Lots to Learn

Well, it’s been a busy month. With everything happening in Toronto and globally with green construction and buildings, there’s no shortage of opportunities out there for anyone willing to get creative and carve out their own piece of this huge, huge market. 

Here’s a few of things I’ve learned over the past couple of months:

1. If you’re into green, and don’t know what to take in college: become an Energy Modeling Specialist!! I was looking to have some modeling done a while back. Not knowing where to start, I hit the internet and called a few companies. Most of them weren’t even willing to look at my project until December because they were so busy. With LEED and other green building initiatives driving the market, I think it’s a safe bet to consider the energy modeling business.
2. While there’s a lot of focus on new buildings, the greening of existing buildings is going to be huge. For every 1 new building, there are approximately 100 existing buildings – many of those built when energy was cheap, cities were booming, and things needed to get done big and get done fast. The bottom line – they’re not that energy efficient. Now, with green being a factor in talent attraction, customer perception and of course operating costs, this is going to be a massive, massive market. 
3. Back up your stuff! My hard drive on my MacBook Pro failed last week, and my Time Capsule had been unplugged for a month or two. Data lost, tears shed, it was a disaster. Back up your stuff. I had to send my hard drive out to a data recovery centre, which costs $2000+. Ouch. For anyone out there, all of a sudden that $299 Time Capsule seems like a steal. It is.
4. Thomas Friedman is the man. I’m going to post about this later, but I’ve completely cut myself off from the outside world in lieu of being absolutely glued to his new book Hot, Flat & Crowded. While I don’t agree with everything Tom’s got to say, the information is packaged incredibly well. Anyone effected by the green revolution (that means everyone) needs to read this book. Sidenote: search Thomas Friedman in the iTunes store and listen to his free lectures and speeches!  Check out this cool vid from Friedman:
5. The global financial system is in trouble, and no one knows how bad it is (not that this is breaking news). We brought Sherry Cooper, Executive Vice President and Global Economic Strategist for BMO, in to talk last night, and some of the numbers Sherry was showing were incredible. Amazingly, Sherry predicted this when we had lunch about a year ago. Too much greed, over-extended lending, and previously-rated AAA bonds now worthless. With what’s happened this week in the markets, it couldn’t have been more perfect timing. I can tell you this: business/consumer confidence is shaken. To put it in Sherry’s words, people aren’t so concerned with making a return ON their money at this point, but the return OF their money. Yikes. Recently on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos, you can see Sherry talk about it here.