Green Marketing 2 - Pepsi Refresh Project

Pepsi has come out with a great new campaign called the Pepsi Refresh Project. The marketing for this project is really great. They got Black Eyed Peas singer Will.I.Am to sing the commercial's song. Next, on my diet Pepsi 591 mL bottle, right above the Pepsi logo is the site "refresheverything.ca" in a red noticeable box. Next, vertically and along the seam of the bottle's wrapper, in big letters it says DO GOOD/ AGISSONS (which in French translates more to LET'S REACT). According to Pepsi, the beverage company is, "looking for individuals, businesses, and non-profit organizations with ideas that will have a positive impact on communities." See their hopeful commercial here:

The submissions for ideas started June 1st, and voting begins July 1st. I'm happy to say that I submitted my idea today! My idea won't be shown for a couple days while they review it, but I'm glad I got it out there.

My submission revolved around the idea of solar-panelled windmills. Think about it. Windmills are very tall contraptions so as to maximize the amount of wind power. Compare it to when you walk up a mountain: at the top it's much windier than at the bottom.

My suggestion is to slap some solar panels on the blades of the windmill so as to further maximize solar power. Think of trees; they compete between each other to get the most light, so they grow taller vertically. This allows them to reach more sun than lower trees. I'm trying to apply the same principle here to my solar-panelled windmill.

Now, I applied for the $5,000 grant, which states that I'd have to work with some other organization in order to try and achieve this product. That's where I'm stumped... I don't know who I can partner with. I don't know if this is something I can do at school, or if I can contact professors, or engineers. Or maybe I'll need environmentalists and engineers at the same time. I just want the end product to be sustainable and really make a difference throughout Canada. It's a hopeful thought anyways.

I thought this tied in nicely with Orr's article named What Is Education For? Orr suggests principles we should approach in order to rethink people's education. One of them was "All education is environmental education. [...]Students are taught that they are part of or apart from the natural world." I know that my classes often talk about environmental issues, or impacts people have on the environment. Consequently, it makes me more conscious of my actions, it makes me follow environmental news and other happenings more closely. This means I tend to think about it more often, and I think that's how it lead me to my idea about the altered windmill.

I think this project was particularly appealing to me because I had this idea for an outlet and haven't had an outlet or the opportunity to really put it out there. Also, I think it's a small way I could modestly give back to the environment. Innovation has to come from somewhere; it's through human innovation that we will be able to change and save our planet. I hope my idea is accepted by Pepsi; it would give me something to be proud of. If it does, I'll post the site so people can vote for me!

Want to know more?

Pepsi Refresh Project: http://www.refresheverything.ca/how-it-works

YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fS39FitsoQ&feature=channel

Article by Orr: What Is Education For?

All images are from Google.