Lean practitioners are familiar with the wonders of system simplification. Simplify a work process and the baggage needed to manage a complicated mess evaporates with it. For example, eliminate the reasons for using a warehouse, and poof; the inventory control systems...
Of all the Jeremiads that environmentalists invoke, declining biodiversity is probably the easiest to see, because it is all around us, but hardest to fully comprehend. The notion that biodiversity is essential to ecosystem survival is hard to technically grasp, so...
Green Infrastructure Lets Nature Help Carry the Load of Our Cities Ashwani Vasishth Associate Professor, Environmental Studies Director, Sustainability Studies vasishth@ramapo.edu (201) 684-6616 http://phobos.ramapo.edu/~vasishth Our urban areas desperately needs...
Several recent books reflect an environmental movement broadening and shifting into a higher gear of urgency. Keeping up is becoming harder. Below is a quick rundown on three books. The first two are “think” pieces that diverge from the norm. However, for those into...
EROI is becoming the standard acronym for energy returned on energy invested to obtain it. A rough consensus of those estimating EROI from various sources is about like the chart below. Different estimators’ calculations vary because a standard methodology is not...
This title is a mixed metaphor. Picture a social butterfly, flitting from person to person and group to group. Then picture the butterfly effect from chaos theory, “Can a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas?” Are these connectable? Yes....
Last winter, between 40 and 50% of U.S. honeybees disappeared in the worst season of colony collapse disorder (CCD) since it was first reported in 2006. For a day or so, this penetrated national news. Both beekeepers and growers of crops dependent on pollination...
Axiomatic to Compression Thinking is that the world is finite; therefore for all practical purposes, all resources in it are finite. Almost all other thinking is up for grabs. Therefore we must deal with the consequences of the depletion of all kinds of natural...