Category Archives: Green People

Are you a Green Collar worker?

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According to an article by New Civil Engineer’s Alexandra Wynne, research by engineering and environmental consultant Royal Haskoning suggests that Government pressure to be green has led to huge increases in demand for ‘green collar’ workers – a term used to describe environmental-related roles.

“Over one third of businesses said their green workforce would need to increase by up to 10% and almost the same proportion said they were concerned about their firms’ ability to fill these roles.”

According to Royal Haskoning’s research, conducted by ICM last month (see news release), one in five (19%) of the 575 business leaders surveyed already employ someone with ‘green collar’ responsibilities. Of those not currently employing ‘green collar’ workers, 24% believed their company would soon make use of ‘green collar’ skills, services and products, with nearly a third (28%) hoping to do so in the next six to 12 months.

SaaStainability: Got a ‘Green collar’? You’re in demand.

Sam Wells and Just Peachy

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Today I met with Sam Wells. Sam is the MBA Director at the Adelaide Uni and teaches the Sustainability course for MBA students.

A couple of my friends have completed his course and their reviews have been brilliant. It would have been great if I had a similar chance when I did my MBA.

Sam is a very approachable person with a down-to-earth attitude with a great passion for Sustainability and Base of the Pyramid ideas. John O’brien acted as the conduit to help me meet up with Sam.

He gave a long and detailed insight into one his pet projects, Just Peachy which is built on the ideas of creating capital (human, economics, social and environmental)  or what he calls common-wealth through collaboration, community and capitalism principles.

I will write about Just Peachy more in the future.

Interestingly, he is the brother of Geoff Wells, a sustainability lecturer at UniSA and a good friend of mine. The world is a small place, especially in Adelaide!

Australian Founders at Work

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I have now started compiling these published interviews in a Book under the Title – Australian Founders At Work. This idea of Book was suggested by none other then Duncan Riley when I caught up with him and Ben Barren. My sincere thanks to Duncan for suggesting this excellent idea.

I must admit this will be my first attempt on writing a book in a non-technical area. I have published quite a few articles online and 1-2 famous technical tutorials, but nothing like this. Writing this is little bit easy :-) as most of the content (99%) is created by others (people whom I have interviewed). My sincere thanks to all who contributed in this, sometimes a painful process. I intend to find a publisher for this, but if I’m not successful, I will just use the power of web – i.e; Lulu.com.

VS Consulting Group – Following Aussie Startups and Tech Trends: Story of Australian Founders At Work.

One of the main principles behind this blog is entreprenuership and the power of business.

A good friend of mine, Vishal Sharma from Melbourne, Australia has been following start-ups for many years now. He is now taking his interest, rich source of information from 70+ interviews with founders to create a Australian Founders @ Work book.

I wish Vishal all the best in this endeavour. Australia need more examples of local success stories to inspire and educate the next generation of entrepreneurs and people like Vishal will play a key role in this.

Vishal, I will be the first to buy this book when it comes out.

The World is Green Interview – Sreenivas Ghatty

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Over the past year or so I have been covering the green industry to understand it better. Over the course, it became apparent that the biggest stories are about the people behind these initiatives.

In the course of being in this industry and writing on the blog I have come across some interesting people who are trying to make it big in this industry in their own way. In order to tell their story, I have decided to conduct an interview with them. The idea is to understand the stories at a more personal and knowledgable level.

I have no specific publishing schedule, but would try to do about 3 interviews a month.

Our guest today is Sreenivas Ghatty. Sreenivas is the founder and CEO of Tree Oils India. With all the interest in Biofuels Sreenivas believes that there is a great future for using them as an alternate fuel of choice.

Thank you Sreenivas for agreeing to this interview. Can you please tell our readers about yourself?
Thank you for giving me this opportunity. I have a Masters in Agriculture and was a corporate banker in India and Dubai for 18 years until I entered the Biodiesel industry in 2003. I live in Melbourne with my wife and two daughters and keep travelling to India and other countries regularly.What is your company about?

Tree Oils India Limited was established in 2003 to produce Biodiesel from non-edible oils. Please visit our web site (www.treeoilsindia.com) to learn more about this company. Bear with me if some of the information is obsolete as the contents have not been updated during the last five years. As non-edible feedstocks were not available in sufficient quantities and at reasonable pricen at the time, we started with plantation activity. As there were no tested varities of these tree species and knowledge of agronomy was limited, we started an R&D farm to begin with. So, as of now, we are a technical-know-how company, trying to develop non-edible oil-bearing trees such as Pongamia, Jatropha etc.

Why BioFuels?
With peak oil approaching faster, alternative energy sources need to be developed. Biofuels are the cheapest and the most sustainable alternative and they can be produced and consumed locally by many people in small quantities. Alongside, there are also benefits to economy and environment.
What has been your personal experience in this area?
I have been involved in this activity for more than five years. The industry is nascent, the technology is evolving and there are issues in pricing, incetives, feedstocks and marketing. If one has right perspective, is flexible and has holding capacity, the long term prospects are good. My personal experience has been the transformation from a prospective Biodiesel producer to a Biodiesel plantation technical know-how consultant. I hope to realise my dream of producing Biodiesel in the near future.
What are the current projects in Australia, India and rest of the world?
Biodiesel manufacturing units are being established all over the world, including Australia and India. Some of them are being closed mainly due to high cost of feedstocks. Biodiesel plantations with species like Jatropha and Pongamia are being establsihed by the present and future Biodiesel Manufacturing and Feedstock Management companies on their own and through contract farming. All these projects are still in their initial stages. It may take another five years for sizeable commercial plantations to appear on the horizon thus increasing supply of feedstock and reducing the price thereon.
What are the types of bio fuels and what are you concentrating on? What is the process of making Biodiesel?
Biofuels are predominantly Ethanol (blended with Petrol) and Biodiesel (blended with Diesel.) My focus has been on Biodiesel. The process of making Biodiesel is evolving and there are new developments in the process as well as the technology. Predominantly, it is the transesterification of fatty acids with methanol in the presence of a catalyst to produce methyl ester (Biodiesel) and glycerol.
What are the major sources (feed stocks) for creating biodiesel?
The existing sources are palm, canola, soybean and coconut oils, used cooking oil and tallow, along with the sources that are being developed are non-edible oils from trees such as Jatropha, Pongamia, Moringa etc. Also, a decent amount of work is being done on Algae.
A brief look at the economics of biofuels.
Economic production of Biodiesel with the existing feedstocks is not possible without tax incentives, subsidies by the government and carbon credits. This activity can be independently viable only after the feedstock prices substantially come down and the crude oil price remains above USD100 per barrel.

What could be the price of fuel using these feed stocks?
Under the circumstances, it cannot be less than $2 per litre.
What are the challenges facing you in starting something in Australia?
The risk appetite of investors is low and government support is meagre. To put it simply, we are yet get out of investing in suburban properties supported by negative gearing in this country. However, with the signing of the Kyoto Protocol, there could be several positive developments.
What are the areas where we can concentrate these plantations in?
The marginal areas other than forests with lower rainfall and poor soils could be used so that there is no competition with agriculture and food production. Such areas are available in all the states.
Why are the top biofuels companies in Australia not doing well?
 They are suffering from higher cost of feedstocks coupled with the lack of support from oil companies and inadequate incentives on the government’s part.
Bio fuels has been suggested to have increase the cost of food around the world. There are other issues regarding forest clearing in South East Asia. Will your solution work against the food stocks and the rise in prices of food?
My approach of using non-edible oils produced by hard trees that are grown in non-agricultural non-forest lands offers a solution to the issues related to competition with food production and deforestation.
There have been reports in the last few months on the life cycle emissions of bio fuels. What is your opinion on that and how does it compare with fossil fuels?
There have been subsequent reports that have established that the life-cycle emissions of biofuels are less than those of fossil fuels. However, if feedstocks from perrenial trees are used, the life-cycle emissions are definitely low.
Lets take an example to make it easier to understand. How can we start a viable bio diesel plant in South Australia? For example, what are the areas for plantation? What kind of expertise is required? The gestation periods?
In the northern parts of South Australia, farmers can form a co-operative society that would set up a small plant to produce biodiesel to meet their requirements. If each farmer plants oil-bearing trees in about 20% of their holding, that would take care of the feedstock requirements of the plant. These plants would also provide supplementary income to the farmers, especially during times of drought. Depending upon the species, the gestation period could vary – between 6 and 10 years.
What are the funding options available? If farmers can grow these areas North of the Goyder line, wouldn’t this provide a new potential similar to the wheat boom in the Flinder Ranges in the 19th century?
The funding for such ventures could come from farmers’ equity, grants by the government, investment by superannuation funds, and loans from banks.
   
Is Community based funding a good model to look at?
Community based funding is not only desirable, but also sustainable.
If an investor is ready, what is the ROI that you can guarantee and what is the project life?
In the absence of tested data, it would be difficult to guarantee returns. However, the ROI on such projects is estimated to be between 20 – 35% over a period of 30 years.
Where do you see this going in the medium term?
The existing problems would continue for a few more years, but the industry would stabilize in the next 5 years.
What are the challenges you have faced till now?
Till now, I have faced two challenges – procurement of land and funding.
If our readers want more information regarding this, what are the avenues available? How can you be contacted?
Interested readers can Google Biodiesel, Pongamia and Jatropha. However, most of the information available on the internet is hypothetical and unreliable. I can be contacted at gs@treeoilsindia.com.

Rajesh Jain on Turning 40

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Few people have influenced me like Atanu Dey and Rajesh Jain when I worked with them at Deeshaa Ventures. I consider the 1+ year that I have spent with them as  a “black swan” moment.

According to the Wikipedia:

In Nassim Nicholas Taleb‘s definition, a black swan is a large-impact, hard-to-predict, and rare event beyond the realm of normal expectations.

Rajesh writes in his blog on Turning 40 and his goals for India and Atanu’s influence on him. An inspiring read.

Three Goals

Here are three things I’d like to do in the rest of my life and which will require investments of hundreds of millions of dollars. This is not about philanthropy, but about building the right systems and foundation – in a sort-of self-generating way. Ideally, the Indian government should have been the enabler – but I don’t see that happening with the politicians we have. Indian business has started taking the lead but is not doing this fast enough – and in some cases, is not even doing it right.

First, ensuring access to quality education for hundreds of millions of Indians. Education is a life-enhancer – and nothing comes close. My father was helped by his education to get out of the village he grew up in and created opportunities for himself. How can we do the same for millions in India who are otherwise resigned to a life devoid of opportunity? This is not about trying to build the world’s best school or college, but ensuring that a sustainable and scalable system to provide quality education for everyone in India. For more, read Atanu Dey’s series on Doing Education Right.

Second, we need to build hundreds of new cities to house the hundreds of millions of people who we need to get out from the villages. Our current cities are bursting at the seams. Creating urban slums in not the answer. We need 600 new cities of a million each or 6,000 towns of 100,000 each – or a mix of both. But there is no way we can provide any reasonable future to pockets of 1,000 people living in 600,000 villages. In other words, India cannot afford its villages – and needs to urbanise fast. Else, the demographic dividend will turn out to a big nightmare. Creating these new cities right – in a clean, green, and self-sustainable way – is what I’d like to see us do. For more, read Atanu Dey’s series on Creating India’s New Cities.

Finally, I want to create a Santa Fe-like institution in India. It should be a place where multi-disciplinary thinking is the norm. It should be a magnet for smart people to spend time interacting with the best in different areas so they can forge multiple mental models which can then go out and solve problems right. We go wrong in solutions because we have partial knowledge and so we do not understand the real problem. This leads to what I call brain-dead decisions. An institution like this will ensure that we make the right decisions for the future. It will create a platform for the innovations we will continue to need.

The day after we had sold IndiaWorld for $115 million in November 1999, my wife, Bhavana, told me: “We are custodians of God’s money. If God has given us money at such an early age, there must be something He has in mind for us. We have to utilise this wealth for the greater good.” These are words which have formed the bedrock of my life since then. Till then, I was an entrepreneur trying to prove that I could, even after repeated failures, be successful at least once. Since then, I have come to believe that what good we need to do, we have to do in our present life – while we still have the physical and mental energies.

Apart from his vision, his and Bhavana’s belief that whatever good that needs to be done is now, when they are at their prime of their life is the most inspiring and the right thing to do.

Rural Solar Electrification

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In the current Climate Change talks in Bali, there is a great debate about the role of India and China in cutting down their greenhouse gases. This story provides a good viewpoint of the current problem facing India.

The Mint has an interview with Harish Hande, the founder of SELCO-India and the winner of the 2007 Social Entrepreneur of the Year award in India.

The problem: In a country where we spend thousands of watts of electricity for a day and night cricket match, use the power greedy heater to ward off the winter chill, there lies another India where villages are dimly lit by paraffin lamps and dim lights battling darkening chimneys. For this cash-strapped India an ignited filament powered by current is a rare luxury, for they cannot even afford electricity.

Finding basic electricity is still an issue in India. How do you convince those people that they need to cut down their carbon emissions?

Hande is working towards building solar home systems for poor people in India with technicians on the ground understanding the actual requirements. He is collaborating with banks to provide an affordable way to own these systems.

In terms of economics, Hande has some interesting cost figures.

For example, there are 20 million street vendors in the country. In Delhi, a street vendor pays Rs15-20 everyday for an incandescent light. We do not pay Rs600 a month for a single light, neither do we pay Rs2,400 a month for four lights. That means poor people pay more for energy. It is the same case with Bangalore street vendors who pay Rs15 every evening for a kerosene lamp they use for four hours whereas solar costs Rs5-6, that too for five to six hours. It is a grave reality that the poor end up paying more for energy. Surely, this needs far more serious intervention.

And on the role of government.

In terms of central and state governments, the biggest plus is that they are not interfering. I have seen it in other countries like Dominican Republic where the government suddenly appeared on the scene, subsidized it, and spoiled the whole programme. However, the government can help by replicating our work on a mass scale. For that, we need many similar social enterprises and government policies that can creating caps in financial institutions, in much the same way as they did for agricultural financing 40-50 years ago.

Work and the Greater Good

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Peter Drucker, the famed managament guru of the 20th century, talked a lot about work and its effect on people. Most of the people/workers want to believe that their most valuable time and effort is worth something in the end.

From Ed B in a LinkedIn Answer:

Workers who feel they are contributing to some greater good and can “sense real progress toward meeting that greater good”, tend to value themselves more highly as workers and tend to perceive fewer barriers to getting the work done.

This feeling brings about satisfaction and leads to what Drucker called “work as achieving”.

While working in Deeshaa I had that distinct feeling that there was a great satisfaction in what I was doing. The entire exercise in sacrificing our personal money, time and effort to live in a city like Mumbai, commute for 3+hrs a day to achieve an almost impossible dream was well worth it.

A lot of young people I interacted during that time were trying to find some ”meaningful” work. I did not have any answers then and nor do I have any now. What I did learn was in the end we all need to follow “a path with a heart”. In someways, I am still trying to recreate that magic.

One example of that is the story reported in the BBC about Drs Paul and Claudia Turner.

This time last year, they were both on the senior registrar rung – Paul in microbiology and Claudia in paediatrics – when they began to get itchy feet.

Fast-forward 12 months and that itch has been well and truly scratched.

Today, the couple are living on the Thai-Burmese border, working among a refugee population and on the verge of launching a cutting-edge study into pneumonia, under the auspices of the one of the world’s most prestigious tropical medicine research units.

“We were both disillusioned with the NHS, not just the structure but the users as well, and we wanted to work in an environment where we saw people who really needed medical care,” said Claudia.

“It sounds trite but we wanted to make a difference – and also to have a bit of adventure.”

The Shoklo Malaria Research Unit (SMRU) is located in the small town of Mae Sot, northwest Thailand.
[...]
“It’s unusual to be able to get involved in such fundamentally important research in the West, but in Asia there has been very little work done on many potentially treatable conditions, including childhood pneumonia.”
[...]
“It’s satisfying not only because this work has the potential to impact on a global scale, but because of the difference we’re making locally – the rewards are much more apparent and immediate than in the NHS.

When I left ADP Wilco for Deeshaa I sent a mail to my colleagues about my decision which contained a verse from “Notes to Myself” by Hugh Prather.

Those sentences still make a lot of sense.

I have always believed in the concept of ‘the Compass and the Clock’. The clock helps us to plan, organize time and space, initiate projects and see them through to completion. But the compass shows us the “True North”. The direction in life that we choose to take. And I am starting a new journey which takes me nearer to my “True North”.

“There is a part of me that wants to write
a part that wants to theorize, a part that
wants to sculpt, a part that wants to
reach…To force myself into a single
role, to decide to be just one thing in life,
would kill off large parts of me.

My career will form behind me. All I can
do is let this day come to me in peace. All
I can do is take the step before me now,
and not fear repeating an effort or making
a new one.”

P.N : The verse “There is a part of me…” has been taken from the book ‘Notes to Myself’ by Hugh Prather.

13 Socially Responsible Careers in Finance

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In Green jobs with Growth potential; I wrote that; “Makower has some good advice. It is important to gain a skill and then have a green tinge to it and not get pigeonholed into a environmental division… In that sense, environmental divisions will become redundant. The environmental lens will become part of the other lenses used by executives.”

Now ‘The forex blog has more on how to green (environmental and social aspects) your financial career:

If you’re interested in a financial career, you might be curious about how your interests can lead to reconciliation between your job and your belief system…Social finance means that financial instruments are used to promote social goals. Financial instruments used to accomplish these goals include credit, savings, investments, and loans, among other devices.

[...]

Social finance careers have expanded to the point where you can attend a school in London that focuses solely on social entrepreneurship. Whether your interests lie in a nonprofit or for profit participation in this specialized industry, you might wonder where your opportunities lie. Some social finance positions might include:

Community Investor: The community investor works with other individuals to gather, oversee, and direct capital to community investment opportunities in local or regional areas or abroad.

Micro-Financier:This individual seeks to provide impoverished individuals or communities with the means to invest or borrow money for business or community development.

Nonprofit Sector: The nonprofit sector is also the most diverse when it comes to opportunities. While some individuals are content to volunteer for nonprofit efforts, you can also seek a career as an executive or work as a freelance grant writer or project coordinator.

Social Entrepreneur: Unlike venture capitalists, social entrepreneurs provide innovative solutions to difficult social problems usually without seeking personal profit.

[...]

If you want to incorporate a social angle to your career objective, you will also need to expand your skills and experience through education and work. You can expect to gain the following:

Interdisciplinary Skills:You can also focus on technological, environmental, or leadership facets to social financial careers. Your interdisciplinary needs will depend upon whether you want to focus more on social or financial aspects within this field.

Leadership Opportunities: Social financing is a means to create innovative ways to improve social environments, and this field needs creative leaders who can take the initiative in many situations.

Flexibility: Careers in social financing currently may be definitive or broad and fairly undefined. You many find a way to travel the globe, or you may seek a situation where you’re alone and surrounded by books and archival materials.

Global Knowledge: Even if you end up in a back office surrounded by social financing accounting books, you will learn much about how people live in other communities around the world

Green jobs with growth potential

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Forbes has a collection of possible green jobs which have a future in the coming years.

The greening of industry is creating a constellation of new careers, and they’re not your everyday forestry professions. Many of them are environmental twists on old professions, like law, or in Makower’s case, journalism. Others are engineering careers tied to research in renewable technologies like wind energy and ethanol production. For instance:

– Emissions brokers: In a market economy, credits to emit greenhouse gases can be traded on an exchange, and brokers facilitate the deal. If the U.S. ever moves to a mandatory trading system, expect this field to boom.

– Bio-mimicry engineers: This new branch of science uses Mother Nature as a model for solving engineering problems. For example, Atlanta’s Sto Corp. created a self-cleaning paint that repels dirt whenever it gets wet, just like the lotus leaf does.

– Sustainability coordinators: Corporations from AstraZeneca to Wal-Mart are now employing managers to oversee the economic and environmental components of company efforts.

– Green architects: With an increasing focus on energy-efficient buildings, a growing number of architects and developers are getting certified to become specialists in green design.

Universities–particularly business schools–also see opportunity. Schools such as Stanford, the University of Michigan, the University of North Carolina and the University of Michigan offer joint M.B.A./environmental science masters degrees. Derrick Bolton, director of admissions at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, says many students are taking positions with corporations that have a commitment to the environment.

Makower’s advice to students pursuing a green job is to learn all they can about business. The most exciting things are happening in product design, research and development, manufacturing, and buildings and grounds. “If you go into the environmental part of a company, you become ghettoized,” he says.

The slideshow has more jobs. If you follow the jobs; a pattern emerges. A green job is not a new kind of job except say, a Sustainability Coordinator, but it is more of a twist on the old jobs. A emissions trader is a trader first; a bio-mimicry engineer is a engineer first and so on.

Makower has some good advice. It is important to gain a skill and then have a green tinge to it and not get pigeonholed into a environmental division. If the current trend continues then environmental/sustainability principles will become part of business (like quality standards, customer focus, financial analysis). Good design will have sustainability principles but there cannot be one ‘green designer’. In that sense, environmental divisions will become redundant. The environmental lens will become part of the other lenses used by executives.

Writing this blog post, I realise that I need to rethink of where I am going!