Welcome to Mottainai Colorado...

Mottainai Colorado is an informal group of Japanese-English bilingual individuals who believe that Humanity's relationship with Nature is a key and very special part of what defines Culture.

And we believe that the challenge of climate change and global sustainability cannot be met with technology alone. It will take cultural change and the deep engagement of society as a whole.

Mottainai Colorado seeks to...

• Collect and share inspiring stories

• Make introductions

• Facilitate visits, tours, and meetings

... between people, groups, organizations, universities and companies in Japan and Colorado who are advancing sustainability.

Our hope is that this cross-fertilization will inspire and accelerate new cultural innovation that will move all of us to a more sustainable future.

Colorado State University Project

Spring 2009, Mako forwarded a grant opportunty from the Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future funded by CSU's Clean Energy Supercluster. The grant's goal is to develop the connection between social sciences and clean energy. Mottainai Colorado came up with an innovative idea of connecting Japanese language instruction with clean energy. How?

• Have 4th year language students conduct policy, marketing, and literature searches on the web in Japanese.

• Translate and summarize the information in English on a wiki.

We got the grant! The results?

Check this out: http://www.eecl.colostate.edu/Mottainai and meet the students.

 

The People, Culture, and Technology of Sustainability.

Here is our downloadable 40-page book that introduces our Biomass Exchange project. Its filled with great stories about cool people who are making a real difference -- and having fun doing it.

The Biomass Adventures (20MB, August 26th, 2009)

And if you'd like a very nicely printed edition of The Biomass Adventures, check out this amazing print-on-demand technology from Blurb.com. It costs $22.95 plus shipping. All the money goes directly to the printer. Buy from Blurb.com

 

 

Mottainai Colorado was co-founded at the beginning of 2008 by Mako Beecken, faculty, CSU Japanese language program, and Dan Bihn, marketing engineer for the Clean Energy Economy.