Replacing Waste with Good Work

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Replacing waste with work toward a better world

The Discovery Solar Transition Project provides a framework and platform that will help projects, companies, nonprofits and individuals get support to reduce unnecessary and in some cases even undesirable consumption, and use the savings to support nonprofit work to improve their communities and the world beyond. The projects may or may not involve development of technology that is more energy efficient or otherwise has a low footprint by virtue of the technology. (For projects to research and develop technologies that have a low footprint, see the Projects page.)

Reducing the need for transportation

Locating and managing resource extraction, processing, manufacturing and recycling to reduce the life cycle environmental footprint of selected technology

The Discovery Solar New Economy Project platform also supports projects that are inherently more energy and material efficient than the status quo. This reduces the environmental footprint of getting things done. They may or may not involve development of technology that is more energy efficient or otherwise has a low footprint by virtue of the technology.

Increasing efficiency of transportation of materials and products from domestic distribution points

Research and selection of technologies to reduce the collective life-cycle environmental footprint of technological activity

Buying less stuff: substitution and curtailment

Reducing the need for transportation

Replacing Commuting waste with work toward a better world

"Commuting is insane. We should be working immediately to try and stop commutes worldwide."

Paul Ehlrich, 2011 (Interview on SBS Australian Public Television)

Activities that consume substantial resources, are environmentally damaging but unnecessary and provide little or no benefit are possibly the first that should be scaled back. Long-distance commuting is one of these.

In some areas of the U.S., population and economic growth has created a gross imbalance of the distribution of population with respect to employment development. Before the coronavirus crisis, this resulted in excessive commuting that wasted money and generated harmful emissions, including greenhouse gases. The level of economic functioning could be increased in a "green" recovery that contributes to the needed transition to sustainability but unnecessary commuting should not be allowed to return to anywhere near its previous levels. The Transition Project includes work in some of the high commuting areas.

The San Francisco Bay Area in California was one of the worst areas. It has a high ratio of jobs to housing in Silicon Valley and other coastal areas but a much lower ratio in some parts distant from the coast, such as East Contra Costa County, which has a large number of residents that make wasteful long-distance commutes. It was reported in 2015 that residents of Antioch, in East Contra Costa, had the second longest average commute time in the nation. East Contra Costa County, with a population under one million in 2019, the residents’ cost of commuting just for fuel and BART fares was roughly ten million dollars per month. In addition, commuters wear out their vehicles, produce harmful emissions, including greenhouse gases, and directly degrade their own health.

If the geographical distribution of jobs in the bay area were to better match the distribution of residences, so that East Contra Costa County would have more sufficiently well-paying jobs per capita, these costs and negative effects could be prevented from returning to pre-pandemic levels. Money that would otherwise be spent on commuting could be redirected to nonprofit causes that would improve the community and other parts of the world. Even if the commuting could be reduced by 10% from what it was, the cost of nearly 13,400 gallons of fuel per work day could be better spent. Even at $3.50 per gallon, this would be nearly $938,000 per month that could go towards important nonprofit work instead of to the oil companies and Bart. At today's gasoline prices in California (mid 2020), the savings would be around one million dollars per month. Greenhouse gas emissions from commuting and other emissions would be reduced compared to return to business as usual and some commuters would have more time for better things. Thus there is potential to replace commuting waste with work toward a better world.

A possible approach

We aim to form a group of engineers, software developers, technicians, companies and others dedicated to this transformation who will work on projects that could lead to jobs in or near focus areas where a large number of long-distance commuters reside. For some new projects/companies, especially projects/start-up companies with founders living in such areas, location in the areas would be far preferable than location in commuter destination job centers. It would be much easier for the founders and could lead to net savings for a new company in the long-run.

Approved projects will be on the Transition Project website for funding. To further encourage and support projects or companies in a part of a focus area from which a large number of people commute to jobs outside of the area, the projects/companies will have the opportunity to participate in the Transition nonprofit support program and currency system, which would be favored by some potential product users and some investors interested in philanthropy as well as profit.

In the Transition nonprofit support program, projects and companies will agree to donate savings from reduced commuting: If a project or company on the website has work locations in a part of a focus area with a large number of commuters in residence, e.g. East Contra Costa, once it gets sufficient funding through the website, other internet platforms and/or equity investment or any other source external to the project/company, the project or company agrees that for each day a worker that earns more than a minimum threshold (1.75 times minimum wage) spends working at the company location in the focus area, i.e. works a day without commuting more than a distance to be specified, the project or company will make a donation of the cost of a gallon of gasoline to the selected nonprofit groups. Some of the workers will be people who would otherwise be commuters out of the area, so that some commuting waste will effectively be replaced by support for work toward a better world.

Once on the Transition internet platform, projects and companies should seek grant funding and equity investment as needed from granting entities and investors who are interested in the Transition Project objectives as well as profit. To overcome barriers to technological enterprise development in some areas, such as East Contra Costa County, investors and members might have to provide support at a somewhat earlier stage than they otherwise would on average. This additional early support for very early stage participating projects and companies could yield many times the additional amount in support for nonprofit causes and direct environmental benefits over time, in addition to profit. Thus there is an expected multiplier effect and the additional support may be counted as a philanthropic investment, although investors could require additional ownership in return for the extra early support. This should interest investors interested in philanthropy as well as profit.

Nonprofit causes and unmet needs

The nonprofit causes to be supported in Discovery Solar New Economy are in three categories: 1) Animals: e.g. assistance with food and veterinary care for the pets of low income people, spay – neuter clinics, animal rescue; 2) Education and other social services: e.g. grants and scholarships, assistance with transitioning to new careers, revitalization of careers, help for the homeless; 2) Environment and sustainability: e.g. sustainability education programs, nature and farmland conservation, assistance for low-income home-owners for solar technology.

Unmet needs

This area under construction

The Greater San Francisco Bay Area is the initial focus, but these measures should be applicable in a number of geographic areas with high commuting waste.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions

Improving the distribution of work relative to residential distribution would also be part of a strategy to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. This will be described more fully as the website is developed.

Commuting waste and greenhouse gas emissions may also be reduced by increased remote working or telecommuting and satellite offices. This has already happened because of the corona virus pandemic but some companies demanded a return to the office after the initial coronavirus surge. This will have to be covered in a separate section/article.

A brief history of the problem: some reasons for the imbalance

The severe imbalance of jobs relative to population distribution in the Bay Area has developed over many years. The historical reasons include the presence of universities near the coast (Stanford and U.C. Berkeley). Undoubtedly, as an outgrowth from the historical roots, for many years there has been a much greater number of residents to the west of the line with both the capability and opportunity to start or help start companies.

Governments have failed or not bothered to try to alleviate the imbalance of jobs and population though politicians have been giving lip service to the subject of job creation prior to elections for many years. It does not seem to have been on the radar of many investors or established companies.

The imbalance appears only to be getting worse, although alleviation of the bad effects have resulted from increase in remote working i.e., telecommuting. Most or all of this was due to the coronvirus response. But many jobs require hands on work and are not consistent with a lot of remote working. Also, some corporate giants before the coronavirus were decreasing the amount of remote working allowed and return to the office calls have happened more recently. Thus without more concern, attention and examination by investors, less passivity and complacency by the public, and some innovation and departure from conventional thinking by investors and entrepreneurs and shear time and effort, unnecessary commuting can be expected to increase.

CURRENT PROJECTS, PRODUCTS AND SERVICES BEING WORKED ON IN HIGH-COMMUTE AREAS

Integrated Solar Generation and Energy Storage

Our focus is to discover concepts for Integrated Solar Generation and Energy Storage (ISGES) in a single device with greater conversion efficiency than current commercial devices. ISGES has the potential to achieve much greater energy output and storage per unit of material in a solar generation and energy storage installation. This could improve the economics of solar and reduce the environmental footprint of manufacturing solar generation and storage capacity. For any particular solar technology, it is importan to consider the environmental effects of obtaining materials and manufacturing it. Success with ISGES could accelerate the transition to cleaner technology worldwide. This project is based in the East Contra County California foccus area and when its funding qualifies it, will be active in the nonprofit support program. It is currently an early stage research project owned by Discovery Solar. Read more, support and get credit.

Locating and managing resource extraction, processing, manufacturing and recycling to reduce the life cycle environmental footprint of selected technology

This area under construction

Increasing efficiency of transportation of materials and products from domestic distribution points

PROJECTS TO INCREASE EFFICIENCY OF TRANSPORTATION AND OF MATERIALS AND PRODUCTS (being recruited and evaluated)

Increasing shopping efficiency with route-based delivery

During the coronavirus outbreak, people have been asked to stay home except for trips for essentials such as groceries. Further, even without a pandemic, many people would prefer fewer trips to stores and trips to stores cost money, use energy and contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. But deliveries from stores to home on an individual on-demand basis can be expensive and also use energy and contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. The New Economy platform will support route -based delivery projects, which will reduce the cost of delivery, and so enable people to save money and reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. In some cases, the monetary savings may be used to help very low income people who cannot afford the full cost even of route-based delivery. To make route-based delivery substantially more efficient than on-demand delivery, enough people in a neighborhood must sign-up for the service.

Projects such as route-based delivery help reduce coronavirus transmission by helping people make fewer trips and boost economic functioning. These are of near-term importance in view of recent developments relating to reopening of some business operations and lifting of other restrictions e.g. restaurants. These projects could be helped by community currency but do not need it and would probably require the cooperation of at least one large grocery store company and county health departments and state governments that set unemployment compensation rules. The projects could turn out to be especially useful if the reopening of restaurants and other lifting of restrictions, and activities that entail large gatherings, including large-scale protests along with inadequate compliance with rules by some individuals, results in a resurgence of the coronavirus. (Spikes in hospitalizations appear to be already starting as of May 29, 2020.) The prevalence of the coronavirus may encourage some people to sign up for the service. It can also put the unemployed back to work: if prohibition on restaurants serving customers have to be continued or reinstated, or if some restaurants just fail, former restaurant workers on unemployment and some business owners could work part-time or full-time in the delivery service. A high-tech version could involve automated or partially automated delivery. Delivery work could be made safer than restaurant work and help people stay at home more, so as to help bring the crisis to a close or at least to a more manageable state.

Stay tuned: we are seeking route based delivery projects and other transportation projects