Billion Dollar Change - create abundance or minimise waste?

Let’s be frank; if many of us created a business that generated a multi-billion dollar income then we would probably spend it on a plethora of fast cars, impossibly-ornate properties and a lifestyle that is guaranteed to end with our hearts imploding. Manoj Bhargava, the energy drink entrepreneur, has chosen not to follow that familiar path though and ploughs the vast majority of his profits back into the words needy, or their needs at least. His recent documentary "Billion Dollar Change" is truly inspiring.

Rather than dining of fresh crab and cristal champagne, Manoj has established Inventor Shop, dedicated to supplying power and water to the millions around the world who have or very little; the creator of Five-Hour Energy, now wants to power the world – and not just with energy drinks!!!

Manoj has simple philosophies that make big differences. He points out that change is something that anyone with the will can achieve, and to do a little is a lot better than doing nothing at all. He’s also opines that the best technological changes are inspired by practical engineers beavering away in garages.

His Innovations centre has developed a low cost, high efficiency bike affair that mixes energy production with a good workout. It seems that given an hour’s daily workout on the ‘bike’ not only produces enough energy for lighting and cooking but also mobile phones too. Following on from personal training as a means of energy production. His next mad-but-purposeful trick is to stick graphene cables into earth's core to liberate the heat from within. Strangley simple, we're sittting on masses of energy and graphene may be ablet to provide a direct line to accessing that energy.

It is water where Manoj has his greatest vision. Desalination on a grand scale is now in his sights on building barges where small desalination units –possibly powered by droves of sailors on peddle machines - are used to supply a thousands of gallons of clean water to the world’s dry spots. It’s likely that as a side-line, Manoj will probably corner the world’s condiment market with the extracted salt!!  These innovations bring the possibility of fresh water to all, but with water becoming even scarcer, just sucking it out of the oceans isn’t the complete answer.

All in all  "Billion Dollar Change" is truly inspiring story of one man's philanthropy and positive impact on the wolrd. We wonder, though, whether creating abundance should also be coupled with  waste minimimisation to provide a truly sustainable solution. Rainwater harvesting seeks to capture and reuse a resource where it falls, minimising the energy cost with transportation and processing. On a domestic scale this could result in a significant reduction in drinking water usage, upto 50%....

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