Kicking the Habit

One of my passions for the past couple of years has been the translation of Sustainability principles into bottom line profits.

To this end, I am an active CleanTech Advisor at the MaRS Discovery District and have been a lecture leader at Shulich, Sheridan, McMaster, University of Toronto - Mississauga and The Directors College on such topics as Climate Change, Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility.

Recently, Tom Rand the CleanTech Practice Lead at MaRS released his long awaited book: Kick the Fossil Fuel Habit- 10 Clean Technologies to Save Our World - my copy arrived on Monday. As I did a quick scan of its content, I was reminded of one of the famous Seinfeld episodes featuring Cosmo Kramer and his "Coffee Table book about Coffee Table Books" . When on Regis and Kathie Lee, Kramer demonstrates that the book is so practical that its cover "actually converts into a Coffee Table itself". As my friend Sbrolla might highlight I am not comparing Tom Rand to Kramer by any means(!). I am simply underscoring that this book is one of the "more practical" purchases that you could make. It walks us through the 10 technologies that will allow us to kick the fossil fuel habit. These include: Solar, Wind, Geothermal, Biofuels, Hydropower, Ocean, Smart Buildings, Efficiency & Conservation, Transportation and the Energy Internet.

I found it 1) ENGAGING - Tom does a great in keeping it upbeat and ensures that it has element's of his keen wit; 2) INFORMATIVE - the text walks us through the basics, issues and opportunities associated with each technology; 3) TECHNICAL - Simple diagrams and photos take the complicated technology and make it easy to understand, 4) LOCAL CONTENT - lots of references to Canadian technology and even some Ontario based companies; 5)PROVOKING - gets you thinking about having a Trillion dollars to spend and what the impact would be of this money, 6) HOT TOPICS - in addition to the 10 technologies, Tom tackles Climate Change, Nuclear, Carbon, Hydrogen and Peak Oil; 7) VISUAL - the photo's are stunning and reinforce the fact that Windmills and Solar arrays are simply Majestic.

Overall a quick, visual and information book that deserves the read and an ultimate place your coffee table. As a Science, Sustainability and Academic Guy, this is Great work Tom!

Let's hope you don't follow Kramer's lead and spill the coffee all over the book when you get a chance to be on Regis.