video

The polite thing to talk about this time of year is the joy of giving. But we're all friends here. Let's be honest with each other. Getting gifts is pretty great.

So, in the spirit of the giving (and getting) season, we would like to share a few stories of the gifts our work has given us. We hope they make you feel as tingly and warm inside as they make us feel.

The other day I ran out of moisturizer. I was expecting it, so when I couldn't coax the last dollop of cream out of the bottle, I grabbed another one and went to toss the empty bottle in the recycling bin. That's when I saw the dreaded number "5" on the back, indicating that it couldn't be recycled in our curbside recycling bin, and had to be tossed in the trash instead. I don't know about you, but I hate creating garbage.

For many Californians, driving to and from work is part of the daily grind we tolerate in exchange for great year-round weather. As a recent transplant from Portland, I was not looking forward to the increased driving that comes with calling Los Angeles home. The saying “You’re not stuck in traffic, you are traffic” seems very applicable to the drivers' dilemma when dealing with the congested streets of Southern California.

It's not everyday you stumble across a video that changes everything! Thanks to the TED app on my phone, I did just that a few weeks ago. And I'm so excited to share it with you. In this stirring and inspiring TED talk, venture capitalist Justin Hall-Tipping demonstrates new technology that will fundamentally change the energy business. He says, “The power plant of tomorrow is no power plant. …The grid of tomorrow is no grid.” He shows us nanotechnology that will allow windows to accept or reflect heat with a small electrical charge.

As a training specialist, I see a lot of slide shows, and most of them have one thing in common:

• too
• many
• bulleted
• lists

But recently, I was reviewing a presentation for a training program that PECI is developing for the Department of Energy. This program will provide junior engineers with the technical know-how for commissioning commercial buildings, a quality-assurance practice that turns energy hogs into models of efficiency.