Going Green

Going Green? What is it? What can you do now?

“Going Green”. Well, what the heck does that mean? Does it mean maintaining ones current lifestyle with less impact on the planet or changing ones lifestyle to reduce ones footprint on the planet?

I think that it means consuming less and making smart choices about consumption. Is a hybrid luxury SUV green? No. Is a green cellphone green? No. So, what is green anyway?

There is no definition of green and as such people are throwing green around like crazy. Its great marketing and every marketing company is focused on dressing up the “1000 pound gorilla” for its customers to ride the wave. When have you trusted marketing in the first place?

Green, I think, does have a definition. It would be the process that consumes the least energy. This notion is not easy to understand, but, if you deconstruct each process and evaluate its energy requirement you can get a better idea of what Green is. For example: you need to go to the farmers market to pick up some locally grown organic stuff. Do you take your car or walk. Easy, walking is the Green solution. Well, not every example is as easy as that, but, follows the same basic process of analysis.

The Green products out there are the ones that have the best ROE; return on environment. Let me define this. Return on Environment can be defined as the energy consumed per unit of time. So, going to the market has an ROE value. By walking you use less energy, but, more time. By driving you use more energy but less time. But, aside from the gas and wear and tear on the car, energy is required to build it, maintain the gas stations to fill it, the oil exploration to keep it going, the energy to maintain the factories that make replacement parts. But, wait, walking to the store you need food energy, you need shoes, clothes, etc. By adding up all these factors, you can approximate an ROE. Sounds complex, well it is. This complexity is the wiggle room that marketers use to exploit what is Green.

Complexity in the global market adds to the confusion of this analysis. There are math algorithms that count energy and companies use these to make themselves “more green”. Well, so what. If a company that sells a non-utilitarian product, say televisions, makes its operations “more green” it is still producing products that are non essential. Is a television green? No volunteering in your community is probably more Green. So, can a television company ever be Green? In my opinion, no. If we label something as Green, we exclude a more environmentally beneficial activity like volunteering.

I think at this point, we need to draw some lines in the sand and understand that we must grade products on their usefulness to life. There are essential products and nonessential products. So, going green means not buying lots of nonessential products and use essential products wisely. Make sense? Another example: the luxury home with solar panels. Green? No. Over-consumption, yes. So, throwing good Green money after over-consumption is a bad premise. Allowing the over-consumer to maintain a energy wasteful existence is Greenwashing. So, there needs to be some balance. Putting solar panels on a modestly sized house seems to be a better ROE. Understand? I hope it is getting clearer.

So, aside from learning thermodynamics, kinematics, chemistry, manufacturing, materials science and crunching numbers all day, what can everyone do to go Green. Simple. Simplicity. Simplify your life and use less products. Conservation is the best tool for going Green. The recent recession reduced carbon emissions globally because people were buying less stuff. I do not own a car anymore, I do not own a cellphone. Those things work in my life. Make the changes you can and use less stuff. Simplify first, then going Green will become clearer as you go.

Enjoy!



All information and concepts on my blog is property of me, Graham Chivers.

Retweeting is highly recommended!

This information may not be used, in any publications, without direct prior consent from Graham Chivers @ http://deepgreendesign.blogspot.com/. My Blog is not to be within or, on any entities that have advertising. Sounds weird? Well, that is my choice. Freedom of speech and freedom of access, without any capitalism, by companies, that I do not find green enough. I assert that my Blogs will deliver my blog with NO ADVERTISING! As such, If you wish to rebroadcast my content, ask for permission. If your publication has absolutely no advertising, anywhere, I will be happy let you use my content, on the condition that I verify the publication for content, first. I dreaded the day that my blog would be beside advertising for laptops or other non-green thingies, but, it did. Support Ad-Free knowledge! If you see this blog beside advertising, please, let them know to respect my authority as a citizen. Thank you! I assert the right to assert my opinion on each blog, I blog. I assert that I am not a “domestic terrorist”. I assert that I am an individual, not a marketing scam. I collect no data from my Blog. All the products use to manufacture this product are “free” on the Internet. I use no marketing software for data collection. I feel that anyone should be able to read my blog with only knowledge being the product for free.

If you do not agree with any above content, prove it first. If you can teach me something, I will thank you in a manner warranted. If you are intending to “limit my internet access” or Freedom of Speech or my Human Rights: please go away!

ME BLOG ;) Hello! My First Blog / Introduction.

My First Blog! An Introduction.

I am located in Toronto, Canada. I live green. I gave up my car. No cellphone. No processed foods, when I have the choice. No travel that requires an airplane. No over-consumption, thats my goal. I try to lead a utilitarian and simple existance. Sounds boring? No, I have replaced the ego-trappings of life with the simple pleasures. I like to share my knowledge, study advanced mathmatics, grow food, cook and bake, exercise, read non-ficiton ( should it not be called reality? ) and of course environmental issues and designing products to support my environment and simplfy lives.

I am an ex-environmental activist. Let me explain this. I have learned that voiceing opinions or ideas, while constructive to some, was not enough for me. I feel that taking action is the only way to realize ones convictions. I have changed my life from top to bottom in an attempt to learn more about how to live green, and I am not finished.

I am a professional designer. No, not interior decorator or fashion. I am a product design specialist. I have taken my 30 years of environmental learning and my 25 years of mechanical design expertise and ventured into "Green Design". I am a design consultant.

"All my life" I have been tinkering and designing and the environment has always seemed to be my passion. My first green design was a sketch I made at the age of 10. It was a "city air filter" to clean the city air. Living breifly in Toronto, I noticed the smog in the air. I thought that if I designed an air filter, I could clean the air for people. Simple? Seemed simple at first. So, with pencil in hand, I sketched a big box and inside a propeller and motor from an airplane ( repurposing already ). Above and infront of the prop, I sketched a water nozzle. The premise was simple: squirt the water to clean the air being pumped through. Then I thought, ok, what do I do with all this dirty water? Good question. I put my design on hold. I thought of evaporating the water. What to do with the toxic sludge? Good question. I put my design on hold again. It is still on hold, since, the energy required to extract and manage the toxic "stuff" is not benificial to the ROI model. ROI? Return on Investment. The reality is that it is expensive and the current free market capitalist model of investment would never buy into such a product. Reality.

I learned that designing is tricky stuff, but, I kept at it. Understanding each facet of a design is the challenge. To this day, the simple design that does the job at the lowest cost seems to be the rule. Correct? Nope. We need designs that are simple, cost effective and benefit the environment. I have 3 designs that accomplish that already. I am looking for investors.

I have been an "activist" turned "actionist" for the majority of my life. In 1995 I wrote a letter to the Prime Minister, etc. outlining my desire to start a Green Crown Corporation that would start manufacturing green energy solutions ( solar, wind, geothermal ) and use profits and help from the academic community to innovate these technologies with the eventual intent of selling each product rights once the technology was solid and productive. Of course, you know the answer they gave me. That was almost 15 years ago. I stressed that this ambitious project would create jobs, advance technology and make Canada a leader in Green technology worldwide. Wow, what could have been! The difference is that action would be first, innovation second. I think it is important to take action and make the action worthwhile, make it better, each person adding better ideas. Like science.

Now the government is "playing catch up" and "throwing money away" towards projects that add little value for a long term Green goal. I look at the programs in place and shake my head, tsk tsk. Today, our environment is under attack from human activity and the "Green" solutions I see being marketed are not that "Green" to begin with.

Greenwashing is the next big scam. It did not take long for the "scumbag profiteers" long to jump on the bandwagon and start to take advantage of people and their desire to improve the world around them. It had to happen.

I wish to accomplish two things. 1.) Educate people on what green is, in my opionion and 2.) Make people aware of my services for design.

Enjoy!





All information and concepts on my blog is property of me, Graham Chivers.

Retweeting is highly recommended!

This information may not be used, in any publications, without direct prior consent from Graham Chivers @ http://deepgreendesign.blogspot.com/. My Blog is not to be within or, on any entities that have advertising. Sounds weird? Well, that is my choice. Freedom of speech and freedom of access, without any capitalism, by companies, that I do not find green enough. I assert that my Blogs will deliver my blog with NO ADVERTISING! As such, If you wish to rebroadcast my content, ask for permission. If your publication has absolutely no advertising, anywhere, I will be happy let you use my content, on the condition that I verify the publication for content, first. I dreaded the day that my blog would be beside advertising for laptops or other non-green thingies, but, it did. Support Ad-Free knowledge! If you see this blog beside advertising, please, let them know to respect my authority as a citizen. Thank you! I assert the right to assert my opinion on each blog, I blog. I assert that I am not a “domestic terrorist”. I assert that I am an individual, not a marketing scam. I collect no data from my Blog. All the products use to manufacture this product are “free” on the Internet. I use no marketing software for data collection. I feel that anyone should be able to read my blog with only knowledge being the product for free.

If you do not agree with any above content, prove it first. If you can teach me something, I will thank you in a manner warranted. If you are intending to “limit my internet access” or Freedom of Speech or my Human Rights: please go away!