Thinking big?

Homeowners can score major tax breaks for upgrades to renewable energy alternatives, such as geothermal heat pumps, small wind systems and solar panelling, but make sure your property is protected before investing. Affordable and cheap home insurance will bring you peace of mind as you build a brighter future for your planet and your home. Read on to learn about five ways to green your household for good:

Buy Efficiently

It’s never been easier to protect the environment by purchasing products and appliances with superior energy efficiency. As you shop for that new fridge, remember to look for the Energy Star label. Products with this logo have met energy efficiency guidelines set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy. In 2009 alone, this program helped Americans save almost $17 billion on their utility bills while also avoiding greenhouse emissions on par with what 30 million cars might produce. Look for the star! If you don’t see it, don’t buy it.

Stay Cozy

Heating and cooling amounts to roughly 70 percent of your home’s total energy usage, so it pays to make sure your house is properly insulated. Better insulation, especially around doors and window areas, saves heat from escaping in winter and keeps it outside in the summer months, making your entire home more energy efficient. The type of insulation you choose will depend on many factors, including your home’s design and the climate you live in. The best-rated insulations generally have the highest “r-value,” a measurement of how well the insulation resists the transfer of heat. Consult a professional to make sure that it meets green health standards for improved air quality.

Use Less Water

Over one billion people around the world live without access to clean drinking water, while in the United States each person uses an average of 80-100 gallons per day. Isn’t it time you lower your water bill by using less? To start with, skip top-load washing machines and opt for front-load washers, which save up to 40 percent more water by some estimates. Next, consider installing low-flow showerheads and make sure your dishwasher is full before running it. Remodelling for good? Consider purchasing a dual flush toilet, which can save you as much as 6,000 gallons of water per year.

Get Off the grid

If you’ve ever fantasized about living utility free, clean renewable energy systems can now make that dream a reality. Since the average cost per month for running a central air conditioner alone is $97.92, perhaps it’s time to consider investing in that geothermal heating and cooling system. Residential heat pumps typically cost around $1,000-3,000 per kilowatt, and solar water heaters are available for around $7,000. How does free hot water sound to you?  What about saving 50 percent on your energy bills with easy-to-install solar panelling? No matter which you choose, you’ll recover all your initial expenses with just a few years of installation.

Go Retro

Forget high-priced furniture made from endangered teakwood and instead head right to the local thrift store for sustainable design solutions that won’t cost you an arm and a leg. After all, what could be more earth-friendly than putting vintage pieces to good use when they would otherwise wind up as landfill? Stores like Goodwill and The Salvation Army are perfect hunting grounds for that fanciful armoire you’ve always dreamed of owning or that mammoth stand you absolutely must have for your brand new flat screen TV. Spend a day exploring local vintage outlets and you never know what gems you might unearth!

The 2011 competition began in September 2010 with over 100 entries from over 30 countries around the world. Zachary supported the competition as one of twelve selection committee members. The selection committee was responsible for reducing the field of 40 short-listed business plans to the top 12-15 who will be invited to the GSEC finals in February 2011. Zachary was in the Information and Communication Technology group which included 10 entries for innovative projects targeting Pakistan, India, Ghana, Haiti, Bangladesh, Nepal and Kenya from teams based in the United States, Japan, Pakistan and India.

The next stage of the competition is for the top entrants to travel to Seattle. Zachary is planning on participating as a project mentor, where he will be able to apply his global experience in small business development in emerging economies.

The photographer in the project was Jeff Martin. The world record breaking 80-gigapixel image of London was created by stitching layers of 7,886 high-resolution digital photos. The “eighty gigapixels” in the image come from the fact that the image is made up of 80 billion individual pixels. Your average higher end point-and-shoot camera produces a 10 megapixel. In order to shoot the precise shots needed for a Gigapixel, Martin used a special robot camera mount. Shooting from the special mount allowed him to turn the camera at exact intervals which is essential to be able to know where to stitch the photos at the end.

This is the 2nd major Gigapixel project by 360 Cities. The first, a world-record at the time, was taken in Prague. The London image though is a major improvement over the Prague image and has incorporated the first elements of destination marketing with the embedded landmarks, the Google Map and the interactive tour.

Project:Exposure works with world class organizations to provide the best possible solutions and services for tourism destinations and to the small tourism businesses in that destination. Project:Exposure simultaneously empowers destination marketing organizations to showcase the uniqueness of the destination through highlighting distinctive and interesting products and experiences through use of Social Media applications while enabling small and medium enterprises around the world to better market and sell their products by giving them access to Internet booking tools.

The workshop will be facilitated by Len Cordiner, founder and CEO of WHL Group, and will shed light on the needs, procedure and expected outcomes of an SME audit. WHL Group was originally a pilot project of the IFC, and since then spun off to a private company in 2006, operating in more than 100 countries and assisting more than 8,000 SMEs sell in the global market. With his experience, Mr. Cordiner will use his knowledge of small local accommodations and tour operators to interpret the need of the Internet and other tools to further succeed in a global market.

Bayside Resort, Fiji / Photo by whl.travel

The second phase encompasses a complete audit of an accommodation including a site visit to determine the market readiness of the establishment. The audit will consist of an assessment of the property’s physical condition as well as factors including legal status, quality of customer service and cleanliness and communications.

The third and final phase is the implementation of the results from the SME audit. This will involve professional photographers and copywriters to implement the construction of new websites with the goal to prepare each accommodation to accept and successfully fulfill bookings from international travelers.

The workshop will take place in the boardroom of the Ministry of Tourism, 3rd floor of the Civic Tower, Suva, Fiji.

Date: October 19, 2010

Time: 9am to 1pm

Maputo, Mozambique, October 1, 2010— IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, today concluded  a training around its Tourism and Hotel Management component of the Business Edge Solution to deepen support for entrepreneurs in Mozambique.

The Tourism and Hotel Management Contend is part of the IFC’s Business Edge™ menu which is a methodology specially designed to strengthen the management skills of owners, managers and staff of Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as well middle managers of corporates firms, banks and large firms.

IFC was holding a Business Edge and SME Toolkit training for 10 Business Edge provisional trainers and 2 Tourism and Hotel Management specialists from September 27 to October 1 in Maputo. The following topics have been applied during the training: Running a sustainable Tourism Business, Caring for guests I and II, Costs savings in accommodation service, Marketing for accommodation service, Motivating and retaining staff and Accommodation Service Selling

“The Hospitality courses developed by the Business Edge provide a practical    and comprehensive series of topics that are highly relevant to the small accommodation owner. Each course has been specifically developed to target key areas of operations that many small property owners struggle to find quality assistance. Training 12 separate individuals on the course content will mean that there will be plenty of qualified trainers to deliver the material in Mozambique,“ said Zachary Rozga, Tourism and Hotel Management master trainer.

IFC will work closely with its seven implementing partners in Mozambique namely Escola Superior de Negócios e Empreendedorismo de Chibuto (ESNEC/UEM), Sociedade de Investimentos (GAPI), Formoprojectos, EUROSIS – Consultoria e Formação em Gestão, PROCESS – Consultoria e Formação, International Capital Corporation (ICC) and  BKSC, to help organize educational events, identify training needs, customize content, manage training activities, ensure quality, coaching and evaluate the impact of the training.

About Business Edge

Business Edge is IFC’s comprehensive range of practical and flexible management training solutions, specially designed to improve the performance of small and medium firms and middle management of corporate firms.

To date, Business Edge has been rolled out in more than 30 countries and more than 120,000 entrepreneurs were trained through a network of 350 certified trainers. Flexible in its application, Business Edge is reducing the skills gap of very different populations, often underserved or not served at all. Twenty-four percent of all BE trainees are women, IDA and conflict affected countries represent 59 percent of the regions currently served by BE and 26 percent of all BE trainees come from conflict-affected countries like Iraq and Yemen.

Recent partnerships with banks, microfinance institutions and major corporations are presenting new opportunities. Tailored BE services have been delivered to clients, as well as distributors and suppliers in corporate value chains, and corporate middle managers.   For more information, visit www.businessedge-africa.com .

Food can be a simple pleasure, such as the satisfaction of growing vegetables in one’s own garden, or it can be a matter of such importance that it drives people to go to great lengths to shape their surroundings in an effort to improve the efficiency of its production.

All around the world, the impact of the human need for food production can be seen, often with spectacular consequences.

Desert Farming

Libyan pivot irrigation / Flickr photo by futureatlas.com

Irrigation is a process which has been constantly developed by mankind over thousands of years. From the Nile basin to the jagged hills of Southern Spain, the practice of effectively channelling precious water has brought life to many a barren landscape.

Modern techniques are now bringing life to some of the most naturally sterile environments; perfect circles of crops now line the edges of deserts from around the globe.

The Incan Terraces

Along the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu / Flickr photo by Lee Coursey

For the native farmers of Peru, living at altitude had its disadvantages. In the face of this adversity, however, the Inca made some of the world’s most significant developments in agricultural practice, with enduring effects on their land’s appearance.

The magnificent terraces – or andenes – prevent the run-off of water and maximise the amount of surface available for planting, making the absolute most of the resources available. Due to a lack of working animals, the vast majority were carved by hand, a fact that makes their regularity and enduring integrity all the more impressive. The stunning aesthetic which they produce is a lucky bonus.

Rice Paddies

Rice terraces, Ubud, Bali / Photo by Stephen Chapman

Although rice is among the world’s most widely-grown crops, the image of the rice paddy has become closely associated with South East Asia. For many people, the image of farmers planting, tending or harvesting their waterlogged crop is characteristic of Vietnam, Laos or China.

While the seemingly endless paddies make for evocative imagery, it’s important to remember the labour which goes into their maintenance and management.

Tea Fields

Tea plantations, Java, Indonesia / Photo by Stephen Chapman

The numerous rows of the bushy green tea fields of Darjeeling echo the curves of the Andean terraces, despite being almost literally on the other side of the world. Meticulously cared for and lovingly reared, the plants are particularly prized for the delicate flavour of the tea they produce.

Despite lying in the shadow of the mighty Himalayas, the order and precision of these fields is an enduring testament to mankind’s ability to tame rugged territory. And all in the name of a nice cup of tea.

The lengths we go to as a species to ensure our ability to eat are varied and dramatically different, but if there’s one thing that unites us all it’s our willingness to go to great lengths to put food on the table.

Jan Vrsinsky takes photos of Wildsky accommodation in Bulwer, South Africa as part of the Project:Exposure fieldwork managed by WHL Consulting

SME accommodation providers in the developing world face many obstacles, but one of the biggest is access to finance. Essential (and beneficial) business buoys such as market access tools and services, and retrofits or renovations to reduce energy consumption and operating costs often go unfunded. Worse, in many parts of the developing world where WHL Consulting has undertaken projects, IF it is possible for small accommodation providers to get commercial loans, they are faced with impossible interest rates and repayment terms – as high as 27%!

Overcoming Constraints

Despite our successes, WHL Consulting believes that it will not be possible for us to continue our mission as a sustainable development organisation without addressing this key business constraint. Over the years, we have worked with development organisations, discussed with commercial banks and wooed micro-finance institutions with only limited luck. Our clients have been either too small and risky (for commercial banks) or too large and not poor enough (for micro-finance institutions and donors). So we decided to go back to the laboratory…

What we came up with to solve the access-to-finance issue (thanks in large part to organisations like IDB MIF Sustainable Tourism Cluster and the South Africa Business Trust) is our own innovative financing tool: the Tourism Development Bank (TDB).

A New Currency

The TDB is a leveraged, barter-based, payment-facilitation platform. In other words, it lets accommodation providers pay for market-access, clean-energy and other services with room nights instead of cash.

Stephen Chapman interviews Cindy - owner of Clivia Stream Lodge in Hazyview, South Africa - as a step in preparing professionally written content about the accommodation

The business model makes it possible for small properties to connect to specially selected service providers (like solar hot-water providers) and to cover the costs by allowing us to resell room inventory through TDB partners like whl.travel, a sister WHL Group company and the world’s largest online small-hotel booking platform.

Pilot tests with accommodation providers began in February 2010 in South Africa and Mexico, followed by Brazil in June 2010. The next pilot is slated for Guatemala in the fourth quarter of 2010.

A Growing Portfolio of Partners

The first program WHL Consulting created that allowed for reliance on the TDB was a bundle of marketing and market-access supports known as Project:Exposure. A critical piece of Project:Exposure is a business partnership with 360 Cities, an immersive photography platform, through which each participating accommodation provider is given a fully-spherical panoramic image that shows the true character of the property. 360 Cities sees enormous potential in the TDB and is currently in discussions to offer the facility to their global Pro Member account holders for the creation of virtual tours.

The next firm to support the TDB is E+Co, a renewable energy investment firm that is collaborating with WHL Consulting by sponsoring a “Hospitality Campus” in the new e-learning platform for SME owners known as the Invisible Schoolhouse. Lengthy discussions have also been held about using the TDB to finance energy efficiency measures and renewable energy retrofits – matching E+Co investee firms to hotels in the WHL Group network.

As part of Project:Exposure, Jan Vrsinsky takes photos that will be used in a 360 Cities virtual tour of Under-the-berg B&B in Underberg, South Africa

Room for further growth on the TDB foundation is limitless. Service providers interested in becoming partners in Renewable Energy, Channel Management and Hospitality Training (for SMEs) are encouraged to contact us.

Now You Can Help and Benefit Too

The seeds of the TDB were planted back in February 2009 and development of the technology platform started in September 2009. Since that time, collaborators from Armenia, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Swaziland, the United States and Vietnam have contributed to the process. The stakeholders now include development experts, finance professionals, accommodation providers, tour operators, IT specialists, destination marketers, accountants and lawyers.

There is, however, much more work to be done and many very easy ways in which you can show support. For example, to coincide with the launch of the TDB website, WHL Consulting entered the TDB into the G-20 SME Finance Challenge. Fifteen finalists will be invited to a meeting of the G-20 in November. An opportunity like this would turbo charge the rollout of the TDB. Please visit our entry and leave a supportive comment!

This article was originally posted by our friends at The Travel Word.

Solar panels installed in a lodge in Nepal by E+Co investee Lotus Energy

“WHL has proposed a truly innovative payment mechanism. We are experimenting to see whether that payment mechanism can be utilized by our entrepreneurs and their clients in the hospitality industry to bring renewable energy and energy efficiency improvements within reach for a wide swath of the sector. Our collaboration on e-learning naturally supports these types of transactions, providing lower-cost capacity building on both sides of the equation.”

- Phil LaRocco, Founder and Former CEO, E+Co

WHL Consulting intends to leverage the Tourism Development Bank such that prospective students in the Hospitality Campus of the Invisible Schoolhouse program will be able to fund their schooling with participation in the Tourism Development Bank, an innovative new payment method developed by WHL Consulting allowing tourism enterprises to purchase services using room nights instead of cash.

“We are excited to team up with E+Co on this exciting initiative. We believe the Invisible Schoolhouse fills a gap in the current e-learning environment—professional education for small business owners. WHL Consulting is excited to lead the hospitality campus and leverage our experience working with accommodation owners.”

- Zachary Rozga, CEO, WHL Consulting

WHL Consulting works with the product providers in the developing world (mostly the smaller local hotels, guesthouses and tour / activity operators) to assess market readiness (readiness for groups like whl.travel, Expedia, Orbitz and others to sell online); to develop high quality digital content needed for global distribution in the online world; to build capacity; to improve energy efficiency and to assist with access to finance. WHL Consulting has a strong commitment to sustainable travel and has built a focus on sustainable development into all the consulting and training work we do.

E+Co invests in clean energy businesses in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. With 15 years of experience, over 250 investments, and offices in 8 locations, E+Co’s innovative business model provides triple bottom line returns to investors: 6.2 M people gaining access to clean energy, 4.6 M tons of carbon dioxide avoided, and an 8.7% portfolio return. E+Co’s investing thesis all along has been that a combination of local entrepreneurs, investment capital and business development services are the primary ingredients needed to bring clean energy in a sustainable fashion to the developing world.