Tom Chervinsky
http://www.cleanprosperity.ca/staff
Tom,
When people visit a site like yours all they want to know is "What can I do?"
And no one really gives very good answers, nothing immediately actionable.
I heard about your site from Tom Rand at a book launch. He mentioned it when asked "what can I do?". He said "Um ... Don't eat red meat, and um ... check out Canadians for Clean Energy, my friend that started Bullfrog power started it...". Not too remarkable, especially the fact that he got your website wrong.
Now I'm at your site and I don't see much. A petition that 115 people have signed after 9 months of it being up. 115?! Have all the staff and advisors signed yet? Have you considered using change.org?
Anyways, I don't want to slam your site or what it stands for. I think your site looks great, has a great goal, and a lot of potential. I want to suggest a way to get people engaged. I picked you from the list because I think the key is marketing and your blurb says you want campaign ideas.
Here's the idea.
You should start a campaign which helps people find ways to be as happy as possible.
Here's why.
1) Everything we do is in an effort to be happy, but what we're doing isn't making us happy, and it's causing a lot of pollution.
2) To be as happy as possible they will need to be as efficient as possible. Not to save the planet but to increase their buying power. And by promoting a further outlook to future happiness they will make smarter choices in how they consume resources and treat the planet for their own personal security, which is directly in line with Clean Prosperity.
Bottom line.
Your site doesn't give people a lot in terms of 'what to do now', but there are a lot of things we can do while we're waiting for pollution fees. And if you market it from a 'maximizing personal happiness' point of view (maybe don't even mention pollution at first) you can get them engaged in the issue and asking who to vote for when the time comes.
Maybe they can start a market for more expensive less polluting products, like maybe get everyone to join up for Bullfrog power. I've never really understood how someone could complain about pollution from power plants if they aren't willing to sign up for bullfrog power.
So how to do this?
Start a wiki page "Happiness Wiki" how to be as happy as possible as efficiently as possible.
Have a campaign promoting Personal Happiness projects, with the goal being, how to be as happy as possible as efficiently as possible, but no compromises. Start filling in the wiki, get some other environmentalists to fill in a bit, and let the community take over. A good role model is Mr. Money Mustache. He isn't trying to be No Impact Man, he is trying to live efficiently so that he can retire early, but no noticeable compromises. It will try to promote practical wisdom as Barry Schwartz would say (or I guess as Aristotle would say), and Barry feels very strongly that practical wisdom is what will make the difference, not new rules or new fees.
Thing you could start as the wiki grows:
- online based services to help people with money management
- community programs to share resources
- one-on-one counselling to help people look at all aspects of their lives to be as happy as possible as efficiently as possible. Similar to a financial planner.
- demonstrations and support of initiatives like Pollution Fees, because people would see how big of an impact it would have on their happiness in the long run.
I'm sure there is room for improvement here, but I think this has a lot of potential and I'd love to help you make this happen.
Please get in touch.
Alan Gerth
spontaneouscooperation.weebly.com
http://www.cleanprosperity.ca/staff
Tom,
When people visit a site like yours all they want to know is "What can I do?"
And no one really gives very good answers, nothing immediately actionable.
I heard about your site from Tom Rand at a book launch. He mentioned it when asked "what can I do?". He said "Um ... Don't eat red meat, and um ... check out Canadians for Clean Energy, my friend that started Bullfrog power started it...". Not too remarkable, especially the fact that he got your website wrong.
Now I'm at your site and I don't see much. A petition that 115 people have signed after 9 months of it being up. 115?! Have all the staff and advisors signed yet? Have you considered using change.org?
Anyways, I don't want to slam your site or what it stands for. I think your site looks great, has a great goal, and a lot of potential. I want to suggest a way to get people engaged. I picked you from the list because I think the key is marketing and your blurb says you want campaign ideas.
Here's the idea.
You should start a campaign which helps people find ways to be as happy as possible.
Here's why.
1) Everything we do is in an effort to be happy, but what we're doing isn't making us happy, and it's causing a lot of pollution.
2) To be as happy as possible they will need to be as efficient as possible. Not to save the planet but to increase their buying power. And by promoting a further outlook to future happiness they will make smarter choices in how they consume resources and treat the planet for their own personal security, which is directly in line with Clean Prosperity.
Bottom line.
Your site doesn't give people a lot in terms of 'what to do now', but there are a lot of things we can do while we're waiting for pollution fees. And if you market it from a 'maximizing personal happiness' point of view (maybe don't even mention pollution at first) you can get them engaged in the issue and asking who to vote for when the time comes.
Maybe they can start a market for more expensive less polluting products, like maybe get everyone to join up for Bullfrog power. I've never really understood how someone could complain about pollution from power plants if they aren't willing to sign up for bullfrog power.
So how to do this?
Start a wiki page "Happiness Wiki" how to be as happy as possible as efficiently as possible.
Have a campaign promoting Personal Happiness projects, with the goal being, how to be as happy as possible as efficiently as possible, but no compromises. Start filling in the wiki, get some other environmentalists to fill in a bit, and let the community take over. A good role model is Mr. Money Mustache. He isn't trying to be No Impact Man, he is trying to live efficiently so that he can retire early, but no noticeable compromises. It will try to promote practical wisdom as Barry Schwartz would say (or I guess as Aristotle would say), and Barry feels very strongly that practical wisdom is what will make the difference, not new rules or new fees.
Thing you could start as the wiki grows:
- online based services to help people with money management
- community programs to share resources
- one-on-one counselling to help people look at all aspects of their lives to be as happy as possible as efficiently as possible. Similar to a financial planner.
- demonstrations and support of initiatives like Pollution Fees, because people would see how big of an impact it would have on their happiness in the long run.
I'm sure there is room for improvement here, but I think this has a lot of potential and I'd love to help you make this happen.
Please get in touch.
Alan Gerth
spontaneouscooperation.weebly.com
His REPLY!!
Hi,
Thanks for the wonderful and thoughtful email.
I think you’ve touched on a number of important and fundamental issues we’re working to address – in particular “what can I do right now”.
Our biggest challenge will be reaching more people – which is what our primary ‘ask’ of people will be. Figuring out how to incentivize that behaviour is one of our top priorities.
I love the idea of a “what I can do now” wiki – though that currently falls outside of our narrow mission parameters. Let me give it some more thought.
I hope you’ll sign up for our mailing list (www.cleanprosperity.ca/join) so I can keep you up to date with the work we’re doing going forward. We hope to have a new toolkit of actions people can take very shortly.
Best wishes,
TOM CHERVINSKY
Acting Executive Director
E: [email protected] | @tomchervinsky
CANADIANS FOR CLEAN PROSPERITY
Building a strong economy
cleanprosperity.ca | fb.com/cleanprosperity | @cleanprosperity
Thanks for the wonderful and thoughtful email.
I think you’ve touched on a number of important and fundamental issues we’re working to address – in particular “what can I do right now”.
Our biggest challenge will be reaching more people – which is what our primary ‘ask’ of people will be. Figuring out how to incentivize that behaviour is one of our top priorities.
I love the idea of a “what I can do now” wiki – though that currently falls outside of our narrow mission parameters. Let me give it some more thought.
I hope you’ll sign up for our mailing list (www.cleanprosperity.ca/join) so I can keep you up to date with the work we’re doing going forward. We hope to have a new toolkit of actions people can take very shortly.
Best wishes,
TOM CHERVINSKY
Acting Executive Director
E: [email protected] | @tomchervinsky
CANADIANS FOR CLEAN PROSPERITY
Building a strong economy
cleanprosperity.ca | fb.com/cleanprosperity | @cleanprosperity