Sustainability un-University + GreenPIVOT

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Submitted by Derek Chaves on Sun, 10/23/2011 - 17:50

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Sustainability un-University is fueled by the belief that the expertise and resources required to meet carbon reduction goals already exist within our community; the gap that we see results from an inability to connect knowledge seekers with knowledge holders in a way that facilitates meaningful learning. This project fills this gap with an affordable, convenient, simple, learner-oriented online platform that empowers teachers and students. It blends the rigour of the ivory tower with DIY entrepreneurialism, while acting as a springboard for discussion, advocacy, and innovation.

Submitted by Derek Chaves on Sun, 10/23/2011 - 17:50

Contestant organization:

4PLY Creative Collective

Venture partners:

TBD

The project is highly compatible with a variety of stakeholder types from Professional Associations such as the Ontario Association of Architects, to Community Colleges, and Educational Urban Think Tanks such as the Canadian Urban Institute.

We are very open to establishing meaningful partnerships with worthy and dedicated collaborators

Describe your venture:

Introduction

Toronto and Ontario in general, possesses tremendous expertise within the Universities and Colleges, as well as within the various professions that shape the biggest contributors to climate change: transportation, building + construction, food production, and energy production. What is also apparent to me is that there is great willingness to share knowledge. What we lack is the teaching and learning infrastructure.

Sustainability Un-University is more than a website, rather it is a learning commons that provides knowledge and skill leaders with the resources and a venue to provide self-paced courses that take full advantage of the late media age – videos, images, diagrams, online tests, discussion forums, slides, etc. Each instructor is to have their own course portal where the content is housed, and will receive a proportion of the course fees as royalties. Students who enroll will pay fees that are more flexible, and substantially lower than if the courses were taken from a college or university and arguably more effectively geared to meet market demands.

Instructors could be anyone from an expert green home builder educating first home buyers on renovation strategies that will make the greatest impact in reducing energy consumption, to an expert in organic urban farming who wants to structure a course around summer food production in suburban plots. The field is wide open for submissions, but educators must apply and be vetted by a selection panel pulled from our community of experts.

Rigour is maintained via two methods: 1) an application process that pulls on Professional volunteers within the professions and academia who can assess the merit of the instructors work. 2) A positively oriented teacher rating system that allows users to rate courses that are exceptionally well taught, referenced, applicable, etc.

In summary, why is this project so significant? Quite simply Reach. Delivering education in this manner has the power to reach many at a relatively low cost.

Summary of Innovative Advantage:

Empowers teachers and students to be more effective agents of change through knowledge transfer and exchange of skill.

Extends reach of knowledge - provides inexpensive access to education

Fosters community among knowledge seekers, can be linked to social and business networking sites

Provides opportunities for skilled and knowledgeable people to become knowledge providers. (An open knowledge delivery system with a local slant)

Infinite possibilities for courses - not shackled to a specific institution, has low overhead and is open to experts based on their demonstrated abilities.

The business model is highly scaleable with low operating costs, and designed to be self perpetuating

Emissions reduction potential:

Infinite potential for GHG reduction. This project takes a different approach from many of the other submissions in that it is not a singular solution. Rather it acts as an engine or amplifier. It has the capacity to spawn an infinite number of personal or corporate level changes.

It can be viewed such: 1 learner takes a food course and begins to grow their own food in their backyard efficiently and sustainably. That person is now making 5 less trips to the grocery store for fresh produce, while also lowering the demand for such products that require considerable fossil fuel consumption to grow and to transport at the same time. Let’s say a reduction in 10 car trips. Multiply this by the number of people who can take a course at any given time (no actual limit because of method of delivery) let’s say 100, and multiply this by the number of courses offered (theoretically unlimited) let’s say say 50. That’s 10x100x50. That’s 50 000 car trips. This is a rough estimate, but the power of the concept is clear.

Moreover, when compared to traditional methods of transferring skill-based knowledge, it requires very little built infrastructure or physical resources to function. It does not require a classroom, learners can use products that they already own (computers), there are no textbooks, and nobody commutes.

Without selling the concept short by restricting the benefits to only a few examples, a small sample of possibilities follow:

Increased solar panel installation (reduced emissions from energy production)
Modified consumer behaviour that results from better understanding
Local food production (reduced demand for industrial/petroleum based food production)
Green roofs (Increased carbon sequestration)
Energy Conservation in business (Electricity + heating loads) via education about best practices for office managers, facility managers, small busines owners etc (reduced energy consumption)

The team:

TBD

Seeking collaborators:

Yes

Potential collaborators should contact :

[email protected]

How will you ensure your project is self supporting within five years?:

This project is scaleable once it is established, because its operating costs are low. Even having just one instructor and 5 students will make the site viable. Instructors receive compensation in the form of royalties from enrollment. Their income increases as a function of their enrolment and depends on providing excellent content. Most of the funding will be needed to design and build the site, but this can be kept very low by using mostly off the shelf and open source web products. Otherwise, the model is simple, it provides easy access to expertise and compensates contributors. The cost of hosting the service can be kept very low by using scalable cloud-based services.

Bonus: Future Vision for Growth

GreenPIVOT is a second (expansionary) phase of the site; it is a match-up service between micro-capital (small or large investors interested in supporting green ideas), and the expertise required to make it happen (knowledge holders) within a platform for generating ideas. It would constitute a dating service for marrying ideas to capacity and to capital; one that leverages an established community of knowledge leaders and engaged learners.

A note on Marketing

The most appropriate marketing for this site would be a kind of un-marketing. Marketing that results from partnering and from producing a product that is genuinely helpful and desirable. This begins by prototyping early and reaching out early. Since the people who provide content to the site benefit financially from the site, and many will have networks, they must act as marketing partners by bringing their networks with them. Accordingly, the first stage of this process will involve recruiting knowledge providers (people) and advocacy/educational bodies that have their own networks to participate in the process and create content for the site. These groups (largely NGO’s) are networked and have many of their own followers. There may be a need to use some form of social media based marketing to grow the site at different points but that is hard to gauge from where we stand, and I will do more homework on it in the meantime.

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4ply