andrew has appeared in the wall street journal, Time, Business Week, Forbes, The New York Times, ABC News and CNBC.

He bases his works on significant in-company business experience, including executive positions and P & L responsibility at global companies, start-ups and dot-coms. Another presenter in the webcast is the president of Jeane Wirtenberg & Associates, LLC, which is a consulting firm specializing in building suitable enterprises through leadership, culture change, collaborations and learning. Jeanne Wirtenberg, Ph.D., is the cofounder and director, external relations and services of the institute fir sustainable enterprise at Fairleight Dickinson University which brings people together to learn how to develop and lead thriving, sustainable enterprises that are “in and for the world”.

Aside from webcasting, AMA has also tried to enhance the leadership skills and develop them to voice out so that they may inspire, influence and achieve results at the same time through a seminar. In this seminar, they have reiterated that leadership goes hand in hand with success. The effective application of skill is particularly essential in an uncertain economy when painful business decisions are made daily.

The seminar is uniquely designed to strengthen your leadership communication skills, you’ll learn practical techniques to shape your leadership messages hone an authentic leadership voice and engage yourself in powerful conversations to achieve results. Aside from the above mentioned benefits if the seminar, you will also improve on your leadership communication skills, be able to build greater buy-in, trust and loyalty as well as demonstrate grace under pressure and defuse tension. You will also have the ability to overcome resistance to change, motivate followers and inspire them to take action and rally support in difficult situations.

AMA’s Green Leadership seminar will help you in implementing and sustaining strategies. You will be able to integrate green and socially responsible practices to leverage short and long term performances. Understanding the current global trends that affect your business, identifying stakeholders and engaging them in the sustainability planning process is a breeze when you have gone through AMA’s seminar. And lastly, you will learn to measure performance results related to your sustainability initiatives.

Those who are asked to attend are mostly those experienced leaders, directors, change agents and influencers as well. In this seminar it will cover understanding the global context, mindset and consciousness; discovering your sustainability directions and analyzing, aligning and applying sustainability strategies is also covered in the seminar. They also cover implementing measurements and metrics systems for sustainability.

            AMA hopes to achieve a world that would gear to a more eco-friendly environment, and companies that would take into consideration the idea of using more environmentally friendly programs. It is a great source for anybody interested in the future of green leadership and how to change a company form traditional approach towards a sustainable business model that is in tune with the environmental needs of the future.

In the lean and green leadership era, initiatives seek to increase and enhance executive discussion and awareness around the ways IT organizations can reduce energy drain and impact business gain by consolidating storage systems, embracing efficient computing practice, and introducing power-saving techniques. In this program leaders will examine ways to address the accelerating energy demands and rampant waste of data center power, along with methods to increase IT yield and data productivity.

A press release dated April 16. 2008 stated that the new BPM forum study finds that IT curbing has failed to curb data center energy consumption despite the increasing number of those concerned. Despite the stated concerns and priorities for making data center operations more environmentally friendly, still only a few organizations have any specific plans in place. Most IT managers give their operations failing grades in reducing energy consumption. Data center energy consumption continues to rise due to rising energy costs amid increasing environmental concern over global warming. Nearly half of IT managers surveyed say that their organizations have run out of energy resources in the past.

BlueArc is a leading network storage company focused on high performance and scalability, and on making environmentally responsible computing both possible and cost-effective.  The company also has the ability to drive server consolidation in reducing complexity, lowering the total cost of ownership and cutting power and cooling expenses at the same time. They have helped companies expand ways to explore, discover, research, create, process and innovate in data-intensive environments. Replacing complex and cost-inefficient and power-hungry products with high performance and environmentally beneficial scalable and easy to use systems is one field that BlueArc has been involved in.

BlueArc has conducted a study assessing issues and opportunities presented by green computing and ways to address accelerating energy and performance demands and perceived waste in the data center. The findings reflect responses from more then 150 IT professionals in an online survey completed February of 2008. The study revealed the following:

• Three-quarters of respondents gave their organization a C grade and found them to be worse in their ability to control IT energy consumption.
• There were no specific plans in place for the data center for almost two-thirds of the respondents.
• About 20 percent of those polled spend more than a million dollars annually on IT energy consumption and 8 percent spend more than 10 million.
• Another 20 percent of respondents set goals of 5 percent energy reduction or less and almost two-third had set goals of 25 percent reduction or less.
• Last year, almost half of those spoiled IT energy consumption increased in their organization and even in their cost of energy.
• And finally, forty-six percent of respondents reported that they had run out of space, power and capacity.

The study gave an overall result which pointed to a gap between what IT leadership knows, what it needs to do, and what it has accomplished to date in terms of environmental responsibility. (Derek Kober, Director of BPM forum). Derek also said that in polling the marketplace and talking with industry leaders, they have heard that there are opportunities for those who deliver on the environmental promise to also save substantial cost and drive revenue opportunities through more efficient and enhanced data performance practices.

The BPM, better known as the Business Performance Management Forum, is a new management mantra that is aimed at bringing business gain to the value chain through enhanced trading partner visibility, flexibility and new levels of verifiable sustainability which applies across the entire demand and supply ecosystem of global corporations.

 Its current programs have been unifying, focusing and controlling complexes which are globally distributed and highly synchronized value networks in turbulent, unpredictable times. They also require real-time operational insights down to the product level, accurate sourcing and sell-through intelligence, and relentless dedication to eliminating waste and realizing new efficiencies in all areas of the go-to-market process.

At the same time these programs have followed the economic, social and regulatory dynamics and are putting real pressure on global companies to be both “lean and green” in their product sourcing, logistics, transportation, distribution and operational practices as well.

Now that there is a growing number of organizations and programs such as the ‘lean and green initiative’ and BlueArc, people have high hopes that these newly formed programs will inspire other individuals and companies to follow in their footsteps. They are role models in environmental preservation.

For anybody interested to find out about some other aspects of this topic, feel free to review a recent article at http://tinyurl.com/dfurmc

We only have one earth, one environment and one world, and if we all work to save, conserve, and use environmentally friendly programs and processes, our children and future generations will have a more sustainable environment than what we are creating if we don’t act in a conscious “Green-Leadership” approach.

I invite everybody using computers, working with data centers and computing-intensive fields to join the movement and become eco-conscious pioneers, so that we can leave the world a better place without loosing any of the comforts and benefits of modern technology.

Axel Meierhoefer & Marie Saycon