Fall 2011 Term Project

The project for the semester is to develop a plan for a new green business or a plan to green an existing business.

Questions you should answer in the project are:

What is the product or service you are going to offer?

What is it about this product that makes it green?

Who will your customers be?

What advantages will your product have in the marketplace?

Who is your competition?

What problems will you have to overcome in the marketplace?


You can choose any aspect of green and sustainable business that interests you.

Some ideas include:

Recycling
Alternative energy
Organic Foods
Sustainable Farming
Socially Responsible Business
Zero Emissions

The project is due by Dec 14th. The last night of class.

Transportation viewing

Here is Amory Lovins Ted presentation on winning the oild endgame

Oil Endgame

Here is the link to the book web site if you're interested. Read the executive summary but read as much as you're interested in

Oil Endgame Book


Interesting presentation by Bill Ford on gridlock

Bill Ford


This is nearly the identical presentation Amory Lovins made at the Commonwealth Club done for the Lawrence Berkeley Labs

Lovins

Some Things to Watch

Most of you probably found the natural capitalism web site on your own but here it is if you need it

Natural Capitalism

Vindod Khosla's talk at Earth Day 2009 at Google. It's a long presentation and not required but worthwhile to watch if you are interested. He discusses many of the topics I spoke about in the news tonight.

Vinod Khosla

A few things to watch

Here is Amory Lovins Ted presentation on winning the oild endgame

Oil Endgame

Here is the link to the book web site if you're interested. Read the executive summary but read as much as you're interested in

Oil Endgame Book

Interesting Presentation by John Doerr (a venture capitalist) on green innovation.

John Doerr

Interesting presentation by Bill Ford on gridlock

Bill Ford

A few things to watch

Here are a couple of presentations on biomimicry. If you are really interested there are several others just do a search on ted.com. Both presentations are similar and by the same presenter, Jan Benyus. Watch either one or both if you get into it.

Biomimicry in action

Nature's Designs

Here is the presentation on the self driving car. It talks about the technology and what they have accomplished so far. Other groups are working on some of the other concepts we discussed in class.

Driverless car

Keynotes from the ARPA-E summit

Here is the Arnold Schwartzenegger keynote

Arnie

Steven Chu isn't quite as entertaining but a lot of good information

Steven Chu

Paid sustainability Internship

Announcement

GNBS 127 Assignments and Articles Week of 1/26

First of all is the Natural Capital website. The entire book is available online. Especially if you haven't taken GNBS 125 read the first chapter for more background in natural capitalism.

Natural Capitalism

Here is an excellent presentation from ted.com on bio mimicry

Bio mimicry

A very interesting article comparing what went on in 1977 with regards to the economy with today

Atlantic Article

GNBS 127 Spring 2011

If you've tried to enroll in GNBS 127 for the Spring but haven't been able to because the class is full make sure to email me and I'll do what I can to get you in the class, especially if you've already taken GNBS 125.

The class is capped at 40 and I'd like to keep it at around that level but I have some discretion in how many students are enrolled.