jack hidary's blog

Carbon War Room... Beyond the Carbon Economy

We have teamed up with Virgin Unite and Sir Richard Branson to create The Carbon War Room (CWR). 

CWR is a global philanthropic initiative, founded to harness the resource and skills of the world's entrepreneurs and institutions to urgently deliver solutions that enable humanity to prosper beyond the carbon economy. Our Founders include some of the world’s leading entrepreneurs and institutions who are passionate about solving this problem.

Visit our website www.carbonwarroom.com

Primary Insight

We have just purchased Primary Insight from JPMorgan.  Primary Insight is a leading provider of access to a diverse, global network of experts across all industry sectors

For the full article click here. For more information on Primary Insight you can visit www.primaryinsight.com.

i2i Conference at the United Nations

 

June 8-9, 2009- I moderated a panel discussion at the 2009 Incentive 2 Innovate Conference at the United Nations.  The conversation was about Energy and the Environment with regard to how  Open Collaboration and Incentivized Competition are being employed by the rapidly growing and innovative Energy & Environment sector. Participants included Steve Isakowitz, Chief Financial Officer, United States Department of Energy; Glenn Renwick, President & CEO, The Progressive Corporation; and
Saul Griffith, Ph.D. and  President & Chief Scientist, Makani Power.

For more information click here.

Tallberg Foundation Forum 2009

June 24-28, 2009- I attended the Tallberg Foundation Forum in Tallberg, Sweden. The theme of this year's Tallberg Forum was "How on earth can we live together, within the planetary boundaries?". Over 400 leaders from business and politics, thinkers, scientists, artists and entrepreneurs will gather for four days to address global issues of urgency and common interest, through conversation, reflection and working sessions. As the international community responds to a global crisis that appears to be worsening daily, strong voices must help build a common understanding of the deep underlying problems. The global situation today is one of converging crises – economic, environmental political and social, while nations and sectors show diverging interests. The emerging pathway out of the many challenges of today must, in the end, be in the interests of the whole.

For more information click here.

Cash for Clunkers- Coming to a Dealer New You

The Senate passed a bill yesterday containing the Cash for Clunker (CFC) program allocating $1 billion for the program as the House did last week. I reviewed the merits of the program in a Huff Post article.

Cash for Clunkers is a program which was architected by three organizations: Center for American Progress (CAP), ACEEE and Smarttransportation.org where I serve as Chairman.

You can see here the list of cars that are eligible for trade-in.

This program will have immediate benefits for dealers around the country.

I have been receiving hundreds of queries from around the country from individuals who want to use the program. "Where do I go to trade-in my car?"-questions are flowing in by email and phone.

Unfortunately, the version passed by Congress does not contain as much of an efficiency gain as we were hoping for, but it is a first step. The initial version contained in HR 520 and S 247 had a much bigger jump in MPG.

The good news is that this program run for a year at which time we can revisit the mileage bar and step it up. Only a $1 billion has been appropriated so only about 400-500K cars can be covered in this initial run.

Rev up that V8 from '88!

Full article here.