Do You Have An Idea How To Make The World A Better Place?

Here's your chance - check out Siemens Smart Grid Innovation Contest!

Who organizes this contest?

The Siemens Smart Grid Innovation Contest is organized by the Siemens Smart Grid Company Project in cooperation with Siemens' Chief Technology Office (Open Innovation and University & Research Cooperation). Siemens aims to communicate and collaborate in partnership and invites you to be part of this open innovation approach.

Join the global community and contribute with ideas on Smart Grid

• new business models that change the game,
• applications for new customer benefits,
• disruptive technologies to enable a smarter world.

...comment and vote the ideas of the community...
...and get rewarded with:

• attractive prizes for participants: 15 000 euros and more.
• excellent career perspectives at Siemens,
• funded collaboration with leading university partners: 1 million euros.

We from Siemens want to get in touch with you and jointly speed up open innovation. Contribute your ideas and market insights in competition but also in cooperation with a large community of Smart Grid experts around the globe.

Siemens has a budget of more than 1 000 000 euros in order to translate your ideas into innovation by collaborating with universities. Siemens also aims to translate the resulting mature innovations into products, services and solutions and is therefore planning additional significantly larger investments.

Join the grid - energize the world.
Support the idea of an environmentally friendly smarter power grid.

Check out the website for more information but hurry, the timeline is June 15!

On Veganism by Jennifer Chaky

I often talk and write about how a plant-based diet is so important for sustainability. This is because livestock agriculture is just about the most polluting industry there is. Water systems are choked with runoff from the high concentrations of animal waste, over 100 million tons of methane, the worst gas that contributes to climate change, is released into the atmosphere from the animals, and land and water that can go to grow food for humans is used inefficiently to feed animals that we in turn eat. For example, it takes ten times more land to grow a monoculture crop like soy or corn that is then used as animal feed.  The ratio of land and water that is used to grow animals protein compared to what is used to grow plant protein ranges from 4:1, to 54:1. That is 4 to 54 more land and water is needed in animal agriculture than plant. Land that can be better used to let forests and wild places exist or to grow a variety of fruits, nuts, legumes, and vegetables for healthy human consumption is devastated in order to raise animals.

I first became a vegan because I love animals and didn't want them killed for my plate- but after 22 years of eating this way, I have learned that the benefits go much further than helping animals. By not eating the saturated fats that come only with animal protein, a plant-based diet offers superior health benefits. And the old fear of not getting enough protein is just not an issue when you eat a variety of nuts, legumes, seeds, and veggies. Yes, even I at one time struggled with what to eat, but there seems to be a vegan explosion going on and recipes and ideas are in abundance from a slew of new cookbooks and informative website. The creativity and possibles of dishes to make from plants is unending.

I feel so strongly about a plant-based diet being better for the world that I began to sell vegan ice cream in my store, Go Lightly in Montclair. After all, what better way to show people how yummy plants can be than to show them through ice cream? The ice creams I carry are homemade from either hemp, soy, coconut, cashew, or almond milks, are sweetened with agave and brown rice syrup, and have zero saturated fats. They come in various flavors such as mocha almond fudge, cookies and cream, gluten-free chocolate chip cookie, maple walnut, and dozens more.

Recipe: Amazing Raw Apple Pie

This recipe is from the book "Raw Food - A complete guide for every meal of the day" by Erica Palmcrantz and Irmela Lilja.
I tweaked it a bit to fit our needs, and it came out just great.

This is what you need for the crust: 

• 2 cups raw almonds
• 1 Tbs coconut oil 
• 5 Dates 
• 2 Tsp cinnamon 
• Pinch of salt 
• 1 Tbs raw honey or maple syrup  

Chop the nuts in food processor. Add the oil, dates, cinnamon and salt and mix. Add honey or syrup, mix. Spread and press the dough on the bottom of a pie dish. 

For the filling you need:  

• 2 Apples 
• 1 Banana * 2 Dates 
• 1 Tsp Cinnamon  

Thoroughly blend all the ingredients in a food processor, and spread inside the crust. 

For the garnish you need:

• 3 Apples, sliced (I peeled them so my kids were more likely to eat the pie :-) 
• Cinnamon  

Garnish the pie with sliced apples and sprinkle cinnamon on top.  I especially like about this recipe that it was easy to make and didn't require any preparation such as soaking nuts etc, what you usually have to do for raw recipes. It came out so yummy and the whole family liked it very much.

Enjoy!