Monday, October 29, 2007

Week9_Final Idea_the Bamboo Ultimatum

The Bamboo Ultimatum
- Bamboo is nature's most renewable resource
- Bamboo is allergy free, environmentally friendly and repels termites
- Bamboo is rapidly renewable resource
- Bamboo is naturally resistant to scuffs, stains, heat, water and termites
- Bamboo is highest quality products with the lowest environmental impact.
- Bamboo is sharing renewable resources with the world.
- Bamboo provides a highly competitive commercial product.

Summary:

Sustainability Definition – What is sustainability

Short definition:
- Process or state that can be maintained at a certain level indefinitely.

Issue:
CO2 emissions from every day living, an average person projects about 7 tonnes of CO2 per year.

- CO2 is a byproduct of energy use,
- This byproduct is a major contributor of Global Warming and Climate Change.
- What we do today affects tomorrow

Some figures:



What are some ways to counter act CO2 production?
Some examples:

- Conservation → use less energy -→ efficiency
- Find alternatives for renewable resources that use none or less CO2 producing products and or services.
- Promote CO2 ridding environments. (What gets rid of CO2?)

Another great way to diminish CO2 production: (other than conservation)
- Stop cutting down trees. (refer to the picture above) they absorb CO2.
- How? Find tree alternatives or renewable trees that are economical
- What alternatives are there to trees? We need trees for wood right?

The Bamboo Ultimatum:


USE BAMBOO PRODUCTS! Bamboo is a naturally beautiful and durable alternative to the world’s limited supply of hardwood.

Why?
- Bamboo is an excellent renewable resource which can be harvested every 5 years. As a result, no forests are destroyed to make bamboo products i.e. flooring, ceiling systems, furniture board, furnishings etc.

- Like most other grasses, bamboo has strong resistance to diseases, insects and climatic injuries. Growing bamboo also requires minimal labour effort.
- Bamboo is a natural organic substance that has many flexible uses:
Products that are available that are made of Bamboo are:
For example:
Kitchen utensils, hardwood flooring, clothe, paper products, and many industrial applications in building.

What do we need to get people to use more Bamboo?

- We need to, or we must promote the use of Bamboo products!

What is the Bamboo Ultimatum:

More bamboo use = less trees cut down = more CO2 cleaned from the air = better environment + more alternative products that are renewable and CO2 friendly.


reference:

http://illumin.usc.edu/article.php?articleID=114
http://stylelimited.com/bamboo/
http://stylelimited.com/products/strand_woven_bamboo/photo_gallery.php
http://bambooecowear.rtrk.com/

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Week 7_Midterm Presentation

Why have an EcoParty?
Everyone loves to go to parties…

We can increase people’s awareness of the environment at the same time by:

Using reusable products and items when possible
Using organic materials
Using organic foods

Concept and purpose


Entertainment + Food + Eco friendly

Our project goal is to enhance people’s relationships by providing services that use environment friendly items and foods for the party

Our project goals:
We are to provide the service for the party as well as setting the mood of the party
We are responsible for the people’s feelings
We help them from start to finish
We are not selling our product but we engrave our service in them

Diagram of Product Services System





Benefits to customer

Cost of services

Price is comparable to purchasing disposable dining ware.

Hassle free clean-up
Easily indicated trash/recycling containers are delivered with
the rest of the materials and products for the party.

Easy pick-up and delivery service
EcoParty brings organized materials to the customer’s door and
retrieves them upon request.

Unique designer products (eco-friendly)
Customized dining ware adds sophistication and appeal to
the party atmosphere.


Benefits to caterers/restaurants

Cost of Services
Using party consultants is cost efficient.

Relieves Delivery Responsibilities
EcoParty coordinates with caterer to consolidate delivery loads.

Relieves Equipment Responsibilities
Restaurant / Caterer does not have to purchase additional equipment
to accommodate the customer.

Ecological benefits

Difficult to estimate:
Very high energy cost of commercial-grade dishwashing
Transport for pickup and delivery

Solutions:
Low energy-intensity dishwashing
Bleach-based disinfecting
Air dry

Integrate transport with other deliveries

Even so, very difficult to make the sustainability case…


Market research
Restaurants
15,207 bus. In NY with more than $ 10bn sales, 7% of US total
Allow easy expansion into higher-end catering

Catering services
818 bus. In NY with $800m sales, 10% of US total
Allow focus on food
“Green” branding opportunity, compatible with local / organic principles

End users
Freedom to choose preferred food supplier
“Surge capacity” for large numbers of guests, reduced cleanup effort


Economic Analysis

Key challenge: Disposables are extremely cheap!
Disposables cost $0.45 per setting / person
Premium party rental services cost $ 4.50 + per setting / person
Cost of re-use alone is about $0.80 per setting
(transport + washing)
Selling point must be style / green, not price
Glasses / dishes not key profit area, but necessary
Restaurant grade dishwashers are 5x more expensive than consumer grade, but 30x faster(and cheaper to run)
Can outperform residential dishwasher, but not disposables


Economic Analysis
Must maximize efficiency
Exclusively EnergyStar +
Wash-in trays
Combine delivery and pickup with other services
Mark clean / dirty racks
Reduce excess use- individualized dinnerware?

Week 6_Midterm Idea

Midterm_Idea
Team: Gian Pablo, Graffin Frazen, Youjeong Paik

Concept: ecoParty_project / Entertainment(Party) + Food + Eco friendly

Questions about our project_ EcoParty


1. What kind of party do we have?
2. What is our purpose of the party project or party itself?
3. What kind of services do we have or need?
Catering service / hostess / chef / party decoration / detail / gift / eco practice /
(No disposal stuff at all!!) Donate some product after finishing party / gift / custom-made gift or plate for the expression of respect their relationships / small touching! / etc
4. What kind of people in there? (target research and marketing)
from children to adult / from birthday party to business party )
5. How many people in there(how big)
6. What is different from other similar service?
7. What are the most important things in our service?
8. What is our project related to the eco friendly or what percent of the project related to environment friendly?
9. How can we keep “fresh” things both foods and feelings?
10. What is next step after successful our PSS in Party?
11. What is more valuable than the profit?
12. What can we get our profit instead of money?
13. How this simple and small idea change(impact/ affect) something(majority/ public / by word of mouth)? What is the synergy by giving this top of the service to them?
14. What is other product(like home appliances, refregirator/ wine cooler for keeping food fresh) related to?
15. What is R/R/R(Reduction, Reuse, Recycle) in our project, ecoParty?
16. What happens to stuff after its system life is over?
17. What can we do as business leaders as far as advocacy?
18. What can we do as far as education?(LEEP?)

Stuff:

Controllability
Maintainability
Life span
Power consumption
Emissions
Specifications of equipment
System behavior

Guest characteristics:
1. they got invited certain party like a birthday party,
2. they spend kind of money to dress up for the party(taking a shower, hair, make-up, dress, some gift, nail to be looked good so that it can help their party mood)
3. they spend their precious time for the party
4. they should not disappoint in the party
5. they want to share special moment in the party

Monday, September 24, 2007

My last 10 years of personal technology...

I feel kind of ashamed when I write down my personal tech or electronic devices. I was depending on lots of electronic devices so I can save time and energy when I’m busy.
Actually, I haven’t realized this kind of feeling before reading High Tech Trash. I usually purchased state-of-the-art products when I need to do something and I used to spend lots of money to buy them. I have never been concerned about food or the environment too much but after reading the article on High Tech Trash and how it is bad for the environment and can cause cancer. I’m going to try to eat organic food more often and be more conscious about recycling and what we can do to improve the environment. I feel that as humans we should have some balance with nature on earth. As the technology things are developing, we are living more convenient than before, but at the same time, we are hurting the nature to get more resources for our convenience from the earth. At this point my questions is “what should we do?” Or “what should I do?”
I am not too concerned about us at this moment, but I am concerned about our next generation or future generation. I believe that they will not be struggling with money problem but they will be faced with very bad environmental problem like catastrophies that we can not fix so easily.

In Korea…………………………………………………………………………………

1995 ~ 2003 :
Beeper 2
Cellphone 3~4 ( I lost two)
My own computer 3 / Printer 2 / Scanner 1
Electronic Dictionary 1
Digital Camera 1
Main Home Appliance: Microwave, Refrigerator, Gas oven, Air Conditioner & Heating System etc…
Car 2
iMac 1

In United States…………………………………………………………………………

2005 ~ 2007:
Laptop computer 2 (pc/ macbook)
Desktop Computer 1
Cellphone 3 (I lost two)
Car 1
Desktop Computer 1
Printer 1
Scanner 1
Digital Camera 1
Main Home Appliances: Microwave, Refrigerator, Gas oven, Dishwaher, Coffee Machine, Electronic Thermo pot,
Rice Cooker, Juice Mixer, Pan,
Home Electronics: Television, DVD, VCR, iPod (Music), Air purifier, Pan 2, stand lighting
Cooling and Heating system

My boxes, I am ashamed..


I got a notice last week from the maintenance manager in our townhouse because I throw my boxes out without folding like the picture that I took. Actually, when I was in Korea, I separated everything before throwing anything out because of the strict regulations. I had to throw out the trash separately, especially food and other things. I was surprised that here in U.S. we don’t do that. In the U.S. we only separate the bottles and plastics, not food or papers. As I am getting used to living here, I became more lazy and forgot that I had to make the boxes flat before recycling them.