Sitting at the Global Tech Leaders conference at UCBerkeley

Just sitting in the audience right now at the International House at UC Berkeley listening to about 20 top leaders (acadmic & industry leaders – check out list here)

Fascinating stuff right now.

From the roll out of the electric car (and what it takes to get their via the grid (correlates well with renewables) and the need for the US (Canada???) to vamp up their battery industry to the issue of waste heat (50-60% waste heat) and the advancement in Berkeley’s Nano Energy lab getting the quantum limit of thermodynamics …(very tech but so very interesting).

Back to listening.

Check out the live web cast

Will get back to blogging later.

Recycling coffee cups

Last year one of my first posts was about Tim Hortons not recycling their cups and the general questions surrounding the issue of what’s recyclable and what’s not? (posted a few on that topic.) That question is still pertinent and should probably write a new one soon regarding the Finnish waste management systems… incredibly interesting – everyone sorts their biowaste – at home and at school!

But, back to good ol’ Timmy’s…

from timhortons.com

(Tim Hortons for those fellow int’ls is a huge Canadian coffee/doughnut shop – it holds 62% of the Canadian coffee market (compared to Starbucks, in the number two position, at 7%) My post last year was in reference to the garbage accumulated from these cups… the CBC reported (last year) that the cups accounted for 22% of all the litter in Nova Scotia (one province in Canada).

So…

Interesting read in the Globe about how Toronto is now accepting the cups:) Love it. Hope this expands to more cities.

As for me… I’ve been upset with myself for not buying a good thermos for a while now and instead of going for the daily coffee then back to the office, I bought instant fair trade… taste is likely down.. environment & cost savings up. We’ll see how this goes.

Personal updates…

Have been extremely busy as of late…

Working with a startup here in Finland (renewable energies in developing markets), Growth Venturing Group (a group at my University working with startups, but kind of like a startup in itself), finishing my degree by Christmas and planning many work related (and some fun) trips…

More “life adventures” ahead..

For starters, will be going to San Francisco next week for 1 week to check out the Center of Entrepreneurship and Technology.

Will post some more “life” posts soon, but for now, back to the daily (coffee) grind.

Ok, that was a cheesy ending. Apologies;)