Happy Earth Day!

Yay! It’s Earth Day.  The day we have chosen to set aside to recognize the planet and all the amazing gifts it gives us.  When we were India at the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit we saw this video and I think it resonates today.

Today I spent the day enjoying the first summer-like day of the year in Regina, Saskatchewan.  Sunning and strolling, it doesn’t get much better than that.  How did you spend Earth Day?

Give an Earth Day gift to Student Energy… come on, you know you wanna!  We are in the last week of the Shell Fuelling Change challenge and we are in the top 8, but we need to stay there.  Shell is giving bonus votes for the home stretch so please make sure to throw those votes our way Here’s how:

1. Go to www.fuellingchange.com
2. Click “login/register” and put in your credentials
3. Click “redeem codes” and put in this code: Gbh-7m79z2
4. Go to the Student Energy page (bit.ly/studentenergy) and click “vote” to assign your votes to us
5. Keep being awesome, thanks for supporting us!!

No Lesson Too Small…

If you have been wondering why Student Energy has been a little quiet over the last couple months, the answer is quite simply… Governance. 

We are of the opinion that doing things right up front is a far better course of action than backtracking and trying to fix things once the organization is in full swing.  And it is for this reason that we have been buried in policies, legal docs, resolutions, accounting systems, ethical guidelines, etc.  Once we get through this period of “foundational building” we are going to be much better suited to administering programs for multi-disciplinary students interested in energy all over the world and expeditious growth.

But this post isn’t so much about what the Board is working on every day; it is about a very important thing I have learned throughout this process… that no lesson is too small. 

You see, it has been through governance structure and organizational building that I have had to call on old skills and lessons I have learned over the years in various jobs.  Much of this knowledge was things I found trivial at the time but it is funny how applicable those “useless” bits of information have become.

Take for example, my very first office-job; I started at an energy company at age 19 as an admin assistant for the summer.  I would do various administrative duties – formatting, expenses reports, entering data into SAP, and other normal paper junkie type tasks.  At the time I thought to myself “I am way too smart for this” (typical 19-year-old attitude) and figured that I should be promoted to do “real” work, which I consequently was soon after.  But you know what?  I am now setting up an accounting system for a not-for-profit and I remember the frustration I had with coding invoices and how things never added up properly for my reporting.  As I build Student Energy’s system I am now capable of thinking about the various ways I want to report data to our enernerds, funders and the general public and can set the system up properly from the start.  Had I not coded countless expenses, I would be completely clueless of where to even start.

So, the takeaway?  Remember that every job – even if it is not your dream job – can teach you valuable lessons that you will carry with you through your career and various pursuits.  The same goes for experiences and people.  If we are careful to listen to people and fully appreciate our experiences we can take invaluable information that will help us to develop, grow, and be better global citizens.

We’re Celebrating Earth Hour… Are You?

EnerNerds! Do you know what is happening tomorrow (Saturday, March 31, 2012) at 8:30pm?  EARTH HOUR! For those of you who don’t know what Earth Hour is, it is one hour, every year when people all over the world unite and “switch off” all electronics in support for action on climate change.  

Why do we think Earth Hour is so important?  Because it is unity and action like this that is needed to tackle the world’s most daunting energy and environmental challenges.  It may only be an hour but it does show that people recognize the importance of the problem and are willing to make behavioural changes in order to address it.  Last year, more than 5,200 cities and towns in 135 countries worldwide switched off their lights, sending a powerful message.

So the question is, what do you plan on doing for Earth Hour?

This weekend, the Board of Student Energy is having a working session to work out the details of our legal and governance structure.  From 8:30pm to 9:30pm tomorrow we will be closing our lap tops, shutting off the lights and taking a stroll around downtown Edmonton to talk about our long term vision for Student Energy and the part that we can play in transitioning the world to a sustainable energy future.  

Share your story with us in the comment section and check out WWF Canada’s anthem for Earth Hour, we think it is pretty cool! 

GLOBE 2012 in Review

Wow! What a whirlwind the last three days have been.  GLOBE 2012, a premier environmental event in Vancouver Canada, is wrapping up and it’s time to look back and reflect on the experience that myself and many of the youth attendees have had learning, networking and taking it all in!

I attended my first GLOBE event in 2010 as a student and was representing my company this time around; I have to say it is a vastly different event to go from one to the other.  Having both these experiences under my belt, last night at the “after hours” reception a group of people and myself were discussing the role of youth in events like these and the importance of engaging the next generation of leaders in the dialogue.  I was asked by the wonderful and very inspiring Chris Henderson to share some of our revelations about GLOBE and more broadly the global environmental dialogue. So here we go, a few quick points as food for thought:

Let’s be honest…

The number one piece of feedback that I have received from my peers is that many of the dialogues this year were a bit too rosy.  Although it is great to hear inspirational stories about the progress that many large companies and organizations are making, this should be counter balanced by a deep dive into the issues that still exist, and most importantly ideas for solutions.  A call to action was missing.

 

Gina McCarthy from the US EPA had a great quote that I think shows this balance between celebrating the small successes while not ignoring the fact that there are still vast improvements to be made. “We’re no where near the finish line but it’s time to pull up our big boy pants and realize we are in a marathon not a sprint.”

 

Going forward, I challenge everyone to pressure the experts and executives.  Push them to not only share their wins but also be open and honest about the challenges they face.  Real change can be made once we can have a frank dialogue.

Progress is being made…

At GLOBE 2010 there were 3-5 student that attended the full event and this year the delegation was over 50! That is a huge amount of growth and I think it is a true testament to GLOBE’s support and encouragement of youth.  I think any of the speakers would tell you that the hardest questions came from students and I really believe that this is an added component that is valuable for everyone’s experience.

It is forums like these that can inspire youth to take on roles in the environmental field and become the leaders of tomorrow.  I look forward to the day when we see student moderators and speakers who push the envelope and challenge everyone to engage in meaningful dialogue that will lead to a healthier planet!

Not-for-profits just can’t win

Unless you have been living under a rock (or don’t have access to Facebook, Twitter or Youtube) you have probably seen the video KONY 2012 by the not-for-profit Invisible Children.  The video was produced to bring awareness to the atrocities that are ongoing in Uganda and hopefully start the movement that will lead to the capture of Joseph Kony, a rebel leader.  The video quickly went viral, and like anything that goes viral from Rebecca Black to Double Rainbows, it attracted much attention… precisely its point.  This attention has also resulted in much cynicism and debate.

As you know, at Student Energy we are all about a good debate.  We believe that both sides of every story should be told and that debate is healthy and necessary for reaching effective solutions.  However, there is something about the extreme cynicism that is also present that has really gotten under my skin and that I want to address.

Not-for-profits just can’t win.

It has been truly shocking to me how many people have gone above and beyond to poke holes in Invisible Children’s intentions.  Here we have a not-for-profit that has been struggling for years to gain some traction for their cause, hitting the pavement, and coming up with any creative idea they can to have people understand a very real global problem.  They have now successfully brought light to an issue that no one has cared about for decades and all we can do is criticize.

• “Creating awareness isn’t enough.”
• “It isn’t addressing the real problem.”
• “They spend too much money on salaries, marketing and travel.”
• “They are just trying to make money.”

All of these statements may be true, but I argue that there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.  To create change there needs to be a starting point; there needs to be people who care, people who know there is a problem, and people who spread the word.

So I would like to address the cynics and explain what it is like to ACTUALLY run a not-for-profit…  It is far from easy to fight for a cause that the majority of people don’t care about and I think that until someone is willing to get into the trenches and see what is like, there is no place for over-the-top criticism of “fighting the good fight”.

First of all, let’s talk about the money issue.  Many people have been upset with the Kony campaign because it is selling kits to raise money for their cause.  I am not sure where this misconception that not-for-pofits are not allowed to raise money from product sales came from, but it is frankly ridiculous.  Livestrong, RED, F*CK H8, and countless other campaigns have used products as a way to gain awareness while simultaneously raising funds.  Not-for-profits have to be creative in how they raise money as there are limited philanthropic dollars to go around.  The most successful not-for-profits actually find ways to generate sustainable funds that they can sink back into their programs.  At Student Energy we spend hours brainstorming ways that we can monetize so we do not have to rely on external donors for our operating budget and can ensure our longevity.

It is important that not-for-profits are transparent with their supporters about where the money is going, but please let us remember that not-for-profits are just like any other business and need to pay staff, market, and travel (especially if they work internationally).  This does not make them any less legitimate.  A good friend of mine did a quick analysis on some of the numbers that people have been digging up and I encourage you to check it out.   And our own director, Sean Collins, who is a marketing specialist states that “Drawing attention to issues is equally if not MORE important in some cases than actually solving the issues. Invisible children SHOULD be spending 85% of their money on marketing, advertising, video production and awareness. It’s because of those budget allocations that we were privileged to see what I think is the most well produced video I’ve ever seen.”  It is also because of these budget allocations that 11 million people and counting are now aware of child soldiers, the LRA and the power of social media as a change agent.

And finally, to those who criticize the more abstract concept that “this campaign isn’t enough” or “addressing the real problem” please remember that every journey starts with a single step.  It is ridiculous to say that this campaign has had no effect or won’t bring about some form of change because it clearly already has.  This campaign may not “fix” Uganda, and it may not get to the root of the issue.  But it is SOMETHING.  And it is getting noticed.  Criticism should be matched with a constructive alternate solution, and so far I have not seen a single one.  So until there is a plan B, let’s remember what is really important – stopping a global atrocity.

To bring this back to a personal level I would just like to say that myself and my colleagues at Student Energy work every day to ensure students around the world understand the challenges of climate change and energy development.  We have been less than 0.01% as effective as the KONY 2012 campaign but yet I am still proud of the progress we have made.  We spend countless hours writing transparency policies and ethical guidelines because we want to ensure that we are never condemned when we are one day successful or accused of having the wrong intentions.  These are grassroots movements that are trying to drive change and I have nothing but the most profound respect for any cause that is trying to make this world a better place.

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DSDS

Hello EnerNerds! I realize that we have been a little quiet the last 10 days or so but we have a good excuse… we have been exploring the wonderful country of India.  I am going to back it up a bit and tell you about our experience at the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit which we attended February 2-4.

DSDS is a pet project of Dr. Pachauri‘s that has been happening for 12 years and is the largest sustainable development summit in Asia.  So it is no surprise that the summit attracts some of the top minds and dignitaries around sustainable development as speakers, sponsors and delegates.  We felt incredibly privileged to attend and as always were welcomed warmly by the staff of TERI and all the organizers.

It doesn’t take much more than a quick browse of our Twitter feed to see that we were incredibly engaged the entire event and constantly learning new things and meeting new people.  Instead of going into detail, I thought I would pull out a few of the highlights and key takeaways from the event.

 

1) Protecting the Global Commons

 

The main theme of the conference was centred on protecting the Global Commons 20 years post Rio.  It was somewhat surprising to me that despite all my knowledge of energy and the environment I had never come across the term.  So for those of you who are not familiar with the term like myself it refers to the earth’s unowned natural resources, such as the oceans, the atmosphere, and space.  Managing the global commons is so difficult because of the lack of ownership and accountability in the system, it is in fact the biggest challenge we face globally.  The first step in protecting the global commons is fully understanding the challenges and interests of those most vulnerable.   At DSDS various presidents of small island states such as the Seychelles and the Maldives talked about how their states were the most vulnerable and that they are early indicators of the state of the world’s climate and environmental well being.  Additionally, Gro Harlem Bruntland, the lady who coined the term sustainability, talked of the need for a global review of sustainability statistics in order to have a better understanding of the challenges we face.  This would help to put all information in public domain openly and transparently so that each country can be held accountable for its performance.  Another interesting concept that was put forward by Jeffrey Sachs was that perhaps a globally binding agreement on climate change is not needed… that a simpler approach could be taken.  Sachs recommended that instead the UN should institute “Sustainable Development Goals” to replace the Millennium Development Goals that will expire in 2015.  One thing is certain, protecting the Global Commons will take bold new thinking, determination, and cooperation.

 

2) Asian Perspective of Sustainable Development

 

It is quite easy to get stuck in our own realm of perspective when it is all we are exposed to.  DSDS was extremely valuable in exposing the Student Energy board to a completely different view of sustainability.  Asia is a fast growing power house and it is crucial that their development occur much cleaner and smarter than the industrial revolution did.  There is tremendous potential but only after overcoming many obstacles.  The Asian Development Bank presented Asia 2050 (a report and video) that is a road map for development on the continent.  One thing we noted throughout the conference was the lack of participation from China.  Being a growing force in the global economy, this presence (or lack of) was definitely noticed and a bit unnerving.

 

3) Education Accessibility

 

Another key message addressed by many, but particularly by Jeff Sachs, was the need to accessible education on sustainability.  Technology has a huge role to play in spreading knowledge across the globe and can in turn help people to develop livelihoods that do not put the planet at jeopardy.  One thing that resonated was Prof. Sachs comment that “current academic institutions will not work for knowledge transfer at scale. Students shouldn’t have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to see me talk, they should be able to purchase my lecture for 10 cents on iTunes.”  By making information more readily available and in forms that are digestible and meaningful to various stakeholder groups we can spur sustainable development.  This is one area that Student Energy plans to play a big role in from an energy perspective.

 

4) The Role of Youth

 

Finally, DSDS was closed with a speech from three Indian youth leaders who expressed the need for youth involvement in the development process.  After all, we are future leaders, CEOs, researchers, teachers.  The message was clear “we are humble in our lack of experience but we extend a hand to you and ask are you willing to guide us?”

 

Overall, we had a wonderful time at DSDS and feel very fortunate for the opportunity to attend.  It was incredible to be in the presence of the world’s greatest minds on these topics and it is even more exciting to think that one day it will be us who fills those chairs!! Fuel the future.

What. An. Event. International Case Challenge 2012.

Wow.

With the sweat barely dry on our foreheads, we wanted to share our initial thoughts on the Delhi version of the International Case Challenge. Over the coming days and weeks we will post additional thoughts and ideas in depth – India definitely has a way of making you think.

The International Case Challenge kicked off in Indian fashion, slightly late. With a quick rush to get everyone in the rooms, Kali kicked things off by saying “Hi” to the students back in Calgary that were just finishing their event. We hear the whole ISEEESA team rocked it and we can’t wait for a full debrief on how things went in Calgary.

It was amazing to know that students from an energy powerhouse city like Calgary and a future superpower were tackling the same challenges with the same enthusiasm at the same time.

After two enlightening speeches from TERI University. First we had Dr. Kishore, Professor  & Head of the Department of Energy and Environment at TERI University. Dr. Kishore focused on some of the opportunities and challenges for local, micro energy project. The slides can be found in the link below:

Decentralized Energy Technologies for Micro Level Sustainability

Next we were privileged to have Shafat Sultan, from the incredible Lighting a Billion Lives project discuss Energy Access. His slides can be found below as well:

Energy Access and Global Initiatives

After the presentations, the 85 delegates all split into teams to start putting together a global framework to tackle the challenge we had laid out for the day:

“As a global community, how do we provide emerging/developing nations with the energy services necessary to continue their rapid growth – and thereby continue to lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty – without jeopardizing the well-being of future generations?”

Students were asked to give a macro-level, strategically focused idea for each of the 8 spectrum’s we had defined:

1. Knowledge Sharing and Transfer
2. Energy Education
3. Technology Development
4. Government Incentive Structures
5. Finance
6. Technology Deployment
7. Stakeholder Relations
8. Business Environment

After an afternoon of presentations and unique framework ideas, we were thrilled to announce Team 6 as the winners of the challenge. Taking home a 5,000 rupee prize each, the participants did the best job of creating clear, simple ideas to tackle the broad and complex challenge. Our favorite idea of theirs was in paying researchers above market wages to increase the talent pool of researchers tackling energy issues globally. They would also be paid out should any of their technology be implemented but the intellectual property would belong to the country. This would do a great job of promoting regional solutions more than the current local solutions that many universities and researchers focus on.

Once things had wrapped up, we got to kick back a little bit and enjoy High Tea. Although Shruti Syal laughed at us for calling it High Tea, we going to stick to our guns on this one!

The best part of High Tea was that it quickly turned into a dance party (at only 5pm!). After some requests from the crowd, Kali and I showed off our two-stepping skills to represent our Western Canadian roots!

Things started to get amazing when the tables were turned and we were taught Hindi dancing.

Teaching Hindi Dancing

After the impromptu dance party, we moved into the convocation hall for the REAL dance party. It took all of about 30 seconds for everyone to join the dancers on stage and make it a full on dance party. After about 5 minutes, people from outside the event started running in and before we knew it, a full blown Hindi dance party was raging.

It was sad to say goodbye to everyone but hopefully we will still see many of the delegates at the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit over the coming days.

We’re all so excited to keep in touch with the amazing people we met at the International Case Challenge. Make sure to sign up for our newsletter by clicking here and entering your email address at the bottom.

A VERY special thank you to the amazing companies that supported us in coming to New Delhi. We (actually) couldn’t have been here without the continued support of three innovative, forward thinking Alberta based organizations. Suncor, Cenovus Energy and the Energy Resources Conservation Board showed that companies are willing to engage in global dialogues and support important discussions beyond their strict geographic barriers.

Also, if you want to get in touch with any of us, here is our information.

Kali Taylor – Facebook - Twitter - ktaylor@studentenergy.org

Janice Tran – Facebook - Twitter - jtran@studentenergy.org

Sean Collins – Facebook - Twitter - scollins@studentenergy.org

Seriously, we had such an amazing time today and want to send all of our delegates the biggest thank you. We had no idea what to expect on our travels over to India and so far we have been completely blown away.

We EXPECT to hear from you all on your journeys and hope to see many of you at ISES 2013. Email, tweet, facebook or call anytime and take care!

I’ll close with the little bit of Hindi I picked up today.

āp se mil ke acchā lagā!

Sean Collins

YUVA Meet Day One: Understanding Global Commons

Our first day at YUVA Meet was stimulating and really intriguing as it focused on a topic we had all spent only a little time discussing before.

The theme of “Conserving Global Commons” didn’t really resonate with us until the opening speaker, Rita Mathur, discussed the concept in depth. Global Commons are the shared resources of the world where no defined rights or ownership exist. These discussions were influenced by the ground-breaking work of Garrett Hardin and the Tragedy of the Commons (worth the read). They represent such a challenge because they are so vital to the global ecosystem yet don’t fall under any direct protection or supervision. If someone goes out to international waters to dump garbage, who is there to protect it? The obvious and unfortunate answer is no one.

Traditionally we think of these Global Commons as our oceans but they also represent trans-border rivers and the lovely little continent of Antarctica.

Some really interesting questions were brought up:

Who owns these resources?

How do we enforce environmental standards on these resources if no one owns them?

How can we charge polluters to these communal resources?

The vulnerability of these global commons was also discussed at length and how we must focus on the stakeholders that are most at risk from environmental damage and potential harm. We all found these morning discussions to be intriguing because they aren’t something that we often discuss in North America. We’re more focused on technologies, ghg reductions and the constant power dynamic between oil exporters and importers. The concept that our worlds major natural resources are a shared global common simply isn’t in the daily conversation of developed world students and energy professionals.

These discussions will be a major focus of DSDS which we’re ecstatic to be attending starting on Thursday. We also just found out that Arnold Schwarzenegger will be presenting this Thursday which is great and slightly hilarious. If I can’t fit in doorways and rickshaws here, I have no idea how Arnie is going to manage!

The day finished off with a tour of TERI University where we’ll be hosting our International Case Challenge tomorrow and a cultural event at the India Habitat Centre.

We’ll make sure to add in more pictures once time slows down a little bit and give a more personal update on the adventures of the trip so far. You’ll all be happy to know that we have seen pet monkeys and cows being walked in the street and scared to know that we’ve seen pedestrians and guys on motorbikes hit in the insane Delhi traffic.

Chat soon!

Sean

Delhi Day 2: YUVA Meet Kicks Off

Now the real fun of Delhi begins!

Today the whole Student Energy Team (Kali, Janice and myself) are up at 6am to get ready for YUVA Meet. YUVA stands for Youth Uniting for Volunteer Action and has a theme of Global Creative Commons: Transferring Knowledge into Action.

We were fortunate enough to stumble into Shruti Syal, an ISES 2009 alumni who is back from her time at McGiil doing a Masters at TERI in Delhi. We’ve now elected her to be our official travel guide for the next week in Delhi and she’s forbidden us from seeing any Bollywood movies right now. Shruti says that all of the movies out right now are unoriginal knock-offs of legitimately creative movies from years past.

We’re hoping to meet up with a lot of the students that will be participating in the International Case Challenge that we’re producing two days from now and put some faces to the email list of names. After getting the pre-event submissions from the Calgary Event teams and New Delhi event teams, we know we’re in for some amazing presentations. The level of intellect, analysis and creativity that the students showed in such a short time in preparing their reports really inspired and amazed us.

As a quick reminder, we’ll be live-streaming all of the content from India for our International Case Challenge so check us on twitter or facebook for the link information.

Chat soon!

Sean Collins

 

Red Fort - Kali and Sean visited on Day 1 in Delhi

Beer for Breakfast (What time is it anyway?)

Guten tag!  Hello from Frankfurt!

Kali and Sean here.  We have officially begun our (very long) journey to Delhi, India for the International Case Challenge.  Despite a delay at the airport trying to check 50 kilograms of delegate material we have just arrived via Calgary to Frankfurt.  It is 1:24am back home but 9:24am here so we have decided that Germany + time change + long flight = beer for breakfast!

We are so excited that the International Case Challenge in a few days.  We are currently sitting in a restaurant, squeezing our last bit of battery life out of our computers to madly finishing up emcee notes, power points and emails for the Challenge. Gotta run but stay tuned for live blogging and tweeting as we continue our journey.