Need $$$ to Finance your Cleantech Venture? | Murray Guy

If we are going to create a Cleantech Revolution to help to Save the Icebergs that I blogged about yesterday, we are going to have to make it easy for Green Startups to kickstart their businesses.

Having recently launched two companies EcoSmart Developments and Lean Lab, I am interested in getting some help with Crowd Funding to accelerate the process of "Getting Green Done"

Let's see what Nuggets we can discover from recently published blog articles, that can help us!

How Crowdfunding Is Changing The Way Startups Raise Money | Inc.com: BY ADAM HEITZMAN Co-founder, HigherVisibility@HigherVis

The emergence of Crowdfunding has allowed entrepreneurs the ability to get their business ideas financed easier than ever. Funding your idea may now be just a few clicks away.

For those who are unfamiliar, crowdfunding is a means of raising funds from large groups. Kickstarter is probably the best example of crowdfunding. You create your business plan and idea and then upload it to the website with a financial goal in mind, and people can give money toward your goal if they believe in your business.

There are two types of Crowdfunding

Receiving Rewards it is the traditional way of crowdfunding. It is a system where investors would get a reward in return for their investment. For example, if you donated a certain amount of money to an entrepreneur who was trying to launch a new board game, they might send you the board game as a thank you for your investment.

Equity Crowdfunding is the newer way of crowdfunding. As of 2012 and thanks to the JOBS Act, companies are now allowed to collect up to $1 million per year over the Internet, so with this type of crowdfunding those who contribute could become company shareholders. This is a great middle-point between reward-based crowdfunding and the older, traditional way of pitching ideas to investors in person.

According to the Ultimate Crowdfunding Guide from BankingSense, "If you're interested in an equity campaign, your business will need to be incorporated.

If you're on the fence about which type of crowdfunding campaign is right for you and how to get started, I recommend visiting the BankingSense guide for more detailed information."

You should also check out "How Crowd-Funding Is Changing Everything and What that Means for Your Start-up"   This article is by the founders of FundersClub an equity based Crowd-Funding company.

Some Nuggets from this Article are"
Rewards-based crowdfunding can work well as a step towards de-risking customer demand and building a community of early adopters without giving up equity in the business.

“Rewards-based sites can be helpful for startups if you want people to pre-order your product to confirm demand,”

“The advantage of equity crowd-funding with the right platform is that it can make the process of raising value-added capital more efficient for founders,” says Mittal. “When we founded the company, we did it with the goal of being respectful of founders’ time, allowing them to raise quickly but to still tap into a value-added network helpful for key tasks like hiring, forming partnerships, winning customers, and raising follow-on capital. It’s not just about the money or the transaction, these types of platforms can expand your professional network for growing your company.”


It’s important to clearly outline what the startup does, how the product or service works, and other details that potential investors will want to understand.” If you’re not prepared to answer these questions, then you should ask whether you’re ready to raise any capital.
Best Practices

1) Know who you are working with. As a founder, you should do your homework on who you raise money from both online and offline.

2) Be Ready. “Your company has to be at an appropriate stage to do well on a site like FundersClub,”  "Because you’re raising capital online, traction and growth serve as important signals. Having strong customer testimonials helps, as does compiling any news or major press hits that you’ve landed."

3) Clarity is king.“You need to be crystal clear about what your product or service does and how it works.  It’s your job as an entrepreneur to clearly communicate your business and its value proposition in a way that investors can understand easily and quickly.”

4) Cover the key points. “The information you post should be no different than what an offline investor would look for. Hit the main points: What is the idea? How does the product or service work? Who’s on the team? What key milestones have you hit? What are your metrics for success? What is the market size potential? What are the investment terms? How big is the round you’re trying to raise?

Ideally, you have a pitch deck that works without you being there to explain it.”


Good luck with launching your #Cleantech the IceBergs need our help!

For more information on how to build affordable NETZero homes visit our Blog at EcoSmart | Building the Future or for commercial the Integrated Designs | The Art of Project Delivery or for Lean Lab | Training and Workshops 

  
 Murray Guy aka @Lean_tobe_Green | mguy@i-designs.ca

Integrated Designs  | EcoSmart  | Lean Lab   

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Can we save the IceBergs | Fred & Louie

In the story “Our Iceberg is Melting” we learn how a penguin colony deals with the change in the face of an impeding disaster. The penguins are living happily on their iceberg as they have done for many years. Then, one curious penguin discovers a potentially devastating problem threatening their home.   

There is a crack forming at the base of the iceberg that is worsening with time and as it fills with water and then freezes again, eventually it will cause the whole iceberg to split. Fred the scout has identified the problem, but must cleverly convince and recruit the Louie the leader and other key members of the colony to strategically work their way to a solution.

This story is analogous to the challenges we face as a society that need to address climate change. Our biggest challenge will be to get people to face up and deal with this difficult problem, as no one seems to be listening.  Maybe we can learn from Fred and Louie how to develop a plan and implement the change necessary to keep our Iceberg from melting. 

 

How would “the Penguins” do it?

As a first step Fred and Louie have established a group that recognize there is a very serious “Planet Earth Survival” problem. They have put them in charge of guiding the change, set a sensible vision of a better future and have communicated that vision to others in a way that they will understand and accept it. 

This group met at COP21, also known as the 2015 Paris Climate Conference. This is where 190 countries gathered to negotiate a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, with the aim of keeping global warming below 2°C. The conference negotiated the Paris Agreement, a global agreement on the reduction of Climate Change, the text of which represented a consensus of the representatives of the 196 parties attending it. The agreement will become legally binding if joined by at least 55 countries which together represent at least 55 percent of global greenhouse emissions. Such parties will need to sign the agreement in New York between 22 April 2016 (Earth Day) and 21 April 2017, and also adopt it within their own legal systems.

What is the Vision for a Better Future?

Next Fred and Louie, decided to create a vision for the Clean Energy Revolution. They started by gathering all of the movers and shakers to create an alliance called MISSION INNOVATION, to accelerate the development of clean energy innovation and to make clean energy widely affordable.  At the launch, 20 countries committed to double their respective research over the five years to 2020. The countries include the five most populous (as at 2015): China, India, the United States, Indonesia, and Brazil. All 20 launch partner countries represent 75 percent of the world’s CO2 emissions from electricity, and over 80 percent of the world’s clean energy R&D investment. This alliance will develop biofuel, carbon capture, airborne wind turbines, nuclear fission and nuclear fusion.

This newly formed group will add to the work of scientists and engineers called the Global Apollo Program that are working on renewable energy, energy storage, smart grids and hydrogen vehicles. Funding will also be made available through the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, a global group of 28 high net work investors that are committed to funding clean energy companies.

How will Fred & Louie, address the Culture Change Challenge?

Fred and Louie both acknowledge that the shift in culture and behavior is going to be the tough part which is WHY they are asking all of YOU to help enact this CHANGE. 

They suggest that if YOU lead by example and share your successes on social media, others will follow. If you tell somebody, and they tell somebody, pretty soon we will have started the Clean Tech Revolution.  We will have created a world where it is cool to live in a NetZero Energy home powered by the sun, built sustainably by clean tech companies and green collar workers.

Will there be a ECOnomy?

This is where it gets real exciting for early adopters, entrepreneurs and clean tech startups as they will become business leaders in a sustainable ECOnomy. Countries like Sweden, Switzerland and Norway will benefit as they are already well on their way to creating Zero Carbon economies. 

Companies like Interface Carpets, Patagonia and BMW to name a few will find demand for there products as more and more people recognize that our future depends upon making socially responsible choices, buying from companies that have bought into creating a sustainable economy.





We will see whole resource intensive industries like the building industry transform to where all building are net energy providers. Early adopters like  Okanagan College, the Mosaic Center and EcoSmart Developments are already delivering NetZero energy building that provide a positive return on investment. 

What you can do!

Fred and Louie are recommending that we all support the warriors and the countries that will make the Clean Tech Revolution come alive. They need for YOU to jump on board to support the mission. We need to become relentless in the pursuit of a new and better way, as the Icebergs are melting and we don’t want to let Fred and Louie down.

You can get started by joining the #NetZero Energy Revolution by getting your homes and building as close to NetZero energy use as possible.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article, for caring about the planet and for sharing this article with up and coming sustainability warriors.

Fred and Louie are recommending that we all support the warriors and the countries that will make the Clean Tech Revolution come alive. They need for YOU to jump on board to support the mission.

Dedicated to Fred, Louie the the ECO-Warriors out there!

For more information on how to build affordable NETZero homes visit our Blog at EcoSmart | Building the Future or for commercial the Integrated Designs | The Art of Project Delivery or for Lean Lab | Training and Workshops 

  
 Murray Guy aka @Lean_tobe_Green | mguy@i-designs.ca

Integrated Designs  | EcoSmart  | Lean Lab   

7 NetZero Targeted Projects and Counting

What is the NetZero Revolution?

There is growing excitement about going NetZero!  We are experiencing this as we just passed an milestone of participating on our seventh NetZero targeted project. The NetZero REVOLUTION is about making NetZero buildings  COOL like the i-phone so everyone wants one.  This article highlights seven projects committed to achieving NetZero Energy.  There are links to case studies for most of the projects.

How do the NetZero economics work?

By adopting Lean practices in building construction we create efficiencies and eliminate waste to cover the cost of the better envelope, more efficient systems and the PV panels that produce the energy needed to take us to NetZero. 

For the NETZero Revolution to Happen, we need to make NetZero #COOL and #Affordable like these projects that are targeting NetZero Energy Use!

Okanagan College Kelowna

EcoSmart NetZero Ready Positive Cash Flow

Salay Maizon NetZero Target Green Roof Passive Design

EcoSmart NetZero Targeted Prefab/Passive/6kw

Mosaic Center Edmonton

Blue Herron Haus

Onion Lake Treaty 6 Governance Center

For more information on how to design & build affordable NETZero homes EcoSmart  
How to deliver NetZero commercial at no extra cost. Integrated Designs  
For a workshop or training Lean Lab   
   

 Murray Guy aka @Lean_tobe_Green | mguy@i-designs.ca

#OHCanada Back in the Caring Game | Triple Bottom Line

Hot of the Press ... This just came in an Email, Proud to be Canadian .... again
Trudeau State Dinner Brings Civil Society In from the Cold

Sierra Club Canada Foundation volunteers and staff don’t do what we do because it’s easy.
We know our work matters. And every once in a while, we get an indication that it’s appreciated. Last week, that message came from the highest level of the new government in Ottawa. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau welcomed United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to Ottawa for a flurry of public appearances and announcements that signalled Canada’s re-engagement with the world.

On Thursday evening, Trudeau hosted a state dinner for the Secretary General in the Grand Hall of the Museum of History. The Prime Minister’s Office invited civil society to join Mr. Ban for dinner. Youth and Aboriginal people. Representatives of environment, international development, mental health organizations and more.

No one I spoke to had ever attended an event like this. Among the civil society representatives, there was an unmistakeable sense that the format was about inclusiveness and breaking down barriers. We also got a first-hand look at the genuine, mutual respect and friendship that has developed between the Secretary General and the Prime Minister. In his remarks, the guest of honour was uplifting, hopeful—and warmly personal in his comments about the PM.

As for the civil society reps, it’s hard to express how excited we were at the very obvious change in tone in Official Ottawa, and we are optimistic about what it implies for the days and months ahead. The PM is saying that we’re all in this together. Many of the people in the room had never before heard that message from a federal leader.

When the evening ended, many of us were too excited to stop…so we gathered at a café across the street from the museum for a post-mortem. (Okay, a bit of an after-party.)

We talked about how to move civil society agendas for sustainability, equality and justice forward, now that we’ve entered an era in which we’re actually welcome to do so.

While we won’t always agree with government decisions (nor will they always agree with ours), we are hopeful the relationship will be built on mutual respect and understanding. Because it’s time. Because it’s overdue. Because it’s 2016. (That one never gets old.)


What a gust of sweet, spring air on a bitterly cold winter evening.



Sincerely,


Diane Beckett
Interim Executive Director
Sierra Club Canada Foundation
One Earth • One Chance
Visit our website. Like us on Facebook.
Find us on Twitter @sierraclubcan.

SCCF's success depends on the support of like-minded individuals and organizations.


Sierra Club Canada Foundation
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Trust me I am the Expert

What are you waiting for? ... It is time to get Started

“If everyone waited to become an expert before starting, no one would become an expert. To become an EXPERT, you must have EXPERIENCE. To get EXPERIENCE, you must EXPERIMENT! Stop waiting. Start stuff.” ― Richie Norton

Positioning Yourself as an Expert in Your Field | Sylvia Baldock | LinkedIn:

Sylvia has an important message for Lean Start-ups and Innovation Companies that are in the process of transforming industries. You are not going to find experts in your field, you need to become one!  We all know from Jobs, Musk and Thiel that it pays dividends to become the expert so why not get started NOW!  

A few Nuggets from this article:

1. There has never been such and incredible wealth of knowledge at our fingertips as there is today and yet with our constant pre-occupation with our ‘busyness’ we often forget to feed our brains and our souls! We are the greatest asset our business has and neglecting that asset has serious consequences.
2. Investing in yourself is the best investment you will ever make. It will not only improve your life, it will improve the lives around you
3. People who constantly learn and grow are exciting to be around as you always learn something new from them.

We need more experts to help solve our planets biggest challenge which is severe Climate Change. 

Murray Guy aka @Lean_tobe_Green

If you want training how to deliver Lean Net 0 projects visit the Online LEAN LAB.

If you need a builder for your Net 0 home or want a copy of Rob Dumont’s Factor 10 recipe please visit EcoSmart

If you need help to deliver a lean and more integrated commercial project visit Integrated Designs.

Thank you Sylvia with the same name as my mom, for this article that is BANG on ABOUT .... getting started!

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Create Great Stories with GREEN Technologies

Latest green technologies show an exciting future - Canadian Consulting Engineer:


On every new project WHY not try and create a new sustainable story that helps move the bar closer to achieving all new buildings Net 0 by 2020.   


It is important that these  Sustainable Stories make sense, utilize new ideas or concepts that have been proven and are economically viable.  When we have created enough sustainable success stories, Net 0 buildings will become the norm and  sustainable development main stream.


This blog has been added as one of these IDEAS just might help form the basis for your next sustainable success story.


Algae filled curtain walls 

Sola road - A bike path in Amsterdam with solar embedded Pv panels also heard

GlasPro - Bird Safe Glass .... Could save millionsx of birds lives.

Replex Net 0 Daylighting

6 Story wood building - MEC Vancouver

Stacking parking Garages - Eddy condominium

BioMason Bricks - Grow your own 

Air Pure Paints that EAT VOC's


Thank you Windmill for continuing to be a pioneer in making sustainable development mainstream


Murray

@Lean_tobe_Green


Want to learn how to build high performance Green Buildings at less cost visit the Lean Lab


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Save enough ENERGY to take a TRIP where it's not -35 TODAY

Back in the olden days people would dress for the weather, put another log on the fire or head to the beach to deal with extreme weather variations.  Today we adjust a thermostat and expect immediate response and thermal gratification; independent of the capital, energy cost and GHG emissions that are required to support our high expectations for thermal comfort.

In North America we have the luxury of being able to live and work in indoor environments that are conditioned to 22.5ºC +/- a couple of degrees. There are significant capital and operating costs associated with financing our addiction to cooling especially with our extreme Canadian climate, which in some regions our building systems need to handle variations in outdoor temperature from -40 to +40ºC.

For the next generation of buildings, just maybe we need to start lowering expectations, challenge the status quo and develop smarter more sustainable ways to achieve creature comfort and productivity.  At the Mosaic Center for Conscious Community and Commerce they are utilizing alternate systems and strategies for optimizing comfort, capital and performance as they build a unique economically viable highly sustainable Living Building Challenge/LEED Platinum facility that will help set a new standard for the commercial real estate market.

 

“Sustainable Expectations” for comfort is one of the norms that is being tested as it has a huge impact on the size of the cooling and renewable energy systems that that are really only needed for 20 days of the year when temperatures are greater than 25ºC.

So what are the acceptable limits for thermal comfort that take into account comfort & productivity, capital and energy saving?

To determine the acceptable indoor temperature ranges, Dennis Cuku President of OCE and his staff initiated a Responsible Adults Temperature Study (RATS) utilizing his staff of 25+ engineers as the sample population.  This short study was conducted during the summer months.  For the test period, employees were provided with red (hot) and blue (cold) buttons on their computers and asked to indicate when they felt uncomfortable.

For the males of which most were young and fit professional engineers they were hitting the hot button at lower than expected ranges of approximately 23 ºC were comfortable down to 16 to 17 ºC.  In talking with Andrea who was monitoring the study, this relatively low range was contributed to the formal dress code where most engineers would wear collared shirts and long pants as well as having higher muscle mass than the females in the office.   The range for the females was about the same but 7 ºC but at a considerably higher temperature from 27 to 20 ºC.  This was attributed to the flexibility to be able to dress for the weather including shorts, skirts and open sleeves for warmer days.

The conclusion from the RATS experiment was that staff working in an office environment would likely not experience productivity decline or level of comfort satisfaction for temperature ranges of approximately 20 to 26ºC if the men were to adopt a more casual dress code. This has now been implemented at OCE.

To determine the cooling operating cost saving associated with allowing higher fluctuations in temperature, we refer to a study that IDI completed with Innovation Place Research Park for the 15,000 m² Atrium building located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan which has a climate very similar to Edmonton where the MC4 facility will be located. The energy model showed that by increasing the cooling temperature setpoint by 1ºC this resulted in a reduction of just over 4% in annual cooling energy or 126,000 MJ annually per ºC increase in cooling setpoint or $1000/yr./ºC in cooling costs.  This small change in the temperature setpoint would result in energy saving equivalent to the power required for 4 homes or in taking 1.5 cars off the road or CO2 reductions equivalent to planting 184 trees. This same approach applies for heating and would result in approximately the same amount of cost saving of $1000/yr./ºC.

With regards to comfort and occupant health, higher cooling temperature set points could in fact have a positive affect on comfort when people are dressed in COOL summer attire. According to Occupational Health and Safety this change is beneficial for heath as there are guidelines for maintaining a lower temperature difference between indoor and outdoor temperatures.

This type of thinking is supported by a comprehensive study on Air Conditioning Comfort: Behavioral and Cultural Issues. (Amory Lovins, Rocky Mountain Institute) In this strategic issues paper RMI concluded that “Existing comfort standards are more stringent than can be physiologically or economically justified” and that “Understanding why people use air conditioning is central to the challenge of providing comfort with minimal energy use and economic cost”.

RMI also concluded that comfort engineering fails to take into account acclimation, dependence and psychological differences and how people react when given control over their environment.  The “comfort range” equation as defined by ASHRAE Guideline 55 is 2.5 to 5.5ºC and can be as large as 9ºC for the average individual and individual variations can add +/- 7ºC to that range.

The RMI study suggests that there are ten degrees of freedom in achieving comfort in addition to the one that designers use almost exclusively dry bulb temperature, namely variations between individuals, variation over time, allowable excursions outside the comfort envelope, dynamic rather than static comfort conditions, metabolic rate, clothing, furniture, radiant temperature, air movement and humidity.  Together these alternatives can offer 10% to 30% in energy savings without violating comfort conditions.

By developing design concepts and operating strategies around these degrees of freedom we can start to develop alternative ways to keep people comfortable utilizing much less energy.

1.     Educating tenants on the IDEA of have more sustainable comfort expectations Providing more control of the environment such as opening windows

2.     Providing technology such Big Ass fans that move larger volumes of air quietly to provide convective cooling

3.     Furniture that facilitates heat gain or loss

4.     Encourage the appropriate dress for the season

5.     Controls that optimize temperature set points for time of day and variations between inside and outside temperature

6.     Using night time cool air to pre-cool the building mass enable temperatures to be maintained with smaller cooling systems

7.     Utilizing radiant cooling systems that have the inherent capability to keep people comfortable with higher variations in temperature.

Regulating agencies and policy makers need to get onboard with alternative strategies that make the best use of resources.  From a cultural perspective the Japanese think that it is wasteful to heat and cool rooms that are not occupied. Why not go even further and consider task cooling just like we do for lighting as why do we need to condition the whole room?  Since 2005 the Japanese Ministry of Environment has been advocating for warmer temperature settings and a relaxed dress code during the summer months. In 2007 the ministry estimated the CoolBiz campaign reduced Japanese CO₂ emissions by 1.4 million tons.

It is important to understand the project requirements for comfort as there are many ways to achieve the optimum balance between comfort, expectations, smart design and the size of the renewable energy systems that are  needed to achieve Net 0 energy use

Murray Guy & Dave Palibroda

IntegratedDesigns | Lean Lab