The Most Efficient Vehicle on the Planet?

The ELF, a product of Organic Transit, a North Carolina-based company which develops what they call “the most efficient vehicles on the planet” is a zero carbon-emission vehicle for everyday urban use. The ELF is made of 45 percent recycled aluminum frame, equipped with a weatherproof 80 percent recycled composite shell and it’s assembled together by actual people, not machines, making a strong stand on sustainable production and social corporate responsibility. It also possesses a solar panel on top so that the battery recharges just as you go about your business.

Rob Cotter, CEO of the company states:

“We’re watching the cost of Chinese labor and fossil fuels going up, while unemployment in the West is at critical levels. We’re riding that wave, and aiming to build a radically different business model that will keep our costs and environmental impact down.”

The ELF-like vehicles could have been in the market decades ago, but throughout the 90’s until recently people prioritized power, luxury and size, not efficiency. These broadly overrated priorities are clearly part of the problem that is directly and indirectly causing the collapse of your world, whether economical or environmental. Vehicles like ELF are not only the answer to a clean, efficient and waste minimizing society, but they are also said to be a unique and addictive ride.

Read the original article (mnn.com) and the video from company CEO Rob Cotter here.

Invest in Good – An Alternative to the Big Banks

Picture a company.

A company sells a product or provides a service in exchange for a given amount of money. After covering the costs for the production of the product or service, the surplus on this amount of money becomes profit. The company then comes into possession of this surplus money which is available for use for further improvement of the company or for the personal use of the people in charge of the company who have authority over this money. Every businessman knows that failing to invest in the development of the company will not make it sustainable in the long run.

The exact same thing with our governments is happening, only at a much larger scale. We trust our money to the governments, in the form of taxes, in exchange for the services they provide to us, but unfortunately, it happens that many times the money collected from these taxes is used for private interests, through corruption, instead of being invested in the creation of value to the population through education, health or technology.

On the other hand the money we do not pay in taxes and do not use for consumption, we give willingly to be managed by the so called big banks, which have used (and abused) it by funding investments that follow profit-driven agendas projected for no other goal than producing more money for them.

This means no social development actually occurs, no creation of value whatsoever to society.

This hindering of the creation of value for society is the reason through which we fuel and maintain the downfall of our quality of life as a race.

The problem of corruption in the governments is a thick issue, that can only be solved through just welfare-oriented politics and mostly, transparency. Although the value-detrimental modus operandi still stands as a rule, recently, a major victory by ONE.org might have provided a historic stand against some forms of governmental corruption.

“[…] these payments were made in secret, fueling corruption; but this victory will help promote accountability.  Now citizens will be better able to ensure that the money generated in resource-rich countries is used for vital services like schools, roads and hospitals”

(read more here)

Regarding the mismanagement and abuse of our money by the big banks, in this Mosaic article, Will Klein offer us a solution where we can put our money in investments that generate positive social, environmental and financial income. They are the so called Community Development Banks and Credit Unions.

“Have you ever wondered what happens to your money once you put it in the bank? Well, even if you did wonder, you would never know. The Atlantic’s Frank Partnoy and Jesse Eisinger recently sought to figure out exactly what banks did with our money, and to spoil the punchline, they never could figure it out.”

(read the complete article here)

Unless we start allocating our resources correctly, as a race, we will never see the end of poverty, hunger and war. Unfortunately the paradigm nowdays is that the funding flows to the narrow tip of the pyramid, instead of the broad bottom where need truly lingers.