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thank
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you so wonderful to be here
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um if all the work in the world were
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voluntary
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work what would you
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do I've had to ask myself that question
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a number of times anyways let me start
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with this picture this picture here was
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taken by my mother in the early 80s in a
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country called ner in West
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Africa and the boy in the middle is
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me CU that's where I grew up and I'm
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sitting next to my brother and our
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neighbor and as you can see we're
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watching
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TV now watching TV in ner is a big thing
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CU in our town there were two
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TVs right now in newer 90% of all the
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people have no access to
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electricity so you could say that we
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were
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blessed now I took that blessing of
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electricity very very seriously cuz
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after a number of years we returned to
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the Netherlands and I enrolled in
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Conservatory to study electric
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guitar here's the proof
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and then a few years went ahead passed
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by and uh I founded this little
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Consulting business and life was going
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well and I became father of two amazing
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little
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boys and a little while later things
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went
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South what happened was I lost my
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work I lost my
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relationship I lost my money lost my
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house lost a whole number of
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things it was time for a big
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reset and I was sitting in this tiny
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little room wondering about what to do
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next and at that moment I
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realized that I had a lot of power cuz
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i' lost everything so I could win
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anything and um what I decided to do
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there was use this word a lot I would
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get all these job opportunities for
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instance and I'd say no to them why
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because I decided that I would do work
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that I deemed useful in some sense so I
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turned down all these work opportunities
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where I I would do work just for the
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sake of earning
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money now we're going to fast forward a
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little bit and I stole a little logo
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here a
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little um a number of years later and
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this is a little while
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ago I was looking at my life and I was
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the owner of an energy
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company and I was doing all these media
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things and I was meeting with uh
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Greenpeace CEOs
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and TV appearances and growing a beard
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in the meantime and winning prizes at
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MIT and um what happened there was
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really
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interesting CU I wanted to know how did
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I get
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here going from
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music to this whole
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situation well let's rewind a little bit
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again
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in 2006 I apparently had said no enough
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times to say yes to the right
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opportunity and the right opportunity
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being answering the question would you
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lead an energy
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company what yes so that's what I
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started to do it was an energy company
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in very very bad
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shape sales were bad people were not
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motivated and they needed a change so
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they asked somebody who had some
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experiences with
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crisis to do something about it and I
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was a complete newcomer to the business
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I didn't know anything about energy
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itself I knew something about people
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though so I would ask all these people
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around me these energy professionals
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questions such as what is
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energy now the answers I got to these
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questions to this one started sounded a
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bit like this some other people would
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answer me
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I would get answers like these I was in
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Barcelona they gave me this
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answer apparently something really
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really interesting was going on
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here we had lost connection to the
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product we were
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selling I went on and ask about
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sustainability and I found this one
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particular example of a school in
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Japan where they wanted to do something
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about their sustainability
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image so what they do they bought
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windmills makes sense
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right now apparently in that area the
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wind wasn't too good so these windmills
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would not turn by
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themselves so what did they do for the
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sake of upholding this sustainable image
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they connected them to the power grid
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and made made them
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turn so that was
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sustainability good I went on and ask
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even more questions about consumption
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for instance or sales if you
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will and of course sales people would
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show me charts like this
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one you all know these
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charts sales are going to go up why well
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because people all around the world are
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going to consume more and more and more
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and more energy and I thought to myself
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wait a
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minute if we are selling a fossil
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resource and we're basically depleting
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the
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resource how can we sell more and more
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and more and
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more isn't it the case that the church
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should look like
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this in fact scientists that I spoke to
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have proved that we are
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here we're on the verge of the big
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turnaround we're going to consume less
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and less and less and less fossil
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fuels this particular picture taught me
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so
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much for one I found
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out that what whatever we call
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alternative energy is not
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alternative Sun
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wind water have been energy resources
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that we've been using for thousands of
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years oil coal gas are the actual
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alternative energy
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resources CU we've only been using them
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for aund and some years and in a little
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while they'll be
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gone now this big turnaround is a very
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interesting thing and they call a
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transition and um there are only three
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reasons why we are going to get back to
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this situation where we're going to rely
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on renewable resources
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first is that we run out of fossil
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fuels second is that we run out of
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people who are not there anymore I don't
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like that
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option third is we find something
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better and I like the third option in
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fact the Stone Age did not end because
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we ran out of stones
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right but then what were we going to do
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because in the meantime three and a half
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billion people in the
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world still suffer from what we call
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Energy
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poverty and I believe that all humans
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are
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equal why not give them access to
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energy learning about all these numbers
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made me really sad it made me angry I
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wanted to do something about it and I
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didn't know what and I learned this
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quote by Richard Buckminster Fuller who
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said you don't change things by fighting
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the existing realities if you want to
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change something build a new model that
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makes the old model
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obsolete now I wanted to know what is
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this new
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model and I figured energy companies
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make money as they sell
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energy the more they sell the more they
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earn but in doing that they only serve
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one stakeholder being themselves
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couldn't we find a
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way to design energy companies in such a
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way that they serve every stakeholder in
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a positive
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way including the environment including
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Society including human beings such as
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you and
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me and I thought of this Energy company
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that would actually earn more money when
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it would sell less
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energy sounds impossible right I like
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impossible so I started to think about
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this model and somehow it happened to
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work
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out without going into all kinds of
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details it finances your energy
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transition and you become completely
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independent of other people's Fuel and
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in the meantime your energy bill is
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going to turn all the way to zero this
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is very good for
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us nobody believed it but I decided did
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I believed enough to quit my job found
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this
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company start it up get it going a few
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years
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later the path to zero as I called it
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became
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successful got a lot of attention and
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this was the view from my
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office so apparently this very very
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crazy plan worked and as I was looking
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over the city of
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rdam and think of all these thousands of
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buildings that were engaging on their
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path to energy
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Independence I decided to quit my
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job again it was time for a big
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reset
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why what just
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happened I believe that a company is a
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means to an
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end it's never an end in itself
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and um I wanted to serve the end but I
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needed to find out what the end was the
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higher
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purpose now in order to get there I
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decided to go back to ner
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first for the first time in 26 years I
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was there exactly there where I grew up
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this is my old
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school and this is my brother and I in
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front of our
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classroom and this is my brother and I
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in front of our
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classroom and I went inside the
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classroom and I saw that despite the
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fact that they have no
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electricity they do have Excel vintage
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Excel which is really really
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cool I found my old teacher M toodo
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great great guy remembered all my grades
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even the bad
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ones and as you can see was holding a
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mobile phone now in ner most of the
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people in the streets are playing around
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with their mobile
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phones how would you do that in a
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country where 90% of the people have no
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access to
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electricity well wherever you go you
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find shops like these where somebody
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connects a diesel generator to number of
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AC Outlets that's where you charge your
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phone smart isn't
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it I went there not
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empty-handed I brought a suitcase filled
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with lights solar powered
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lights and some phone chargers also and
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I wanted to distribute them among
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children and students why children and
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students because I believe that the
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Nobel Prize winner of the future needs
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light now the fact is that these kids go
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to school during the day then they come
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home they have to help out their parents
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on the
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land then the sun
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sets and they can do no
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homework so by giving them light from a
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renewable
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resource you give them the power to
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educate themselves and build a
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future I brought these lights to a
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number of villages such as this one
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Koo and in this particular Village I
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gave away 25 lights but I didn't give
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them away for
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free I wanted them to be worth something
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so I wanted something in exchange not
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money I didn't want to have a payback I
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wanted to have a pay forward I wanted
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these kids to do something that their
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Community would benefit from so for
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every kid that received a light that kid
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would commit to plant a tree and
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maintain
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it so that in turn the positive yield
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would be
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larger that said and done one of the
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villagers thought that wasn't
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enough so that afternoon he came to me
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and he gave me his
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sheep I named her
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Shawn and I decided not to eat
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her Shawn is doing very well in fact cuz
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a few days ago I received a message M
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that Shawn had given birth to
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Timmy I have two sheep
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now which means I've got to go
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back and
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um as I was in theer I saw these stories
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of
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positivity amazing positivity that whole
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big change that we need that whole
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transition is already
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happening I found found out for instance
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that the whole mobile network in N is
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powered by sunlight and as you can see
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sometimes one or two of these panels are
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borrowed for other
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purposes the very first street Lighting
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in the town that I grew up in is powered
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by the
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Sun so yes we found something
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better we are on that third option the
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one that I liked good
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so to end this talk energy I believe is
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a basic
00:16:07
need nobody can go without therefore it
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should be a basic
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right my
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wish is to see if we can get clean
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energy included in the Universal
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Declaration of Human
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Rights and I know for a fact that every
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company every Energy company but even
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every individual can reshape their
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business model in such a way that it
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positively affects every
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stakeholder not only themselves not only
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themselves and customers but themselves
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as shareholders customers employees
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employees families suppliers society and
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the
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environment and in the end it's not our
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intentions that make the difference it's
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not our ideas that make the difference
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yes our
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actions thanks a
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lot
