tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16466403674289459172024-03-12T21:36:44.321-04:00Design Management on my mind (and related issues)teagurl327http://www.blogger.com/profile/05281126667828005966noreply@blogger.comBlogger78125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646640367428945917.post-10976859079467149512014-02-06T13:17:00.000-05:002014-02-06T13:17:47.508-05:00Estudio de caso: Tapas de alcantarillas en Celaya<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h2 id="docs-internal-guid-4727d287-c558-5828-7bb7-192b9d71b154" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Estudio de caso: Tapas de alcantarillas en Celaya</span></h2>
Palabras y Fotos por Michele Perez<br />
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<h3 style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">El Problema</span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">La ciudad de Celaya, Gto. en México, con </span><a href="http://www3.inegi.org.mx/sistemas/mexicocifras/default.aspx?e=11#P" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">una población cercana a los 500,000 habitantes</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">,
sufría de un problema con sus tapas de alcantarillas y rejas de
alcantarillado — se las estaban robando por el valor de su hierro. La
ciudad necesitaba encontrar una solución creativa para reducir, o
eliminar, el robo de estas piezas de hierro.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Durante
el 2013 desaparecieron aproximadamente 100 tapas de alcantarillas y 647
rejas de alcantarillado. El costo para reponerlas, incluyendo
materiales y mano de obra, esta entre los $1,300 y 1,700 MXN ($99-120
USD </span><a href="http://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?Amount=900&From=MXN&To=USD" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">a tipos de cambio corrientes</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">)
por cada tapa de hierro y $430 MXN ($32 USD) por cada reja. En total,
la ciudad gastó aproximadamente $428,210 MXN ($32,686 USD or </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">€</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">23,720
EUR) en reemplazarlas en el 2013. La ciudad probó reemplazar las tapas
de hierro con tapas de concreto, pero esas se rompían muy facilmente.
Para una ciudad en rápido crecimiento como Celaya, estos robos no eran
solo una molestia sino un gasto significativo tanto para el ayuntamiento
como sus ciudadanos contribuyentes, y era necesario encontrar una mejor
solución.</span></div>
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<h3 style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">La Solución</span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Ya
que la cultura del reciclaje no está arraigada en los hogares
Celayenses, la ciudad implementó un sistema de separación de materiales
reciclables y reusables en el basurero municipal. Usando máquinas y
obreros, se separan telas, vidrio, cartón, aluminio y plástico de las
más de 300 toneladas de basura que se colectan diariamente en la ciudad.
Después haber sido separados, los materiales son compactados y
vendidos. Adicionalmente, el biogás que genera la basura en
descomposición, es capturado y transformado en energía eléctrica. Ambas
iniciativas son parte del programa nacional “</span><a href="http://www.campolimpio.org.mx/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Campo Limpio</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” el cual fomenta la reducción, el reciclaje y el reuso (</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">upcycle</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">) de la basura.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Los plásticos son después llevados a la </span><a href="http://www.reciclacelaya.com/site/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Recicladora de Plásticos de Celaya</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
para su reuso. Ahí, el polietileno es separado del resto de los
plásticos y agrupado por color, para después pasar por un molino que lo
reduce a unos pequeños cuadros de aproximadamente una pulgada de ancho;
más adelante, una máquina los limpia y remueve todo tipo de etiquetas.
Finalmente, los cuadros son empujadas por un segundo molino que los
convierte en bolitas que parecen confeti negro o gris.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Estas
bolitas son derretidas en moldes para crear productos nuevos como
tablas de "madera" de varios tamaños para armar bancos, pequeñas
unidades de almacenamiento e incluso baños portátiles. En realidad,
estas bolitas pueden tomar cualquier forma según el diseño del molde,
así que, cuando el alcalde mencionó que la ciudad necesitaba reemplazar
las tapas de alcantarillas, el arquitecto/diseñador de la planta le
ofreció una solución en base a este proceso de reciclaje y reuso. Cada
tapa de alcantarilla de plástico cuesta $800 MXN ($61 USD), un ahorro de
$500 a 900 MXN ($38-69 USD) por pieza en comparación a su contraparte
de hierro. Si hubiera necesidad de reemplazar las 19,000 tapas de
alcantarillas en la ciudad, el ayuntamiento se ahorraría un mínimo de
$9.5 millones MXN ($722,000 USD) al usar las nuevas tapas de plástico –
una cantidad muy considerable.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Las
tapas y rejas de plástico son el reemplazo ideal para el clima
semi-desértico de Celaya y actualmente se han instalado en varias
secciones de la ciudad donde se están haciendo mejoras municipales. A la
fecha, ninguna de las tapas de plástico ha sido robada y la ciudad se
ha ahorrado tanto costos financieros como del medio ambiente. Este es un
claro ejemplo de como la basura de la ciudad ha sido reciclada y
reutilizada para el beneficio de sus residentes. </span></div>
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">*Todos los detalles fueron obtenidos por medio de entrevistas en persona y correspondencia con la oficina del Alcalde de </span><a href="http://celaya.gob.mx/en/%20" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">la Ciudad de Celaya</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, Ismael Pérez Ordaz, y las oficinas de la Recicladora de Plásticos de Celaya. </span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AANUTq-RuwA/UuKn1D9YB-I/AAAAAAAAAWE/gWBYnK4ROnA/s1600/plastic_manhole_cover_complete.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AANUTq-RuwA/UuKn1D9YB-I/AAAAAAAAAWE/gWBYnK4ROnA/s1600/plastic_manhole_cover_complete.png" height="277" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tapa de alcantarillas</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oh7vXVuGgDM/UuKm3h8yKWI/AAAAAAAAAV8/OD1DPHWUHmU/s1600/plastics_bundles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oh7vXVuGgDM/UuKm3h8yKWI/AAAAAAAAAV8/OD1DPHWUHmU/s1600/plastics_bundles.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bolsas de plasticos</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aexyjEN2FaI/UuKm0506esI/AAAAAAAAAV0/2MkKJ_Sk1Go/s1600/plastic_pellets.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aexyjEN2FaI/UuKm0506esI/AAAAAAAAAV0/2MkKJ_Sk1Go/s1600/plastic_pellets.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bolitas de plastico</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
teagurl327http://www.blogger.com/profile/05281126667828005966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646640367428945917.post-69083646689962370652014-01-24T12:54:00.000-05:002014-02-06T12:35:42.159-05:00Case Study: Upcycled Manhole Covers / Estudio de caso: Tapas de alcantarillas upcycled<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h2 id="docs-internal-guid-4727d287-c554-c070-e6d9-0f3830e7cc9d" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Case Study: Celaya’s Manhole Covers</span></h2>
Words and Photos By Michele Perez<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Problem</span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The city of Celaya in the Mexican state of Guanajuato, with a</span><a href="http://www3.inegi.org.mx/sistemas/mexicocifras/default.aspx?e=11#P" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">population of about 500,000</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, had a problem with their iron manhole covers and street grates -- they were being stolen and sold for the iron. The city wanted a creative way to reduce, or eliminate, thefts of these iron pieces.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">During 2013, there were approximately 100 manhole covers and 647 street grates stolen. The cost to the city to replace each iron manhole cover is between $1,300-1,700 MXN pesos ($99-120 USD</span><a href="http://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?Amount=900&From=MXN&To=USD" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">at current exchange rates</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">), and the grates are about $430 MXN ($32 USD) including materials and labor. In total, the city spent approximately $428,210 MXN ($32,686 USD or </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">€</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">23,720 EUR) for iron replacements. The city tried replacing them with concrete manhole covers, but those broke too easily. For a quickly expanding city like Celaya, it was a nuisance and an unnecessary expense for the city and taxpayers, and a better solution was needed.</span></div>
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<h3>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Solution</span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Since there isn’t a culture of recycling at home in Mexico, the city already had in place a garbage collection system that included separation of reusable materials at the municipal dump. From the 300 tons of garbage collected daily, using machines and by hand, the workers separate out fabric, glass, cardboard, aluminum, and plastics. After separating materials by color, they are then compacted and the municipality sells the materials for revenue. Additionally, the city uses the biogas produced from the garbage in the dump for municipal energy purposes. This is all part of the “</span><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.campolimpio.org.mx/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Campo Limpio</span></a></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” (Clean Fields) national program to reduce waste, and recycle and upcycle as much of the garbage as possible.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The plastics are taken to a sorting, recycling, and upcycling facility in a nearby industrial complex area, called <a href="http://www.reciclacelaya.com/site/" target="_blank">Recicladora de Plásticos de Celaya</a>, or “Plastics Recycler of Celaya”. Here they sort out the polythene plastics by color, then run the bottles and containers through a mill that reduces them into approximately one inch square pieces. Further, they are cleaned by a machine process and then labels and stickers are removed from the pieces in a third cleaning process. At this point they are pushed through another mill and turned into pellets that look like black or gray confetti. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">These pellets are then used with molds to create upcycled materials like plastic “wood” planks of various widths and lengths for park benches, small storage units and even portable toilets. Truly, these pellets can be heated and formed into any shape, based on the the form of the mold. So when the mayor mentioned that the city needed to replace manhole covers the architect/designer at Recicladora de Plasticos came up with an affordable solution based on a plastic design. Each plastic manhole cover costs $800 MXN ($61 USD), a savings of $500-900 MXN ($38-69 USD) per new manhole cover. For a city with an estimated 19,000 manhole covers, if replacing all of them is required, there would be a minimum savings of $9.5million MXN ($722,000 USD) -- a sizable amount.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">While the city is making municipal improvements to many sections of the city, the plastic manhole covers and grates are an ideal replacement in the semi-arid environment of Celaya. To date, none of the plastic versions have been stolen and it has saved the city in both financial and environmental costs. A clear example of how the city’s waste is upcycled into another use for the city’s residents.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">*All details were from in-person interviews and correspondence with Mayor Ismael Perez Ordaz’s office of the <a href="http://celaya.gob.mx/en/" target="_blank">City of Celaya</a> and Recicladora de Plásticos de Celaya. </span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aexyjEN2FaI/UuKm0506esI/AAAAAAAAAVw/PPV6VfcRRqs/s1600/plastic_pellets.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aexyjEN2FaI/UuKm0506esI/AAAAAAAAAVw/PPV6VfcRRqs/s1600/plastic_pellets.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pellets / Bolitas</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oh7vXVuGgDM/UuKm3h8yKWI/AAAAAAAAAV4/8hyeO5vT_MA/s1600/plastics_bundles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oh7vXVuGgDM/UuKm3h8yKWI/AAAAAAAAAV4/8hyeO5vT_MA/s1600/plastics_bundles.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sorted plastics / <span class="short_text" id="result_box" lang="es"><span class="hps">Plásticos clasificados</span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AANUTq-RuwA/UuKn1D9YB-I/AAAAAAAAAWA/O0zVxWUOtNU/s1600/plastic_manhole_cover_complete.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AANUTq-RuwA/UuKn1D9YB-I/AAAAAAAAAWA/O0zVxWUOtNU/s1600/plastic_manhole_cover_complete.png" height="277" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Finished manhole cover / <span class="short_text" id="result_box" lang="es"><span class="hps">Tapa de alcantarillas</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Estudio de caso: Tapas de alcantarillas en Celaya</span></h2>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">El Problema</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">La ciudad de Celaya, Gto. en México, con </span><a href="http://www3.inegi.org.mx/sistemas/mexicocifras/default.aspx?e=11#P" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">una población cercana a los 500,000 habitantes</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, sufría de un problema con sus tapas de alcantarillas y rejas de alcantarillado — se las estaban robando por el valor de su hierro. La ciudad necesitaba encontrar una solución creativa para reducir, o eliminar, el robo de estas piezas de hierro.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Durante el 2013 desaparecieron aproximadamente 100 tapas de alcantarillas y 647 rejas de alcantarillado. El costo para reponerlas, incluyendo materiales y mano de obra, esta entre los $1,300 y 1,700 MXN ($99-120 USD </span><a href="http://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?Amount=900&From=MXN&To=USD" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">a tipos de cambio corrientes</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">) por cada tapa de hierro y $430 MXN ($32 USD) por cada reja. En total, la ciudad gastó aproximadamente $428,210 MXN ($32,686 USD or </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">€</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">23,720 EUR) en reemplazarlas en el 2013. La ciudad probó reemplazar las tapas de hierro con tapas de concreto, pero esas se rompían muy facilmente. Para una ciudad en rápido crecimiento como Celaya, estos robos no eran solo una molestia sino un gasto significativo tanto para el ayuntamiento como sus ciudadanos contribuyentes, y era necesario encontrar una mejor solución.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">La Solución</span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Ya que la cultura del reciclaje no está arraigada en los hogares Celayenses, la ciudad implementó un sistema de separación de materiales reciclables y reusables en el basurero municipal. Usando máquinas y obreros, se separan telas, vidrio, cartón, aluminio y plástico de las más de 300 toneladas de basura que se colectan diariamente en la ciudad. Después haber sido separados, los materiales son compactados y vendidos. Adicionalmente, el biogás que genera la basura en descomposición, es capturado y transformado en energía eléctrica. Ambas iniciativas son parte del programa nacional “</span><a href="http://www.campolimpio.org.mx/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Campo Limpio</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” el cual fomenta la reducción, el reciclaje y el reuso (</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">upcycle</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">) de la basura.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Los plásticos son después llevados a la </span><a href="http://www.reciclacelaya.com/site/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Recicladora de Plásticos de Celaya</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> para su reuso. Ahí, el polietileno es separado del resto de los plásticos y agrupado por color, para después pasar por un molino que lo reduce a unos pequeños cuadros de aproximadamente una pulgada de ancho; más adelante, una máquina los limpia y remueve todo tipo de etiquetas. Finalmente, los cuadros son empujadas por un segundo molino que los convierte en bolitas que parecen confeti negro o gris.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Estas bolitas son derretidas en moldes para crear productos nuevos como tablas de "madera" de varios tamaños para armar bancos, pequeñas unidades de almacenamiento e incluso baños portátiles. En realidad, estas bolitas pueden tomar cualquier forma según el diseño del molde, así que, cuando el alcalde mencionó que la ciudad necesitaba reemplazar las tapas de alcantarillas, el arquitecto/diseñador de la planta le ofreció una solución en base a este proceso de reciclaje y reuso. Cada tapa de alcantarilla de plástico cuesta $800 MXN ($61 USD), un ahorro de $500 a 900 MXN ($38-69 USD) por pieza en comparación a su contraparte de hierro. Si hubiera necesidad de reemplazar las 19,000 tapas de alcantarillas en la ciudad, el ayuntamiento se ahorraría un mínimo de $9.5 millones MXN ($722,000 USD) al usar las nuevas tapas de plástico – una cantidad muy considerable.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Las tapas y rejas de plástico son el reemplazo ideal para el clima semi-desértico de Celaya y actualmente se han instalado en varias secciones de la ciudad donde se están haciendo mejoras municipales. A la fecha, ninguna de las tapas de plástico ha sido robada y la ciudad se ha ahorrado tanto costos financieros como del medio ambiente. Este es un claro ejemplo de como la basura de la ciudad ha sido reciclada y reutilizada para el beneficio de sus residentes. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">*Todos los detalles fueron obtenidos por medio de entrevistas en persona y correspondencia con la oficina del Alcalde de </span><a href="http://celaya.gob.mx/en/%20" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">la Ciudad de Celaya</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, Ismael Pérez Ordaz, y las oficinas de la Recicladora de Plásticos de Celaya. </span><br />
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teagurl327http://www.blogger.com/profile/05281126667828005966noreply@blogger.com0Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico20.5222222 -100.8122222000000120.403259700000003 -100.9735837 20.6411847 -100.65086070000001tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646640367428945917.post-2879219499251867932011-09-06T14:51:00.005-04:002011-09-09T14:46:05.583-04:00Google's Places marking shops as Closed but they're still Open... a one-sided discussion<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
From today's <i>New York Times</i>: In recent months, many perfectly healthy businesses across the country have expired according to Google Places, and fixing the error has often been difficult. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/06/technology/closed-in-error-on-google-places-merchants-seek-fixes.html?_r=1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/06/technology/closed-in-error-on-google-places-merchants-seek-fixes.html?_r=1</a><br />
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<div>Shams like these are fairly easy to do. </div><div><br />
</div><div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">From the <i>Times</i> article: "If enough users click it, the business is labeled “reportedly closed” and later, pending a review by Google, “permanently closed.” Google was tight-lipped about its review methods and would not discuss them."</span><br />
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</div><div></div><div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">Besides, with Google it's often the community that monitors itself. Crowd-sourcing. You can correct errors and self-promote as far as Google will allow; and they allow quite a bit. And that's the point of crowd-sourcing. I like Google for this reason, and I clearly have no problem using Google services as I'm writing on their blog tool, right now!</span></div><div></div><div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">Plenty of online and "bricks-and-mortar" businesses have used a variety of Google services, and other non-Google services online (Facebook, Twitter, Yelp!, etc.) to establish, promote and maintain their brand for strategic advancement against competition. </span><br />
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</div><div></div><div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"> In the spirit of Google Places -- having the public notify Places that a shop has closed, when in fact it has, is quite a good process for large-scale implementation like Google Places. No single person or department at Google could ever monitor the world that Google Places covers. It's not scalable and not necessary. Let the local public tell the machine that a place is closed, so that others who use that machine know too. Great! But what if that system is sometimes abused. </span><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">We learned that <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/22/your-money/22haggler.html?_r=1">Yelp! had a similar problem of users writing fake reviews.</a></span><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"> Who is responsible for setting "right" such a "wrong"? Who slaps the wrist (or sues) the offending person or people who did the act?</span></div><div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/22/your-money/22haggler.html?_r=1"></a></span></div><div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">On <a href="http://www.elance.com/"> eLance.com</a>, for example, there are ALWAYS postings of paid jobs for people to write SEO targeted copy for (in my opinion, unethical and unscrupulous) site owners who want to pull as much Google traffic to their site and get unwitting web surfers to click on their paid links. Or my favorite: write our company's blog for us and make sure to write it SEO keyword heavy -- and we'll pay you almost nothing for the effort. (The other unscrupulous, or maybe just lazy, employers are college students who post to hire someone to write their college papers. That's a separate issue but I object to that very strongly.)</span></span></div><div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">Many companies have their own Social Media departments, I've found that much of that work is outsourced or done by freelancers. (Great, more jobs!) These employers hire people to write blog posts or go on to targeted message boards or targeted competitor sites and then talk up and link to <i>their</i> postings, articles, products, etc. Basically, using (or abusing) the Google system for their own benefit. In fact, it's called "reputation management." I imagine that being said, more often than not, with a wink and a nudge.</span></span></div><div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">These employers I've described on eLance, for example, are not doing anything illegal per se. At least I don't believe it's illegal. (I could be very wrong.)</span></span><br />
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</div><div></div><div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"> Many of them are located outside the US. I know almost zero about what's acceptable in India, Indonesia, Malaysia and other places that have made such postings on eLance. </span></span><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">I believe this kind of job posting was popular on Amazon's Mechanical Turk, too. </span></span><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">In fact, people in the US may say, "Well, if someone knows how to abuse the Google system for their own profit, why not? And the eLance employers are at least paying someone to freelance that work for them, so that's good." (I disagree with this but I'm thinking of a counter argument that one could make.)</span></span><br />
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</div><div></div><div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">For Google, a user who clicks that a shop is closed when it is not and does so out of malice may go against their brand value of "Do no evil". But then, is it "evil"?</span></span><br />
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</div><div></div><div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">Does eLance monitor all the job postings by "employers" to see if the jobs are ethical? Besides, who is going to determine if a job is ethical with something like "reputation management." I honestly don't know. Even though there are a TON of reputable employers on eLance, for example, and they pay fairly for sensible freelance work, but I stopped looking for jobs there after I had enough of filtering through what people wanted to pay for.</span></span></div><div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">Snake oil salesmen aren't new and aren't going away anytime soon. (I'm in NO way saying that eLance or Google or Yelp! or Amazon or companies with Social Media departments are snake oil salesmen, they are platforms, however, that such "salesmen" can use to promote their own agendas.)</span></span></div><div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/business/13search.html?pagewanted=all">JCPenney is the famous example of using Google search results know-how to abuse Google's own search results system</a>. Paying sites to put up a JCP link on their site, so that JC Penney had more referral links than their competitors. Increasing their chances of being the #1 link on someone's Google search result for just about any product that JC Penney sells. Cheating? Yes. </span></span></div><div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"></span></span></div><div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"></span></span></div><div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"></span></span></div><div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"></span></span></div><div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">Can the crowds be trusted to be fair?</span></span></div><div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">I don't think Google thinks it can be fully. That's why they have had a verification process to check if a shop is really closed or not. Plus, they're about to change this verification process "in the coming days" to accommodate dealing with this Places problem. I'm really curious to know what Google is going to actually do about it. (I'm certain I'll never find out since they'd have to share an internal process.) </span></span></div><div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">So back to my point: This behavior online and in "real life" is at best libel, or at least, just plain bullying and rude. This is why maintaining a company's brand and reputation can be a full-time job as much as marketing, promotion, strategy, and the day-to-day running of it.</span></span></div><div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"></span></span></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">Could, or really SHOULD, this problem have been anticipated by Google? </span></span></li>
<li><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">Or maybe, better question, is this good Customer Service on the part of Google? Is Google effectively addressing the problems of its Customers? In this case the wronged business owners.</span></span></li>
<li><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">And by that token, is everyone who uses Google a Customer of Google? (or just the ones with Gmail accounts, or just the ones who pay?)</span></span></li>
<li><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">In this example, who is responsible? Google and/or the people who mischievously mark businesses as closed?</span></span><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"> </span></span></li>
</ul></div><div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">To be fair, I believe that Google DID anticipate such a situation which is why they had the original vetting process so that, presumably, only a responsible human working on behalf of Google could mark a business as "permanently closed". For the size and scope of Google's customer base (I'm assuming every person who uses Google is a "customer" for the sake of this discussion), that they address the problems of their customers by having and presumably monitoring message boards and creating detailed and extensive FAQs. These wronged business owners did use and have a means of correction; they had a voice. Frustrated and tedious as that was, there was some solution. </span></span><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;"></ul></div><div></div><div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">In my view, both Google and the people who did the mischievous markings were responsible. Google for incorrectly or ineffectively marking open businesses as "permanently closed" and the mischievous people for abusing the system. Google has taken its responsibility, and by words has promised to make improvements. Only those who were wronged can say if the improvements are effective. Only a customer can tell a company if the company has been delivered on its promise.</span></span></div><div><div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">I'd love to know what others think. (On your own now, don't pay someone to write a reply for you.)</span></span></div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"></span></span></div><div><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="yiv45373131Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"><br />
</span></span></div></div>teagurl327http://www.blogger.com/profile/05281126667828005966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646640367428945917.post-83320965581661524742011-09-05T11:10:00.000-04:002011-09-05T11:10:48.833-04:00The ongoing saga of (almost) identity theft<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
Earlier this year, someone stole my identity, or at least my social security number, address and name. And this person and tried to open some lines of credit in my name. Gratefully, these lines of credit were not opened (phew) but the credit inquiries were posted to my credit report. Since there was a breach of personal information from an ex-employer, that ex-employer had paid for everyone affected to have 3 years of a credit monitoring service. It was this service that alerted me to the problem.<br />
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I then received three formally-written letters from three different companies stating that the credit line I requested was not opened without further information from me. It was Best Buy/HSBC, Zales/Citibank, and T-Mobile. I immediately called the phone number provided on each of these letters and stated it wasn't me but someone else and what can I do to make sure the accounts are not opened AND remove (what I later learned to call it) fraudulent credit inquiry from my credit report.<br />
<br />
Well, from each of them I was told sincerely they were very sorry and they wrote whatever notes they needed to make sure the accounts were not going to be opened and alerted their respective credit bureaus to put an initial fraud alert on my account. Citibank even helped me with the process of putting an full fraud alert on my account that would last 10 years and then I put my phone number on the alert on my credit report so that the credit bureaus would have to call me before opening any line of credit -- even if it was me.<br />
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Great, I figured this is straight forward and I don't have to worry.<br />
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A few months later, I noticed that the credit inquiries were still on my report. So I called each of the companies again, they each told me that they were very sorry and I needed to send a letter to them (as it was only in writing that I could make such a request) to have them remove the fraudulent inquiry from my credit report. They each gave me the address to send it to, told me what to write, and that should be that.<br />
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It is now nine months after the initial fraudulent activity was posted to my credit report and this is still not resolved.<br />
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In the meantime, I had called Equifax and TransUnion. Both told me that I could not have the inquiries removed but the companies that had posted them must do it. I explained that I'd called and written to each of the three companies and they each assured me they'd done their job to alert Equifax and/or TransUnion about it. Both credit bureaus apologized but they wouldn't be able to help me. Equifax's rep from a call center in India even tried to upsell me on putting a freeze on my account for a monthly fee.<br />
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I WAS FURIOUS.<br />
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Having worked in Customer Service on the phone for three years and then for about a year online, I can tell you I've had my share of being yelled at. I can also tell you I've many times gone WAY above and beyond for a customer that was in my position: unhappy, frustrated and having met only dead ends after being given inaccurate information by other reps.<br />
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Only the reps at T-Mobile were helpful and they sent me a letter stating they DID alert the credit bureau and it can take the bureau a few months to remove the inquiry. I'm still waiting, but at least I know they did what they said.<br />
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I'm still receiving written letters from Zales and Best Buy's line of credit telling me that either:<br />
A. There is no open line of credit account with my name on it from them (duh)<br />
B. There is no way to remove a credit inquiry from a credit report (ignoring the fact that it was fraudulent, in which case there is a way to remove the inquiry)<br />
C. Thank you, we're sorry, can you send us more information.<br />
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I've now written SIX letters to each of those companies and in their response letters neither has acknowledged the actual problem I've clearly and simply stated in each letter. I even made sure to keep the letters formal, factual and only half a page with 12 point type in case the person reading it has a short attention span.<br />
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Honestly, if my identity had been breached and accounts had been open it would have been an absolute nightmare compared to this, given the lack of effective and responsible responses I've gotten from these companies. Canned customer service letters are not effective nor responsible nor polite when dealing with something of this nature. ESPECIALLY if the canned reply is not addressing the problem.<br />
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It's like a game where the real rules are hidden and only the tenacious win. I'm pretty tenacious but even my resolve is waning.<br />
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I'll post an update in the future if it is resolved. But this is an example of very poor customer service, service design and a faulted bureaucratic process, indeed.<br />
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</div>teagurl327http://www.blogger.com/profile/05281126667828005966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646640367428945917.post-7359076946594290312011-08-30T14:41:00.003-04:002011-08-30T14:42:19.493-04:00Luxury Brand: Europe vs China. Is there even a competition?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">I'm no fortune teller but I have a feeling that a shift and change is afoot in the geographic home to luxury goods. Currently, that home is Europe and has been for quite some time [</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://www.eurocham.com.hk/about-eubip/88-chinas-investment-in-european-luxury-buyer-beware.html" style="color: #234786; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">http://www.eurocham.com.hk/about-eubip/88-chinas-investment-in-european-luxury-buyer-beware.html</a>]</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">. The biggest group of buyers (in dollars/yen/pounds/euro) is currently the Chinese.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">I read a recent interview in the Financial Times with <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Diego Della Valle, the head of Tod's (Milan). [</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/84721c1c-c33f-11e0-9109-00144feabdc0.html" style="color: #234786; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">http://www.ft.com/cms/s/84721c1c-c33f-11e0-9109-00144feabdc0.html</a>]</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I found two points most interesting: FIrst, his belief that a luxury brand will have to maintain, what he called "the dream touch." A balance between a brand's products being exclusive and yet popular. Second, his belief that for the foreseeable future the Chinese will want "Made in Italy" and shun "Made in China".</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Here's the excerpt:</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #454545; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: black; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">With all this talk of Asian resurgence, does he consider that the “Made in Italy” label will retain its lustre? “Yes,” he replies unhesitatingly. “Because it is still the maximum guarantee of high quality for products such as ours. Like the French for perfume, the Swiss for watches. The Chinese do not want to buy ‘Made in China’.” But the Chinese will surely learn, if they haven’t already, how to make things equally well? “But we have the hundreds, the thousands, of family firms, micro-enterprises, almost a Renaissance model, that guarantee that quality. That’s not easy to copy.”</span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #454545; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">At first I was blown away at how naive this statement is, especially given some of the other things he said that were rather insightful. The undying belief and pride that luxury-good brands from high-end, family-owned Italian businesses could not be replaced by an emerging Chinese luxury-brand of equally high-end materials, style and exclusivity. That, perhaps, the Chinese are not capable of such competition. That Italians have a solid and experienced network of suppliers, designers, and craftsmen/women to design, produce, market and sell (with that balance of exclusivity and popularity in hand) -- that this is not easy to copy. Perhaps not easy, but it can be copied. If nothing else, the Chinese factories that produce US and European technology and apparel goods have proved they're darn good at copying.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #454545; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The luxury market, however, is not the place to sell copies. Although Canal Street vendors in New York City have fairly good imitations on the black/intellectual-property-infringed market. The real buyers in any luxury market, a copy will just not do. So what's to stop a Chinese luxury-goods company from doing the same? Establishing a high-end model? Is it the lack of intellectual property statutes in China or the fact that European brands just have more cache?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #454545; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">(Truthfully, I know very little about the fashion industry. In fact, as a regular reader of the Financial Times it may be my only exposure to high-end brand names and products at all. I'm definitely not the typical FT reader and do not own any luxury brand goods. Though, of course, I aspire to as someone in the middle class is supposed to.)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #454545; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #454545; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The only high-end Chinese brand I know of is "Shanghai Tang". So, I went looking for an article about them and their head of company's view [</span>http://www.cnn.com/2010/BUSINESS/03/30/china.fashion.luxury/index.html ]<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #454545; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. What I found was what I expected to find, a similar set of statements that basically promote the pride that Chinese have in their own Chinese brands and that luxury goods can be produced, designed and bought with cache with "Made in China" on the label. </span></span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">However, I found the interview devoid of any substantial statements about strategy or brand values. Although this was a CNN interview not meant to be in-depth about any point, unlike the Financial Times interview which is "Lunch With the FT" column and is meant to be a meaningful conversation with substance. So it is a bit unfair to compare. The CNN inteview with the Shanghai Tang CEO had weak sound bites meant to promote that Shanghai Tang has Chinese pride and the future is all about China: "<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; line-height: 19px;">But today everybody produce in China. Simply because you can get quality in China the same way you can get quality in the Western World."</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #454545; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>Will a Chinese label be able to establish and maintain that "dream touch"? </span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Both interviews referenced the Japanese market of 20 years ago as being the predecessor of the Chinese market today. Delle Valle (CEO Tod's) mentioned that unlike the US and Japanese slow embrace of luxury goods over years that started with the wealthy and then the middle class, that the Chinese market is more of an explosion of both the wealthy and middle class at once. The development of embracing and buying luxury goods is different.</span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">From what little I know about China today, I think everything is different about this "explosion" of wealth. I think the Europeans are going to need to stick even more strongly to their brand vision and values and maintain brand across everything they do, while simultaneously looking over their shoulders for a stream of Chinese luxury brands who will be able to really compete with them.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Like with any brand that is selling something, the appeal to one's emotions is often paramount. Just look at luxury hotel chain: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/business/media/ads-for-luxury-collection-hotels-appeal-to-emotion-advertising.html?_r=1&smid=tw-nytimestravel&seid=auto">http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/business/media/ads-for-luxury-collection-hotels-appeal-to-emotion-advertising.html?_r=1&smid=tw-nytimestravel&seid=auto</a> Promoting the "personal touches", the little details, that separate a hotel from a room with a bed to an experience. The luxury market, no matter where and no matter for what, the quality and differentiation is crucial.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Tod's understands that and we'll see how well Shanghai Tang (or any other yet-to-come high-end Chinese brand) understands that, too.</span><br />
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</div>teagurl327http://www.blogger.com/profile/05281126667828005966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646640367428945917.post-21197199034870396952010-12-09T13:14:00.001-05:002011-04-20T11:48:34.573-04:00Part 1: Delta Airlines new campaign - sincere care or wishful thinking?<span id="internal-source-marker_0.7383391731053442" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I've been a frequent traveler for years for both business and family vacations, and as such I have some pretty definite opinions about certain airlines in addition to a keen awareness of how each airline promotes its personality. Additionally, in my past I worked in a few industries in customer service for over three years, plus client relations and project management for over ten.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Recently, I’ve taken notice of the new Delta ad campaign that features black and white photos with their red logo and a short sentence that is meant to engender you to have warm feelings to them as an airline. It’s referred to as the “Keep Climbing” campaign. (</span><a href="http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/direct/e3i5d86cb3297fb74c52dbe40bb9b48a15d"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/direct/e3i5d86cb3297fb74c52dbe40bb9b48a15d</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Two of these subway ads that stick out in my mind are, "The red coats are back" (which reminds me of the British troops during the Revolution, not customer service reps from Delta) and "Sleep is not a perk", but apparently free check-in luggage is a perk. I’ll get to this next time.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I should disclose that three years ago I swore off flying Delta ever again, unless there was no option to fly another airline. I had an absolute disaster experience with their airport staff, call centers in the US and India and general over-exposure to their lost luggage processes when they lost my checked bag, and then a very botched layover experience in Atlanta a year later. The first experience was bad enough that they forced me to check a carry-on bag because the flight was full, and then it was never scanned; found three weeks later after I had re-purchased all the items in my suitcase. The second Delta experience swore me off ever connecting in Atlanta on any airline if I could help it since the Delta and Atlanta airport staff were so rude and dismissive. Honestly, I’ve had my bags lost by American Airlines a few times during work travel, but the way I was treated by Delta turned me off to them entirely.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">For me, Delta lost my respect. It went from a decent airline with a solid brand I wanted to trust and that flew a lot of places I wanted to go, to a commodity airline that I avoided at all costs. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Most recently, my sister bought a ticket on Delta to fly to a college friend’s wedding. Three days before her flight, she fell sick with a really bad bacterial infection and was immediately put on antibiotics. Had she flown she would have certainly gotten a good portion of the flight’s passengers sick and many people at the wedding. So she cancelled her ticket by calling Delta. They charged her a $150 rebooking fee, on a $225 ticket. She was given a confirmation number, so she could use the remaining credit on another flight in the future. She would have to call Delta to use that credit, to book her next flight. I tried to see if they charge you a fee for calling to make a flight reservation, like other airlines do, but I couldn’t find a definitive answer one way or another. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Either way, a $20 fee to book a flight using Delta’s phone reservation system or not, it is certainly an exorbitant “rebooking” fee, especially on such an otherwise cheap ticket. Now, I well realize it is of no concern to Delta why someone is cancelling using their ticket but $150 is steep. If they really have “the customer’s back” you’d figure they would charge you a percentage of your ticket as the cancellation fee -- something more variable to match the scale of the original ticket price. Even then, I was just appalled by taking nearly 67% of the original ticket price as a “rebooking fee.” </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This reminded me of the cancellation fees that cell phone companies employ. My favorite at the moment is my $350 fee with AT&T if I leave them before the 2 year contract is up. But that’s another story.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Back to the topic at hand, Delta’s branded messages and the resonation of truth behind the messages. What I like about the campaign is that it is visually coherent and consistent in its content. The message is clear and the message is singular. Any good brand message needs to be both clear and singular. Focus, focus, focus. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A wonderful, customer-service focused, but non-airline branded message is Avis’ “We Try Harder”. First used in 1963, Avis launched this campaign to gain car rental business against the giant, Hertz. Avis turned a one year profit of $1.2 million after launching “We Try Harder”, and their marketshare of 11% in 1962 increased to 35% by 1966. </span><a href="http://www.avis.com.cy/We_try_harder.html"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.avis.com.cy/We_try_harder.html</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Having used this slogan for over 40 years, it’s not only served Avis well but has become a well-recognized message with the public. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Delta’s promise of being nicer to you than any other airline, if true, will definitely affect </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">all</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> their customers.The only problem with going the “we love our customers” route is if the entire company can’t deliver, the promise sounds insincere to the public and is a waste of time and money. </span>teagurl327http://www.blogger.com/profile/05281126667828005966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646640367428945917.post-89014782099950286672008-05-22T14:06:00.003-04:002008-05-22T14:21:01.876-04:00musings over new york city lifeI've started to do research a book I'm planning to write. Not a very committed statement, but true. And through my interviews, which are about new yorkers, I realize more and more that I don't want to leave Manhattan. In particular I don't want to leave the East Village. I have known this to be true for, well, since I moved in. In comparison I got a pretty good deal on my studio, which both my husband and I now live in. It's not great, but it's good. The only major complaint is when the plumbing in the building has some problem, which is every few months. None of it stops the world, so we get on.<br /><br />I have, what I think is, a usual relationship with the city. I love it. Like it was a person you're dating or some such. Something to be proud of and desire. So I get a little indignant and a lot frustrated when I realize, not that far in the future, I'm going to have to leave the city and go to somewhere else. If we're going to have a kid, and likely we will within the year, we need more space. Well, we don't NEED more space but that would be nice. Half our stuff is in storage, even though every Spring and Fall (when we actually get those seasons for more than a few days anymore), we do a purge of our stuff.<br /><br />We're both a little bit pack-rat like and so stuff accumulates. Even though we love a homey yet minimal design style, we have piles of stuff in places.<br /><br />Anyway, we like some of our stuff so we keep it. But we can't afford the city, and the extra Manhattan city tax every year is just the punch in the stomach that makes me wish I was in Queens or Brooklyn. Most of our friends are still in Manhattan, or at least that's where we all hang out. So until they all leave, which few are starting to, we'll be resistant to move. Me in particular.<br /><br />I keep asking myself, who are these people that can afford the rent in my neighborhood for 2 bedrooms, or any of those apartments that are more than $3k/month? Forget the multimillion dollar pads that I can't even imagine visiting let alone renting or owning. In my neighborhood, even when a 2bdrm exists, it's crazy expensive. To myself I ask them, what do you do? How much do you get paid? (And should I be doing that instead?)<br /><br />I can only think that they make a considerable amount more than we do or are more comfortable living with debt than we are.<br /><br />Either way, I feel shafted. I feel like my love and dedication to the city should reward me in some way. It's totally irrational, but in my weakest moments that's what I think. And then I suppose when the real, immediate need for a 2 bedroom is in my face, my priorities will change and I'll be more receptive to making concessions on location.<br /><br />But for right now, I like that I'm here. Minca is across the street and I can't find a better noodle place in the city so far -- at least for me. Trust me, I've tried a LOT of noodles.<br /><br />So here's to living well and environmentally-friendly my favorite neighborhood for as long as I can!teagurl327http://www.blogger.com/profile/05281126667828005966noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646640367428945917.post-38835858398203702372008-05-09T17:41:00.001-04:002008-05-09T17:41:22.738-04:00ux team of one, i wish it was me <div><br /> <h3>How to be a UX Team Of One</h3><br /> From: <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/ugleah/">ugleah</a>, 3 weeks ago<br /><br /><br /> <div style="width:425px;text-align:left" id="__ss_357918"><object style="margin:0px" width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://static.slideshare.net/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=uxteamofone-1208413700270768-8"/><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><embed src="http://static.slideshare.net/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=uxteamofone-1208413700270768-8" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><div style="font-size:11px;font-family:tahoma,arial;height:26px;padding-top:2px;"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/?src=embed"><img src="http://static.slideshare.net/swf/logo_embd.png" style="border:0px none;margin-bottom:-5px" alt="SlideShare"/></a> | <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/ugleah/how-to-be-a-ux-team-of-one?src=embed" title="View 'How to be a UX Team Of One' on SlideShare">View</a> | <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/upload?src=embed">Upload your own</a></div></div><br /><br /><br /> How to Be a UX Team of One was presented by Leah Buley at the 2008 IA Summit in Miami, Florida.<br /><br />It shows techniques for generative design that can be used by solo user experience practitioners.<br /><br /><br /> <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/ugleah/how-to-be-a-ux-team-of-one">SlideShare Link</a><br /> </div><br /> <img style="visibility:hidden;width:0px;height:0px;" border=0 width=0 height=0 src="http://counters.gigya.com/wildfire/CIMP/bHQ9MTIxMDM2OTAyMjQ2NyZwdD*xMjEwMzY5MjM*ODgyJnA9MTAxOTEmZD*mbj1ibG9nZ2VyJmc9MQ==.jpg" />teagurl327http://www.blogger.com/profile/05281126667828005966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646640367428945917.post-31113150848837796132008-04-09T11:28:00.002-04:002008-04-09T11:32:52.354-04:00New York City Congestion ChargeSo it seems that although New York City wants to charge money to dissuade traffic in midtown, the state legislature thinks otherwise. I'll bet it has as much to do with timing of this proposal as it does with NYS's fear of losing business or money or something that isn't people's health.<br /><br />Here's an excerpt from an email from the Mayor's office:<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">"</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:85%;color:#ffffff;" >"Today is a sad day for New Yorkers and a sad day for <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; cursor: pointer; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1207754902_2">New York City</span>. Not only won't we see the realization of a plan that would have cut traffic, spurred our economy, reduced pollution and improved public health, we will also lose out on nearly $500 million annually for <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1207754902_3">mass transit improvements</span> and $354 million in immediate federal funds."</span>teagurl327http://www.blogger.com/profile/05281126667828005966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646640367428945917.post-91597311818264208682008-04-02T21:40:00.004-04:002008-04-02T21:48:40.599-04:00results of earth hour 08Well after reading through the Google News headlines for results of March 29th Earth Hour it looks like there were reductions in energy use but that it is also a little too early to tell what the dip was and any environmental benefit. A bonus of the lights going out in some Canadian cities was that it left the night sky a bit less "polluted" with city lights. <a href="http://www.georginaadvocate.com/News/Richmond%20Hill/article/72328">Richmond Hill's Observatory</a> benefited. I can't imagine how clear the night sky would have been if my own New York City could follow suit. I have a hard time imagining the bureaucratic wrangling that it would take to turn the lights off of Times Square. But what a statement, eh? At least we passed Congestion Pricing today. I got the email notification from the City earlier today. Nice!<br /><br />Now, go plant a tree: <a href="http://www.milliontreesnyc.org/html/involved/month.shtml">http://www.milliontreesnyc.org/html/involved/month.shtml</a><br />If only I could figure out what open jobs they have at PLANYC. They might not want me but I definitely want to be involved. Trying to find the postings on nyc.gov is a bit, um, difficult. This is why I want to do more with information design/communication + environment. Make it personal, get it in the correct context for each audience. Redesign the interface so you can find what you are looking for.<br /><br />I could go on... but I'm tired.teagurl327http://www.blogger.com/profile/05281126667828005966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646640367428945917.post-13396667437732203132008-03-29T11:07:00.004-04:002008-03-29T11:19:30.698-04:00Earth Hour, wonder what will happenIf you don't know already, Earth Hour this year is tonight, March 29 from 20:00 - 21:00 local time. I'm, of course, going to participate and turn off all our lights. What's most interesting to me are two things:<br />1. The metrics of how many participated ( much CO2 and energy was saved) and how they'll compare it across time zones.<br />2. how many babies will be born 10 months from tonight because of this.<br /><br />If you haven't heard, or want to know what's up, check it out here: <a href="http://www9.earthhourus.org/">http://www9.earthhourus.org/</a><br /><br />On another interesting note, is something I read from <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/earthhour/">Google's EarthHour homepage</a> today.<br />I had believed (or wanted to believe) <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/is-black-new-green.html">blog post months about how if you just chance the color of the screen background from white to black (they used Google w/ black background -- Blackle-- as the example) that the monitor would use slightly less energy</a> and therefore be less energy taxing/environmentally friendlier. Well, on Google's Earth Hour page explains it doesn't matter what color the screen background is. That's good for visual design since I have Accessibility questions about the contrast being high enough.<br /><br />Grab a drink, turn off the lights. There's plenty of ways to entertain yourself for an hour in the "dark."teagurl327http://www.blogger.com/profile/05281126667828005966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646640367428945917.post-17498852085820269832008-03-20T14:31:00.004-04:002008-03-20T14:54:48.299-04:00being pregnant and true sustainabilityI wrote this in a notebook February7 before I knew for certain that I was about 4 weeks pregnant. Even though my life has changed in this short amount of time, I still think it holds true and so I'm putting this out there. Basically, if we all took as good care of each other and the planet as many of us care for ourselves, things would be better.<br /><br />Deep breath. Here goes...<br /><br />The more I think about being pregnant, the more I believe there is a direct analogy for understanding sustainability. Sustainability is, in business, the means/way by which you are able to produce your product/service/whatever without negatively impacting the environment, others environment, the welfare of the people who work for you, the welfare of those who buy from you, who supply you. Ideally, not creating any waste and still creating a financial -- if not also ecological and social -- profit. Yes, I believe this is the Triple Bottom Line.<br /><br />Sustainability is NOT the same as simply environmentally-friendly, -responsible, eco-friendly, "green" or social responsibility. It is all of these things and more. It is the full life cycle. More sucinctly: "Sustainability is the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." This definition was created in 1987 at the World Commission on Environment and Development (the Brundtland Commission).<br /><br /><br />So, let's just say that if you're in business and are sustainable, then you expect your business to sustain for 500 years in the future. You make plans and take actions to support that 500 year vision.<br /><br />So how does this relate to pregnancy?<br /><br />In a way it does. Whether intentionally or unintentionally pregnant -- and assuming the woman plans to take the pregnancy to full term (so no "planned" termination) -- her actions directly affect her life and the building life of another.<br /><br />What she eats, drinks, does, breathes, consumes, puts on, etc. The vitamins she takes, creams she puts on, clothes she wears, garbage and waste she creates... it all affects the budding life's health and then afterwards.<br /><br />Sometimes Nature steps in and the baby never arrives. But that wasn't planned. It was an uncontrollable effect. Similarly, sustainability in business, even the best intentions can be thwarted by Nature. However, in both cases direct action in an unsustainable way will guarantee long lasting negative effects. If not delayed negative effects in the case of plastic degrading in a landfill or, worse, in the oceans and re-entering the food supply as "food" for fish. For the pregnancy it will invariably result in the health of the baby that becomes a child and then adult. There is a consequence.<br /><br />For example on the pregnancy argument, if a woman spends her entire pregnancy drinking beers and eating Twinkies or, say, doing some H -- as her main source of energy -- it is likely, although not guaranteed, her infant will be ill or have developmental problems. Now, given the plenitude of genes and natural development of a fetus, the same could happen to a woman who only eats healthily and exercises regularly. Like I wrote earlier, sometimes Nature intervenes in the development and the development stops.<br /><br />Of course, this is where my analogy breaks down and I get close to insulting someone who has suffered a miscarriage or has opted for in vitro or other methods. But that's certainly not my point.<br /><br />Comparing Nature, society, and finances to the natural process of pregnancy... well, there are genetic and business connections that I could make if I stretch this out really thinly. So I won't.<br /><br />I guess what this comes down to is being a bit afraid and a lot aware of my daily choices now having a direct and visible affect on another person's existence. Where before, I believed this but I'll be able to see the effect on another person and before it was just measuring my "carbon footprint" and seeing how much trash I throw out.teagurl327http://www.blogger.com/profile/05281126667828005966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646640367428945917.post-39568146167482760702008-01-06T12:06:00.000-05:002008-01-06T12:20:16.949-05:00Negative Ions, a well-designed solution to feeling better at home?Around mid-September 2007, I posted an entry on my blog about how you can do your home up with clay plaster. That the ions that clay has are the same as what humans are accustomed to when living in nature.<br /><br />Since I posted this blog entry I haven't tried the clay plaster; I haven't left my studio apartment in New York. So there hasn't been a home for me to try this on.<br /><br />I more recently read in the Science Times section of the <span style="font-style: italic;">New York Times</span> that mentioned humans like being in environments that have negative ions. So you feel better with clay plaster than others because of this fact. I also realized from the <span style="font-style: italic;">New York Times </span>article that negative ions are why I prefer to leave the windows open instead of using the air conditioner (except when it's insanely hot) and put on more clothes than use the heat. I always would get, what I called as a kid, air conditioner headaches. Maybe it was just the lack of negative ions.<br /><br />Perhaps all a well-designed home needs is to make more use of what humans have evolved from, the natural world. We're all star stuff after all ;)<br /><br /><br />Here's the section of the article from "Seasonal Affective Disorder" and the link to the article from Dec 18, 2007:<br /><br />"It may sound suspiciously close to snake oil, but the newest promising therapy for SAD is negative air ionization. Dr. Terman found it serendipitously when he used a negative ion generator as a placebo control for bright light, only to discover that high-flow negative ions had positive effects on mood.<br /><br />Heated and air-conditioned environments are low in negative ion content. Humid places, forests and the shore are loaded with them. It makes you wonder whether there is something, after all, to those tales about the mistral and all those hot dry winds, full of bad positive ions, that supposedly drive people mad."<br /><br />http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/18/health/18mind.htmlteagurl327http://www.blogger.com/profile/05281126667828005966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646640367428945917.post-35782590818277538362007-12-10T12:38:00.000-05:002007-12-10T12:47:34.358-05:00Design is the Cause of and Solution to all the world's problems<a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ff2d7118-a39f-11dc-b229-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1">http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ff2d7118-a39f-11dc-b229-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1</a><br /><br />Recently there was a small news piece in the <span style="font-style: italic;">Financial Times</span> that mentioned how Netflix has earned the ire of the USPS's auditor because the return envelopes' closing/sticky edge is too soft. So it means that the USPS has to hand-sort all of those Netflix envelopes that are used to return the discs to Netflix. The original envelope that gets the disc to the customer has a stiff enough "leading edge" but not the return envelope. Apparently the "leading edge" is not using a good design. Plus it'll cost Netflix an additional 17 cents per envelope to get DVDs back from customers. This increase would negate 2/3rds of Netflix's profit.<br /><br />Netflix designers, hopefully, are working on a way to stiffen the edges. So with better-informed parameters and good design strategy, Netflix is going to remedy the problem that bad design created.<br /><br />Gooooooooooooo Design!teagurl327http://www.blogger.com/profile/05281126667828005966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646640367428945917.post-83131656732294003402007-11-06T11:29:00.000-05:002007-11-06T11:37:22.247-05:00California to sue US Government over emissionsAnother interesting article from the FT, "<a href="http://search.ft.com/ftArticle?queryText=california+sue+emissions&y=0&aje=true&x=0&id=070426000713&ct=0&nclick_check=1">California vows to sue over emissions</a>" from a story in April 2007 that outlined how Gov. Schwarzenegger was going to proceed, and then a new statement by California's governor -- reported on 22nd of October "<a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4e2f238e-80b8-11dc-9f14-0000779fd2ac.html">California set to sue over emissions</a>".<br /><br />Apparently back in April 2007, Gov. Schwarzenegger told the US government that he was going to sue them if they didn't let the EPA grant a waiver over greenhouse gas emissions. Essentially the state of California wants to take more strident action against greenhouse gas emissions and do it faster than the US federal government is ready to set standards up to California's. Apparently the request for this EPA waiver was originally sent to the US government two years ago, so in 2005.<br /><br />During 2006, California passed legislation that commits the state to a 25% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.<br /><br />I'm usually against lawsuits. By and large, so many of them that make it to the press seem to be frivolous or at the very least selfish. This is something I can get behind.teagurl327http://www.blogger.com/profile/05281126667828005966noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646640367428945917.post-62003292439684711212007-10-28T13:23:00.000-04:002007-10-28T13:33:42.708-04:00Recycling is not THE answer if you look at the problem holistically"<a href="http://search.ft.com/ftArticle?queryText=recycling%20is%20not%20the%20answer&y=0&aje=false&x=0&id=071012000181&ct=0">Recycling is not the answer</a>" by Martin Gibson from Envirowise. If there was ever someone who was talking about the virtues of Design Management and just didn't call it by its name, is Mr. Gibson here. I spent the time reading this article, and feeling very inspired that someone outside of the circles I know about really <span style="font-style: italic;">gets</span> DM and doesn't even (maybe) know what it's called!<br /><br />Here are some of my favorite parts:<br /><br />"...so-called 'triple bottom line' -- profit, planet and people -- is needed for businesses to survive and thrive in the longer term."<br /><br />"...addressing the 'planet' or environmental side of sustainability is good for the profit line -- the economics are obvious: reducing resource use, water consumption or energy use will reduce expenditure..."<br /><br />"Envirowise found that 52 per cent of SMEs surveyed reported evidence of growing environmental awareness amongst their clients over the past year...Some ten per cent are anticipating an increased demand for information... while 11 per cent have altered their business strategy as a result."<br /><br />"The greenwash backlash is almost upon us. The gap between rhetoric and action on climate change..."<br /><br />"Prevention is after all better than cure...looking at the processes and inputs rather than fixing the output."<br /><br />"Looking at the design of a product: looking at the supply chain that provides the components of that product; looking at the packaging of a product' these all may seem obvious areas to investigate, but are often overlooked, or explored in isolation and not holistically."<br /><br />"Key to this whole life cycle approach is changing behaviour and the way people approach problems. People in business should ask themselves" 'How can I use the least material and energy to give the customer what they want?'"teagurl327http://www.blogger.com/profile/05281126667828005966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646640367428945917.post-71774489653153574432007-10-28T13:11:00.000-04:002007-10-28T13:22:51.735-04:00Effective Communication is a key to Design ManagementIn fact it was two of our classes at Pratt: Communication.<br /><br />How many people do you work with who write emails that are frustrating for their lack of clarity, especially when that person is in a senior position to you and is giving you direction on delivering something to him/her? Or a subordinate who you've asked a yes/no question to and gives you a 5 minute reply doesn't answer you at all, and in fact only confuses you as to what she/he is on about? How often do you read or hear someone say something that misses the point or is just an onslaught of words, and makes you wonder if there is a point at all?<br /><br />It's bad design. What you say, how you say it and what you mean is part of a larger 'design'. Mostly I think that if you express yourself poorly you either don't have the verbal or written skills to execute on your idea or your ideas don' t have clarity. Either way, it's trouble -- even for sustainability reports.<br /><br />"<a href="http://search.ft.com/ftArticle?queryText=climate+change+must+feature&y=0&aje=true&x=0&id=071012000080&ct=0">Climate change must feature in trading statements</a>" by Sarah Murray (FT) makes some salient points about communication and how it's key to not only sustainability reports but communicating a vision and a mission -- especially when it comes to change.<br /><br />"...at SustainAbility, a consultancy whose work includes brokering relations between internal corporate groups as well as between investors and companies."<br /><br />"...one of the reasons companies have trouble convincing investors of the merits of their sustainability strategies is that their sustainability staff are not communicating effectively with the investor relations department... sustainability professionals often come into the corporate world from the non-profit sector... but no grasp of finance."<br /><br />So it doesn't matter if you're talking about a sustainability mission, vision, change, report, or how your weekend was... "'Most people... say they don't understand each other -- and that's part of the reason why internally that hasn't been progressed quicker."<br /><br /><br />Always #1: Know your audience<br /><br />PS How many of you wonder if I'm being paid by the Financial Times to quote and refer to their articles? It's just they're a brilliant paper. One day, and probably not too far in the future, I'm going to get a subscription to every paper I can, read them, and make my own selections. Until then I'm going to subscribe to "The Week".teagurl327http://www.blogger.com/profile/05281126667828005966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646640367428945917.post-65323015504992718942007-10-28T12:45:00.000-04:002007-10-28T13:00:48.691-04:00Packaging material clogs up landfillsThere isn't anything new here, it's just another reminder that package designers have a lot of responsibility and ultimately a lot of sway in the world's health.<br /><br />"<a href="http://search.ft.com/ftArticle?queryText=greenest+of+plastic+bottles&y=0&aje=false&x=0&id=071012000093&ct=0">The greenest of plastic bottles grow in fields</a>" by Ross Tieman, <span style="font-style: italic;">Financial Times</span>.<br /><br />Some quotes to give you an idea of the article:<br /><br />"...like Wal-Mart, has broadcast a goal of reducing packaging by five per cent."<br />"A British government study concluded that used packaging accounted for 18 per cent of the contents of a typical household bin, by weight and volume. In 2004, Britons threw away 171kg of packaging per person..."<br /><br />"'Packaging enables a lot of resource conservation in the supply chain.' That is why, he [Anders Linde] says, 'strategically, we need to look at the whole supply chain. To look at packaging in isolation makes no sense." (Lucky for me this is a huge part of Design Management. Looking at the entire life cycle. Because, when you really look at it all, <a href="http://search.ft.com/ftArticle?queryText=recycling+is+not+the+answer&y=0&aje=false&x=0&id=071012000181&ct=0">Recycling is not the answer</a>.)<br /><br />"But PLA [a proprietary plastic produced in Nebraska by Natureworks] is no miracle solution. Naturally Iowa says it takes 60-100 days to break down its milk bottles in a heated commercial composting facility. Put one in your home compost bin, says Sainsbury's Mr Lendram, and 'it will still be there when you move.'"<br /><br />"Plastics are the biggest challenge. Rejecting PLA, it [Sainsbury's] is working with suppliers to re-package own-brand goods in materials that break down naturally. One is NatureFlex, a transparent cellulose film made by...Innovia Films"<br /><br />"Another supplier is Italy's Novamont, which offers a more opaque bioplastic, Materi Bi, derived from maize, which can form bags, foam trays, or even drinking cups. Plantic Technologies, of Australia... offers a maize-based resin that can be injection-moulded and used for film."<br /><br />My question then becomes, what is the triple-bottomline cost of raising maize to produce packaging. What is it when we look to essentially a food to make packaging. Is it better or worse than plastic? I'm guessing that it's better. I just worry about the cost of food rising for the sake of things like biodiesel (which actually I love) and bottled water (which I have a guilty pleasure of and buy for convenience while traveling).<br /><br />However, I'm more in favor of making any packaging biodegradable over toxic, even if it means using plant/food-based materials. The push, I imagine, is to get people to buy locally and fresh so that packaging isn't as much of a problem. So that you buy what you need. I think I'm treading on Slow Food Movement water now...teagurl327http://www.blogger.com/profile/05281126667828005966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646640367428945917.post-82127827084176876242007-10-28T12:32:00.000-04:002007-10-28T13:11:37.075-04:00The greenhouse gases your food producesOk, so it's not that your food per se produces greenhouse gases, it's more that within food production (the entire life cycle) greenhouse gases are produced. "<a href="http://search.ft.com/ftArticle?queryText=food+footprint&y=0&aje=true&x=0&id=071012000124&ct=0&nclick_check=1">Food footprints coming soon to a label near you</a>" by Fiona Harvey, <span style="font-style: italic;">Financial Times</span>.<br /><br />I think it's really great and still frustrating that once again the UK and/or EU is so far ahead of the US. I guess it's true that if you come from a place with limited natural resources like the EU vs. US you (aka Europeans) are more aware of the end of those resources and more protective of making them last longer. One of my grad school groups came up with this idea of eco-aware labels for food and non-food products. We argued our way out of it as something to present to class because of the lack of a central, respected body that would come up with the baseline that all products, companies, methods would be measured against. To keep track of what was produced in terms of CO2 from each farmer, chemist, company, factory, printer, packer, shipper, store, rubbish/garbage removal. Not to mention any of the byproducts, waste, energy, etc to make each phase of the lifecycle happen... It all seemed too daunting a challenge for us to think through and still have a solution at the end that came up with a reputable and meaningful label to inform consumers. And then, after all of that, would it make a meaningful difference to a consumer's decision to buy one product vs. another -- or just another way for a company to create a marketable advantage and yet something else that can be manipulated for profit sans principle.<br /><br />It seemed to us too difficult and unsupported back in 2004, maybe the world really is changing...<br /><br />Segments I liked in the article:<br />"Companies have to scrutinise factors such as their electricity usage, their transport, heating, their use of materials, and any greenhouse gases produced by chemical processes in their manufacturing."<br /><br />"...BSI British Standards to develop a single standard to measure the 'embodied' greenhouse gas emissions from products and services, which should make it easier for other companies to apply the same methods."<br /><br /><br />Furthering my point, in the article "<a href="http://search.ft.com/ftArticle?queryText=food+chain+is+complex&y=0&aje=false&x=0&id=071012000042&ct=0">Food chain is complex</a>" by Sarah Murray, <span style="font-style: italic;">Financial Times</span> (of course) explains that, "'Establishing one standard, credible way of measuring a product's carbon content will empower consumers to make informed decisions as well as driving businesses to invest in lowering the carbon content of their products,' said Tom Delay, the Carbon Trust's chief executive."<br /><br />This is true, and then the article touches on another point we came across in 2004, "At the same time, agriculture is responsible for pollution in the form of run-off of chemical fertilisers. Since less than half the nitrogen applies to crops in fertiliser is actually use, the rest leaches into soil and rivers... But there are tough trade-offs for farmers..."<br /><br />Developing and implementing (and then keeping to) sustainable practices in agriculture is a far bigger deal than what may amount to cursory involvement in food packaging labels. It's a start which I can support. I support the change in opinions based on what's really happening, the whole way through, and getting back to what our ancestors knew. They knew the food they consumed because they made it, they knew all about it and where it all came from and experienced. We should to. What's difficult, and nearly impossible without some international, standardized system (and who wants that?), is being able to keep track. Knowing all the direct and indirect details is probably futile, and it's not what's important to a consumer. What's important now is changing buying behaviors so that what is supported is "good" on as many levels as possible.<br /><br />The common man/woman may only care insofar as it is affecting him/her directly. Make it personal and someone will care. <a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/118/working-with-the-enemy.html">Adam Werbach</a> is totally right, and I don't care if he is working directly, indirectly or not at all with Wal-Mart. He's right, he's right, he's right!<br /><br />(I love it when someone in a significant position says something I've thought for years. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. )teagurl327http://www.blogger.com/profile/05281126667828005966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646640367428945917.post-12800861572572255612007-10-28T12:29:00.000-04:002007-10-28T12:32:38.445-04:00Shop 'green' with local advice from Brooklyn<a href="http://www.shopbcue.org/">http://www.shopbcue.org/</a><br /><br />The Brooklyn Center for Urban Environment (BCUE) has an online 'hub' that gives you listings for eco-friendly companies and/or products, plus the reason(s) why you should shop or buy from each.<br /><br />I think the site has a long way to go, and it's a great start.teagurl327http://www.blogger.com/profile/05281126667828005966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646640367428945917.post-69405423283382948422007-10-15T13:04:00.000-04:002007-10-15T13:16:52.612-04:00China as leader for alternative fuel-based vehicles?It hadn't occurred to me until I read a book review the book <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/67f8d36c-7214-11dc-8960-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1"><span style="font-style: italic;">Zoom</span> in <span style="font-style: italic;">The Financial Times</span></a> about China and its burgeoning relationship to cars, and therefore fuel, would be a driver for what that future means.<br /><br />"Because China has no invested heavily in petrol stations or other infrastructure for conventional cars, it could become a leader in plug-in or hydrogen fuel cell cars. China is a big enough market to sway future global technology." And an interesting take-away for Americans here is, whatever the US wants may or may not matter. China is such an economic force that <span style="font-style: italic;">their country</span> may set the international standards. So what China deems as important, significant, innovative, worthwhile -- that may be the way forward. No matter what Wall Street wants from the potential for a corn ethanol commodity on the stock market or Brazil and sugar ethanol.<br /><br />"Another new element is the influence of first movers, such as Toyota, on new technology. Thanks to market clout and early investments in hybrid cars, it has captured most of that small but growing market, and forced competitors, such as GM, to license the technology or scramble to develop their own." Toyota made that move primarily becuase they thought the entire US auto industry and buying habits were going to drastically change, starting with California. passed (and then rolled-back) it's Electric Car/Clean Air Act requirements in the early 90s.<br /><br />Here's to watching an interesting future in personal vehicles and their fuels.teagurl327http://www.blogger.com/profile/05281126667828005966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646640367428945917.post-18765162442138614082007-10-04T16:18:00.000-04:002007-10-04T16:19:48.316-04:00identifying bad design: cutting time vs. knowledge"There is, of course, a difference between cutting corners and efficiency. I’m all for efficiency-promoting tools like TextExpander, Skitch, and even Peel. But these are time-saving tools rather than knowledge-cutting tools. There’s a big difference. If we keep looking for ways to cut corners in the things should be learning and practicing, what will we be left with?"<br /><br /><a href="http://bobulate.com/2007/10/04/the-rise-of-cutting-corners/">http://bobulate.com/2007/10/04/the-rise-of-cutting-corners/</a>teagurl327http://www.blogger.com/profile/05281126667828005966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646640367428945917.post-91117472882413710992007-10-01T16:25:00.001-04:002007-10-01T16:29:19.563-04:00Design Management: The Cox Report (UK)Creativity needs to be skilfully managed, not simply embraced. What is required isn’t just a readiness to consider new ideas but the ability to recognise and assess their potential, to decide which to back and to put them into effect.<br /><br />From the Cox Report's section called <span style="font-style: italic;">Raising Awareness and Changing Behaviour</span> <a href="http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk./media/1/2/coxreview-chap4rasingawareness.pdf">http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk./media/1/2/coxreview-chap4rasingawareness.pdf</a><br /><br /><br />I appreciate and agree that creativity needs to be skillfully managed (as well as embraced). And in the report it gets to the point that it's about design management style 'management' to move that forward. He refers to DM as "managing creativity" throughout the report. It's not the term I'd choose but it'll do, it makes the point well enough.teagurl327http://www.blogger.com/profile/05281126667828005966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646640367428945917.post-1927235988095490942007-10-01T14:49:00.000-04:002007-10-01T14:51:49.723-04:00A useful travel tool from NWA<a href="http://nwa.innosked.com/%28S%28ggbmlsaxihwcgauaxrph5t45%29%29/Default.aspx?show=MAP">http://nwa.innosked.com/(S(ggbmlsaxihwcgauaxrph5t45))/Default.aspx?show=MAP</a><br /><br />Northwest Airline's destination map is actually really helpful. I was surprised that it was more than just a JPG, PDF or Flash version of their flights with the little semi-circle lines from one hub to another. If you click on one, it becomes your starting airport (and you can set it for the session as where all flight plans begin) and then the 2nd click is where you want to go. You can then see how many connections (if any) it would take and where the connection(s) would be (which airport, that is.)<br /><br />I'm surprised, and pleasantly so, therefore I'm impressed. Nice job NWA!teagurl327http://www.blogger.com/profile/05281126667828005966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646640367428945917.post-66712975544661190512007-09-30T18:51:00.000-04:002007-10-04T16:07:28.383-04:00Is this the right path to alternate fuel? Ethanol, food prices, fuel, energy, commodities trading... I think notMy personal view on ethanol is that it's a handy way to add something to the commodities markets so that first-world nations can trade on corn and it's backed by the US government with money. Have we as a planet screwed ourselves out of food sources in order to cut our CO2 emissions and run our cars? Perhaps.<br /><br />Everyone has an opinion about this. I've selected 4 sources that I think make a good argument or at least have a point-of-view that is fairly balanced in its representation. You be the judge of what you think.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_40/b4052052.htm?chan=search">http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_40/b4052052.htm?chan=search</a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Big Oil's Stall on Ethanol</span> from <span style="font-style: italic;">BusinessWeek</span> 1-Oct-07 (apparently, written in the future but published in the past ;) )<br /><br />" A more moderate conclusion comes from a recent study by the University of California at Davis, which last year received a $25 million grant from Chevron to study biofuels. It said the energy used to produce ethanol is about even with what it generates and that cleaner emissions would be offset by the loss of pasture and rainforest to corn-growing. Only a small part of the research backed by the grant will involve ethanol, says Billy Sanders, UC Davis' research director. The primary focus will be developing alternative processes and feedstocks for biofuel that is not ethanol.<br /><br />Infrastructure problems are behind much of the oil companies' resistance to E85. It adds "too much complexity and cost," says Shell spokesperson Anne Bryan Peebles, since it requires separate pumps, trucks, and storage tanks. Any mix with more than 10% ethanol may cause corrosion and other problems in existing pipelines."<br /><br /><a href="http://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/magazine/15-10/ff_plant"><br />http://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/magazine/15-10/ff_plant</a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">One Molecule Could Cure Our Addition to Oil</span> from <span style="font-style: italic;">Wired</span> magazine 24-Sep-07<br /><br />There's just one catch: No one has yet figured out how to generate energy from plant matter at a competitive price. The result is that no car on the road today uses a drop of cellulosic ethanol.<br /><br />Today's cellulases are the enzyme equivalent of vacuum tubes: clunky, slow, and expensive. Now, flush with cash, scientists and companies are racing to develop the cellulosic transistor. Some researchers are trying to build the ultimate microbe in the lab, one that could combine the two key steps of the process. Others are using "directed evolution" and genetic engineering to improve the enzyme-producing microorganisms currently in use. Still others are combing the globe in search of new and better bugs. It's bio-construction versus bio-tinkering versus bio-prospecting, all with the single goal of creating the perfect enzyme cocktail.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9d2dffc2-6e62-11dc-b818-0000779fd2ac.html">http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9d2dffc2-6e62-11dc-b818-0000779fd2ac.html</a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Go Back to Basics Before you Buy Commodities</span> from the <span style="font-style: italic;">Financial Times</span> 29-Sep-07<br /><br />Take the drastic shifts in the grain market wrought first by the demand for corn to make ethanol and then by the drought in Australia. Farmers switched from wheat to corn, contracting the supply of the former. Then the drought further constricted wheat supply.<br /><br />The result: wheat futures have doubled over the past six months, while corn futures have declined. But you would have needed to do a lot of homework to see this coming.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/29/world/29food.html?hp">http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/29/world/29food.html?hp</a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">As Prices Soar, US Food Aid Buys Less</span> from the <span style="font-style: italic;">New York Times </span>29-Sep-07<br /><br />Corn prices have fallen in recent months, but are still far higher than they were a year ago. Demand for ethanol has also indirectly driven the rising price of soybeans, as land that had been planted with soybeans shifted to corn. And wheat prices have skyrocketed, in large part because drought hurt production in Australia, a major producer, economists say.<br /><br />The higher food prices have not only reduced the amount of American food aid for the hungry, but are also making it harder for the poorest people to buy food for themselves, economists and advocates for the hungry say.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Biodiesel vs. Ethanol, why biodiesel is the way to go</span><br /><a href="http://money.cnn.com/2007/09/25/technology/biodieselboom.biz2/index.htm">http://money.cnn.com/2007/09/25/technology/biodieselboom.biz2/index.htm</a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Biodiesel Boom Heading Towards Wall Street</span> from <span style="font-style: italic;">Business 2.0</span> magazine 26-sep-07<br /><br />These days biodiesel isn't just good for the environment - it's good for the bottom line. The U.S. market for the combustible stuff has more than doubled every year since 2004 and will hit $1 billion this year. The number of retail pumps nationwide has grown from 350 in 2005 to more than 1,000 today. A couple of biodiesel IPOs are in the offing - and opportunities abound...<br /><br />Biodiesel is 30 percent more fuel-efficient than gasoline, which in turn is 30 percent more efficient than ethanol. And while most ethanol produced in the United States comes from a single feedstock - corn - biodiesel has many sources: the oil of seed plants, such as soy and canola, french-fry grease and animal fat. That means the market can weather a price increase in any one raw material. Solazyme, a South San Francisco biotech firm, has even started making biodiesel from genetically modified algae.teagurl327http://www.blogger.com/profile/05281126667828005966noreply@blogger.com0