Daily Archives: October 24, 2008

Introducing Greenedge Ethical

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Land is the basis of wealth, change, prosperity and environmental impact. Land is also the basis of connection for humans as it provides a home.

Building a home is fundamental to human existence. More importantly, living in a good community is critical to a satisfied life.

We know that construction is not eco friendly and a home or a house is a highly resource intensive activity in terms of energy, water, waste, land degradation etc.

How do we get both of these things together in a sustainable way.

Greenedge Ethical believes that it has found a way to do this. Starting with their pilot eco-village called Somerville they have now working towards a replicable model of eco-village where the the community is self sufficient in energy, water and manages its waste a sustainable way.

Greenedge is a Perth, Australia based company which will be raising $12m in a IPO closing November 12th on the Australian Stock Exchange. It will use this to create a market for eco villages, targeting the right customers and helping them build their homes in a sustainable community.

They are in a way property developers who have a ecological model of development. More importantly for me they make this happen with a business model in hand.

I talked to Alex Hyndman from Greenedge and he mentioned an interesting model where they license their model and knowledge with any interested property developer and helping them build an eco community.

I think these guys have a great opportunity to be successful here. If they can figure out a way to create their eco-villages faster, sustainable and at a reasonable cost to normal development model then they have a winning combination.

The 100,000 Hits

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In the next week I will be hitting the 100,000 hits mark for this version of World is Green. What does this mean?

In can be a small number for many of the bigger blogs but for me it is a good feeling. However, I have never actually worked for a number or statistics.

More importantly, what has been the purpose of this blog and what has been the benefits?

I started this blog to understand the greater world of business and sustainability. The blog has served its purpose and I have had a far better understanding than before.

Has it helped me professionally? No. Why?

I have had a tough time finding jobs in this field. No sustainability consultant would even talk to me. No corporations would discuss their opportunities with me. After applying for 10s of jobs, no interviews. Not a single interview. Its as if nobody in Australia would like to talk to me and discuss my skill sets.

My MBA, my blog, my publications, knowledge and more importantly the diverse experience – nothing made a difference. Why?

I am not sure about it. Sometimes you wonder whether these tools make any difference at all. I wrote today about my experience and success with the Tsunami Help Blog/Wiki. However, in this case it has been a totally different experience.

Do employers actually read blogs in Australia? Do they search for you on google? Do they respect the diverse experience and a masters degree? Does my being an Indian in Australia not helping me?

What is the point of the 100,000 mark?

The Visionary Shai Agassi

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Better Place has come to Australia. After blogging about it yesterday I have been thinking a lot about the vision of Shai Agassi.

Imagine the audacity of his idea. Shai was tipped to take over as the CEO of SAP. That by itself would be a big deal at his age however, what he has set about doing now is unprecedented.

Traditionally you would expect that infrastructure like charging stations, and electric cars by car companies gain traction slowly and over a period of time it would settle down. Many different companies will participate in the process and some would fail. New technologies would be created, new models tried and after several business models have failed the entire industry settles on one or two models.

Shai is trying to turn things around. He has raised $200 million to start this project. He has devised a business model based on the highly successful mobile phone model where the cars will be provided at a subsidized low cost or even free and customers subscribe to use “miles” rather than minutes.

He is convincing entire countries to take up his idea. His home country of Israel was the first and then Denmark. And the third in my backyard of Australia. Australia has very few ventures of this kind and innovative capability happening. This can make a huge difference to the psyche of entrepreneurs here.

One person with a vision and belief in himself is going around changing the face of transportation. I respect Shai for his audacity of vision and his ability to take it forward.

You only need a few unreasonable people to create change and Shai is one of them.

How can I be part of this?

What’s happening with Adelaide Green Drinks?

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It’s been 4 months since I launched Adelaide Green Drinks. In those 4 months our attendance went from 20+ to 3!

Nothing to brag about. I am trying to understand what’s happening here. Why is it not picking up in Adelaide. Is it me? Is it the city? Is it marketing?

I thought it can grow organically through word of mouth. A slow build up but a sure one. We have a slow build down to death!

Now the SBpractices guys are starting Adelaide Sustainability Drinks in November here. It will be interesting to see how they fare. My guess is it will do good.

I think people in Adelaide will respond to a professional organization trying to do this. Why come to a meetup organised by a guy called “Suhit” and who works in a government department and is young! Cannot be true.

Well, that is my analysis and I could be wrong. Time will tell.

Remembering Tsunami Help Blog/Wiki

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Irene Wu is the Yahoo! Fellow in Residence, supported by Georgetown’s Yahoo! International Values, Communications, Technology, and Global Internet Fellowship Fund.

She called today from Washington to interview me about my role in Tsunami Help Blog and Wiki. It was great speaking to her and I would like to thank her for helping me remember some of the best days of my life.

In December 2004, I was in Hyderabad at my parents place. I resigned from my job in Deeshaa and was waiting for the student visa for Australia. Dina Mehta contacted me about the Tsunami Help Blog.

Sitting in Hyderabad, having no disaster recovery experience and no way to contribute to the Tsunami hit places in India or otherwise, I had this unique opportunity to contribute.

The Blog and Wiki became very famous in a short while all due to the speed of information. The blog played a critical role in collating and updating information.

We decided to start a Wiki to provide static information like donor places, emergency contact numbers, hospital information, etc.

That experience made me realise the power of the human spirit and the capability of the Internet and these new tools to create change. From then my life has not been the same.

I continue to believe in the power of the human spirit, the need for people to come together for a social cause, and the power of technology to make this happen.

That experience has changed my life and it has never been the same. Thinking about it, I yearn to be part of social causes which I can contribute.

Blogging, Twitter, Diigo, Wikis, Instant Messengers, Skype, and all the other wonderful tools are right out there for us to exploit their power.