ACRL2009: Green Speaker Robin Chase

An incredibly inspirational talk!

Robin Chase, CEO of GoLoco and Founder of Zipcar
Located in Boston---would love to have her come to Champlain.
Social entrepreneur

How libraries can play a role in a world of increasingly scare resources

From the negative to the positive.
2020 and 2050 goals:
Her emphasis on CO2 emeissions: the only way we are going to make it is if we
If we all bought fuel efficient cars, we would reduce our CO2 emissions by 5% in 10 years.
If we shared a ride 1 in 10 trips or didn’t drive 1 in 20 trips, we would reduce our CO2 emissions by 5% this WEEK.
“That is the difference between infrastructure and behaviour”

Founded in 2000, today there are 300,000 people using 5000 cars across N. America and London. Averted 6000 lbs of CO2 just this year.

Sharing can make gigantic differences: the anatomy of sharing.
Simple sharing: person to person.
Simple sharing institutionally: one company’s assets to many. If you pay me, I will share. Carsharing has a negative connotation: if hotels were called bed sharing, they would be considered very differently. I have my own personal fleet of cars anywhere I go. Different cars for different moments.

Sharing 2.0: Personal collaborative: many to many.
Wikipedia as making use of excess mental capacity. A sense of pride in contributing to the world’s knowledge.
Couchsurfing: beds all over the country, 1 million beds in 231 beds.

Excess capacity in our cars: GoLoco ride boards meets facebook meets paypal. Creating our own public transportation system. If we just started getting in the habit of asking someone if they need a ride, no matter where you are going.
It is messier and much less predictable, uses much less stuff. We know how to do a better job, we just don’t have incentives.
Lower ROI threshold: potential for success is broader, faster uptake, higher participation. Higher social value.

Collaborative consumption, but let’s think about
COLLABORATIVE PLAY
COLLABORATIVE WORK
Let’s start to think more about
COLLABORATIVE INFRASTRUCTURE
COLLABORATIVE FINANCING
Example: Vienna, 500 wireless nodes of internet access. Opening capacity on our routers (mesh networking). Turn our cars into mesh networks. There is more that we want to do with our wireless devices in our cars (EZ Passes)
Moving into vehicle miles travel taxes: people will pay to use roads. Multipurpose devices into cars. Keep communication local. Reaching broadband through people, not governments!

We have a feeling of scarcity: we focus on closed proprietary assets “It’s mine” so I have to pay for it all and deal with it alone. I have to bare the costs.
The Architecture of Abundance: we pay for what we use. We share costs and infrastructure. “Farming” for best innovation. Draws unexpected benefits. Because Twitter is an open platform, PEOPLE came up with how to use it powerfully. The minds of many.

The take home:
1. Identify excess capacity
2. Find or build platform for sharing: what’s out there and how can we leverage it?
3. Reap Unexpected benefits

Libraries as vessels for brains and willingness and desire to engage new ideas. Libraries have an opportunity to engage in the educational component of the crisis of climate change. What does that look like at my library?

Sharing does not mean we don’t act in our individual best interest. Every dollar, we need to maximize it.

Inspirational. And while she is presenting ideas that are challenging and scary for many people because it requires a paradigm shift. But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a great idea. Or that it can’t be done.

Different rule sets for small or large scales. Example from Omnivore’s Dilemma.

We are going to build a technological and environmental infrastructure. Yes, there are costs to building this infrastructure that might seem counterintuitive to the mission but if we evaluate excess capacity and we evaluate the cost and benefits of that infrastructure, then there is reason to use that existing infrastructure.

Recreate access to information beyond the platforms we already have.

ACRL2009: Greening Up the Conference

KUDOS ACRL for creating a greener conference and for sharing how you did it! This panel presentation shared the how and the why of greening up the conference. Again, here are my notes. But before you look at them, I wanted to say GREAT JOB to Tory Ondralo, the conference coordinator. Tory is a star and it was her hard work that made this conference a more environmentally friendly place.

Also, this kind of initiative comes from conference attendees demanding it. If you are attending other conferences, ASK what they are doing to go green!

Communicating green initiatives with the conference attendees:
1. Branding (Green leaf logo)
2. Wide distribution through conference literature (C&RL News, American Libraries, Cognotes, Footnotes)
3. Green Pledge = Green water mark on badges
Inform and influence conference behaviors and practices

Is ACRL making any efforts to quantitatively assess the impact of the conference?

The Green Pledge:
Shaping conference behavior. 80% of attendees signed the pledge. AWESOME!
Reduction of Paper: encourage the use of the virtual conference, institutional encouragement to NOT include handouts. A noticeable effort among attendees that ACRL is trying to green up the conference. Recycled paper and soy based ink at no additional cost. Change from a postcard rather than a tri-fold, vendor reductions.
Giveaways: Shower timer.

TORY: All stats on reductions and efforts including costs.

Robin Chase, a green speaker. Sharing books is much like sharing cars. The carshare business model as similar to a library.

Hotels: Hotel Vintage Park. Initiatives the are exemplary. Why did I not stay there?

Only stayed for a half the presentation but such an important issue and the efforts made by the committee and especially Tory Orlandro deserve great recognition and gratitude.

How can we get more presentations about green practices within the library?

I am Seeing the Green!

Post posting on Friday, Jon and I crossed the Lake to spend the weekend at St. Lawrence University for his college reunion. It was a meeting of the minds. SLU highlighted their sustainability efforts as the focal point to the reunion. When we checked in for registration, we received cloth bags that said “The Greening of the Scarlet and Brown”, their school colors. They held tours of their LEED certified buildings, held workshops highlighting their sustainability programs both in and out of the classroom, and made abundantly clear how sustainability is a key factor in all decisions at that school. Their Green Pages are well worth checking out as both a way to inform and market initiatives.
They clearly have support for sustainability running through their administration, student body, board of trustess, and facilities. It is exciting to see. I also found out that SLU's Science Librarian, Eric Williams-Bergen, who I did not have the good fortune of meeting, is the chair of SLU's Conservation Council. Green Librarians Unite!

And that led me to seeking out some other green initiatives among librarians. I found this very cool post at the San Francisco Public Library's Magazine Center where they were highlighting mags that might give good tips about how to green up. And then, a whole blog devoted to greening up your library. I am on the hunt for more, so stay tuned.