This blog post originally appeared in the Canadian edition of the Huffington Post. Get all the newest posts by signing up to Zerofootprint CEO Ron Dembo’s Huffington Post blog RSS feed.
Climate change is one of the most hotly debated issues of our time, both from an economic and a moral viewpoint. And whenever someone makes a case for action from a moral stance, most often they’ll justify it by invoking the future plight of the world and the children that will inherit it. It’s a delicate subject, after all, what’s more important than our children?
Halton Catholic District School Board students and staff can now track their school’s energy consumption with the hope it will spark discussion and, ultimately, conservation efforts.
The word “green” is tossed around a lot as a catchall term to describe sustainable or environmentally friendly projects, businesses, energy, and more. Green construction and architecture, for one, are proliferating across the world, but when it comes to gauging how “green” a building is, for example, one finds that there are more than a few standards by which to determine its efficiency and sustainability.
A typographical error led Amory Lovins to coin the phrase negawatts. In a brilliant 1989 keynote address to the Green Energy Conference in Montreal he outlined what has become the blueprint for a radical business and energy concept.
Pay people to do nothing.
Twenty-plus years later the idea is deeply taking hold.
Fast-forward to Dr. Ron Denbo who was recently featured on a TED global ideas project. He is the Founder and CEO of Zerofootprint, an international company that provides software to measure and manage carbon footprint. Individuals, governments and corporations can use these services to reduce the amount of CO2 they generate.
In March, Ron Dembo visited the Skoll World Forum in Oxford where he was selected from a pool of more than 800 delegates and speakers to participate in an exclusive interview with TakePart:
Canadian Design and Construction Report
March 29, 2011
If asked to name major climate change contributors, most people could easily name a few things - cars, for example, or deforestation. These certainly play a role in global warming. Most people, however, would overlook a large contributor of greenhouse gases in many countries: buildings. The operational inefficiency of buildings, especially commercial ones, is often overlooked as a major part of out climate change problem. While SUVs, the poster-child of wastefulness in recent years, account for about three per cent of North America’s CO2 emissions, the ongoing operation of buildings accounts for about 40 per cent on average. In New York this number is as high as 79 per cent.
While buildings are a significant part of the problem, this also means they are a key part of the solution. The creativity and expertise of the professionals that make up the building community is an important asset in mitigating global warming, particularly their ability to design and advance new technologies. Rebuilding entire cities is not the most practical, nor the greenest solution - besides being disruptive, it also creates a lot of building waste - but technological innovations can reinvent cities without having to rebuild them.
Watch the announcement of the Zerofootprint Challenge at the Environment & Energy keynote lunch during the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting
On September 21st, 2010 the Zerofootprint Challenge was highlighted as an exemplary member commitment to Environment & Energy at the Sixth Annual Clinton Global Initiative Meeting in New York.
At the Environment & Energy keynote lunch, Former President of the Republic of Costa Rica Jos Maria Figueres announced our commitment to engage schools in the fight against climate change, alongside Zerofootprint Founder and CEO Ron Dembo and Richard Branson.
Watch a clip of the presentation below, or by clicking here.
Zerofootprint Challenge Competition Introduced to Measure. Compare and Change
Global Environmental Impact… One School at a Time
NEW YORK, Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting
September 21, 2010
Zerofootprint, a leading organization in the global fight against climate change, announced today at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting, the launch of the Zerofootprint Challenge, a Zerofootprint Foundation global initiative encouraging schools around the world to measure, compare and change their environmental footprint.
The Zerofootprint Challenge will work collaboratively with school districts to provide students with easy to use software and social networking tools to measure carbon footprint information, provoke competition and discover a new culture of energy use. The Challenge is designed to help a school benchmark and better understand how big its carbon footprint is, how it compares to other schools and how much carbon is produced for each student it educates.
To continue reading the Zerofootprint Challenge Press Release click here. For all the latest updates about the Zerofootprint Challenge follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
Agents of change colour Jane-Finch green, By: Danielle Milley
The Jane and Finch neighbourhood has been busy creating agents of change - green change. The Jane-Finch Community Family Centre began the Green Change project a year ago and it has gone very well. “It’s been a very successful year because residents embraced the project so well,” said Rosemarie Powell of the centre.
40th SEASON OF ALCATEL-LUCENT SUNDAY BIKEDAYS BEGINS THIS WEEKEND
May 21, 2010
Canada’s Capital Region — The National Capital Commission (NCC), in collaboration with title sponsor Alcatel-Lucent, participating sponsor Zerofootprint and volunteers from KPMG LLP and Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP, is pleased to present the 40th season of Alcatel-Lucent Sunday Bikedays, which begins this Sunday, May 23, 2010. Every Sunday morning until Labour Day weekend, outdoor enthusiasts can enjoy more than 50 kilometres of scenic parkways in the heart of the Capital and Gatineau Park that are closed to motorized traffic and reserved for cyclists, in-line skaters, runners and walkers.
How do I take the guesswork out of carbon measurement?
Your carbon and environmental questions answered. An interview between Zerofootprint Founder and CEO, Ron Dembo and Jill Buck, founder of the Go Green Initiative, host of the Go Green Radio Show.
InsideHalton.com
TechCrunch.com
