One of the problems of, ah, maturing, is that you recognize your own contradictions. I’m good at the “vision thing” but not as good with building and maintaining. That’s not to say that I haven’t planned, implemented and maintained complex technology systems but I’m satisfied with the big picture and leaving the other stuff in more capable hands.

This is where my conflict about the digital future of Haiti surfaces again. I see clearly that the immediate need of feeding, sheltering, providing medical attention and protecting the people of Haiti is paramount and needs to be done now. But I can’t help looking down the road and around the bend to what’s there or, at least, what should be there. The question I raised in Haiti’s Digital Future was who makes the decisions?

At the recent Greener Gadgets conference, I distilled the question a little further to the members of the Green Living Begins at Home panel. How would you rebuild Haiti? Jay McLellan, President and CEO of Home Automation, Inc (HAI), took a deep breath and asked, “Do we have all day?” He then went on to say that the key is the infrastructure. “Make sure you have electrical, water and communications,” he continued. He felt that designing the infrastructure for renewal and sustainability was an obvious necessity. He also told me in an interview later that the system has to be modular so that it could scale up to make neighborhoods, villages and regions self sustaining if knocked off the main grid.

“It’s an obvious place for solar,” added Kimberly Lancaster, of Green Life Smart Life. “That energy alone can power everything from refrigeration to cooling” she said. Lancaster said she would also be looking for the basic resources of water and energy and the durability of materials used in the rebuilding.

”Sarah Krasley, Manager of Sustainability at Autodesk, spotlighted missing link we, in the developed nations, continue to make when offering aid and comfort. “I think that a key is to invite the people of Haiti into the conversation around design. Find out what they need and what wasn’t working before. It’s very simple, but I think that would make a huge impact.”

Everyone on the panel nodded in agreement.

One of the first lessons I learned about planning or upgrading a system was to do a needs assessment. Why do we often forget, when doing long term good works, to follow that simple rule?

Just a remainder of how it still looks as of March 4, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Matthew Bigg

Earth Day is April 22^nd this year. Like a lot of people, I’m always there  in spirit but short of personal recycling and rages against tamper proof, meaning impossible to open, plastic packaging I really don’t pay much attention to the details. But for the past few months, I’ve been looking at ways to provide sustainable and renewable energy for electronic devices.

This led me to this year’s CEA’s Greener Gadget conference. The one product that captured my attention was EcoCradle™ from Ecovative Design. It’s a packing product aimed at replacing Styrofoam which is trademarked by Dow Chemical. The non-trademark name of the plastic is polystyrene and it’s strong, flexible and has a gazillion uses. It’s also made from petroleum and other alleged toxic non-renewable materials and will outlast cockroaches in its ability to defy any attempts to destroy it.

Ecocradle, on the other hand, is made from what Eben Bayer, Ecovative Design’s CEO, calls “nature’s packaging.” The husks for most grains like corn, buckwheat, rice and several others are used as the main ingredient of theproduct. The glue that makes it possible to turn this into an environmentally friendly packing material is made from the roots of mushrooms. Put it in a mold, add water and keep it in a dark, cool place for a week.

What comes out is a shape to cradle whatever device you want protected. The company claims that it’s stronger that plastic so it’s ideal for larger units such as refrigerators or computer servers The newly formed material is not only biodegradable but is compostable and, if tossed in the back yard, will breakdown help renew topsoil.

When asked if the Ecocradle product was edible,

Eben Bayer, CEO, Ecovation

Bayer, paused took a nibble and answered, “Yes, but it doesn’t taste very good and it’s mostly fiber …,” and let the laughter fill the room.