There are only two weeks left until we have to turn in the final business plan for the California Clean Tech Open. There was not a workshop this week so Nate and I could focus on our planning. Recently we have been spending a lot of time thinking about exactly how we want to proceed with the business. We had some really good meetings this week with some technology guys in both embedded software and microprocessors. We also had a productive discussion with one of Nate’s past colleagues, Rob. Rob has really helped us shape our ideas into something on which we can execute. We’ve finally settled on a direction and are now focused on the business plan. Nate is focusing on rewriting the marketing and financial sections of the plan and getting some help from a marketing professional named Wendy. I am focusing on sustainability and operations.

I have found a ton of resources on the web to help with sustainability issues from both a planning and reporting perspective. I’ve gotten a lot of great information from sites like the Global Reporting Initiative, the EPA’s ISO 14001 site, and various corporate sustainability sites. I’m really starting to understand how we need to apply sustainability metrics to all aspects of our business and product planning and execution. A lot of the operational issues and product benefits are becoming quite clear.

The main thing I’m struggling with right now is quantifying the impact of the materials and manufacturing going into the product itself. It’s hard to find all the appropriate data to quantitatively close the loop on the life cycle of the product. I have found a lot of data from sites like the Energy Information Administration, but not a lot of the specifics I need pertaining to the semiconductors, PCBs, and housings which will make up our product. I can apply the G3 reporting concept of boundaries to limit the problem, but I’d really like to be able to do a full environmental balance sheet for the product. Maybe as we get further into development I can get some of this data from our suppliers. For now I can focus on the Design for Environment (DfE), Supplier Network Management, Environmental Management System (EMS), and End-of-Life Practices (EoL) we will need to establish to create a sustainable company.

Nate and I are already trying to set a precedence for employee contributions. We are only commuting to our office in Berkeley a few days a week (though that will increase for the duration of the CCTO) and when we do commute, we do so using public transit where possible. Nate is able to take BART from San Francisco to Berkeley for his commute. I have to drive to Fremont, then I take BART the rest of the way. We even try to locate our meetings with others at locations which encourage public transit such as BART. So far we haven’t had to dive in to the whole arena of supplies and equipment, but that will all come soon enough.