I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while now, and have been collecting and refining my thoughts on this subject. I respect nature and strive for a balance with it, in all aspects of my life. I’ve never thought that it made any sense to senselessly waste resources, whatever they may be. I’ve always strived for better ways of doing things, in my life.
Before starting ScreamingToaster, when I worked for other companies, I had to travel a lot. And I found it stupid to have to travel all over the US, from coast to coast, for meetings when it would suffice just to have a video conference call, over webex or skype or even those nice Cisco virtual meeting rooms. It didn’t make sense to me to needlessly travel so much. Tons of fuel being wasted, along with precious time in transit. I’m not averse to travel, just needless travel.
The same with commuting. I find it silly to sit in traffic for 2 hours a day! I’ve always strived to live close to where I work, so I wouldn’t have to commute everyday. I love cars and driving, but not sitting in traffic. Granted where I live, public transport isn’t really an option, but I’ve been able to work from home for the last 6 years or so.
Now back to cars. So there’s a huge green movement to reduce carbon emissions. This is a good thing. But this is not a simple issue to resolve. China burns tons of coal. And it’s not stopping. Some studies project that even after the developed nations cut carbon emissions drastically over the next few years, China stands to pollute 2x the whole world’s carbon output (as it stands today)! While individual attempts at conservation are great, there needs to be a much more concerted global effort to address the issue, otherwise, it will be for naught.
Having said this, I’ve taken a lot of effort in my daily life to reduce resource consumption. But how is a self professed track junkie and car nut supposed to do this? Well, I don’t drive my sports car, or any car, every day. I live near a grocery store in a town center, and walk to it. Also, my wife and I have optimized our grocery runs to once a week to conserve resources in general. We’ve gone as far as to create digital lifestyle software to enable this! MyListy allows us to create lists that are geocoded, so that we can optimize driving time and make sure that we take distance into account when planning for any thing! In fact, in all the digital lifestyle software that we create, location is a key component of it. The reason we did this is because we started thinking about distance being an attribute that could limit what it is that we were trying to do. Without this physical context, the impact/cost/consequences of certain tasks can’t be measured. Eg, it’s simple to realize that flying from one coast of the US to the other for a 1 hour introductory business meeting is wasteful. But what about little micro trips that people make every day that they might not even realize they’re making? So anyway, whether it’s lists or notes, or any other information or collaboration, all our software takes distance into account, among many other things…
I love going to the track when I can. I love driving laps around a track. And I realize that it consumes a large amount of fuel. And I’m totally cool with it. Like, I said, unless China becomes a team player and takes a leadership role in the world’s effort to not-pollute, it doesn’t matter how many efficient electric, gas hybrid vehicles are produced, or not. I said in the beginning that I strive to find balance with nature in my life, and this is a balance that I can live with. I try to conserve as much as I can 365 days a year so that I can experience car nirvana for 2 weeks (if I’m lucky that year).
Other ways in which I conserve include not buying paper books anymore. I either get digital downloads or use this service. I don’t needlessly use air travel. I don’t consume excessive amounts of heat or cooling or electricity or water. Insulation is a good thing. And I don’t waste food.
I like cities that have a commitment to community spaces, and public transportation, in favor of parking or too many roads/highways. The PBS show E2 is a great thing to watch to get an idea of what people and communities around the globe are doing to create more sustainable and harmonious existence in the context of our physical environment. Sustainability is a far reaching concept. And it’s not simple. Having started ScreamingToaster 3 years ago, that was one of my goals, to create something locally sustainable. To give back more than I take, and to do things smarter, and to respect people and ideas, and never to compromise on quality or integrity. It’s been and still is a rough journey, but hopefully we can create something worth creating and sustaining at the end of all these struggles 
.
- Nazmul.
