Death to Zealots

Had lunch with Rob Caughlan today. What a force of nature. His inspirations: his mom, JFK (what can you do for your country) and Jacques Cousteau (don't be a follower of someone like me, go do your own thing). I invited him to join the board of R2R, I hope he joins us. We spoke of turtles and surfing, over population and John Doerr, the new Pambo and PLC.org , Amazing Grace and Blessed Unrest. What a wise man with such great stories. Part of his message, be an environmentalist, or find your cause, but what ever you do, have fun. That he does. He is also working on a documentary about Pete McCloskey. He needs about $25K to finish the project, wanna donate to make this happen, drop me a line.

GreenBuild Chicago 2007

GreenBuild was way too big, too many people, with diminishing marginal returns. Highlights: while Clinton was the keynote, the show was stolen by the chairman of United Technologies who admitted to his company being responsible for 5% of current carbon emissions. Like any addict the first step is to admit responsibility, next comes the 12 steps to recovery. Having the chairman of a Fortune 50 (47th in 2006) admit culpability and begin to outline solutions was remarkable. The next highlight was Joe van VanBellegham of Three Point Properties. It was truly inspirational to hear a developer of that size outline a complete and almost regenerative vision of development. After the weeks events, I had time to stop by dad's grave site and leave a stone for each member of the family.