Walking the Talk

Nothing predestined Soren, Sylvia and I (René Wable), founders of Eco2labs, to pair up except a shared unconditional acceptance of the environmental challenge our generation and the following is and will be facing, as well as an unswerving commitment to heighten public awareness that everyone needs to improve their ecological footprint.

I am quite keen on figures, which is a good prerequisite to tackle life-cycle assessment (LCA) and input-output analysis (IOA), two techniques that underpin calculating an ecological footprint. Indeed, hardly can you possibly find a field more data-intensive than these. But no worries, we’ll do the maths for you. You will only need to interpret and ponder over your results in the light of recommendations we’ll provide you with!

So atop of these LCA and IOA calculations I am carrying out hand in hand with Soren in order to share it with you, I reflected upon the odds that led us to first be in the same city at the same time, meet up and then share what we have in common. After having read the following you’ll have no choice but to agree that the likelihood was tiny if not infinitesimal.

I was born and bred in the old continent whilst Soren comes from the other side of the Atlantic. He is a reference in IT while I am a newbie in environmental science. We both travelled half a planet to migrate to the land Down Under and besides in the very same city, Sydney; this after having knocked about several countries. In addition Sydney is big, actually it is massive, well Sydney is gigantic....

A green-ups party (my only one so far) played the trick. It also has to be noted that two third-parties were involved in our encounter lowering even more the odds... It seems that Fate knows what it's doing.

But well, saying that destiny has gently paved the way for us to easily set up what we independently craved for and planned to achieve before meeting up — a web and mobile platform to assess one’s carbon footprint — is an easy and long fallacious shortcut. Indeed, despite this fortuitous but fortunate encounter, despite having been put on the same path by some random concourse of circumstances, and despite having clicked instantaneously, we have, as every man jack, a couple of pitfalls to sort out to line up with who we want to be and who we do not specifically want to be.

We, at Eco2labs, want to lead the change and show the example; not simply preach the good word without ourselves being fully committed as is sometimes (too often) the case. Ultimately, we want to achieve carbon neutrality in our operating phase and supply-chain. Quite ambitious for a company. Well, when there is a will there is a way. Ours, at Eco2loabs, is to acknowledge our carbon hotspots, which are those of everyone else, and work on them to reduce their environmental load insofar as possible. Transport, power, stationery and food.

And here’s how we walk the talk.

We meet up thrice a week for full-day work sessions in the spacious loft in Soren's home, which the harbour breeze keeps cool through opposing windows on either side. Here is Soren hard at work on 100% scavenged and used furniture, including the nice Cinema display:

The rest of the time, we remotely work via dedicated web-platforms.

I live in the South shore while Soren lives on the other side of the harbour. Driving is not even an option as neither Soren nor I would accept owning a car, this 25%-(in)efficient oil furnace. Public transport is, but if we are not hard liners, how can we be credible? I bicycle. Despite a discouraging 12-km ride, with laptop and lunch stuffed in my backpack, it’s faster, cheaper, more reliable and flexible, and, cherry on the cake, it keeps me fit. I of course bring some extra clothes to spare Soren the fragrance of my ride. And if sometimes Sydney turns out not to be a safe haven for bicycles — the great mountain bike my flatmate used to generously lend me was stolen last week, and I thus hereby pay a last tribute to it after a year of true and tried services — the ride is fantastic, especially when crossing over the Harbour Bridge under the dual sensation of the sunset warming the skin and the sea breeze cooling it (not the sunrise, we are hard workers but not Stakhanovists either!).

What about our electricity? How do we power our machines? Soren subscribed to green electricity to power out our office and his home. We cannot of course be sure that the flux of electrons coming into our plugs are indeed stemming from green power, but we at least know that somewhere in the Australian grid, a basket of electrons equating the quantity of electricity we use emanates from green power. As we wrote early, the web-based products and services we use run mostly on the Google and Amazon cloud, which is much more efficient than having dedicated servers but not carbon free. To cover these odds and ends as well as occasional business travel, we have a monthly carbon credit subscription with Carbon Planet. We are even carbon-free in the use phase!

When it comes to stationery, inasmuch as possible we do not print out. Rather we use electronic versions which allows us to significantly decrease our environmental footprint (e.g.: carbon footprint stemming from the energy used to produce paper, land use stemming from the forests required to manufacture paper, water use required by the pulp industry etc...).

What about our lunch? We eat local foods and purchase our goods by bike so that the quantity of carbon embodied in our meals is minimal. In addition we avoid every ingredient and aliment that are tangibly known to cause a substantial carbon footprint (e.g.: meat, imported fruits and vegetables from one hemisphere to the other to deny the laws of seasons etc...). At the end of our lunch, organic residues are thrown away in the compost bin (see Soren’s previous post) while plastic wraps, if any, are disposed of in the adequate recycling container.

Does that bother us? Do we spend hours doing those simple daily-life gestures? Do we feel like Amish or other remote settlements? Well, riding my bike is faster than if I was to take public transportation especially at rush hours. And, as I've said, it keeps me fit and offers me every time a beautiful journey. Ah and it’s free and carbon-free! I win upon the Triple Bottom Line (a post will soon be coming on this notion, which is, in short, a benchmarking based upon social, economical and environmental aspects). What about the electricity? Well, the subscription to green power was done once for all. It is indeed more expensive, but we are willing, at Eco2labs, to not only provide best practices but also to walk the talk and show the example. Note that we still win upon the social and environmental pillars of the Triple Bottom Line. Indeed, decentralized renewable energy plants generate more jobs (social aspect) than centralized coal- gas- or nuke-powered plants (with their installed capacity sometimes reaching up to 1 GW). And obviously green power is way more environmentally-friendly than their fossil-fuel-based counterparts. As for the stationery? I love reading hard-cover books, cannot really stand e-books, but when it comes to scientific manuscripts, articles, and papers, I do prefer electronic versions thanks to their indexation and search functions that spare me a substantial amount of time. At last, when it comes to food, once again it’s faster to purchase it by bike than by car or public transportation (for the aforementioned reasons), and sorting it in the correct bin might only take me a few extra seconds which I am willing to spend (and not waste!) as a trade-off with the time saved while purchasing my goods.

This was a long post, quite personal besides, but I give you my word, next time I will be less of a chatterbox. The fact is that at Eco2labs, we insist on and will always strive to achieve transparency and comprehensiveness. “It takes a planet to preserve the Earth.” Walk the talk, with us, for you, now. (René Wable).

RW