SunbitsSass Peress – CEO of ICP Solar – Solar Blog

Below is an excerpt of Obama’s speech with deals with clean energy. All I can say is…thank you BP. Perhaps now rather than treat your solar division as an afterthought, you might actually invest something in it…

“Each of us has a part to play in a new future that will benefit all of us. As we recover from this recession, the transition to clean energy has the potential to grow our economy and create millions of jobs -– but only if we accelerate that transition. Only if we seize the moment. And only if we rally together and act as one nation –- workers and entrepreneurs; scientists and citizens; the public and private sectors.
When I was a candidate for this office, I laid out a set of principles that would move our country towards energy independence. Last year, the House of Representatives acted on these principles by passing a strong and comprehensive energy and climate bill –- a bill that finally makes clean energy the profitable kind of energy for America’s businesses.

Now, there are costs associated with this transition. And there are some who believe that we can’t afford those costs right now. I say we can’t afford not to change how we produce and use energy -– because the long-term costs to our economy, our national security, and our environment are far greater.

1. Go straight until you find INTEGRITY in every word or action
2. Then turn right at GRATITUDE for all in your life
3. Make a left at GENEROSITY to those who cannot show gratitude
4. Circle around to self-FORGIVENESS for the judgment of others
5. Find Heaven on Earth for you.

Many of us often hear “I need” this or that. What do we really “need”? Do we NEED the BMW? Do we NEED the house in the centre of town? Do we NEED that two-week christmas vacation in the islands? I could go on and on…

My point is that we often confuse needs and desires, and therein lies a secret. When we make something a desire rather than a need, we’ll often get it. When me make something a need, that is not, we will not. The mind that believes that it needs something is often tricking itself, because the very act of needing, makes you less likely to get it. Letting go of the need, helps you relax, and helps you do whatever it is you must do in order to actually get that thing you desire. Staying anxious or over-focusing on the need, is actually helping you create a situation where it doesn’t become possible.

Does this mean we don’t work towards achieving those things we identify as needs that could be nice to have? Not at all. I am only writing about making that need into a desire in our minds and then getting what you want. If you need chocolate ice cream today and they don’t have it at the store…do you have a fit…or do you accept the choice they have that day, knowing full well that chocolate ice cream will soon be back on their shelves?

So by the same token, make your needs (except those basic ones which nature demands) into wants and then you will live a relaxed state which will help you get what you want. Athletes who relax before their performance, often do better. Business people who walk into negotiations relaxed often win what they wanted in the first place. Guys or girls who walk into a bar with that “need” look…what to they get?

So relax, enjoy, desire…and win.

Sass

Well, I took the plunge and received delivery of my new hybrid car. Its so neat to watch the battery power go into the drivetrain through the interactive video screen, rather than gasoline. And with a “gas usage” meter constantly flashing in my face, you’d be surprised at how it already has changed driving habits…
My kids are proud, my pocketbook is happier and the environment is going to breathe just that much easier than if I had bought a gas-guzzling SUV. Now all I have to do is sell the Porsche and my environmental footprint will indeed be improved that much more. Not so sure the kids are going to be happy about that event though as much as they were this one!
Sass

Bloggers are now beginning to face the same scrutiny and consequences as traditional media. I find this perfectly normal yet a reflection on the “freedom of internet fallacy” that many believe exists.
The internet is no more free as a media than television or print, its just that the “cost of creation and distribution” is far less than other route of information dissemination. It costs very little to setup a blog, far less than to create a printed media and attempt to distribute it. Therein lies the catch22 for bloggers.
Whereas some may see this as a license to write whatever they want, the truth is that bloggers should be held no less responsible than other writers, whether paid or not, for what they write. Governments, in my opinion, have every right to implement the same rules for organized media vs individuals who setup their own “information sites”.
By no means do I condone draconian controls such as those exercised in countries like China, I am just stating that it must be dealt with equitably, with no more or no less authority placed over blogs than over other websites controlled by paid-media companies.
Bottom line, remember to be careful about what you write and particularly if your words can be taken to injure another.
Sass

CNN has sponsored a weblog on “fueling america” into the future which gives a sense of what many Americans feel is industry’s failure to provide environmentally friendly power alternatives to the petrol engine, while stating clearly that they don’t want to give up power, comfort, etc..
So we basically want to have it all, and nobody blames them. The issue is how to pay to get to where alternative fuels (hydrogen, ethanol) are delivering the same or better customer value, as perceived by…the customer.
Sass

Have decided to take a small July blog break. Lots going on everywhere so you’ll need to stay tuned for news from me for a while. Enjoy your July and will be back onto it with a vengeance in about 10 days or so.
Sass

What are you doing for Mother Earth today? Walking or biking instead of taking your SUV? Cutting down on the use of disposable diapers (not likely if you want your baby to be comfortable and you are not in a situation where you use resusable ones)? Using cloth bags instead of disposable plastic ones?
Guess what? Most of us won’t change much today. We’ll talk a talk, yet we won’t walk the walk. Laura Turner Seydel, daughter of Ted Turner, walks the walk. Her new home is showcased at www.ecomanor.com and she is heading up Earth Day events, in addition to several commitments to agencies and foundations, like the Captain Planet Foundation, which ICP Solar is now sponsoring.
The question becomes…when are we affected enough so that we actually make a decision to make a difference? Is it the big deal made about one day that is important?
All I know is that we can make a difference, step by step, one at a time. However if we listen to governments in the North American continent today, the feds are saying that Kyoto would kill our economy so let’s all forget about it. They are saying they have their own plans to reduce carbon emissions and these are the same people that are funded by oil companies and dine with their lobbyists.
My response? Go out there on Earth Day and participate in any local event you can. Make a difference by showing your kids that this is important enough. They are the generation that will really take this to the next level because they will have to, not because they will only want to.
We must embrace conservation and we must embrace the use of benign, renewable energies. Not in 30 years. Not in 20. Now. It is indeed the best earth day to date and hopefully next year’s will be better than this one. And if we can continue that trend, then one day, it will be no longer necessary to have an Earth day, because actions that protect our earth will be first and foremost in our daily DNA make-up and we won’t have to use single day celebrations to remind ourselves of this great thing called the preservation of that being which feeds us and our families each day…Mother Earth!
Ancient North American proverb says: “We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children”.
Happy Earth Day folks! From Google and Yahoo, come some interesting new logos for today:

Shocking and sad news today about a massacre at a University in the United States. I sometimes wonder where it all ends.
There is no doubt that massacres such as this one, and many far worse in numbers, occur around the world. However this was not an act of war. It was not a terrorist (in the common accepted definition). It was simply one angry human being with a gun.
Somebody please remind me why we need guns outside of the armed security forces? I’m often told to temper down my blogs for fear of upsetting potential customers. In this case, frankly speaking, you will get my complete mind and nothing short:
There is no possible explanation nor justification of “freedom” to permit the carrying of guns by anyone other than a law enforcement officer or a hunter. So you want to kill deer as they are frolicking near dear-feeders…fine (we supply solar cells to deer-feeder makers and we never stop to think about the deer). However can someone please illuminate me as to why, in this modern day and age, we find excuses to justify the bearing of arms by anyone who gets a license to do so? What is it about guns that enriches our lives?
On Saturday of this past weekend, my son Ethan asked the actress who played the daughter of the store owner in the movie Crash “did you buy blanks on purpose?” She replied “why of course”, as if to say “what right-minded person would buy real bullets to use on another human being?”.
I do not have many answers tonight as I write this blog entry, saddened by the events which occured on Monday. It simply continues to bring perspective to my own life and that of my family and friends. Cherish the day you will spend with them, for you just don’t know when it may be the last. We had such an incident in Montreal a few months ago and it hit close to home when a friend was inside the school which was attacked by a madman. I pray that we are able, as a society, to rethink policies which make such outbursts possible in the first place.
Sass

Anybody remember when Bill Gates stood up many years (probably decades) ago and said that technology was going to make our lives simpler? OK, so do anyone of you feel that technology has simplified your life…or has it made it more complicated?
Everything today is faster, and the expectation of response time is not anywhere what it used to be. I remember when over 20 years ago I worked for my father’s company and bringing in the telex was revolutionizing the speed of information. We were hesitant to use it (due to cost), yet it changed the speed with which answers could flow. The fax was an immediate document (as quickly as you could type the page or write it and then put it into the machine). Email came next and then people started sending more jokes than serious work communication. And then finally we got SMS and IM messaging for the most instant gratification money could buy.
Do we have overload? Will you wait TWO DAYS for an email to be responded to as this article implies? I’m not so sure that even as it was being published, it had not already become obsolete. I know that if my team doesn’t get a reply from me in two days (without expecting that I am offline which happens but twice a year) they get worried.
Technology addicition, overload or dependency. Call it what you wish…it has NOT made our lives simpler Bill. Rather it has blurred work and play, rest and drive. It means that as we got faster, so did our competitors, vendors, customers, shareholders…and thus all that happened was that the expectation of response went skywards.
I think the day we can relax is the day when we need not think anymore. The implants will carry our thoughts at lightening speed across the galaxies and we’ll just sit and veg with our virtual lives. What a sad thought.
And so leading from these thoughts, I made a decision…I am shutting off my laptop on Saturdays. I will not respond to emails on Saturdays unless a deadline may be missed or a project flow will be affected by my non-response. For those who know me, this is a HUGE decision, yet frankly speaking, as my good friend Laurent says “balance is king”, and I’m feeling today that I have lost a bit of it to the technology race.
Shabbat shalom (aka “have a peaceful Sabbath”),
Sass