While writing this post I’m enjoying a smooth ride on the German railways from Wuppertal to Berlin. This has been my fifth visit to the city of Wuppertal and today has been the sunniest day I’ve ever seen there. I hardly could leave the city since everything looked so different on a sunny day. They say that Wuppertal is the rainiest city in Germany and I have no reason to doubt that.
What brought me to Germany are two conferences touching the topic of sustainable consumption and production. The first one was organised by the CSCP (The UNEP Wuppertal/Institute Collaboration Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production). For me the most inspiring message of the conference was that there are many examples like the transition towns movement showing examples on how individual people and small communities can make changes in their everyday lives without any orders from above. A slight frustration was occasionally in the air when we were discussing about pace of the change in policy making. But the positive thing is that we don’t need to wait for that. Mr. Chris Church from ANPED (The Northern Alliance for Sustainability) put it so nicely: “We already have tools and approaches to deal with climate change.” The important thing is that we need to act now. Sometimes we claim that “they” (referring to business, governments, transnational organisations, other people etc.) are not doing anything for sustainability. The participants of the conference seemed to believe – in parallel with One Did It team – that we need a positive approach and open minds to reconsider our own habits. Start with you, your family, local community and the change has already begun.
I was also reminded about the importance of networking and changing ideas. The organisers provided a market place for project ideas in the field of sustainable consumption and production. Inspiring discussions arouse while people were exploring each other’s ideas and finding potential partners for their projects. The discussions continue in the dedicated online network.
My hope really is that as lively discussion will arise between the members of the One Did It community and our team to help to develop the One Did It site even better. Another thing I wish is that the One Did It site will be the platform where ideas and inspiration to start action is found. Let’s show the world that we are not waiting orders from above. We have the knowledge and motivation to start to change our behavior today.
P.S. In Wuppertal also the FIN-MIPS Household report was released. In case you are interested to learn more about ecological backpacks of households, please download your copy here.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Onedidit.com is one of ten companies selected to present at Green:Net 09 in San Francisco!
The One did it service is one of the ten promising young companies that are using Internet to promote environmental issues to present at the upcoming Green:Net Launchpad on March 24. 2009. The organizers got overwhelming response of good candidates and One did it is proud to be the only European company that has been selected. These companies are innovators who are developing software, wireless networks, consumer electronics, and web tools to reduce energy consumption or boost clean power.
The First Green Conference for the Internet Technology Industry is being presented by Earth2tech and GigaOM and will feature an amazing line up of speakers from i.e. Microsoft, Dell, IBM, Cisco Systems, Google, Yahoo and 3Com.
One did it team is preparing the new launch in a few weeks and eager to present even more features that we already had to get selected!
The First Green Conference for the Internet Technology Industry is being presented by Earth2tech and GigaOM and will feature an amazing line up of speakers from i.e. Microsoft, Dell, IBM, Cisco Systems, Google, Yahoo and 3Com.
One did it team is preparing the new launch in a few weeks and eager to present even more features that we already had to get selected!
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Future planning at team trip to Germany, Wuppertal
The onedidit.com ecological backpack test is based on calculations that use the material intensity data provided by i.e. the Wuppertal Institute in Germany. One did it team decided to travel to meet people in Wuppertal Institute and also UNEP/Wuppertal Institute Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production (CSCP).
The journey started from Helsinki-Vantaa airport at 5.30 am. in anticipating atmosphere, a few of us have slight fear of flying. We flew to Dusseldorf and took the train to Wuppertal straight to a meeting. The day was successful, One did it team got introduced and got more comprehensive view of Wuppertal Institute’s area of operation. We also discussed about the launch of the German version of the onedidit.com site by the summer 2009 and some other acts of collaborating.
The next day after refreshing night activities and delicious Turkish dinner, the team started a whole day internal workshop about next steps concerning the service itself. As the first version was launched at the end of the year 2008, we have already some great feedback from users. The near future plans are very clear, there will be eco-tips called Do’s for user to reduce their ecological backpack calculated with the test. This feature has been accepted by the Beta-version users and it has been developed further to provide better user experience. Among this launch there will be anticipated friend invite feature, a must function to compare and challenge friends to take the test to calculate their own eco-backpack.
One of the major outcomes of the workshop was to continue the planning of the Facebook application immediately. There has been an application launched with the Beta-version, but it never reached the actual users. The role of the applications generally in Facebook has changed decisively from the first version of One did it application, some changes to the approach have been made and the application should be in test among volunteer One did it Facebook group members during this spring.
It is also evident that the German version of the site will be launched right after the English release that includes the eco-tips and friend features. Time frame to that is April-June 2009. The workshop summarized a few more broad-minded plans for the second half of the year 2009 but the final path of future development depends much on user feedback that we hopefully get loads of.
On the last day there was a meeting with CSCP, which supports usage of creative tools in sustainability communication. Since the concept of One did it is both informational and entertaining there could be possibilities to work together to promote the theme of sustainability. This could be done i.e. with the means of photography or writing or some other user provided content on onedidit.com service.
The trip was a great way to get out of the office, sit together in the same table, have good conversation about the state of the service, make future decisions and meet people from collaborating instances while having a great time. Hope the near release reflects the productive times we had!
The journey started from Helsinki-Vantaa airport at 5.30 am. in anticipating atmosphere, a few of us have slight fear of flying. We flew to Dusseldorf and took the train to Wuppertal straight to a meeting. The day was successful, One did it team got introduced and got more comprehensive view of Wuppertal Institute’s area of operation. We also discussed about the launch of the German version of the onedidit.com site by the summer 2009 and some other acts of collaborating.
The next day after refreshing night activities and delicious Turkish dinner, the team started a whole day internal workshop about next steps concerning the service itself. As the first version was launched at the end of the year 2008, we have already some great feedback from users. The near future plans are very clear, there will be eco-tips called Do’s for user to reduce their ecological backpack calculated with the test. This feature has been accepted by the Beta-version users and it has been developed further to provide better user experience. Among this launch there will be anticipated friend invite feature, a must function to compare and challenge friends to take the test to calculate their own eco-backpack.
One of the major outcomes of the workshop was to continue the planning of the Facebook application immediately. There has been an application launched with the Beta-version, but it never reached the actual users. The role of the applications generally in Facebook has changed decisively from the first version of One did it application, some changes to the approach have been made and the application should be in test among volunteer One did it Facebook group members during this spring.
It is also evident that the German version of the site will be launched right after the English release that includes the eco-tips and friend features. Time frame to that is April-June 2009. The workshop summarized a few more broad-minded plans for the second half of the year 2009 but the final path of future development depends much on user feedback that we hopefully get loads of.
On the last day there was a meeting with CSCP, which supports usage of creative tools in sustainability communication. Since the concept of One did it is both informational and entertaining there could be possibilities to work together to promote the theme of sustainability. This could be done i.e. with the means of photography or writing or some other user provided content on onedidit.com service.
The trip was a great way to get out of the office, sit together in the same table, have good conversation about the state of the service, make future decisions and meet people from collaborating instances while having a great time. Hope the near release reflects the productive times we had!
Sunday, December 7, 2008
One did it launch!
One did it team has launched a new version of the One did it website. It offers ecological backpack test to estimate what is your annual consumption of natural resources. The test provides questions in different categories as before, but now with more question for registered members. This means you can make your test even more accurate!
There is more to come, naturally. The team is working on to add more features to the site, amongst them eco-tips, Dos, to lighten the ecological backpack. I mean, what is the use of knowing the weight of the eco-backpack if you don’t know how to lighten it. Stay tuned for this and many other interesting features.
One did it believes that the consumption of natural resources (input) is somewhat easier to measure and plan than trying to clean up waste or pollution (output) the consumption creates. Of course, taking care of both the input and output is important. But we still believe that there is a need for preventive approach with ecological issues. We also believe that this could be a groundbreaking change in our minds if we could take this type of thinking to our everyday life. It doesn’t mean we need to move to a forest and start living out of hunting and berry picking (although that might be fun…). If we just take small steps at the time and open our minds to the idea of decreasing consumption the ways we find comfortable in our own lives. One did it is a service that wants to support that type of thinking. We hope you like it and share your thoughts with us via feedback form at the website.
We would like to thank all the beta testers who shared their experiences since the first launch of One did it in summer 2008. Your comments helped us a lot!
Now, enjoy the excitement of waiting for Christmas and check out One did it for your eco-friendly satisfaction.
PS.
One did it offers also a Christmas calendar to help you to make your Christmas full of love and tenderness. It is a tiny little bit different Christmas with eco-friendly tip for each day before the Santa arrives. Every day, there is a raffle of neat backpack designed specifically for One did it and made out of recycled materials.
There is more to come, naturally. The team is working on to add more features to the site, amongst them eco-tips, Dos, to lighten the ecological backpack. I mean, what is the use of knowing the weight of the eco-backpack if you don’t know how to lighten it. Stay tuned for this and many other interesting features.
One did it believes that the consumption of natural resources (input) is somewhat easier to measure and plan than trying to clean up waste or pollution (output) the consumption creates. Of course, taking care of both the input and output is important. But we still believe that there is a need for preventive approach with ecological issues. We also believe that this could be a groundbreaking change in our minds if we could take this type of thinking to our everyday life. It doesn’t mean we need to move to a forest and start living out of hunting and berry picking (although that might be fun…). If we just take small steps at the time and open our minds to the idea of decreasing consumption the ways we find comfortable in our own lives. One did it is a service that wants to support that type of thinking. We hope you like it and share your thoughts with us via feedback form at the website.
We would like to thank all the beta testers who shared their experiences since the first launch of One did it in summer 2008. Your comments helped us a lot!
Now, enjoy the excitement of waiting for Christmas and check out One did it for your eco-friendly satisfaction.
PS.
One did it offers also a Christmas calendar to help you to make your Christmas full of love and tenderness. It is a tiny little bit different Christmas with eco-friendly tip for each day before the Santa arrives. Every day, there is a raffle of neat backpack designed specifically for One did it and made out of recycled materials.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Did it in Helsinki – experiences of a stay at home holiday
About two weeks ago I was attending an interesting seminar organised by the Finnish Environment Institute about the preliminary results of the ENVIMAT research project concentrating on environmental impacts of material flows in the Finnish economy. The program was interesting and I was feeling light since I knew that the next Monday I would start my one week autumn holiday. While focusing on the last presentation I got an SMS from my spouse. “My passport is still stuck at the embassy because of the visa application. Seems like we can’t travel anywhere next week”.
Last time we had holiday, we took a trip through parts of Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. I must admit that travelling is one of my passions and I take every chance to travel to faraway places. I’m not sure if that is anything to proud of these days, but still. Well, to get back to the point, this time we had planned to take a short trip from Helsinki to Tallinn. I was feeling good about our choice to this time only take a short boat trip over the Gulf of Finland, no long haul flights or extensive road trips needed. But after receiving the SMS I was disappointed, no travelling at all? What can you do with a stay at home holiday?
At the end of the week I was glad how things turned out. I had enjoyed a slow paced delicious breakfast at the Cafe Ekberg (I must admit that I couldn’t strictly stick to the vegan diet...), wandered around a park covered with yellow and red autumn leaves, walked along some narrow streets in Kaivopuisto with fancy embassy buildings next to the sidewalks. One evening, I was glad I didn’t have to feel guilty about having a Nepalese meal without being in Kathmandu. When travelling abroad I consider it almost a crime to skip the local dishes but since I was at home I could eat whatever I wanted! Another night I had a chance to listen one of my favourite artists Jukka Poika singing his stories about the down to earth life in reggae style. It’s not that often you can enjoy listening to him on the beaches of Thailand.
When travelling abroad I always spend some time shopping, now that I knew all the same shopping facilities are available when actually needed I chose do something else instead. It might sound naive but it is true that instead of shopping I spend some time in the library, museum, enjoying live music and helping a friend with her garden work. Last but not least I went to check the cows grazing on the fields of the agricultural department of the Helsinki University. I was laughing at myself since apparently I had to move to the capital city of Finland before I actually had a chance to get so close with those lovely creatures.
In addition to the fact that I had cycled more than 200 kilometres around Helsinki during my week off, I was very much surprised how relaxing time I had. I won’t make a promise not to ever again to make a long haul trip but what I learned is that spending a holiday at home eases the pressure to do too many things during your days off. Last time I needed few days to actually recover from our holiday trip before getting back to work! This time it was easy to take it slow with the activities, if I won’t have the time to visit the National museum today I can (in theory at least) do it next weekend.
Last time we had holiday, we took a trip through parts of Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. I must admit that travelling is one of my passions and I take every chance to travel to faraway places. I’m not sure if that is anything to proud of these days, but still. Well, to get back to the point, this time we had planned to take a short trip from Helsinki to Tallinn. I was feeling good about our choice to this time only take a short boat trip over the Gulf of Finland, no long haul flights or extensive road trips needed. But after receiving the SMS I was disappointed, no travelling at all? What can you do with a stay at home holiday?
At the end of the week I was glad how things turned out. I had enjoyed a slow paced delicious breakfast at the Cafe Ekberg (I must admit that I couldn’t strictly stick to the vegan diet...), wandered around a park covered with yellow and red autumn leaves, walked along some narrow streets in Kaivopuisto with fancy embassy buildings next to the sidewalks. One evening, I was glad I didn’t have to feel guilty about having a Nepalese meal without being in Kathmandu. When travelling abroad I consider it almost a crime to skip the local dishes but since I was at home I could eat whatever I wanted! Another night I had a chance to listen one of my favourite artists Jukka Poika singing his stories about the down to earth life in reggae style. It’s not that often you can enjoy listening to him on the beaches of Thailand.
When travelling abroad I always spend some time shopping, now that I knew all the same shopping facilities are available when actually needed I chose do something else instead. It might sound naive but it is true that instead of shopping I spend some time in the library, museum, enjoying live music and helping a friend with her garden work. Last but not least I went to check the cows grazing on the fields of the agricultural department of the Helsinki University. I was laughing at myself since apparently I had to move to the capital city of Finland before I actually had a chance to get so close with those lovely creatures.
In addition to the fact that I had cycled more than 200 kilometres around Helsinki during my week off, I was very much surprised how relaxing time I had. I won’t make a promise not to ever again to make a long haul trip but what I learned is that spending a holiday at home eases the pressure to do too many things during your days off. Last time I needed few days to actually recover from our holiday trip before getting back to work! This time it was easy to take it slow with the activities, if I won’t have the time to visit the National museum today I can (in theory at least) do it next weekend.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
