Friday, August 27, 2010

The Future Is Bright and Green

I confess to being a gadget guy but then I come from at least five generations of gadget folks.  Favorite reads like Popular Science Magazine , Wired Magazine or gizmag make me very hopeful about the future.solarpanel

For instance, I’ve read recently about roadway coatings that capture 45% of carbons from the air and solar panels built into roadways to feed the grid and  lightweight solar panels the size of leaves that mimic wall-crawling ivy on homes and office buildings to generate power.

We’ve got really creative people and market forces focused on very promising solutions to these problems.  And that’s very energizing, so to speak, pun intended:)

Author Dan Heath and I knew we had something in common the day we met a few years ago when we both happened to be visiting another city.   We have Durham connections.

He is a senior fellow at Duke’s Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship here and the DCVB where I worked at the time was  about to honor several social entrepreneurs and innovators at Durham’s Annual Tribute Luncheon.

Dan and his brother Chip write often about the process of innovation and how it is often more about adapting ideas from one context and applying them to another.  The solutions above are good examples of this type of innovation and why I believe the future is so hopeful.

No comments: