Make a larger impact – reduce CO2

i’ve been moving to zurich in may. Prior to that, I went through some sort of drifting through life (although i got a fulltime job and am studying long distance) and i’ve been looking for something that might give me some more meaning.

i came to realize that helping others, travelling and smart conversations give me satisfaction – how could i combine these in a meaningful way?
charity travel would be one way but doing some research i didn’t really find anything that i caught on with.

now i’ve had this crazy idea to start a charity myself that helps educate students on how to effortlessly reduce their carbon footprint. to fund it, i will pitch my project to different competitions and charities and hope i will win, if not, i will only get to use my upcoming gap year (after i’ve finished my studies) to travel, network and educate by myself only.

the plan is to go into elementary schools and talk to kids how they themselves can easily help avoid CO2 emissions. I’m not going to go into the debate whether or not it is responsible for global warming or if global warming is a fact or not – that’s for others to fight out. It is a fact that CO2 does harm the environment if in higher than normal concentrations and it is very easy to avoid. Studies show that the environment is one of the main concerns of kids and they should be aware that there’s something they can do against it. A fear less will make it a happier kid and thus also a better effect on it’s surroundings.

I’d imagine countries where the most possibilities for a change in daily behavior are the developing nations with heavy industries like India, Indonesia, China, the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia.

It would be great to get a chance to realized that dream! If you’ve got a spare 30 seconds, help me realize it by voting @ http://bit.ly/vote4earth – or spread the link.

Thanks.

Well, obviously I’ve done a bit of research as I entered the competition three weeks late with around 8500 contestants already signed up and getting double-votes for two weeks…

After evaluating the first 20 entries, I came to realize that they all either rely on a Facebook group, Twitter, some forum or all of the above.
Facebook and Twitter obviously allow to communicate with your supporters (i.e. reminding them to vote daily) but from some statistics I’ve seen there are boards that are just giving vote-love like crazy – the top candidate currently receives around 600 referrals per day from the best-performing board! Although these might not translate into votes, that is still enormous.
On a sidenote, looking at the rising and top contestants I also realized that there are literally  100’s of Icelandic entrants – must be really popular over there. Astounding considering there are only two properties in Reykjavik and so few people living there. I guess the volcano ash makes them want to take a sabbatical

I’d love to see the real figures, though – maybe Radisson will be proud enough when the contest has finished and they are going to boast a bit with the figures as I believe this is probably the so-far best executed social media campaign in the hospitality industry.

In order to compete with the leaders, I’ve now also started a FB page about the Greatest Holiday by Radisson competition as well as post in boards and send out some twitter messages.

So, if you wanna support the cause of avoiding CO2 emissions, you can do the following:

• vote daily here: http://bit.ly/vote4earth
• give some <3 and like the FB page: http://bit.ly/vote4fb
• twitter about it like a few others were already kind enough to do, e.g. “help this guy spread the love – http://bit.ly/vote4earth”
• and for the very daring, post about this campaign on the boards you participate in or even add a link for the duration to your signature – yeah

Hopefully this will increase the votes my application receives from the current 100 to the same amount the number one is getting – an estimated 1000!

I just signed up at the Radisson Greatest Holiday Competition hoping I will get voted top in order to fund a charity that helps educate students on how they can easily reduce the carbon footprint in their daily lifes.

The competition by Radisson is giving away 365 hotel nights at any of their properties. As the terms do not allow to sell the prize, I will auction off my friendship and invite you to stay with me. The proceeds will fully go towards funding the charity.
In order to maximize the revenue, I will only chose properties that have an average room rate higher than 169 EUR, the value that Radisson states in the competition. Most of the cases, this will be in periods of high demand, probably when events are taking place in the city which is an excellent time to grab some media attention further maximizing the impact of the cause.

All in all, I expect to rake in around 100.000 EUR through auctioning off the room nights. My own room nights, travel to the destination and carbon-offset will be organized by myself and not deducted of the 365 room nights or the total revenue of the auctions.

Now, if you’d like to help, please vote for me by clicking here: http://bit.ly/vote4earth.

Pass this on to your friends+

Isn’t it a great coincidence that most ways to reduce your carbon footprint are also making an impact to your wallet? In the weeks to come, I”ll be writing down ways that will greatly impact the environment and also save you a buck or even hundreds.

In the meantime, vote for my educational project here: http://bit.ly/vote4earth