Tell Me how to do my Job

well i suppose in my world (surrounded by other broke grad students/postdocs) the financial aspect hits home hardest. i've talked about installing compact flourescent lights and how they save energy and therefore electricity and how you don't buy lightbulbs often and you save money on your electric bills. i talk about how infrequently i fill up my gas tank and how that saves me money, decreases my share of automotive pollution, and helps with the oil supply problems we've been seeing.

seems that's the way most people look at things unless they're very comfortable financially.

good luck with this, tony.

 

Well, I'll throw in my $.02....

From the standpoint of an average Joe like me, it's hard to become interested in such topics unless you grab my attention somehow, and do something I won't forget. Otherwise, to me, and a lot of people like myself, it's just another boring meeting I'll forget about by lunchtime (no offense, just being blunt and honest from my perspective).

...anyway, whenever I'm called to do such presentations or what not, I tend to engage people's attention a bit differently. For example, what if you started off the meeting by not saying anything, and with your audience milling about, walk around the room spraying some type of bathroom freshening spray. Then, suddenly stop and say, something like, "Because of what I just did, someone here is going to get cancer."

Something amongst those lines, shock value with substinance. Or, start with a silent slideshow of gross medical tumors caused by some sort of harmful this or that...

...again, this is from my perspective, someone that has *gulp* little or no real interest in environmental issues...

 

Maybe give them something they can take home? Something appropriately themed of course.... Like some sort of enivronmentally friendly pen or something amongst those lines... I'm sure there are effective "small" props out there somewhere... Who knows, a pen that had one of those contained "eco-systems" balls on the end... something amongst those lines...

 

Slightly tongue in cheek, slightly serious:

Why don't you give everyone a PriusChat user id and ask them to join in on the discussions for an hour?

Or, maybe give them a treasure hunt type assignment and have them search priuschat and other resources for the answers.

Or, have them go to some of the earthday sites and make them take the carbon footprint quizzes and then follow-up with them about how many planets they are consuming (actually, I think this one is pretty good idea).

(side note: I've built up 15 years experience in building computer-based training for govt and consumer markets. video-based is a snooze and expensive to develop. Slideshow type stuff is just as boring. game-like, hands-on, simulation-oriented training is much more effective. PM me if you want some more info or advice.)

 

...if it's totally web-based, sounds like you could do a lot of stuff... Maybe have it all take place within a virtual Prius, whereas the information is presented within a slightly larger MFD???

I like what bigdaddy wrote, something to make it more interactive.....!

 

It would be great to add the "game" factor. A virtual reality room/house where you identify items that can be recycled, wasted energy sources such as old fridges and poorly closed windows. Even with the more literate folks who use a computer, pictures are easier to identify with and it's quicker to the point.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ May 18 2006, 03:36 PM) [snapback]257677[/snapback]</div>

Tony

I do industrial automation but have experience with BACnet and LON. My primary experience is with DeviceNet, ControlNet, Foundation FieldBus, AS-I, ProfiBus, and Industrial Ethernet.

I approach building/plant efficiency the only way I know that will work: bottom line. Once you veer off into Environmental issues they tune out.

Let me know if you would like to see my PowerPoint or pdf presentations. I'm leaving Thursday for another 2 weeks so not sure if I can get to it before then

jay

 

Since it is computer based training and every employee will be taking a series of one-hour online courses about energy efficiency, etc . . .

How about making the course an interactive game along the lines of simplistic Sim City. Give the employee X amount of energy, materials, or resources (whatever works) to consume in a day. The catch is - and this is the fun part - if they do not save enough energy, the module/course will “run out of power†and crash. They will have to start over . . . no backing-up – because we all know, with conservation, once it is wasted – it's gone.

 

Speaking of SimCity, how about SimEarth? Watching the oceans boil off and the biomass plummet is quite instructive. I would hope you are able to incorporate some kind of non-monetary indicators. The mindset that the value of everything can be expressed as money is a big part of the problem.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ May 19 2006, 04:46 PM) [snapback]258232[/snapback]</div>

I like the interactive games. I think most folks don't realize that something simple like putting insulation behind their light switches is easy only takes a few minutes then you can forget about it for years but the savings just keep on happening. For most of my work group they think about the big ticket items -new windows, siding, etc. and don't have the money. They feel the small stuff isn't worth the effort. The person who sits next to me shuts her monitor off every day. When asked why she says so she can get a raise. Every penny saved is a potential raise in the future. The companies really need to do more to help folks choose to recycle as well. There is one recycle barrel at work, 12 trash barrels in the same area. The recycle barrel is not on the main pathway. The smog issue is most noticeable from an airplane, IMO. When you are living in it, looking up through it daily, you really don't notice it so much. But fly above it and really see the thick layer of yuck makes it much more impressive.
If you could show something like a mouse rollover for when an item is drawing electricity even though it is in "night mode" or "off" with a click to show how much energy is consumed while in that mode for an average year could be interesting.
Those are my random thoughts. Best wishes. If you would like me to help test your lesson plans I would be glad to.
Unfortunately apathy runs rampant in this country. Unless you can motivate the people to go home and make a change, perhaps by having an easy homework assignment, not much change will happen.

 

Tony, hope you are still monitoring this thread. Sorry to be so late, but I just discovered this discussion. I have just got to get myself in gear and log on more frequently.

I had the great honor to meet and spend some time with one of the most brilliant people of her time. Perhaps of all time. RADM Grace Hopper, author of the cobol compiler and inspiration leader non pareil. She was the third programmer of the USA's first computer. She invented the term "bug" in computer talk.

Grace also gave me the best "take away" I ever received and which I still have some 20 or so years later.

Grace frequently spoke about economy in programming as saving time and resources. She spoke of these savings as environmental and efficacious. She once reviewed a program written by one of her bright young men and told him it was too long and inefficient. His reply was that the program only took a few more second of compute time.

Grace calculated how far the distance was in light year time for two seconds, and then broke the distance down to a nanosecond. Turns out to be just about 11 inches long for light/unhindered electrical charge to travel in a nanosecond. Imagine, she said, how much wire and resource we have to use to add two seconds to a program. Imagine the tremendous waste of our resources due to our sloth and slop.

Then she would hand out nanoseconds to us all in the form of 11 inch pieces of single strand telephone wire she collected from the waste bin in the Pentagon. She was famous for many things, but I will always remember this dear woman for her remarkable insights and ability to bring them into focus so easily - in this case by handing out nanoseconds. I still have my nanosecond and treasure it. I doesn't do anything, It is not interactive. All it does is make me think of Grace's lesson.

 

I talk about efficiency by sharing two stories:

1) A grandfather and granddaughter are walking along the street. The granddaughter says, "Oh look grandfather, a $20 bill!" Grandfather says, "Don't be ridiculous, if the $20 bill were genuine someone would have picked it up already." Bottom line: the $20 bill is real (efficiency), we just need to recognize and pick it up. Payback: immediate and long-term.

2) Placing foam gaskets behind every switch and outlet plate in a home, classroom, church or business is the equivalent of plugging up a one square meter hole in the front door. Cost: $20 and about one hour of time. Payback: immediate and long-term.

Read Amory Lovin's Factor Four.