The name “green global trek” stems from a decision we made as a couple a few years ago to try to increase our involvement in “green” causes. A quick summary of our green “credentials” goes something like this:
Peta had been recycling and had a green consciousness for years when Al Gore’s movie on Climate Change “The Inconvenient Truth” became a cultural phenomenon. The fascinating 
thing about the movie is that it triggered a wave of distinct projects in the U.S. by people who responded to the calling and sought to have some impact on climate change. A public arts project started to emerge in Chicago called “Cool Globes” as a means to accentuate potential solutions. Peta was selected as one of about 100 artists and addressed the topic of biofuels. Her globe has travelled as part of a national tour from Chicago to San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. Even made it into Newsweek…
thing about the movie is that it triggered a wave of distinct projects in the U.S. by people who responded to the calling and sought to have some impact on climate change. A public arts project started to emerge in Chicago called “Cool Globes” as a means to accentuate potential solutions. Peta was selected as one of about 100 artists and addressed the topic of biofuels. Her globe has travelled as part of a national tour from Chicago to San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. Even made it into Newsweek…At about the same time, I was starting a new job as VP of Strategy for AAR Corp, a large aviation maintenance company. I quickly seized on the mega-trend of environmental consciousness to predict increasing regulations on the aviation industry and create a path for my company to become a leader in the area of “green aviation”. I launched a number of initiatives to reduce the company’s carbon footprint, by updating capital equipment, driving process change to reduce energy waste and convinced the company’s leadership to become the first aviation company to become “carbon neutral”. In the process, I became acquainted first hand with the concept of “Cap and Trade” as we bought carbon credits to offset AAR’s remaining carbon emissions. I spent months trying to maneuver the company to become a player in the wind energy space, to no avail. Even though the company’s technical profile was a perfect fit for the very skills that the booming wind energy industry needed, the CEO of our company just couldn’t see it. He felt that wind energy was “a fad”. Ha! This was a turning point — I decided that my days at AAR were limited as I could not orchestrate a strategic move that was a “no brainer” to me and decided to find a way to make green issues central to my future endeavors. I became a frequent speaker on Green Aviation, got articles published in leading aviation industry magazines and started to develop a network of contacts in the green space.
We started a small bamboo plantation project which, over the last 2 years, has matured into a full fledged business. See http://www.co2bambu.com/ for an update on the business. A couple of highlights to date:
– We’ve received the formal acceptance of the Nicaraguan government for CO2 BAMBU to become an integral participant in the country’s “Cruzada Nacional de Reforestacion”;
– We’ve developed thirteen nurseries to grow bamboo plants for reforestation
– We’ve grown and are in process of planting 82,000 bamboo plants
– We’ve established a manufacturing site to process bamboo material into simple products for the US Horticulture industry;
– We’ve been selected by the Financial Times as part of its Global Climate Change Challenge to identify green start ups with potential for meaningful impact on carbon emissions;
– We’ve built a bamboo-based model home to demonstrate the viability of bamboo construction for low cost housing
So, as we start a new chapter of our lives in Nicaragua, it’s all about bamboo. This blog won’t become a bamboo blog, but we’ll update occasionally on key developments in our bamboo adventure. As for the “green global trek” concept, we look at Nicaragua as the first leg of our green global trek. We hope to make CO2 BAMBU into a viable enterprise and, if so, look forward to a few years working bamboo issues in Nicaragua. Either way, we are well on our way to a green global trek.