Save The Environment By Buying Your Motorized Bicycle Locally!

At the top of Thursday's N&R "The Pulse" section, I was shocked to see them hawking a $3,000 (well, ok, $2,999) IZip Express electric bicycle.  Wouldn't it be great if you could get such a vehicle without the nearly $3K pricetag, and one that was made here locally?  N&R, are you listening?  There's a real story here.

My friend and blogging partner, Billy Jones, has a dream.  A dream of making motorized bicycles, much like the one he has made for himself.  A few facts about his motorized bicycle (which you can have for about half the cost....if you have your own bicycle that you want motorized, it would be even LESS than half)...

• Motorized bicycles from StreetPlanes.com has 25-50cc 4 Cycle engines that get up to 200 miles per gallon of regular gasoline with no mixing of gas and oil.  For an electric bicycle such as the IZip Express, you run it 30 miles, it dies and you have to recharge it for several hours.  For a motorized bicycle from StreetPlanes, you run it until you need gasoline again.
• Engine meets Federal EPA and California emissions and low noise requirements.
• Has compression release easy-pull starting.
• StreetPlane engines last as long as 30-50 thousand miles and have cast iron cylinder liners so they are rebuildable.
• StreetPlane motorized bicycles are the only moped that fits in standard bicycles racks.
• Also, the lightest moped on the market today. Easy for urban dwellers to carry up stairs and into apartments.
• Steel frames made in Greensboro and will last a lifetime with care.
• Plastic parts are made in Greensboro primarily from vegetable based plastics.
• Billy's dream is to manufacture these motorized bicycles IN GREENSBORO providing employment for LOCAL PEOPLE.

So before you take the N&R's advice and run right out to get an IZip Express, think global, act local, and contact my friend Billy Jones at www.streetplanes.com or idleblogs (at) yahoo.com. 

One of the most interesting and inspiring people I've ever met is Robert "Dusty" Staub, chairman of Staub Leadership here in Greensboro.  I met him around 1995, when I took a 5-day High Impact Leadership Seminar.  I doubt he has any recollection of me, but that's okay.

Dusty writes a column for Triad Business Journal that I'm quite fond of, and this week's entry is exceptionally good.  I can't provide a link to it because it's for paid subscribers only, but I will excerpt just a bit here. 

Dusty says, "If you want more love in your life, you will need to give more love away.  Granting greatness, seeing the very best that there is in another person, is a gift that also gives back.  When you are willing and able to help another human being, whether at home or at work, realize their own deeper capacities, they shower you with the same."

In our current world of "Gimme More" and me, me, me, Dusty continues to courageously shine a beacon of light.  He ends his article this way: "You, too, have the power to transform every moment of your life through acts of affirmation and positive expectation of the capacity of others -- granting them the possibility of stepping into their own greatness.  Doing so, you step into your own capacity to both bless and be a blessing in this world."  Then he issues his challenge:  "Are you truly ready, now, to grant greatness to those around you and thus to yourself?"

Thanks, Dusty.  I love your column and I think that you've got a lot of things figured out that most people (especially in business) cannot and will not ever realize.

Play, learn, give.  I just learned about FreeRice, a site where you can play a vocabulary game, learn new words, and donate grains of rice for hunger elimination.  Here's their info from their "About Us" page:

FreeRice is a sister site of the world poverty site, Poverty.com.

FreeRice has two goals:

1. Provide English vocabulary to everyone for free.
2. Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

This is made possible by the sponsors who advertise on this site.

Whether you are CEO of a large corporation or a street child in a poor country, improving your vocabulary can improve your life. It is a great investment in yourself.

Perhaps even greater is the investment your donated rice makes in hungry human beings, enabling them to function and be productive. Somewhere in the world, a person is eating rice that you helped provide.

****

I read about this in a Reuters article which I'm referencing here because it has links to other click-to-give sites, like the ones I wrote about in an earlier post.

Play. Learn. Give. Help.

Merry Christmas!

Mouse Clicks:  Helping to Create Happy Holidays Around the World

In the spirit of Billy's post about supporting BC Children's Hospital, I'd like to direct your attention to a number of websites that, with only the click of a mouse, you can make a difference.  Doesn't cost you a dime.  It's all paid for by advertisers.

The Hunger Site - You click daily, sponsors pay for cups of food.  At the top of the page, there are tabs which link you to The Child Health Site (helps children in poor countries receive preventive medical care); The Rainforest Site (saves rainforest land); The Animal Rescue Site (helps feed animals in shelters); The Literacy Site (helps buy books for children); and The Breast Cancer Site, which pays for mammograms for women in need.  I try to click these every day, at home and at work.  Only one click per computer is counted, but over time, it adds up.  Click at work and click at home.

Also, at EcologyFund.com, you can save up to 107 square feet of land a day, reduce pollution, and save wilderness and animal habitats.  There's about 5 clicks to make, but it takes so little time, so why not expend the minimal effort and make a tiny bit of difference?

These sites also allow you to keep up with how much you have donated, and that makes everyone feel good. 

You know that guy whose birthday we're celebrating around this time of the year?  He said, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."  I'm urging you to click your mouse on these web sites, for the least of them, and remember how much you are blessed.