PENNSYLVANIA

Been to Pennsylvania for the first time - traveling the back roads for five days. Most puzzling so far was last nights dinner at an Amish culture house. Somehow energy conservation is on the forefront all the time: the ancient cableing, the enormous stand by consumption, the air cons, the freezers, the proportions of meals and drinks, the cornfields meant for making bioethanol, the cars and cars and cars - being part of all this silences me in a strange way - and then the nature: Pennsylvania Grand Canyon so overwhelmingly beautiful, and in the mountains, all of a sudden an area of the forrest that brought us back from summer to spring, with smell and all, and a grizzle bear was seen in the village where we slept last night - on a trail we walked just two hours earlier .. :-)

TALENT MANAGEMENT

Today I attended the 5th international conference on energy efficiency in domestic appliances EEDAL 2009 http://www.eedal.eu/

I presented on behalf of myself and Anne Marie Kanstrup and the FEEDBACK project, http://feedback.noe.dk/projektbeskrivelse/pdf/engprojbesk.pdf, a paper on consumer narratives about received feedback about electricity consumption via e-mail or SMS for a year. In itself interesting stuff. But the experience of the day, for me however, was when Mr. John R. Mollet, Vice President, Corporate Development of the International Copper Association, Ltd. (ICA) in New York presented his and his associates' work on bringing better supply of electricity to the urban poor of Sao Paulo in Brazil.

John Mollet's responsibility is to travel the world to build partnerships with governments, multilateral agencies, non-governmental organizations, public and private foundations, and industry to coordinate optimally their activities with ICA's Sustainable Energy, Environment / Health and in Technology programs.
- What is GREEN PEACE saying, I ask myself. I am sure ( and I am a donor) that Green Peace will have some stories about the International Copper Association, Ltd. (ICA).

Nevertheless, Mr. Mollet presents a convincing case of making a positive difference for illegal residents in the urban area of Sao Paulo, by way of making electricity available on a legal and safe basis.

Mr. Mollet has worked at ICA since 1998, most recently as Vice President, Sustainable Electrical Energy.
Before joining ICA, Mollet held several senior management positions in the metals industry, first as Project Director at the Bekaert Corporation and then as a Senior Product Manager at Tetko, Inc. (now Sefar America, Inc.). His career covers responsibilities in purchasing, sales, marketing, technical services, project and business management. Besides the electrical and electronic markets, his experiences include electromagnetic compatibility; steel reinforcement of radial tires and rubber products; precision filter media in synthetic and metallic materials for a wide variety of applications such as medical, aerospace, automotive, food, beverage, water. Mr. Mollet is a graduate electrical engineer from the University of Ghent, Belgium.

And here it is that I have to leave Mr. Mollet's CV, and think about the parable of the talents trusted (Mat. 25: 14-30 for those who have access to a Christian bible). The thing in this parable is: What do you do with the talents invested in you.
Mr. Mollet choose to travel the world telling about a way to electrify the poor in ways that also make them citizens -agents of society.

What do I do with the talents invested in me, I ask myself.

ON THE BUSINESS BORDER BETWEEN AID AND EXPLOITATION

Yesterday I learnt about the existence of a Danish organization www.iug.dk which organizes help from Engineers to Médecins Sans Frontières - such a wonderful idea. In the coming week I attend a big international conference 'joint action on climate change' http://www.jaocc.net/ where Anne Marie Kanstrup will present our paper on the difference between perceived affordance and perceived annoyance when it comes to mundane housekeeping activities such as using electricity and reducing the consumption of electricity. We worked with eight families on the issue of designing motivating feedback, and through the design activities they formulated the position, that the effect of feedback depends on when, where, and how much information is given. This they agreed on, regardless of difference in values and attitudes towards electricity consumption in general.
At the same conference I'll be chairing a session on the' Bottom of the Pyramid' business approach http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottom_of_the_pyramid, where the line between exploitation and help is up for debate.
On Friday, June 12, I, ,representing SPIRE, participate in a conference at Alsion 'Cradle to Cradle' and conduct a workshop together with Michael Braungart on how to map out the process of designing a cradle to cradle product (SPIRE is a strategic
research centre at the University of Southern Denmark with a unique approach to user-driven innovation
– participatory innovation).
From all of this I will take some questions and maybe even answers regarding the designer's role on the business border between aid and exploitation.