"You must be the change you
want to see in the world."
The quotation above, attributed to activist and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi, is incorporated into the mission, vision, and principles of Global Green Labs, "GGL".
There are several reasons why it would be useful to have a lab, as quickly as possible, at every interested institution in the world:
- the pool of interested, skilled or expert students, alumni, faculty, and others becomes larger, meaning that a worthwhile green idea can be developed quicker;
- each lab, deriving profit from its successful ideas, contributes to funds which help establish more labs and help existing labs;
- a key part of GGL, market presence and penetration, is facilitated through the network of laboratories, as each laboratory's proximity to an institution will facilitate the recruitment of students, alumni, faculty, and others with a business or marketing background; people with a business or marketing background are essential to GGL;
- a community is, arguably, better served by an institution in proximity, as the institution would better understand the culture within which success could be had; hence, to reach tens of thousands of communities around the world, hundreds, if not thousands, of labs would be desirable;
- the more people developing, debuting, and operating green ideas, the quicker the desired greening of the globe would transpire; also, more people would become stakeholders in the green economy, presumably accompanied with a distribution of wealth to more people.
To establish a lab, there should be a committed group of at least six students and alumni from an institution. They could represent themselves as the lab's founders or administrative staff, subject to acceptance of the lab by GGL.
Having a committed member of the faculty might help in gaining acceptance from administrative offices and faculty departments, although the group of students and alumni should not delay if there is no faculty member presently interested.
The group would subscribe to the mission, vision, principles, and best practices of GGL, as well as other policies stated at this Web site. If the group thought that anything should be modified in order to have a more effective lab, the group would be welcome to suggest to GGL.
When the group were ready, it would contact GGL and there would be an exchange of e-mail and telephone calls. GGL's priorities would be to ascertain that the group
- would be permitted to operate at the institution, even if not officially part of the institution;
- would have a sustainable plan to recruit, solicit ideas, administer the lab, and demonstrate its commitment to the mission, vision, principles, best practices, and policies of GGL;
- would have a plan for continuity, meaning that the lab would continue smoothly if anybody on the administrative staff chose to dissociate or could no longer participate.
Why Establish
A Lab Quickly?
Abstract by UN Wire, 05.02.2009:
Chu warns on California climate U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu is warning that California faces a fantastical threat that could wipe out all the state's agriculture by the end of the century. Scientists have predicted that rising temperatures could cause up to 90% of the Sierra Nevada snowpack, which provides water for most of the state's farms, to melt. Read the article in the Christian Science Monitor.
From the Cleantech.org newsletter of 01.2009:
In spite of the economic uncertainties that the world is facing today, preparations are underway for the post-Kyoto regime. Karla Bell, our esteemed colleague, at GHG blog says:
"Remember the target for Kyoto was only -5%, a first step, now the U.S is talking about an 80% reduction in GHG emissions, so all sectors must be included. The Pew centre estimates of global emissions by sector are as follows Agriculture 14%, Transport 13%, Energy Efficiency is the solution to energy supply and commercial and residential building combined to be 34%. The Grand total is 61%.""And this means clean energy and technologies will play vital roles in our future economy. As the economic crisis has put limits on investments, we at CleanTech are here for promote new ways of financing these solutions." From the e-newsletter of Worldwatch Institute, 29.01.2009: The first international [agency] devoted solely to spreading clean energy around the globe was launched this week in Germany. The aim of IRENA is to address obstacles to the development of renewables in both industrialized and developing nations. "The market is still distorted by subsidies for conventional energies, technological know-how is inadequate, [and] information is not always correct," said Sigmar Gabriel, the German federal environment minister, in the conference's opening address.
Also, see Alboher, Marci, "A Social Solution, without Going the Nonprofit Route", New York Times, 04.03.2009.