Explaining what #cleanweb is and what's being done, for the cleantech community in Hong Kong @CleanTuesday_HK Meet-up hosted by Charles D'Haussy. Thanks to @BlakeBurris for some of the content.
Cleanweb is a new word. Intersection. The projects here tonight show what an exciting space it is.\n
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Yet somehow, this space hasn’t yet captured the attention we think it should. Popular culture and the folks in the technology trenches are still stuck on the next photo sharing app, check in app, or game, all of which are cool, but how enduring?\n\nSomeone recently captured the irony of this situation well on twitter…\n\n“Your mobile phone has more computing power than all of NASA in 1969. They launched a man to the moon. Today one of the most exciting things we do with this technology is launch a bird into pigs…”\n\nCome on. We can do better.\n
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If you reduce that in terms of carbon emissions, we’re talking about half a million tons in just one year from car sharing, or the equivalent CO2 emissions from the energy use of more than 35,000 homes for one year. \n
ZipCar says that one of their shared vehicles displaces the need for 15 other cars. \n\nLook at the impact on the reduction on automobiles needed—all the steel, all the plastic, all the transportation and supply chain impact. \n
Every time you write code to get people out of private and onto public transport, you’re taking one of these off the road. If you can get someone to buy some local food, you’re emptying a container ship.\n
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Every time you write code to get people out of private and onto public transport, you’re taking one of these off the road. If you can get someone to buy some local food, you’re emptying a container ship.\n
Every time you write code to get people out of private and onto public transport, you’re taking one of these off the road. If you can get someone to buy some local food, you’re emptying a container ship.\n
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People are starting to get involved on a massive level. This is a picture of a recent hackathon. I hosted a hackathon like this focused on the cleanweb in San Francisco last year and we got hundreds of people to come out. We did one earlier this year in NYC, and are doing more around the country throughout the year. You can’t imagine the enthusiasm were seeing at these events. \n\nWhile we’re getting a mix of cleantech folks and techies, it’s surprising to me how many of the folks coming to the hackathons have never thought about resource issues in the context of their work before. But when they make the connection, they see how powerful it is and have terrific ideas for new apps…\n
People are starting to get involved on a massive level. This is a picture of a recent hackathon. I hosted a hackathon like this focused on the cleanweb in San Francisco last year and we got hundreds of people to come out. We did one earlier this year in NYC, and are doing more around the country throughout the year. You can’t imagine the enthusiasm were seeing at these events. \n\nWhile we’re getting a mix of cleantech folks and techies, it’s surprising to me how many of the folks coming to the hackathons have never thought about resource issues in the context of their work before. But when they make the connection, they see how powerful it is and have terrific ideas for new apps…\n
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Finish off by talking a bit about what’s happening right now with the cleanweb movement in the UK. Where did we come from, and where are we headed?\n
With this in mind, I’d like to present the Cleanweb Manifesto, an attempt to inspire people to take a positive step and work on the real problems.\n
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The cleanweb is growing. Join it. \n
The cleanweb is growing. Join it. \n
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So far, we are seeing several overarching themes forming in the cleanweb:\n\nCatalyzing Cleantech – Solutions, like Solar Mosaic and Sungevity, that help accelerate the commercialization of cleantech itself\n\n2. Resource Cloud – Approaches, like AirBnB, carsharing, and other ways of better using the physical resources that are already out there in the world\n\n3. Big Data – Using sensors, devices, and data aggregation to give people and businesses far better visibility into their resource use, whether it’s sea satellites in the Pacific gathering data that can be useful to farmers in Kansas, or companies like Honest Buildings gathering and sharing building performance data.\n\n4. And finally, we’re seeing a bunch of new ideas emerge that we can’t even categorize yet. We know there are whole new frontiers for the cleanweb that we haven’t even imagined yet, new business models and technologies that will change the resource game beyond our dreams…\n
Yet somehow, this space hasn’t yet captured the attention we think it should. Popular culture and the folks in the technology trenches are still stuck on the next photo sharing app, check in app, or game, all of which are cool, but how enduring?\n\nSomeone recently captured the irony of this situation well on twitter…\n\n“Your mobile phone has more computing power than all of NASA in 1969. They launched a man to the moon. Today one of the most exciting things we do with this technology is launch a bird into pigs…”\n\nCome on. We can do better.\n
“The great economic revolutions in history occur when new communications technologies converge with new energy systems.” (Rifkin)\n\n1829: Coal powered steam engines allowed us to build locomotives which would conquer the Frontier, linking the Atlantic and the Pacific. Coal fire also powered the first printing presses which enabled the general public and the workforce to become literate.\n
1908: Oil democratized transportation by powering mass produced automobiles to move around on a national web of highway corridors, leading to the spread of the suburbs and mass consumption.\n\nThis era also saw the introduction and very quick adoption of advanced communication technologies such as telephones, radios, and televisions. \n
But what’s the turn we’re on now? You can chart it from the beginning with intel coming out with the first microprocessor in 1971 which led to the creation of the internet. And where is that taking us?\n
Here’s the market penetration of internet compared to renewables. Mobile is scaling up even faster. Mary Meeker predicts that by 2014, more people will be using mobile internet than desktop internet. \n\n…Meanwhile, renewables seem to be stuck in a small little niche, limited by the massive capital cost of developing and deploying them, the complexity of integrating them into existing infrastructure , limited channels controlled by incumbents, and limited customer information and access.\n\nBut if you think about it, these are all problems where infotech can help. Information technologies are much cheaper to develop. They are much quicker to deploy. And they are increasingly accessible to everyone in every context around the globe, as we can see above…\n\n\n\nThink about how quickly the web has changed the way we live work and play. Amazon, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Netflix. Or take something even more personal and traditional like buying shoes. \n
As I hope you can sense, the Cleanweb space is really taking off. \n\nHere’s a snapshot of the number of recent cleanweb deals tracked by one of the prominent research firms in the space, The Cleantech Group. 414 deals since 2009, making up 18% of all cleantech deals, and growing rapidly. This represents a total of more than $3 billion invested in clean web companies.\n
People have been working to harness renewable energy for centuries. Here’s a picture of one of the early efforts in the 20th century to harness the wind to create electricity.\n
And every president since Richard Nixon has talked about reducing our dependency on foreign oil through renewable energy. Here’s Jimmy Carter unveiling the first solar roof for the White House in 1979 amidst the Middle East Oil Embargo. \n
And indeed we’ve come a long way in recent years. In the last decade alone, cleantech investment globally has gone from nearly zero to 250B last year, adding up to over a trillion dollars so far. And costs are coming down, as expected. Solar has dropped by nearly 70% in that last three years. The costs of energy efficient LED lighting has dropped by over 50% in the last year alone. So we’re definitely making progress, right? \n
In 1994, never mind, the 1950’s, who could have imagined you would buy shoes without trying them on first?\n
Well, you can. We do. Zappos, founded in 1999, went from having just over a million in annual sales in 2000 to over 1 billion in sales by 2008.\n\nThe web is fundamentally redefining how we do things at every level. The more we are connected through mobile internet and social networks, the more impact the web is having on our lives away from the computer screen. It wasn’t so long ago that we thought computers were good for just games, email, and word processing.\n\nThe internet has now enabled a massive global peer-to-peer economy to open up, allowing us to buy and sell literally anything and there are incredible benefits.\n
You may have heard of AirBnB. They have built a good platform to support a global network of accommodations offered by locals. People are sharing their rooms, their castle, their igloo, their private island. The company is just three years old, and they can offer an unimaginable range of accommodation in 19,000 cities in 192 countries. \n\nThey have listings ranging from $10 per night for a futon in Brooklyn to $5,000 per night for vacation home in Squaw Valley.\n\nThat’s disrupting the top down, infrastructure-heavy ways of doing things. \n
They rent out over 10,000 rooms per night. That’s more than some of the largest hotels in the world. \n\nCompanies like AirBnB are part of a revolution in resource use, but its not the first time we’ve seen such transformations. \n
Its not just about having a wide range of choice for accommodation. Its about efficient use of the built environment.\n\nThey are already proving to be disruptive to the hotel industry which is notoriously wasteful and inefficient. \n\nEPA estimates that the average night's stay in a hotel has a carbon footprint of 30kg—whichis nearly 3x the average daily carbon footprint for a person’s house.\n\nImagine if AirBnB displaced 5% of the hotel market, imagine if it displaced 30%\n\nThe same goes with vehicles…\n
Look at how fast it has grown in just a few years.\n\nThere is some concern that by increasing peoples’ access to cars, it will encourage them to drive more they otherwise would have if they owned a car.\n\nThis concept, known as “Jevons Paradox” states that “the efficiency with which a resource is used tends to increase the rate of consumption of that resource.”\n\nThe paradox gained notoriety for being used to suggest that energy efficiency trends actually led to in increase in overall energy use. \n\nTo be clear, the theory behind this is sound– people will consume more of something if the cost is lower– but like many economic theories, the trick is knowing how far to take them in reality. The notion that we could get so efficient at using resources that we’d end up using more is about as valid as the idea that a restaurant could get so crowded that it would empty.\n\nPeople are going to continue to consume, and the cleanweb is not about forcing behavior change– its about changing the model from hyper-consumption to collaborative consumption, or said more simply....better consumption\n\nAnd the research has shown that this inevitably leads to a reduced environmental impact.\n
The 80% of Americans who couldn’t participate in rooftop solar, now can because of the power of crowd-sourcing on the internet\n
The cost saving of this technology are profound:\n\nAnd not only does this save money\n\nbut it is also much simpler and more convenient for both Sungevity and the consumer.\n
But the cleanweb is not reliant on glitzy new devices and iphone apps. Here’s an example of a very simple, low-tech way that cell phones are being used to manage energy use. \n\nThere’s a small up-and-coming effort called text-on being developed by our friends at Pure Energy Partners. \n\nBasically, the ball fields in New York City have historically always been on at night from April to October, rain or shine, regardless of whether anyone is even using them. This is a nuisance for the folks living in apartment buildings nearby, whose homes are lit up like a stadium every night and an obvious waste of energy. \n\nOur friends came up with the idea of putting a mobile switch on the ball fields likes that can be accessed by sms text codes from any cellphone. They called the NYC Parks Department and they agreed to do a pilot, liked the reduction in energy and complaints, and are going to roll it out across all the fields in the City. \n\nNow, the default for these lights is Off and if coach shows up and he wants the lights to turn on he can just text the lights On… Click…\n
You can see how this sort of simple technology solution could be applied to remote power applications of many types, not just ball fields…\n\nThis is just one example of how the cleanweb is having an impact on our lives at a neighborhood or community level. Its not just about energy either…\n\nA new start up in the waste-disposal game called Big belly solar produces solar powered compactors for trash and recyclables. Each bin is fitted with an RFID chip that communicates with a central office to report when the bins are full. Only then does a truck roll out to empty them– no wasted trips. \n
Honest Buildings is bringing the cleanweb to a city-wide level, leveraging BIG DATA. They’ve created a network for the built environment to give every building a transparent footprint and personality online. Owners can talk about what their doing to manage their building. Tenants can talk about their needs. Vendors can look at opportunities to improve performance of buildings. \n\nIt’s sort of a Linked-In and Yelp for greener buildings.\n
People are starting to get involved on a massive level. This is a picture of a recent hackathon. I hosted a hackathon like this focused on the cleanweb in San Francisco last year and we got hundreds of people to come out. We did one earlier this year in NYC, and are doing more around the country throughout the year. You can’t imagine the enthusiasm were seeing at these events. \n\nWhile we’re getting a mix of cleantech folks and techies, it’s surprising to me how many of the folks coming to the hackathons have never thought about resource issues in the context of their work before. But when they make the connection, they see how powerful it is and have terrific ideas for new apps…\n
People are starting to get involved on a massive level. This is a picture of a recent hackathon. I hosted a hackathon like this focused on the cleanweb in San Francisco last year and we got hundreds of people to come out. We did one earlier this year in NYC, and are doing more around the country throughout the year. You can’t imagine the enthusiasm were seeing at these events. \n\nWhile we’re getting a mix of cleantech folks and techies, it’s surprising to me how many of the folks coming to the hackathons have never thought about resource issues in the context of their work before. But when they make the connection, they see how powerful it is and have terrific ideas for new apps…\n
If you look more deeply, the silicon age has two branches: Right around the same time Intel invented the microprocessor, Bell Labs invented the first modern silicon solar panel. Yet again this raw material may prove to power both an energy and communication technological revolution. \n\nFor the first time, in 2006, over half of the world's supply of polysilicon was being used for production of PV panels. \n\nWe are beginning to move beyond the oil based economy to a clean energy— information age. \n\nIncreasingly linking the two together are powerful services:\n\nSocial: If Facebook were a country, they would be the third largest in the world.\n\nSensors: Currently 2.5 billion devices connected to the internet. Within 10 years, there will be over 100 billion connected devices (Michael Nelson, IBM IT Director). Only a fraction of this massive growth will be from computers, tablets, and smartphones. \n\nBy end of this year, Sensors will account for 20% of non-video internet traffic (Gartner Group 2010). They are also becoming cheap enough to use on anything-- even trash. MIT is working on a program called “trash track” where they affix sensors to garbage to follow the ‘removal chain’ of our waste to see where it is going and how much energy is used to make it disappear.\n\nBig Data: In 2011, we created 1.8 zettabytes of information digitally. It would take 57 Billion ipads to store that much info. Or every person in the US tweeting 4000 tweets per day for 26 thousand years to create it (http://mashable.com/2011/06/28/data-infographic/).\n\nOr to put it another way, it took two days last year to create as much information as that created by all people that ever lived from the dawn of civilization until 2003. And moreover the same amount of information will be generated in ten years from now only within one hour (http://blogs.reuters.com/chrystia-freeland/2011/09/23/yuri-milner-on-the-future-of-the-internet/)\n\nThis is the cleanweb and its going to be HUGE.\n\nIf you think that is all theoretical and you don’t think that information technology could fundamentally change the way we deal with the planet, business and society, let me show you the trajectory we’re on.\n
People are starting to get involved on a massive level. This is a picture of a recent hackathon. I hosted a hackathon like this focused on the cleanweb in San Francisco last year and we got hundreds of people to come out. We did one earlier this year in NYC, and are doing more around the country throughout the year. You can’t imagine the enthusiasm were seeing at these events. \n\nWhile we’re getting a mix of cleantech folks and techies, it’s surprising to me how many of the folks coming to the hackathons have never thought about resource issues in the context of their work before. But when they make the connection, they see how powerful it is and have terrific ideas for new apps…\n
People are starting to get involved on a massive level. This is a picture of a recent hackathon. I hosted a hackathon like this focused on the cleanweb in San Francisco last year and we got hundreds of people to come out. We did one earlier this year in NYC, and are doing more around the country throughout the year. You can’t imagine the enthusiasm were seeing at these events. \n\nWhile we’re getting a mix of cleantech folks and techies, it’s surprising to me how many of the folks coming to the hackathons have never thought about resource issues in the context of their work before. But when they make the connection, they see how powerful it is and have terrific ideas for new apps…\n
People are starting to get involved on a massive level. This is a picture of a recent hackathon. I hosted a hackathon like this focused on the cleanweb in San Francisco last year and we got hundreds of people to come out. We did one earlier this year in NYC, and are doing more around the country throughout the year. You can’t imagine the enthusiasm were seeing at these events. \n\nWhile we’re getting a mix of cleantech folks and techies, it’s surprising to me how many of the folks coming to the hackathons have never thought about resource issues in the context of their work before. But when they make the connection, they see how powerful it is and have terrific ideas for new apps…\n
People are starting to get involved on a massive level. This is a picture of a recent hackathon. I hosted a hackathon like this focused on the cleanweb in San Francisco last year and we got hundreds of people to come out. We did one earlier this year in NYC, and are doing more around the country throughout the year. You can’t imagine the enthusiasm were seeing at these events. \n\nWhile we’re getting a mix of cleantech folks and techies, it’s surprising to me how many of the folks coming to the hackathons have never thought about resource issues in the context of their work before. But when they make the connection, they see how powerful it is and have terrific ideas for new apps…\n
People are starting to get involved on a massive level. This is a picture of a recent hackathon. I hosted a hackathon like this focused on the cleanweb in San Francisco last year and we got hundreds of people to come out. We did one earlier this year in NYC, and are doing more around the country throughout the year. You can’t imagine the enthusiasm were seeing at these events. \n\nWhile we’re getting a mix of cleantech folks and techies, it’s surprising to me how many of the folks coming to the hackathons have never thought about resource issues in the context of their work before. But when they make the connection, they see how powerful it is and have terrific ideas for new apps…\n
People are starting to get involved on a massive level. This is a picture of a recent hackathon. I hosted a hackathon like this focused on the cleanweb in San Francisco last year and we got hundreds of people to come out. We did one earlier this year in NYC, and are doing more around the country throughout the year. You can’t imagine the enthusiasm were seeing at these events. \n\nWhile we’re getting a mix of cleantech folks and techies, it’s surprising to me how many of the folks coming to the hackathons have never thought about resource issues in the context of their work before. But when they make the connection, they see how powerful it is and have terrific ideas for new apps…\n
People are starting to get involved on a massive level. This is a picture of a recent hackathon. I hosted a hackathon like this focused on the cleanweb in San Francisco last year and we got hundreds of people to come out. We did one earlier this year in NYC, and are doing more around the country throughout the year. You can’t imagine the enthusiasm were seeing at these events. \n\nWhile we’re getting a mix of cleantech folks and techies, it’s surprising to me how many of the folks coming to the hackathons have never thought about resource issues in the context of their work before. But when they make the connection, they see how powerful it is and have terrific ideas for new apps…\n
People are starting to get involved on a massive level. This is a picture of a recent hackathon. I hosted a hackathon like this focused on the cleanweb in San Francisco last year and we got hundreds of people to come out. We did one earlier this year in NYC, and are doing more around the country throughout the year. You can’t imagine the enthusiasm were seeing at these events. \n\nWhile we’re getting a mix of cleantech folks and techies, it’s surprising to me how many of the folks coming to the hackathons have never thought about resource issues in the context of their work before. But when they make the connection, they see how powerful it is and have terrific ideas for new apps…\n
People are starting to get involved on a massive level. This is a picture of a recent hackathon. I hosted a hackathon like this focused on the cleanweb in San Francisco last year and we got hundreds of people to come out. We did one earlier this year in NYC, and are doing more around the country throughout the year. You can’t imagine the enthusiasm were seeing at these events. \n\nWhile we’re getting a mix of cleantech folks and techies, it’s surprising to me how many of the folks coming to the hackathons have never thought about resource issues in the context of their work before. But when they make the connection, they see how powerful it is and have terrific ideas for new apps…\n
People are starting to get involved on a massive level. This is a picture of a recent hackathon. I hosted a hackathon like this focused on the cleanweb in San Francisco last year and we got hundreds of people to come out. We did one earlier this year in NYC, and are doing more around the country throughout the year. You can’t imagine the enthusiasm were seeing at these events. \n\nWhile we’re getting a mix of cleantech folks and techies, it’s surprising to me how many of the folks coming to the hackathons have never thought about resource issues in the context of their work before. But when they make the connection, they see how powerful it is and have terrific ideas for new apps…\n
