Winning a Grant, and Other Exciting News
Written on 12/24 at 08:52 PM by Andy Posner
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Winning a $500 Grant
Two days ago, as I was sitting in my apartment and looking out the window at the snow piled on the branches and walkways of Providence, I received a call informing me that I had won a $500 grant from dosomething.org for The Capital Good Fund. Every week, Do Something selects a social entrepreneur that is under the age of 24 to win a $500 grant. I applied, along with the rest of the Capital Good Fund team, several months ago, and I had long ago forgotten about the grant. Although the money itself isn’t much--it will provide about half of a citizenship loan--it also provides our project with great exposure, gives us access to more networking, and provides us with additional, and much needed, technical assistance. Receiving the grant also gave me a boost of confidence as I enter a very busy of time during which I start a company, launch a non-profit and write my masters thesis.
Incorporating The Capital Good Group, Inc
In other exciting news, Mike and I finally incorporated our environmental consulting company last Friday. The Capital Good Group, Inc., will officially be a corporation in the state of Rhode Island as of January 1, 2009. The reason why we finally decided to incorporate is that it’s becoming increasingly clear that a lot of people are getting into the game, and we don’t want to be left behind. Specifically, we found out that the people in Berkeley, California, who came up with the bond model--wherein the up-front cost of doing efficiency or renewable energy upgrades is covered by a low-interest loan from the City, and the loan is paid back in the form of a property tax add-on equal to or less than the savings from the installation--started their own company. The company, Renewable Funding, LLC, helps municipalities implement the bond model. Well, I saw an article saying that the model, if implemented nationwide, has the potential to be worth $240 billion, and at the moment there is only one company doing it. Hence the urgency to get it on the game.
Joe Hill vs. Joe the Plumber
Written on 10/20 at 11:42 AM by Andy Posner 0 comments
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In last week’s third and final presidential debate, John McCain spent a considerable amount of time talking about “Joe the Plumber.” Joe is a guy that met Obama on the campaign trail, and who confronted him about the fact that his tax policy would “penalize” him if he were to buy the business he works for and see a dramatic rise in his income, because Obama’s tax plan calls for tax cuts for people that earn below $250,000, and tax increases for those that earn more. Now the amazing thing is that, for a lot of people, Joe’s complaint rings true even though they will most likely never earn more than a quarter million dollars a year. As I starting thinking about this bizarre dynamic, it occurred to me that we’ve heard from a lot of Joes during this campaign: Joe six-pack, Joe the Plumber and Joe Biden. But there’s another Joe we haven’t heard about--most likely because he died over a century ago--but whose story, immortalized in folk songs, has a lot to say about the state of the country and its potential for greatness.
A lot of you will have heard of Joe HIll because Joan Baez often sang, and probably still does sing, about his life. To put it briefly, Joe Hill was a songwriter, labor activist and union member, who was framed for murder and then executed by firing squad in November of 1915. In the version of the song about his life that Joan Baez sings, the lyrics go as follows:
A Great Speech Confronting Racism Against Obama
Written on 10/14 at 12:05 PM by Andy Posner 0 comments
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Here is a speech by Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO. It’s just a moving, simple, short, powerful speech. I highly recommend watching it. Things are happening in this country. Obama’s ascendency is forcing our country to confront itself.
A Historic Moment
Written on 08/29 at 02:32 PM by Andy Posner 2 comments
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An Electric Moment
Last night a football stadium was packed to the gills, not with football fans cheering on their home team, but rather with people from all walks of life who endured long lines and heat in order to listen to a politician deliver a speech. It was a speech given 45 years to the day after Martin Luther King’s I have a dream speech that, symbolically and literally, opened the way for a black man to accept the nomination for president of the United States. It was a speech given to cheering crowds and extraordinarily high expectations. It was given to a nation that has gone decades without an inspirational leader. It was a speech given during an inflexion point in history, when the world is facing new global challenges and new global opportunities, and the very strength of America’s place in the world depends on the direction we choose to take; will we once again be a nation that does not torture, that does not invade sovereign nations, that leads by example? Will we be innovators? Will we rebuild our infrastructure, provide health care to all, protect social security and educate our children?
Something Amazing is Stirring
So it was that Obama stood up before the crowd and, looking calm, confident and collected, gave a speech that at times soared into the clouds and at times swept along the earth. He gave a speech that moved to poetry and then, in a smooth change in tone and cadence, became an explanation of policy positions. He gave a speech that attacked his opponent without disrespecting his opponent. He gave a speech that moved commentators--myself included--to soaring commentary. And finally, he gave a speech that will resonate in history not because of any one line or phrase, but because of the context and the moment. We will look back on this night when we are older and proudly say, “I remember that.” We will think back on where our country was headed and realize that something amazing was stirring all along.
I Am Now A LEED Accredited Professional!
Written on 08/25 at 03:25 PM by Andy Posner 0 comments
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Passing the LEED Exam
Last Thursday I took--and passed!--the LEED accreditation exam. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, and it is a performance-based rating system for green buildings established by the U.S Green Building Council. It has come to be accepted as the benchmark for green building, and covers all aspects of a building, from materials, to energy, water and building operation. Becoming a LEED accredited professional (LEED AP) allows you to be a consultant on a LEED project, and it is also something you can put after your name to improve your credibility.
How LEED works
I studied for about a month to pass the exam, which consists of 80 questions covering all aspects of the rating system. The way LEED works is that the points are broken down into 5 topic areas: Sustainable Sites; Energy & Atmosphere; Water Efficiency; Materials and Resources; and Indoor Air Quality. A final category rewards efforts that don’t fall under the other topic areas. Within each category, points are awarded for achieving environmental performance. For instance, 1-10 points can be earned in the Energy & Atmosphere, depending on the energy-efficiency of the building. Each category has pre-requisites that must be earned, and depending on how many points the project is awarded a building can be rated anywhere from LEED certified to LEED platinum. (Learn more about how LEED works here)
Welcome. I call this the ideas blog. That’s because this is where I explore new ideas, discuss new inventions, and chronicle how they are being implemented in the real world. I call these the three I’s: Invest. Invest. Implement. Here I will look at everything that’s going on in the world of information technology, open-source software, renewable energy, energy efficiency, micro-credit/poverty alleviation, social justice, politics and literature. If that sounds overly broad, keep in mind that many of the world’s most intractable issues--poverty, hunger, injustice, environmental degradation--are profoundly intertwined. Solving them requires big ideas, and that’s what this blog is all about.
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Green Microfinance: Advancing Social Equality and Environmental Sustainability in the United States
Click here to download a PDF of my complete thesis. Questions and comments are much appreciated!
My masters thesis in Environmental Studies at Brown University looks at how microfinance--the provision of small…
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