Given our propensity for streamlining information paired with our dangerous addiction to hype, we have a tendency to pull things out of context to weigh them each as isolated ideas. This is just as true with sustainability as it is with everything else. Merits and shortcomings are all too often examined on one specific gadget, product or system, but everything (especially sustainability) is really a system of systems. More often than not, the real opportunities for progress come with linking individual solutions together. A great example is renewable energy and electric cars. Continue Reading…
Archives For July 2013
New York’s bike sharing program has been in service for just over a month now, met with plenty of enthusiasm and criticism alike. I had some colleagues that were skeptics (even fellow bikers) of how often those blue bikes would be touring across the city grid, but the latest statistics are painting a picture of quick acclimation into local culture. At the same time, the greatest value of CitiBike may not just be the bike availability. In the digital age, a system like this has the potential to have a much broader influence on the future of the city.
Leading up to last week I was excited about the prospect of getting excited about the President’s new climate change plan. Given the level of secrecy and surprise that created all of the build-up to the plan that would map out the environmental goals of the administration’s second term, I was waiting eagerly for a chance to help spread the seeds of environmental progress around the digital ecosystem.
And then it came and went. Continue Reading…