Waste Wise is a Simple Idea: Use 21st century tools to share expertise globally, opening up high-quality, leading edge thinking to those who have not had access to this expertise, while also eliminating the environmental and financial costs of global conferences. Waste Wise will conduct online video panels with experts from across the waste spectrum using Google+ Hangouts, broadcast them live, and then publish content for ready use by decision makers, policy analysts, experts and advocates.
The need for real, actionable, sustainable expertise about waste solutions is critical. However, practical expertise has been slow to spread. Thought leadership is concentrated in only a few parts of the world and the current methods of sharing expertise and knowledge -- such as dense and lengthy reports and global conferences -- are limited in their ability to reach a wide variety and number of stakeholders. Many people lack access to the global conferences on waste solutions; time, financial resources, level of literacy and language, and lack of credentials get in the way of participation in global idea exchanges.
Waste Wise not only addresses these challenges, but also provides a nearly zero cost, zero environmental impact solution to sharing leading edge thinking. The Internet, streaming video and, specifically, Google+ Hangout are powerful and scalable methods to effectively address the scope of today’s waste challenges through sharing solutions.
The first series of panels will run weekly in July and August of 2013. The final product is an online repository of these recorded panels (edited down to short segments), including the complete context for the videos: full transcripts, a space for dialog, summary and background, panelist bios, and any sources or resources referenced during the panel. We have arranged for journalists to write and publish an article for each panel for broad distribution.
