More on the importance of convenience

Jan 20, 2009

More on the importance of convenience

Here is another quick comment on inconvenience and barriers to innovation. Murray Hill of Saskatoon writes in today's Ottawa Citizen about a new device, Kill A Watt EZ from P3, that tells you precisely how much electricity your appliance uses and how much it will cost to run.

Having a simple display of how much energy you use at any given time is a very powerful tool to encourage energy conservation and behavior change. But the two barriers he notes are that “the display is it difficult to see unless you use an extension cord, and that it's difficult to find in stores.”

1 comment:

Anonymous said...: Black and Decker makes a similar device that monitors your power meter and gives you the ability to monitor your power consumption in real time.

http://www.blackanddecker.com/Energy/products.aspx

It can be programmed to give kWh or $/hr.

It is available at Canadian Tire for $99.99. (Product #52-8806-2); January 22, 2009 at 12:36 AM

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Our project: Making it happen - the transition to a sustainable society

This blog is a continuation of a project at the University of Ottawa Telfer School of Management dealing with innovation, public policy, and climate change. We are not developing another vision for a sustainable society. We want to focus on the implementation and the barriers to change and innovation, hence the title "Making it happen". (See Post “The start of a new project”)

We have divided the project into two broad steps. The first step is to review various sustainable visions for regions. See our following Posts:
Setting sustainability and environmental targets (1): Recent announcements on GHG emissions
Setting sustainability and environmental targets (2): the dimensions of sustainability
and
Setting sustainability and environmental targets (3): Ottawa’s “Choosing our future”

The next broad set of activities is to parse out what needs to happen if we are to achieve these visions and identify the barriers - institutional, social, behavioural - to make the change happen, i.e. “What’s stopping us from becoming a sustainable society?”

The intent is to design improved policy interventions.

So, in addition to continue looking at sustainable visions, our posts have examined through past examples and case studies how various technologies and changes are implemented. And we will look at barriers and obstacles.

We invite you to share your experiences with the difficulties of implementing new technologies and changes to address the challenge of climate change, and how these can be overcome. Post a comment!

Our Team

ANDRE POTWOROWSKI is an adjunct professor at the Telfer School of Managemnent at the University of Ottawa, and a management consultant in environmental research management, innovation, and environmental policies. He has been working in the environment field since the mid-70s, when he was part of the original Conserver Society study at the Science Council of Canada. He is president of TMA Technology Management Associates, and Managing Partner, Science and Technology of the Professional Development Institute

TOM BRZUSTOWSKI, Chair of our Advisory Board during the project, was the RBC Chair in Innovation and Technology Commercialization at the Telfer School, and is the past President of Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. He authored a book on productivity and innovation, "The Way Ahead: Meeting Canada's Productivity Challenge", and more recently "Why we need more INNOVATION IN CANADA: and what we must do to get it."

Making it happen - the transition to a sustainable society

Jan 20, 2009