In a recent survey of over 3,000 Chinese citizens, environmental issues emerged as a big problem in the eyes of the majority of respondents.** The 2008 survey, conducted as part of the Pew Research Center’s Pew Global Attitudes Project, found that about three quarters of those surveyed (74%) cite air pollution as a big problem. 66% of respondents ranked water pollution as a big problem.

But not only did Chinese say they were concerned about environmental problems, but they also said something should be done about it. As many as 80% of Chinese think protecting the environment should be made a priority, even if this results in slower growth and a potential loss of jobs. The new data suggest the Chinese people may be struggling with some of the consequences of economic growth.

What I find most striking about these results are: A) That concern for the environment is so salient among the Chinese, that people are willing to sacrifice some economic growth and jobs to take steps towards correcting those environmental problems, and B) That the concern for the environment was based on “pollution” themes. Pollution-based environmental problems are salient because they are visible, tangible, and ‘real’ products of industrial growth (as can be witnessed in this excellent series of short films). These types of problems were also perceived as very important to Americans in the late 1960s and early 1970s, before the U.S. enacted its core environmental policy. Can we expect that to be the next for China? And if so, when will that next step actually commence?

**Methodology: “Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 3,212 adults in China between March 28 and April 19, 2008, a period which followed the March 10 onset of civil unrest on Tibet and preceded the May 12 earthquake in China’s Sichuan Province. The sample, which is disproportionately representative of China’s urban areas, includes eight major cities, as well as medium-sized towns and rural areas in eight Chinese provinces. The area covered by the sample represents approximately 42% of the country’s adult population.”

Related Posts:

• China Begins Car-Rationing in Beijing Leading up to the Olympics
• Poll: Americans More Likely to Vote for a Candidate Who Supports Conservation and Efficiency
• Poll: Americans Don’t Think More Drilling Will Lower Gas Prices

Pew Research Center

Turns out, 50% of people in the US are wiser than I thought: there is no quick fix or simple solution.

Another interesting result from the survey: 48% of consumers don’t see McCain or Obama as having a particular advantage when trying to work with the auto industry to bring more fuel efficient or plug-in vehicles to the market in the future.

Read more of this story »

Read more of this story »

…while 83 percent of adults said they wanted to protect the environment, and 59 percent said they like trying new technologies to help the environment, about 42 percent said such technologies were hard to find.

An ideal situation for ecopreneurs? Perhaps… both for new companies, and for those that want to market green products better. Both P.K. Kannan, director of the Smith School’s Center for Excellence in Service, and Charles Colby, president of Rockbridge, offer some tips for effectively tapping this market:

Read more of this story »

Read more of this story »

Over 40% of Korean men smoke. And this is the good news. Before the recent wellbeing trend, the number was almost 60%. Smoking seems less common among Korean women.

2. When you eat cow you call it cow. Give yourself 1 point.

Koreans love meat and the don’t mince words when talking about it. You’re not eating “steak” and “prosciutto;” you’re eating “cow” and “pig.” Especially popular are variations on galbi, which ranges from Korean BBQ to stir-fried meat and hot peppers. There are, however, a modicum of vegetarian and even vegan restaurants in Korea.

3. You ride the bus and the train, but you still love Hyundai. Give yourself 2 points.

Read more of this story »

So, I handed out strips of paper to each student and asked them to anonymously mark the answer choice that they agreed with. On the paper were three lines:

• Protecting the environment is very important to me.
• Protecting the environment is a little bit important to me.
• Protecting the environment is not important to me.

Read more of this story »

Today I received a very nice surprise. The exact kind of surprise a new business owner and fervent blog writer loves to receive. Our company made it onto TreeHugger!

For anyone who has not seen the article, you can read it here.

I have been a long time reader of TreeHugger, and saw the post that Tamara had done on a similar site in Europe, Erento.com - but I was sure happy to see that we hadn’t fallen through the cracks in our efforts to bring this excellent opportunity to the United States.

For anyone who is curious to learn more about our service, click here to take our short survey. Make sure to leave your email address at the end and we will send you updates for when our site launches.

In the article, Tamara makes a very important point. I have quoted her here:

“Rental” has typically been synonymous with the less affluent that can’t afford to buy something outright, so instead pays an ongoing fee for the receipt of using it. But in a world of finite natural resources, waste and the legacy of post consumer goods becoming everyone’s issue, renting and not having the burden of owning and then dealing with the disposal or storage of goods is a compelling proposition.

We all feel that this is a very exciting time in the world. While we are confronted with so many important issues, we are also faced with incredible opportunities. We fully believe that together we can find solutions that will make sense for everyone, and make the world a better place to live.

It is really an honor to make it onto a blog that we respect so much. Again we would like to welcome all the new visitors we have from TreeHugger, and extend a special “Thank You” to Tamara for writing such a nice article about us.

On August 13th I posted some information about the new podcast I am doing, GreenTech.fM. It is a bi-weekly interview between myself and a Topanga green architect who not only shares a love for new technologies but also has some incredible innovations of his own. We have received a great response to the show since its launch. We hoped people would like the show, but little did we know that we were going to get hugged by people we had never met!

If you haven’t taken our survey yet, please go here now. Click Here to take it now!

Huggs for iRent2u

One of the ways in which we have gotten a great response is from a relatively new site called Hugg.com. Hugg is a website for people who are interested in green news. Green being a catchall phrase for things environmental in nature, likes issues related to global warming or pollution.

The way the Hugg site works is that people read the short articles, and then vote for the ones they support or agree with. When I posted a snippit of our press release onto the site to see if anyone cared, the response was incredible!

Of all the posts on the website, ours has the 7th highest votes. There have been a total of 29 different people who have “Hugged” our article, plus people have left great comments. Here is a picture of the site and our Huggs.

So we are very excited about all the attention we have gotten for that. What seems a bit strange to me is that the whole time we have been fighting neck and neck with Bart Simpson. What do I mean?

Bart Simpson and His Prius?

If you take another look at the Hugg page, you will find that right above us is another post about Matt Groening driving a Prius. The article is very creatively title “Bart Simpson Drives a Prius”, and if you read the source you will see it details Matt Groening’s entire life, from the perspective of which car he owned. (yawn)

Here is a screen shot of that darned Bart Simpson article:

I know I am biased, but to me a new podcast that is focused on praising and publishing all the incredible new technologies that scientists and entrepreneurs are creating is more interesting than the fact that a famous cartoonist now drives a Prius. But I guess I can only leave that up to the readers at Hugg to decide.

Either way we are happy with our Huggs. This makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and so we wanted to say thank you.

Oh yeah, and if you wanted to help us beat out Bart Simpson, we wouldn’t mind.

Please go to this link here. http://www.hugg.com/node/529 Create an account, and click the little plus symbol underneath the Counter that shows how many Huggs we have recieved.

Thanks for your support!

You all know who I am talking about. Often it is some guy you know, or maybe someone you don’t know. How do you buy a gift for someone who has everything?

Recently we have had a lot of people contacting us about the option of giving rentals away as presents. Some of our readers have had great comments, and we thought it was worthy of a whole post.

Rentals can often be the perfect present, for many reasons. We will cover a few of them here.

Buying a present for someone can be tough. You are always trying to come up with something original and interesting, but how do you know they will like it? If they really wanted it then they would probably buy it for themselves, right?

Really you want to buy something for them that they cannot buy for themselves. The problem with this of course is that we aren’t made of money. If they cannot afford to buy it, how are you going to be able to?

The alternative to this is a rental. Think of something they would love, and get it for them for a day, or a weekend. There are many things people would love try. Here I will list a few great options.

Top 5 Rental Gifts for Guys:

1. Ferrari! - Ok, so I shot for the moon on the first one, but there is nothing wrong with dreaming big. I can’t think of a single guy who wouldn’t love to drive a Ferrari for a day. Even my 98 year old Grandfather would probably appreciate a crack at one. Sure they rent of over $1,000 a day, but he won’t mind - unless you just paid with his money.
2. Vacation Rental for a week in the Virgin Islands - Ok, so I am still shooting for the moon. But no one can disagree that a week in the sun next to some of the most fabulous beaches in the world would be a dream present for most anyone.
3. Boat/Yacht/Sailboat - Who doesn’t enjoy spending the day on a boat, having fun with their friends, getting some sun, drinking too much and then getting sea sick? Well maybe not the last bit there, but a boat rental can be a blast. Careful with the sailboat option. If they don’t know how to sail one, it will be a long unhappy experience, believe me. Still, days on the water can be some of the most memorable experiences you will have.
4. Plane or Helicopter Ride - Noticing a theme here? Guys tend to like loud moving machines. Pushing the boundaries a bit by heading to the skies can be a real blast, and not something they are likely to already own 5 of in different colors (including paisley).
5. Red Dawn/Rocky/the Godfather - A bit on the cheaper side, most any guy enjoys the chance to curl up with a nice mellow action movie full of explosions and blood. Don’t like to watch these movies? Pretend like you do for one night, let him enjoy it, and be happy you just got away with paying $1!

Top 5 Rental Gifts for the Ladies:

1. Jewelry - A newer concept that has been sweeping the country, jewelry rentals are a hit! Apparently women like jewelry, even when it is too expensive to buy… how strange. Renting some of the crown jewels will not be possible, but it is doable to rent enough bling to make your lady feel like a princess for the evening.
2. Vacation Rental for a week in the Virgin Islands - Did I already say that one? This one definitely works for both genders.
3. Hot Air Balloon Ride - You, your Lady, a bottle of champagne, and nothing but fresh air, bright sunlight, romance… and the funny guy working the hot air… This one always seems to be a hit, just make sure she isn’t deathly afraid of heights or it will be a long ride home (or a very lonely hot air balloon ride).
4. Wine Tasting Trip - This one is a very safe bet. Rent a mini-van or small bus with a driver, gather up 10 to 30 of her best friends, eat a big breakfast, and head out for a day of sniffing, sipping and wining… Be careful what type of bus you rent though, some of them come with flashing lights and a pole in the back. People either end up dancing or with their heads spinning from the lights, and either one can turn a great trip into an embarrassing memory. Don’t live near some wineries? Get a van and take all the women shopping. Throw in a few stops for wine and you can get an almost frenzied effect similar to shark feeding frenzies.
5. Beaches/Ya-Ya Sisterhood/the Wedding Planner - Just like men love their action movies, women appreciate a good substantive, heart warming, connect-with-your-mother type of movie. Not sure you can take all the jibber-jabber? Imagine in each scene they are about to duke it out in some jello. That should keep you occupied enough to ignore that your arm just went dead from all your happy cuddling.

So rentals can be a great alternative. They key is to figure out what they want, but can’t afford to have all the time. By doing this you can create your own “Shock-and-Awe” gift celebration.

A recent survey found that 73% of people believe it is important that their employer be an environmentally and socially responsible company. However, energy saving measures people take in their own home don’t always carry over in to office. Ninety-two percent of those surveyed said they turned off lights in unoccupied rooms in their own homes, yet only 52% admitted to following the same practice at work.

The survey was sponsored by Sun Microsystems, whose Vice President of Eco Responsibility, Dave Douglas says:

Businesses don’t cut power consumption — people do. If you’re an employee, these survey results show that you have an enormous opportunity to make a difference for our planet and to help America’s business make better use of their economic resources. If you’re an employer, bridge this gap by communicating about the issue and how everyone can benefit by taking small steps. The good news is that your employees care about the environment, but they may need your help in realizing how much they can actually make a difference.

Some small steps you can take:

• Turn off lights in unoccupied rooms such as kitchens, break rooms, and conference rooms. To help remind others to do the same, create a small sign to post on the door or above the light switch. If there is plenty daylight is coming in, keep the lights off until needed.
• Turn off your computer at the end of the day, and set it to go into energy saving mode (sleep, or hibernation) after a period of inactivity. Unplugging it at the end of the day will also save energy. Likewise, turn off the monitor when you’re away from your desk.
• When printing or photocopying use both sides of the paper. If possible, set the default settings on printers and photocopiers to double-sided.
• If your workplace offers recycling, do your part and recycle.
• Cut back on paper cups and use your own mug for coffee/tea and water.

These are just a few small things, but if you do them every day, and you can get your co-workers to do the same, these little things will add up to have a noticeable impact.

The survey, released on Wednesday, was commissioned by Sun Microsystems, Inc, and conducted by Harris Interactive.

Related articles from Green Options:
GO - Office Equipment

Kicking the Habit: Reusing Electro-Waste

10 Fast, Easy Tips to Cool Your Company

Q & A: How Can We Ask People To Recycle When It Is So Difficult?

Remarkable: Recycled Office Products Made Cool

Greener Printing

One of the neat things about creating an open platform where people can rent out anything they want, is watching what people have to rent out. Of course we are a bit early to start telling you what people are renting, since we haven’t even launched yet, but we can tell you about some of the more interesting requests and comments we have seen.

Below is a listing of some of the items recommended to us by people who took the survey. Not everyone was completely serious when making suggestions, and we were a bit concerned by how many Americans today enjoy entertaining the idea of renting women, but for the most part we got a great response.
Some Interesting Suggested Items to Rent:

• Being able to “borrow” the use of expensive computer software, like Adobe CS3, would be great. I don’t do enough graphic design to want to buy this software, but I would love to be able to rent some time to use it.
• Table saw, circular saw, hot glue gun, weed wacker, hedge trimmer, electric blower, steam cleaner, tile saw
• I have found a real need to rent baby items (car seat, stroller, pack and play) when friends come in town or if I go out of town.
• What about borrow “help”? Like to fix a door, special garden work or similar?
• We might do a rental of art for corporations
• One of the biggest things on this list is the books…University book stores rip off students. This is a good way for owners of books to get the value they paid for it.
• Are you going to do things like cup of sugar? What about favors, I water your plants you water mine?

Do you have any ideas of your own? If so, take the survey and let us know. We are always interested to hear your comments. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=0S3pPYxkR6S0eGbiQVlZ7A_3d_3d

Unique Rental Company Items:

Besides what we have seen on our survey, there are other interesting things being rented these days.

One new option is renting handbags & jewelry. A popular site for doing this is www.BagBorrowOrSteal.com This is something that I personally would never even look at, but my wife was quite taken with the idea. Unfortunately we had serious problems with the service when we tried it out, but the concept is great. Rent expensive handbags instead of purchasing them, and then you can trade in for new ones and always have a fun new bag! Be careful with the mail though, send it incorrectly and you will pay for the whole bag, which is what happened to us on our first one.
Another thing I NEVER would have thought of is renting pets! Believe it or not, www.FlexPetz.com already exists, and is helping people enjoy pets who don’t have the time to care for one all by themselves. Now how this works I cannot say, since we are talking about living animals. This does seem strange, but then again there must be situations where this works really well. Perhaps this is good for elderly folks who just are not able to care for a pet all by themselves. As a pet lover myself I am glad to know that this service exists to help out those who have had to go without in the past.

Something a bit in the future is a service called Riot & Return http://www.riotandreturn.co.uk/. This is children’s clothing from the label Keep & Share. Apparently people will pay by subscription, and then return the clothes after they have been used. This seems brilliant to me, as children’s clothing costs a lot for such a short use cycle.

Rent Everything!

We love to see new companies making rentals a more acceptable alternative. Renting increases the use of an item, decreases waste, and is an all around better options for many different things. Hopefully we can provide an abundance of new items for rent on our website once we launch. Our goal is to have at least a little of everything, with hopefully a lot of most.

Once we all start renting more, we are all going to get more from what we already have. That works perfect for us, because we strongly believe that “Together We Have More”.

iRent2u.com, the Online Rental Marketplace - What do you want to rent?

This weekend, after Pepperdine university so kindly sent out the survey to a bunch of our old graduating classes, the survey blasted by 500 all the way up to hitting 544 responses. Once again the responses have been great. Here are a few fun statistics that we have taken out of it.

But for anyone who hasn’t taken it yet, here is the link. Don’t peak at what other people said, take the survey yourself first! http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=0S3pPYxkR6S0eGbiQVlZ7A_3d_3d

Now On to the results. I don’t want to give away the whole survey here, but I will give you five of some of the more interesting statistics we pulled from it.

• 86.2% would be willing to lend their personal items to their neighbors
• 82.3% would be willing to rent items from their neighbors
• 85.1% feel comfortable paying to borrow items they need
• 52.1% would be willing to lend items even if they were only rented once or twice a year
• For most items questioned, between 5 and 6 times as many people were willing to borrow items than lend them, which provides an excellent value proposition to lenders
• 94.8% of our respondents would be willing to either lend or borrow items. Out of 500 people surveyed, only 26 said they would not be willing to do one of the two options

So as you can tell, we have been getting very positive responses. This of course bodes very well for our business model, and we look forward to getting everyone on the site and giving them a chance to prove their bold statements. =^)

Speaking of the site, it is coming along very well. We have made tremendous project, in part thanks to some great effort on our web development team, A Small Orange. We are very very excited to give you a chance to run amok on the site, but first we want to work out some of the little bugs.

We will be posting new screen shots soon though, so make sure to keep checking back. It is looking great, working well, and getting us all pumped to launch as soon as possible. I can’t wait to show you have far it has come.

Look for new shots to be up within the week. For now, thanks for visiting, thanks for taking the survey, and thanks to all our die hard fans who voted for us on the Eventful box below. We appreciate it.

In the ongoing efforts to reach 1000 respondents to our survey, the wonderful faculty at Pepperdine has agreed to send out our survey request to all graduating MBA classes as far back as the year 2000. This will be a great help, as we have stalled a bit around the 480 mark, and can use the help.

If you haven’t taken the survey yet, please go here to do so. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=0S3pPYxkR6S0eGbiQVlZ7A_3d_3d

This is just another example of the wonderful help Pepperdine University has been in launching our business. In case you are interested I will tell you a bit about how Pepperdine has really helped us along the way.

To start off, if it wasn’t for Pepperdine’s excellent study abroad program to Spain, I never would have met my business partners. Without that I never would have heard of the idea or had a chance to participate, even though one of my partners was right next door in UCLA Anderson.

Besides the study abroad program, there were many opportunities Pepperdine facilitated that really helped prepare us to launch a business. One of the most impactful was my participation in T.E.C. (The Executive Committee – now called Vistage ). Vistage is the world’s largest CEO network, and is a program where you create a personal board of advisers. Here we got the chance to have very personal and candid meetings with extremely successful businessmen & women from the LA area. Speaking and learning with them helped me realize that my true calling was starting my own business. This also helped me to recognize the opportunity when it presented itself, by keeping me in the right frame of mind. There were many other great learning opportunities before I went to Spain, but Vistage was the most motivational and inspirational of them.

A special Thank You is due to Gary Brinderson of Brinderson Construction who made this experience a reality and gave such valuable insights. The things I learned while working with you were invaluable, and will stay with me the rest of my life.

Great benefits came after I returned to Pepperdine with my new team and business plan. Obviously winning the Business Plan Competition was incredible in helping us validate the concept and obtain startup financing, but we received so much other help that it is hard to quantify. You can’t know how many people coached me, brainstormed with me, mentored me, and assisted me with every part of the business. It was this help that turned an incredible idea into a tremendous opportunity, and it was the people from Pepperdine who made it happen.

Now that my partners and I have all graduated and started the business, the relationship has continued to help us tremendously. We were invited to attend a black-tie event, the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award Ceremony, where we got to network with highly successful local entrepreneurs. We got 7 different volunteer interns to work with us on varying projects of great importance. Just this last weekend we were invited to speak at a Pepperdine Entrepreneurship Forum where we met other motivated entrepreneurial students who gave us great feedback and others who are interested in investing.

Overall our relationship with Pepperdine University has been a huge help with the launch of the business, and for this we simply want to say thanks!

A special thanks to the following:
Charles Morrissey – for giving us great insights into the crazy entrepreneurial world
Molly Lavik – for connecting us with incredible mentors and advisors
John Mooney – for a couple really great brainstorming sessions that helped remind us the best help doesn’t always come with a price tag
Dean Livingston – who has been ever supportive and has offered the help of Pepperdine many times
Michael Magasin – for his incredible “Scared-Straight” business law class which has motivated us to do everything correctly while forming the business
Doreen Shanahan – who gave us such great feedback after the second round of the business plan competition
Andrea Scott – also willingly gave excellent feedback on the concept during the competition
Geri Jabara – for getting me to Spain and being one of the most positive and supportive persons I have met in my life
Kristin Strange – for approving my intern request forms =^)
Nicole Hall - for putting up with my repeated emails asking when she was going to send out the survey to the alumni. =^)

Of course this is just the tip of the iceberg. The whole University has been behind us. I haven’t even begun to mention all the incredible fellow students who did the bulk of coaching and assisting, but I will leave them for a post another day.

For now just let me say thank you for all your help, and we, at iRent2u.com, appreciate the support!

And if you are also a Pepperdine alumni, don’t forget to utilize the excellent resources available to you through the staff and other students & alumni. They can have a tremendous impact on your business.

In our continuing efforts to be chosen to present at the TechCrunch20 this September 17th & 18th, iRent2u is looking for informed parties who would be willing to write endorsements of our efforts.

Does our concept speak to you? Does it make sense? Do you see the value in what we are trying to do?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, we would love to hear from you. We are looking for short one or two sentence comments regarding the concept and our progress to date.

We have already began receiving comments from people, and are excited to begin sharing them with you. Once we have collected more we will post them onto a separate page along with links back to the authors so that you know who is speaking.

To give you an idea of some of the comments we have received so far, here is a brief list (authors names are not displayed as we are still coordinating permissions for their publication)

Comments made about iRent2u.com so far:

“This website has the potential to change the face of commerce as we know it”

“Just as the saying goes: “It takes a village to raise a child”, why not “It takes a neighborhood community to raise awareness”. I believe that iRent2U is going to do just that, raise awareness about our over consumption. Going “green” is much more than just saving some gas and a little bit on your electric bill, it is a lifestyle change that means living in a way that gives back and protects rather than purchase and waste. I think if we all did just a little sharing with one another stating in our own communities, we can start a whole new way of living across the nation. iRent2U isn’t just another eBay-ish rental website; it has the power to push regular people into a different mindset—green living that includes sharing with your neighbors in an equitable fashion. Just brilliant!”

“This business idea appears to have great potential as a game changing approach to borrowing and lending and interim equipment rentals. The concept is simple and the website is also quite simple in scope. I look forward to seeing this business rollout in my area of the Midwest so I can realize value for myself, not just cost to rent from others.”

“The concept is brilliant. I have shared Nils’ “drill” thought countless times”

“oh, man, i can’t wait to start renting out my circular power saw.”

Thanks to those who have already written reviews:

This is very exciting for us, and we appreciate your support. Some people are requesting to see the actual site before writing a review, which is totally understandable. If you prefer to see the site first please send me an email and I will give you a sneak peek sometime after the 15th. We can’t make the site totally public though because we made a promise to TechCrunch not to release it openly to the public until the conference.

If You Don’t Like to Write:

Some people do not enjoy writing stuff. If you are one of these people, we would appreciate your listing us on any of the social networking sites such ad Digg.com or StumbleUpon.com. Or just tell your friends, that is enough to make us feel all warm inside. =^)

Survey Update:

In the meantime, if you have not taken our survey we would appreciate your input. You can find the survey here.

Feel free to forward the survey on to other people as well. To do so send this link. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=0S3pPYxkR6S0eGbiQVlZ7A_3d_3d

Our survey now tops 445! People keep responding, and we appreciate your input. If things keep moving like this we will definitely hit our 1000 mark!

347 Responses & How Renting Makes You Green…

For those of you keeping track, our survey responses continue to roll in. I am happy to say that we have reached 347 total responses, well on our way to the 500 & halfway mark. If this keeps up we are sure to reach 1,000 responses, but only with your help.

If you haven’t had a chance to send out the survey to your contacts, we politely request that you do so now. It only takes 5 minutes to fill out, and would be a great help for those of us who are working feverishly to change the world.

If you haven’t taken the survey yet, here is the link. Remember it is totally anonymous so please tell us exactly what you think. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=0S3pPYxkR6S0eGbiQVlZ7A_3d_3d

Are You Green? How Can You Be?

Here at iRent2u, we are trying to make the world greener. We do this by creating a system where everyone can get more from what they already have. If you can get more from what you own, then you don’t have to buy as much stuff. By buying fewer things, you save money. That means you work less. That means less waste, because there are fewer things being thrown away. Everyone wins, except the big businesses who are brainwashing us to buy their stuff.

Want an Example?

Imagine a normal neighborhood. In this neighborhood there are 100 homes. Of course everyone has to cut the grass, so traditionally that means 100 lawnmowers have been purchased to facilitate this. Some people would buy riding lawnmowers for thousands of dollars, and some people wouldn’t buy one at all, but for convenience let’s say that everyone bought this standard lawnmower from Sears for $479.

$479 times 100 homes = $47,900 spent on lawnmowers. Ouch!

That is just the money spent. Additionally each mower had to be built, creating waste. Natural resources were used, and most likely some low wage child worker in China working 100 hour weeks was exploited to do so.

Many people will get rid of their old mower after 10 years, whether it is broken or not, just because they want a newer model (maybe the new one with a drink holder - what a feature!). So let’s say that after 10 years half of the homes replace their mowers. At present day prices this costs another $23,950. Double Ouch! Not to mention that 50 lawnmowers were just thrown away into a landfill to sit for the next 10,000 years.

So what’s the alternative?

Imagine how much more efficient it would be if everyone used iRent2u.com. How much money and waste could be saved? Let’s figure it out.

According to YardCare.com a normal lawn needs to be mowed about once every week. If one lawnmower can only mow one person’s yard in one day, and you have Saturday and Sunday to do yard work, then it is very easy to imagine that two people could share one lawnmower. Using iRent2u.com, one neighbor could buy a lawnmower and the other could rent it each week. This is the most minimal example, as it would be easy for 4 or 5 houses to use one mower with a bit of coordination.

So if each two houses shared a lawnmower, that would cut the amount of mowers needed in half. So instead of spending $48,000 on lawnmowers, this neighborhood could save $24,000! Less waste, less money spent, no loss in value to anyone!

What is the individual impact?

Imagine you are person X, and you just bought your lawnmower. You spent $479 for that lawnmower from Sears. You work out an arrangement with your neighbor who borrows it once a week to cut his grass for $6 each time. Since where you live you only have to cut the grass half of the year, you lend it 26 times. You just made $156 back on the purchase of your mower. At this rate you make your money back, off only one neighbor, in a little over 3 years. Lend it to more neighbors and you can make it back in one year!

Now imagine you are person Y, and your neighbor just bought a lawnmower. It cost you nothing up front, so you could use that money for a vacation with your family. Then each week you pay $6 and still get to mow your lawn. Plus you have the option of borrowing from your other neighbor as well if they get a nicer mower (that cool one with the drink holder!). Over the course of the year you pay $156, saving $323, and you didn’t have to store the thing in your garage.

Imagine that, there is actually room in your garage for your car!

At this point maybe you can buy the new mower yourself for $323, because the price of mowers just dropped considerably (turns out fewer mowers are being purchased, so they are slashing prices). Rent or buy, either way you come out ahead.

Everyone Wins, Except the Lawnmower Companies

In a normal neighborhood, 4 or 5 neighbors could share a lawnmower without any inconvenience. This would save tens of thousands of dollars just on mowers alone. That is money that could be invested, used for vacations, or used to pay off those credit card bills.

Do this with multiple items, not just your lawnmower, and the effect is truly incredible. With one website and a bit of coordination you save thousands of dollars, have more storage space, get to know your neighbors, and reduce trash.

An Unsustainable System

The present system where everyone buys everything is unsustainable, and frankly it is ridiculous. Billions of dollars every year are quite literally thrown away. Things are purchased, used once or twice, sit in a garage for 10 years filling up space and deteriorating, and then thrown away. Where is the value? Who gains from this system?

Companies do. Big companies that pay lots of money to bombard you every day with message after message about how buying their product will make you happy. But will it? In our hearts we all know that buying things will not make us happy, but at the same time we have been trained to do it. How many of you get upset and go out and buy stuff to make yourself feel better? I know I do. I guess the advertising companies are really doing their job well.

Here are iRent2u, we don’t want you to stop buying things. We are just creating a system where you can spend your money on things you really want, instead of wasting it buying 100 lawnmowers. Use your money for vacations with your family and friends, or just work less and spend more time at home. Use your money to buy that new shirt, or a new car, instead of buying an extra truck you use twice a year that sits in your driveway rusting.

Together We Have More

Here in America we are individualists. We love our freedom, and we have been graced with the liberty and opportunity to do as we please. This is a great thing, and has given us the opportunity to achieve incredible feats. Is it possible though that we have taken this liberty too far? We are the largest polluters in the world. We consume more than most other countries put together, and throw away things that have hardly been used.

Our wealth and abundance make it easy to waste, but we are the people who ultimately lose in this cycle. By working together in such little ways as sharing our lawnmower we start to change our world. With iRent2u.com it has never been easier to get more from what you already have. Start sharing today, and together we will build a better tomorrow.

iRent2u.com - Launching this September.

Yesterday was quite a day! We jumped from 100 responses in the morning, to over 250 responses by today. I am very impressed by the high level of involvement, and with how many people have forwarded on the survey to their list of contacts. Check out our Survey Meter to see our progress.

I see this level of involvement as evidence of two things. First we have great friends who want to help us succeed. For this we are extremely grateful. The second is that people really see value in helping each other. This is a core concept behind the iRent2u platform, that “Together We Have More.” Helping each other, lending to each other, sharing our property; these concepts are the foundation of a movement.

If you haven’t taken the survey yet, simply click here.

More Survey Info:

A bunch of people have been asking about the survey, so here is a bit of info. At the moment I am writing this we have received 254 responses. I would love to start sharing some of our findings but hesitate because I don’t want to influence future responses. There are a couple of figures that seem to be prevalent enough that I can go ahead and post them without causing too many problems though.

From the moment we started this we have known that a very important aspect of this sites success is trust. Do people trust each other? Constantly on the news we hear about all the bad things that happen in the world, which makes us nervous. This is primarily because fear sells, and thus the media uses it to make a lot of money. Well at iRent2u we believe that people are basically good. While we know there are always going to be some bad apples, and we will do everything in our power to stop them at every turn, the majority of people are good. They help each other, care about each other, and trust each other.

Well this was something that we wanted to get your opinion on, and the results look great so far! Out of 254 people, 68% say that in general they trust their neighbors. Well, of course your neighbors are very close so perhaps they are easier to trust, but another 56% of people say they in general trust the people in their community. So these are very promising results.

Of course your trust is very precious, and shouldn’t be wasted. Because of this we are building multiple safeguards into the site. I wont go into too much detail now, but we are including such items as a rating system, optional insurance, and deposits. Besides that we have some more up our sleeves, but will leave that for later. Rest assured that we have your best interests in mind. Knowing this, plus recognizing that most people are basically good, should help you to know that there are some incredible things that will happen in your community.

Thanks for your attention. Make sure to keep sending out that survey to people. The more who respond the better idea we have on how to tailor the site to your specific needs.

Have Your Cake and Rent it too! www.iRent2u.com

To those who have completed the survey, you can feel great that you have done your part towards making this dream a reality, the dream that everyone can get more from what they already have. The dream that you can buy less, yet have more, all while reducing waste and pollution!

For anyone who hasn’t taken the survey yet, don’t fear. All you have to do is click on this link to get there http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=0S3pPYxkR6S0eGbiQVlZ7A_3d_3d

With just five minutes of your time you will earn a lifetime of gratitude from not only myself, but all the people in the future who benefit so greatly from this service.

Thanks for your help!

The latest survey, Advancing Sustainable Prosperity, comes from Ceres, an environmental investment group.

What is sustainable prosperity? From what I gather from Ceres (pronounced series) sustainable prosperity incorporates environmental and social issues into business strategy and economic markets.

Since the survey was administered to participants at their annual conference last week (including a who's who in the corporate and enviromental sectors), respondents are likely to be involved in a for-profit business venture. Therefore the answers should be indicative of what the feeling is in the corporate world regarding environmental issues.

Of those surveyed, 80% think that climate change is the biggest sustainability challenge facing the world today; 90% said the most important issues for corporations to address are greenhouse gas emission reductions and improved energy efficiency; and 67% thought that renewable energy technology has the biggest chance at achieving sustainable prosperity.

A telling survey question that caught my eye was: "Do you agree or disagree with the following statement: 'Collaboration, such as partnerships between NGOs, companies and investors, is important for progress on sustainability issues,'" to which 79% of respondents answered "strongly agree."

Seventy-nine percent of businessminded people at the Ceres conference think that partnerships to finding solutions to environmental problems is a good idea. That is good evidence that the corporate front is changing their tune and sustainable prosperity is catching on.

Via GreenBiz

A new survey by non-profit organization Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (RBRC) has found that many Americans fall into the really light green category.

About twenty percent surveyed said they suffer from green guilt and many admitted to not recycling all that they should. Just over half said they recycle glass, cardboard, and newspapers. One-third said they recycle their unwanted electronics. RBRC also asked respondents the big question: Why aren't you recycling?

Some thought it was too much effort while others were unclear about local recycling options. Less than 20% of those surveyed incorporated other green habits besides recycling into their lives, such as turning off lights and unplugging appliances when not in use and taking a reusable mug when getting a cup o' joe. Many (43%) just didn't think that their individual actions would have any impact on the future of the environment.

Some of these numbers are a little discouraging, but RBRC found a little ray of green light in the survey and turned it into a new public service announcement.

"Do your part for the environment. Start with just one thing" is the slogan for a new campaign featuring Danny Seo (who has been dubbed the green Martha Stewart), which stresses the importance of individual action. For example, according to RBRC, if everyone recycled their morning paper it would prevent 6 million tons of waste from going to the landfill.

In many cases convenience trumps consicence when it comes to recycling or other I-should-be-green scenarios. This past weekend I bought a bottle of water at the park (instead of bringing my own) and tossed it into a garbage can on the street (instead of taking it home with me to recycle - no street recycling just yet in NYC.) I felt guilty about it because I know better, but I let convenience take over.

We are all faced with these small situations in our daily lives, but I do believe if each of us does "just one thing" we can all make our way towards a darker shade of green.

More information:
Call2Recycle
GO Green Myth Busting: Recycling