Better Thinking

A pareto chart is a graphical way of showing contributions in order of importance or magnitude. One of Terracopia’s features is that it will pareto the various contributors to the environmental impact of a Product, Service or Activity. This can be in terms of categories, such as carbon emissions, reduction of biomass productivity, materials usage, etc; or it can analyse the environmental impacts of the processes used to create the thing; or it can even contrast whether the greatest impact comes from the creation or the use or the disposal of the thing.

The information thus generated will give providers the ability to very quickly identify the big hits that can provide the most ready improvements to their offerings, which in itself has enormous value.

More importantly however, Terracopia will drive providers and potential providers to think outside of the box and come up with better ways of doing things or making things or using things. In fact, better things. Terracopia hates the box, it will drive your thinking outside of that box!

The designers of Terracopia came from the world of toner cartridges. When we used the embryonic Terracopia system to analyse the consolidated environmental impact of toner cartridges, we saw some awful things. The main problems were firstly the amount of plastic (oil) used and secondly the fact that most of it got thrown away and couldn’t be reused.

We came up with a cartridge that lived permanently in the printer or copier, so you only had to make it and buy it once. Then you bought your toner in a paper cup.

Unfortunately we couldn’t get the backing to take the idea to market, so we decided instead to commercialise the system that created the idea!

Headlines

  • Copper

    There is enough copper to last us another 88 years at current rates of consumption and recycling.

  • Oil

    Taking into account both discovered and undiscovered oil, there will be enough to last for another 26,500 days at our current rate of consumption. Oil cannot be recycled, once it is burned.

  • Atmospheric Carbon

    Atmospheric Carbon and other Greenhouse Gasses are compromising the earth’s ability to cool itself, causing mean surface temperatures to rise. The accumulation of CO2 in the earth’s atmosphere is trapping 0.12% of incoming solar radiation.

  • Atlantic Mackerel

    Although North Sea Cod is still in crisis (biomass is one third of its 1964 level), Atlantic Mackerel staged a great recovery in recent decades. Prior to the collapse of Atlantic Mackerel stocks in 1976, the peak biomass had been 1.7 million tonnes in 1972. In 2004, after severe measures had been implemented by the US Government, stocks had bounced back to 2.3 million tonnes. If we know, we can act.

  • Biodiversity

    Biomass is the engine of the earth, converting the sun's energy into food, materials and sub systems to sustain life and circulate nutrients. Mankind is eroding this engine at an alarming rate and dispensing with known and unknown bits of it, without heed to how the function of the engine is affected.