I have not met David Pauling, but we e-mail and speak now and then. He is a seventy-nine year old who just finished a two-year stint as a VISTA (Americorps) team leader in California’s San Joaquin Valley. One would think that somebody who were up in years would be mellow, conservative. Not David. He is ready to lead the revolution to democratize American democracy.

David has written a book, Democracy for Export, in which he talks about the plutocracy (government by the wealthy) which controls America. He offers a solution, namely, that we vote corporate America out of government.

The solution which comes to my mind is different. Let people run their neighborhoods. Let them have authority and budget. Like a “neighborhood council,” of which there are now eighty-nine (!) in Los Angeles City, but with the authority to do things now reserved to city councilors, like immediate access to public documents and the right to interview private applicants for city contracts.

Why is democratizing democracy important, in fact, essential? Because an informed, authorized, engaged population can overcome the logjams which occur in our nation’s capital with regard to social justice, the environment, and other issues. In fact, we have seen this to an extent with regard to environmental initiatives.

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About the Author

Van received his J.D. from UCLA and his B.A. from California State University, Los Angeles. While an attorney by profession, Van is a social entrepreneur by passion. He develops concepts for social ventures and community programs–a delightful challenge–and then looks for collaborating students and faculty–a devilish challenge. Concepts include mass education through online lessons, micro-franchising, the promotion of fuel efficiency, pet care, at-risk teen males, and democratizing American democracy. He is very supportive of youth entrepreneurship, as expressed through Youth Venture, Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship, and Do Something, Van finds a major challenge in the generally irrelevant curriculum-from a community viewpoint-to which millions of high schoolers are subjected throughout the United States.

Here in the United States, we think of a bicycle as a mode of transportation, or perhaps just as a recreational device. As individuals, we get caught up in the use of devices. And yet, bicycles are so much more. The bike itself is a well engineered piece of equipment.

Few people in the US see the bicycle for all the individual components that make it up. But this is exactly where inventors across the world see value. Bikes, which are available in just about every corner of the globe, can be adapted for a variety of uses. Because bikes are available locally, machines made from bicycles in developing countries fall into the category of Appropriate Technology.

One organization based in Guatemala, Mayapedal, has designed several “bicimaquinas,” or “bicycle machines.” These machines, made out of spare parts from bicycles, are hooked up to existing devices including mills, corn degrainers, water pumps and even blenders. These machines make huge impacts on the lives of families across Guatemala. For example, by allowing families to grind their own corn, a mill means they can use the corn they grew to feed their chickens, instead of selling their corn at a low price and purchasing chicken feed at a high price. These machines are great examples of how a family in a developing country can get more value out of their work.

I’ve seen these machines in person, and they are truly amazing works of engineering. Built with little more than a drill press, hack saw, and a spot welder, the limited machining capabilities only demands more elegance in the design. If engineers in the United States tried to design the same machine, it would probably require considerably more complex components, which would need to be specially machined for this device. And yet, in Guatemala Mayapedal produces their bicimaquinas from little more than standard steel stock and old bicycles.

Essentially, organizations like Mayapedal see immense value where we see a broken bicycle. We have so much to learn from organizations like Mayapedal.

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About the Author

Ben Salinas is a member of the fourth graduating class of Olin College of Engineering where he is focusing on Design. He is specifically passionate about how engineering, design, and entrepreneurship can be used to leverage a positive impact on the world. Ben is very interested in Appropriate Technology, International Development, and efforts to make them more culturally sensitive.

Lights out San Francisco was a tremendous success! You can view a few photos of San Francisco during the “lights out” event. Read the original post about this event.

If you missed the opportunity to turn off your lights on 10/20, you can join America in turning off their lights on March 29.

Disclosure: At the time of the writing of this post, I have no financial relationships with any of the organizations mentioned.
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About the Author

Jonathan Chang is interested in new technologies which help individuals and organizations make a positive impact on society and the environment. He is also a proponent of long term thinking, supports the creation of renewable resources, and is an ardent advocate of social entrepreneurship. He is involved with and a member of Net Impact and the Commonwealth Club. (Net Impact is an international nonprofit organization whose mission is to make a positive impact on society by growing and strengthening a community of new leaders who use business to improve the world. The Commonwealth Club is the nation’s oldest and largest public affairs forum which organizes events on topics ranging across politics, culture, society and the economy.) Jon received his MBA from Babson College and his BA from Columbia University.

Let’s say you as an individual want to have the greatest possible positive impact on humanity as you possible can. What is essential in this pursuit and what strategy should you take?

Unquestionably, one of the best places to start is to examine history for the people you think had the greatest positive impact, and study what they did. There is plenty of individual commentary on who has historically been the most influential for better or for worse; i.e. a Japanese point of view and a Jewish American point of view. It is clear by looking at just two lists that your background and value system will play a very important role in who is deemed most influential especially when it comes to positive influence. If you haven’t taken the time to form your own list of people, even if it’s just your top 5, you will learn a lot about yourself when you do.

In conjunction with your historical study you will want to identify what personal interests, skills and talents you possess. This pursuit of understanding yourself combined with an understanding of history will help you discover your “personal nexus”, an alignment between ‘you’ and the ‘best strategy for applying you’. This education may be all you need to come to your conclusion on how you can personally make the greatest positive impact on the world. If there is still no clear answer in your own mind, further research and discovery via school degrees and/or an array of other experiences and opportunities that push the edge of humanity’s understanding hold an infinite number of courses you can take to encourage your personal aha moment.

As for me, I have presently concluded the best strategy to be the accumulation of wealth through entrepreneurship and the reconstitution of that wealth via philanthropy. I just haven’t decided if wealth accumulation or wealth reconstitution has the greater impact for good? There are a lot more for-profit companies interested in wealth accumulation which are doing a whole lot more good than the majority of non-profit companies. In fact there are non-profits who actually seek to diminish individual liberty and have anything but charity as their motive. We already know that there are plenty of for-profits which entice people into addictions and most have anything but charity as their motive. But I have become fascinated with this idea of an ecological footprint and when all factors are taken into account, I’m not convinced that the average non-profit has a better ecological footprint than the average private enterprise. Maybe this is why hybrids have been created, and why there is so much emphasis on financial sustainability. If we can take the best of both worlds and create hybrid enterprises, perhaps the end result will be an improved ecological footprint. I hope this is true.

So, which sector will have the biggest impact on alleviating poverty - Government, Non-Profit or Private? My vote is a resounding Private! But this is easy to say considering every single dollar that the Government and the Non-profit sectors receive was either stolen from or given by money earned in the Private Sector. In short - the government and non-profit sectors would not exist without the private sector. These two sectors’ only saving grace is the degree to which they help the private sector operate more sustainably and profitably. If they don’t do this, then they probably shouldn’t exist. By the way, there are many extremely valid arguments to demonstrate that many non-profits and government agencies do exactly this - i.e. DOT, Military, penal system, SEC, Carnegie Foundation, The Gates Foundation, including poor and disadvantaged populations in the economy, etc.

But, I can’t ignore the fact that because of the nature of humanity that no matter how hard I try, not everybody will ever be fully included. So I go back to my original conclusion that the combination of wealth creation and wealth reconstitution is the way to have the greatest impact. Perhaps it’s not whether Bill Gates the entrepreneur or Bill Gates the philanthropist will have a greater impact, but Bill Gates the individual. I feel comfortable saying this in spite of all the opinions stated in the following blog (I’ve read them all) about today’s highlighted social entrepreneur - Bill Gates.

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About the Author

John Mecham is currently a Program Director at The Philanthropy Roundtable - a member donor group that seeks to strengthen our free society. He recently attended Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, where he earned his MBA with an emphasis in entrepreneurship, consulting and finance. He has lead both small international and social development organizations: “Babson Global Outreach through Entrepreneurship”and “Mentor a Child, Change a Life”. John graduated with a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Utah and worked as a manufacturing engineer for three years.

This is a gentle reminder to turn your lights out tomorrow from 8-9 pm (PST). You can read the original post about this event.

Join the revolution, make a statement by turning off your lights, and let politicians know that energy conservation is important.

Disclosure: At the time of the writing of this post, I have no financial relationships with any of the organizations mentioned.
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About the Author

Jonathan Chang is interested in new technologies which help individuals and organizations make a positive impact on society and the environment. He is also a proponent of long term thinking, supports the creation of renewable resources, and is an ardent advocate of social entrepreneurship. He is involved with and a member of Net Impact and the Commonwealth Club. (Net Impact is an international nonprofit organization whose mission is to make a positive impact on society by growing and strengthening a community of new leaders who use business to improve the world. The Commonwealth Club is the nation’s oldest and largest public affairs forum which organizes events on topics ranging across politics, culture, society and the economy.) Jon received his MBA from Babson College and his BA from Columbia University.

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) contain many technologies predicated on Cleantech ideals, such as the efficient use of energy, and the use of available, untapped (”recycled”) energy. 

Most of you are aware that the hybrid drive of an HEV ensures that you’re driving with the most efficient power source in various conditions.  For example, startup and acceleration at low speeds is accomplished with electric power, while cruising on the highway uses the internal combustion engine.

Hybrids also commonly use regenerative braking.  When you deccelerate using conventional (friction) braking, you’re dissipating your momentum as heat, but regenerative breaks hook the wheels up to the electric motor so that the momentum of the car is transformed to stored electrical or electrochemical energy.  Inertia dictates that it takes work to accelerate a stopped car, and work to slow a moving one; since the work is performed to achieve opposite effects, these effects are coupled to reduce the overall energy requirement. 

But don’t the toxic batteries in HEVs negate the fuel-efficiency benefits, as one Prius owner sadly told me?  The nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries currently used in hybrids are much less toxic than the lead-acid variety used in conventional cars, and cheaper, cleaner lithium ion (LiOn) batteries are being developed.  Most importantly though, HEV batteries were made to be recycled; design-for-disassembly is a powerful Cleantech concept that we’ll cover more thoroughly in future posts.  “Every part of the battery, from the precious metals to the plastic, plates, steel case and the wiring, is recycled,” Toyota stated in a press release.

Plug-in conversion kits for standard hybrids are now popping up.  The prevailing argument against so-called PHEVs is that the pollution is pushed upstream to the power plant; is this true?  This warrants careful consideration, so we’ll explore PHEVs in more detail next week.

How you can weigh in:  do you drive a hybrid, or have you thought about it?  What factors into your decision?

Disclosure: At the time of the writing of this post, I have no financial relationships with any of the organizations mentioned, except as explicitly indicated.

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About the Author

Asheen Phansey has filled both R&D and operations roles in various biotech firms and startups, and currently consults on biomimetic technologies for Aurora Flight Sciences, a maker of autonomous aircraft systems; he is now leveraging his experience in technology entrepreneurship into a career in Cleantech and sustainable business. He is excited to teach (and learn) about sustainable-business practices, such as cradle-to-cradle manufacturing and biomimicry, to the PosiPeople community. Asheen holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University and is currently pursuing his MBA at Babson College; he is a huge New England Patriots fan, gets easily lost in books, and loves talking ideas with everyone he meets.