Guest Speaker: Stuart Hickox

Stuart Hickox spoke to our class on October 22 about his organization and how to start your own business. Stuart is the owner and President of One Change, an NGO dedicated to people making one small change that can make a big difference. The message of One Change is inspired by the domino effect, which can be seen in the Organization’s logo. The domino effect describes the reaction that occurs with one small change. Often, people will start by switching to energy efficient light bulbs, which leads to checking tire pressure or reducing water consumption to preserve resources. These small behavioral changes can add up quickly to make a big difference. It all started in 2004 when Stuart was looking for a fridge online and he came across a statistic from Energy Star:
"If every household in the United States replaced one incandescent bulb with a compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulb, the reduction in pollution from energy production would be the equivalent of taking 800,000 cars off the road."

Stuart thought, it can’t be hard to get everyone in Canada to change just one light bulb, and so Project Porchlight was born. One Change has now raised 30 million dollars with the hard work and support of over 12, 000 volunteers. These volunteers have helped transform One Change and Project Porchlight into what it is today by going door to door in their own communities and offering homeowners a free energy efficient light bulb to replace an old energy sucking one they currently use. Stuart explained that when someone receives something for free they register it as a gift, since we are programmed to believe that we now owe the person who gave us the gift we are more likely to do something for them. Therefore, homeowners are more likely to take action by changing a light bulb or checking their tire pressure often. Today Project Porchlight has saved over 100 million-kilowatt hours of electricity.

Stuart Hickox is just a regular guy with a BHAG (Big Hairy Audatious Goal). He is originally from PEI and refers to himself as a writer, marketer and dad. Stuart came to Ottawa, Ontario 25 years ago to study at Carelton University. He started out in communications as a travel writer, then redirected his attention toward social issues. Stuart eventually became the Director of Marketing at Gordon Group, a design and advertising agency in Ottawa. At Gordon Group he was responsible for hiring and staffing writers. This opened Stuart’s eyes to overused communication campaign models such as pretty ads that simply bring awareness to a cause. He realized the world doesn’t need any more awareness campaigns, what we need is action. This lead Stuart to develop his own campaign model, which requires:
• Identifying the influences
• Mobilizing the first adopters
• Empowering the Seekers
• Engaging the skeptics
• Giving people the tools for action

Stuart’s campaign uses diversity as a means of providing momentum and excitement. He explained that putting a variety of people with different backgrounds in one room working together improves the success of your mission. Bringing different people together for a common goal helps break down barriers, allowing them to believe they can make a difference.

  Here is some general business advice Stuart gave to our class:
• Keep your minds open to anything you find powerful, shocking or moving, realize the power
   of that moment and do something.
• Set a lofty goal to attract other people, and OWN it
• Hire and work with people who are not like yourself to learn from them
• You must be very self aware and able to assess your strengths and weaknesses
• Mobilize people who believe in what you’re doing first, train existing leaders to be local
   advocates in their own community, and build alliances with businesses like yours.
• Create new and diverse networks of people
• Real people, instead of celebrities, are the best spokespeople
• Plain language is key when making a pitch
• Read your presentations out loud to assess the effectiveness and tone
• Be the person with vision and express your ideas
• Use multiple contact methods to reinforce your message
• Write a business plan and vision statement, set your core goals in stone
• Hire for experience, not ideals
• Social Media is just another medium; it’s a means, not an end
• A brand is who you are and what you do, not just the visual elements.
• Write a letter to yourself now with all of your future goals outlined, put it away for 20 years
   and look back on it later to analyze your accomplishments.

You can visit http://www.onechange.org/ to learn more about Stuart and One Change.

Nomadic Cardboard Furniture

On Friday, the 29th of October, we had our Nomadic Cardboard Furniture project due. Everyone arrived awkwardly to class carrying various sizes of cardboard furniture, from chairs, to side tables to even lamps.
While waiting for the photographer to come get us, we watched a video by one of the authors of the book Cradle to Cradle. We then briefly spoke about our next project. At about 10 o’clock, Erin, our photographer, popped her head in the class and went searching for a spot where we could set up and take pictures.
After about 10 minutes, we made our way awkwardly to the hallways that connects the N building to the T building. We were all divided into different groups based on the type of furniture we made. Erin was super cool and let us arrange the furniture to make it looks like a set. She took pictures of just the set up furniture and then pictures of us students beside our work. Once everything was photographed, Erin quickly took pictures of each logo that was put on the furniture. When we were done, everyone make their way back to class and waited for the next project to be handed out. Near the end of class, Cleo tried to mark our furniture as quickly as she could so we could take our furniture home.

Cradle To Cradle / Remaking the Way We Make Things

Cradle To Cradle poses the question: paper or plastic?
Answer: Neither, we don't need to settle for the least harmful alternative when there are options available that are even better.

Cradle to Cradle is a book written by William McDonough and Michael Braungart. It is about the need for people to consider ecological design in order to prevent tragic consequences to the planet. We are accustomed to an industrial system of "take, make, and waste," but that is destroying everything we are working for. The main point that they are trying to get across is that commerce and nature can co-exist and actually thrive. Their goal is to reinvent human industry in order to create a sustainably prosperous future.

Not only does the book discuss nature-inspired design principles for a better future, the book itself supports those directions. It is printed on a synthetic 'paper' made from resins and inorganic fillers that look and feel like high quality paper. This treeless book is waterproof and rugged and can be recycled in the same place as yogurt containers. The book is an example of a cradle to cradle cycle of how it can be used, recycled, and used again without any loss in quality.

The authors would like to eliminate waste altogether rather than just rely on recycling which actually creates hybrids of biological and technical nutrients that become unrecoverable and unusable. This process is called downcycling as the authors refer to it, or even better just slow motion waste. It's ultimately about doing some good for the environment rather than just doing less harm and the book offers examples of how to achieve this and still make more money along the way.

This book has inspired our next assignment to redesign the package of a product from an environmental standpoint. Our goal is to demonstrate the necessity of cradle to cradle cycles through packaging designs that serve multiple purposes before, during, and after its intended use.

Here are links to buy the book:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0865475873/qid=1007157869/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_14_1/002-8374514-3264854

http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780865475878