Young Professionals - Leading the Change

Intersect - Questions and Answers

New to Intersect or just wanting to know more? Ask a question and one of the Intersect trustees / network facilitators will give you a reply. You can also visit www.intersect.org.nz for more info.

Tags: questions, thinking

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Permalink Reply by Robbie Lawton on July 29, 2009 at 12:36am: Hello friends,

My name is Robbie; I am passionate about trying to create a more sustainable society. And I am new to Intersect.

I intend to ask my employer, CPG Engineering, for a 4 day working week; I will dedicate my 5th day to organising 350 action and building the SOSEnviroschools campaign. I think of it as "a day off FOR work": I won't be at work but I will be working hard elsewhere.

I believe that if we, as citizens, are asking our government to change their approach--to act contrary to business-as-usual, to think outside of the country-versus-country political manoeuvering, to commit to 40% by 2020 (even if it hurts their wallet!)--then it is only fair to expect the same of ourselves. I intend to make my own commitment: to dedicate a weekday each week to the 40% reduction cause. 350 is an obvious place for me to go, and I believe that the SOSEnviroschools campaign is all part of the same movement towards a more sustainable planet.

So why am I writing to you, the Intersect trustees? I am hoping to find other people who would like to join me and do the same during their own working week. And I would like to ask you if you might help me to find these people. It is my hope that I get 2 or 3 others. With a group of us, we could create a small amount of media attention around our commitment towards the 350 campaign and sustainability in general. It is my hope that our respective companies will support us if we are generous in our name-dropping during media coverage and show professionalism in our strategy. I have been in contact with HB Media (publishers of the Good magazine), they showed a genuine interest in covering our efforts (no doubt it will need to be a win-win situation for them too :-) ). I am sure we could get more interest.

So, do you have any ideas where i can find people who might be interested? Is it ok if I put this request out to all Intersect members on this site? Might you be interested in joining with me?

Thank you for your time and your efforts in running Intersect. I look forward to getting more involved in this fine group.

Kind regards,

Robbie Lawton; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Nick Potter on July 29, 2009 at 10:19am: Hi Robbie

Great to hear from you, and even better to hear about your passionate commitment to creating lots of good change! You'll find many people on this network who share your passion and professionalism. For example, Megan started a 'Good Fridays' in her workplace several years ago to devote one day a week to good causes - though Megan is very generous and normally spend more than 1 day on good projects. In my previous job I also chose to do paid work 4 days a week and invest 1 day per week on good projects (like Intersect). I've been working 2+days per week unpaid on climate change-related work since going freelance in March. A handful of people I know who often invest 8+ hours per week on climate-change related stuff include Aaron, Carl, Joshua, Lindsay, Georgi, Charlie, Lauren. All the Intersect Trustees have created this network just for the love of it too.

There are many more people on this network - including lots of people in the 350 group - who are committing lots of their energy into positive action on climate change too. The best way to meet them is to get involved in activities and events - eg. keep an eye out for Intersect Conversation Cafes on the first Tuesday of every month (Auckland is at Suite Bar at 530pm, Wellington is currently on hold for another month while we regroup). There are also regular gatherings of the 350 crew, such as the meeting today.

If you want to generate media attention with any of these people... you can ask them directly if they're OK with it (maybe a case study on the hard-working 350 Volunteers Crew in general would be a good way to go). Or you can pop up a conversation in the forum and see who nibbles. Another way is to just join the 350 group and post a question there to see if anyone is interested. Many people may not seek media attention though (as the people I know aren't doing this work for any glory)... but some people are happy to be in the spotlight if they're convinced it is all for a good cause.

I hope that helps - keep up the great (paid and unpaid) work and I hope to meet you soon!
All the best
Nick; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Charlotte Bowie on October 27, 2009 at 10:03am: Hi there,

I am wanting to get some advice about books that might relate to my Masters project. I am looking at renewable energy and designing a DIY solar array and water harvesting system and wanted to post a question and overview of my brief to see if people might have some ideas of relevant readings I should look at. Where would be suitable for this?

Thanks

Charlotte; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Nick Potter on October 27, 2009 at 10:16am: Hi Charlotte

Your Masters project sounds great. The two best places to seek out advice would be:
- Add a "DIY solar and water harvesting assistance wanted" discussion in the main forum, probably in the hot issues topic.
- Join the DIY renewables group and add a comment to the wall / start a discussion there.

Doing both of those would double your chances of getting some feedback. Good luck! If anything good comes of this, you can also share that success here.

All the best
Nick; ▶ Reply to This