CREW: COMMUNITY RENEWABLE ENERGY WATERLOO

I have been very impressed with the work of an organization that has sprouted in Waterloo, Ontario. The Organization is called CREW, or "Community Renewable Energy Waterloo."

The first time I was introduced to the organization was by Derek Satnik, Managing Partner of Mindscape Innovations, based in Kitchener. Derek's website is http://www.mi-group.ca/. He spoke to the Kitchener Rotary Club a few weeks ago and I was very impressed with his understanding of Hubbert's Peak and the energy challenges we are facing and going to face into the future.

He signed up Rotary Club members for a free newsletter from CREW. The latest Newsletter is available at http://www.crewzone.ca/. I was very impressed with the newletter which reports on a coalition of groups in Kitchener-Waterloo which are introducing new energy-saving building technologies and energy sources in Ontario. I was pleasantly surprised to see a weblink to companies which are using photovoltaic cells at their businesses and actually selling energy back to the electric company.

From a business point of view, it is clear to me from Derek's work and that of the individuals behind CREW that very shortly existing and new technologies are going to be combined, packaged, and sold en masse to individuals and companies in Ontario and around the world to reduce use of electricity from traditional sources and to tap into renewable sources to fuel economic growth.