03.15.09

Fabulosity in the Room

Posted in ACRL at 10:01 pm by George Eberhart

Robin Chase, cofounder and former CEO of the car-sharing company Zipcar, was described in 2007 by Business Week’s Helen Walters as a transportation design visionary, and she is still hard at work challenging groups and individuals to confront the reality of global climate change. As ACRL’s invited green speaker, Chase knew her audience on Sunday morning was already eco-committed, so she got our attention by noting there was “Lots of fabulosity here.”

After quoting Goddard Institute for Space Studies Director James E. Hansen — who stated in 2008 that if we just go ahead with business as usual for the next 10 years, we will have 0% chance of averting the catastrophic effects of a global temperature increase of 3 degrees — Chase said that only massive behavior change in collaborating on the use and reuse of scarce resources will begin to reverse this trend. As an example, she said that in 2008 alone, 300,000 zipsters (users of urban Zipcars) averted 600,000 pounds of CO2 emissions by using 5,000 shared cars across North America and in London.

Indeed, she noted that libraries, as repositories of shared information, are the true precursors of the Zipcar concept and challenged the audience to come up with other ways to engage in Sharing 2.0 — the collaborative sharing of many resources (work, play, infrastructure, financing) by many groups. Wikipedia is a  good example of people making use of “excess mental capacity,” with the reward of pride in contributing to the world’s knowledge. The secret of shared resources is that they must be greasy (easy to use) and fill a genuine need (beyond mere curiosity).

Collaborative use of excess capacity could also involve building open wireless mesh-networking systems on the backs of existing single-use systems. For example, the E-ZPass system in place on toll roads uses single-use automobile transponders that key into an existing wireless network. What if a way could be found to free up the unused bandwidth to provide other wireless services for the driver?

The sticking point, of course, is trying to convince corporations to buy into this new way of thinking; it can be done, as Zipcar demonstrated when it had to deal with insurance companies that had never covered risks on automobiles shared by multiple users. “We had to retrain the insurance industry to think in a different way,” Chase recalled.

Also, there should be a different set of rules for small-scale businesses than large-scale ones. Michael Pollan, in Omnivore’s Dilemma, described how government regulations required meat-packing companies to have a separate and exclusive restroom for the industry meat inspector. That might work for corporate giants, but not for small, rural chicken farms: “When you go to a small scale, you need a different kind of contract between individuals.”

One questioner asked for concrete strategies to deal with vendors who are still forcing libraries into traditional contracts and university administrators who are not ready for a paradigm shift. Chase answered that the strategy is different for every company and each individual; but the best way is to appeal to their personal or financial incentives. Self-interest still rules, she said.

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The Greening of ACRL

Posted in ACRL at 12:58 am by George Eberhart

It wasn’t easy being the first to be green. The Green Component Committee, established after the last ACRL conference in 2007 in Baltimore, had to make much of it up as they went along and essentially wrote their own charge (which in essence was “reduce, reuse, recycle”). First, they prepared an online survey to find out what green features ACRL members wanted to see in their conferences. The top five preferences were:

• 95% - recycle paper handouts
• 90% - recycled materials in the convention center
• 87% - donate excess food or compost wasted food
• 77% - put a limit on promotional items and giveaways
• 75% - reduce paper handouts

Because ACRL made the committee a structural component of conference planning, it was able to work proactively with the local arrangements and virtual conference committees. The ACRL staff, especially Conference Supervisor Tory Ondrla, was strongly committed to sustainabilty and encouraged the committee at every step. At a Saturday panel session on “How to Green a Library Conference,” committee members summarized the greenest features:

• 240,000 mailed paper pages were replaced with electronic mailings (including an online-only service manual for exhibitors that also eliminated some 200 binders).
• 80% of all attendees signed a Green Pledge that committed them to put sustainable ideas into practice. Everyone who took the pledge earned a green leaf watermark on their badges.
• Green Speaker Robin Chase, cofounder of Zipcar and current CEO of GoLoco, was invited to speak Sunday morning on how libraries might model useful approaches to the crises of resources.
• The badge holders, like the bags, were made of recycled materials.
• The giveaway timers, which sit next to you in the shower and alert you when four minutes are up, were a big hit (someone said they “made a big splash”).
• The program book was printed on recycled paper in soy ink, at no extra charge to ACRL.
• Leftover promotional items were donated to local charities.
• Leftover food was donated to Fare Start, a culinary training program for jobless and homeless people.
• Exhibitors were given an opportunity to showcase their green products and services in the program book.

Seattle itself is on the cutting edge of sustainable practices, which made this conference the perfect place to start. The Washington Convention Center was already engaged in many green practices, among them:

• carpet made from recycled fabric in the exhibit hall
• reusable pipe and drapes
• reduced lighting during exhibitor setup and takedown
• abundant recycling bins
• water coolers in the hallways and exhibit floor for free refills to avoid purchasing bottled water

The committee plans to develop a manual of green conference practices and post it online for other ALA units and chapters. Committee cochair Charles Forrest summed up their work: “We are dealing with limited and shrinking resources and we have to constantly keep in mind how our activities affect the environment of the planet. We must introduce alternatives in order to be environmentally responsible.”

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