Saturday, October 17, 2009
Young Blood at the Podium
Lucas Waldin was the speaker at our event in Setember: interVivos Under The Sky. We were one of the first groups of people to hear Lucas speak. Great guy and a great event. Click here to read about him in the Edmonton Journal.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Emerging Business Leaders
At each monthly meeting you will find a diverse group of ambitious business minded individuals. Emerging business leaders provides the opportunity for members to meet new people from different backgrounds and reconnect with former colleagues and friends.
Their next event...
Come and have a drink with Edmonton’s young business leaders and to listen to Geoff Badger, the Senior Vice President and Branch Manager of Blackmont Capital Inc.
When: Monday October 19 at 8:00pm
Where: Accent Lounge (8223 104 street)
Contact: nmcquay@deloitte.ca
Their next event...
Come and have a drink with Edmonton’s young business leaders and to listen to Geoff Badger, the Senior Vice President and Branch Manager of Blackmont Capital Inc.
When: Monday October 19 at 8:00pm
Where: Accent Lounge (8223 104 street)
Contact: nmcquay@deloitte.ca
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Punch Drunk: A Lesson in Social Norms Marketing
When: Thursday Oct. 29
Event: 5:30 -7pm
Speaker @ 6:15
Where: The Billiard Club (10505 82 Ave)
Cost: Free with Party Appetizers Provided
We all enjoy a night out and having fun with our friends, but too often we end up witnessing or experiencing aggression and conflict.
In his desire to save the nightlife that he and his friends love, local entrepreneur Geoff Grimble, Toybox Media, launched a campaign called Be a Lover Not a Fighter.
interVivos invites you to come out and hear about the campaign and the science behind it. You will also have the opportunity to test some of your own assumptions around drinking and violence.
We are also collecting toiletries for the Youth Emergency Shelter Society. Please bring toothbrushes, toothpaste, cologne, perfume, hair brushes, etc.
RSVP for this event.
A Guest Editorial from Satya Das
Being an energy superpower sit uneasily with Canadians: Alberta’s oil sands, the largest hydrocarbon deposit in the world, would be a blessing to many nations. Yet too many of our citizens see them as a burden.
We cringed when a global environmental awareness campaign, initiated by such luminaries as former U.S. vice-president Al Gore, framed and branded oil sands production as “dirty oil.” A 2008 report predicting the demise of millions of migratory birds as a result of oil sands development gathered worldwide attention and coverage.
We do not think to assert that “dirty oil” could be turned into clean oil, with the application of strong political leadership, a stringent regulatory framework, advances in technology, and an insistence on best-practices in energy production.
Now, with the Obama administration championing a greener energy future, Albertans – the owners of the oil sands – and Canadians must learn to lead, for one compelling reason: geology has thrust leadership upon us, and this is a responsibility we cannot evade.
Beyond an accident of geology, we have a strong moral obligation to lead the responsible development and stewardship of the incredible wealth the oil sands represent. From my perspective, the option of abandoning the oil sands, leaving them shut in, would be an act of profound negligence.
There are some strong Albertan and Canadian voices calling for the easy appeasement of walking away from “dirty oil.” Such abdication would be comprehensively wrong. We can use the enormous wealth the oil sands can confer to build the common good. We can use it to pay for the transition to alternative energy, built on a platform of much greener hydrocarbon production.
It is not at all paradoxical to think that developing this high-carbon-emission resource in a more sustainable way will, in fact, accelerate the development of the low carbon economy: by giving us the means to pay for it, by investing in both the research and development and the implementation of this greener future. Nor is my thinking at odds with my own ecological values.
To the core of my being, I believe that the arrogance and hubris of our species leads us to disrespect and damage the bounty of nature. Since the beginning of the industrial age, we have despoiled our natural heritage with scant regard for consequences. We have forgotten the teaching of every great faith: one of humility in the face of nature, and the responsibility of stewardship. We are mere keepers and stewards of what we have inherited, and we must nurture the gifts of the natural world for future generations.
On the other hand, I enjoy the advanced lifestyle enabled by a massively prosperous market economy. And I know it is supported by the consumption of fossil fuels, which are the prime source of greenhouse gases. Is there a magic-bullet solution that will let me keep my lifestyle without despoiling the planet?
That's the real question we need to explore. It's especially pertinent for Albertans because we are the owners - and stewards - of the oil sands, the world's largest hydrocarbon deposit. Unless we develop this resource as responsibly and sustainably as possible, we will continue to feed and even accelerate greenhouse gas production. I am enough of a realist to know that "not developing it" is in the realm of magical thinking. Consider: this is a $15 trillion asset, in a world that remains addicted to hydrocarbons. If we Canadians try to say "no development" are we really in any kind of position to stop those who want our oil? I suppose we can wave sovereignty and international law in the face of tanks - and tankers - as they roll in. Seriously, though, I come back to our obligation of stewardship. As owners we need to exercise our rights of ownership as responsibly as we can: because that's the Canadian way.
After thinking through these issues for the last five years, I've put my thoughts together in a new book. It's called Green Oil: Clean Energy for the 21st Century? and explores what it will take to turn the question mark into a statement. Green Oil is meant more to be a book of questions than definitive answers.
As Copenhagen draws closer, I am aiming to "set the table" for a thoughtful and comprehensive conversation on using the wealth generated by the responsible development of the oil sands to pay for and build a "green future" that will evolve away from fossil fuels.
Please join the conversation over the coming days, weeks and months here.
Satya Das offers strategic advice and counsel to leadership in the public and private sectors. Email him at satya@cambridgestrategies.com.
We cringed when a global environmental awareness campaign, initiated by such luminaries as former U.S. vice-president Al Gore, framed and branded oil sands production as “dirty oil.” A 2008 report predicting the demise of millions of migratory birds as a result of oil sands development gathered worldwide attention and coverage.
We do not think to assert that “dirty oil” could be turned into clean oil, with the application of strong political leadership, a stringent regulatory framework, advances in technology, and an insistence on best-practices in energy production.
Now, with the Obama administration championing a greener energy future, Albertans – the owners of the oil sands – and Canadians must learn to lead, for one compelling reason: geology has thrust leadership upon us, and this is a responsibility we cannot evade.
Beyond an accident of geology, we have a strong moral obligation to lead the responsible development and stewardship of the incredible wealth the oil sands represent. From my perspective, the option of abandoning the oil sands, leaving them shut in, would be an act of profound negligence.
There are some strong Albertan and Canadian voices calling for the easy appeasement of walking away from “dirty oil.” Such abdication would be comprehensively wrong. We can use the enormous wealth the oil sands can confer to build the common good. We can use it to pay for the transition to alternative energy, built on a platform of much greener hydrocarbon production.
It is not at all paradoxical to think that developing this high-carbon-emission resource in a more sustainable way will, in fact, accelerate the development of the low carbon economy: by giving us the means to pay for it, by investing in both the research and development and the implementation of this greener future. Nor is my thinking at odds with my own ecological values.
To the core of my being, I believe that the arrogance and hubris of our species leads us to disrespect and damage the bounty of nature. Since the beginning of the industrial age, we have despoiled our natural heritage with scant regard for consequences. We have forgotten the teaching of every great faith: one of humility in the face of nature, and the responsibility of stewardship. We are mere keepers and stewards of what we have inherited, and we must nurture the gifts of the natural world for future generations.
On the other hand, I enjoy the advanced lifestyle enabled by a massively prosperous market economy. And I know it is supported by the consumption of fossil fuels, which are the prime source of greenhouse gases. Is there a magic-bullet solution that will let me keep my lifestyle without despoiling the planet?
That's the real question we need to explore. It's especially pertinent for Albertans because we are the owners - and stewards - of the oil sands, the world's largest hydrocarbon deposit. Unless we develop this resource as responsibly and sustainably as possible, we will continue to feed and even accelerate greenhouse gas production. I am enough of a realist to know that "not developing it" is in the realm of magical thinking. Consider: this is a $15 trillion asset, in a world that remains addicted to hydrocarbons. If we Canadians try to say "no development" are we really in any kind of position to stop those who want our oil? I suppose we can wave sovereignty and international law in the face of tanks - and tankers - as they roll in. Seriously, though, I come back to our obligation of stewardship. As owners we need to exercise our rights of ownership as responsibly as we can: because that's the Canadian way.
After thinking through these issues for the last five years, I've put my thoughts together in a new book. It's called Green Oil: Clean Energy for the 21st Century? and explores what it will take to turn the question mark into a statement. Green Oil is meant more to be a book of questions than definitive answers.
As Copenhagen draws closer, I am aiming to "set the table" for a thoughtful and comprehensive conversation on using the wealth generated by the responsible development of the oil sands to pay for and build a "green future" that will evolve away from fossil fuels.
Please join the conversation over the coming days, weeks and months here.
Satya Das offers strategic advice and counsel to leadership in the public and private sectors. Email him at satya@cambridgestrategies.com.
Friday, October 9, 2009
interVivos: Helping Local Disadvantaged Youth
interVivos is featured in the Fall 2009 Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) newsletter. The article talks about our commitment to the Youth Emergency Shelter Society. Read the newsletter here.
Psst...the article is on page 5.
Psst...the article is on page 5.
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