2014 Newsletters

Joint Venture director Kara Gross will take part in the 2014 Silicon Valley Water Conservation Awards ceremony at the Silicon Valley Sustainable Landscape Summit in Foster City on March 24.

Joint Venture is an active member of the coalition of agencies and organizations that support the awards to raise awareness and celebrate outstanding achievements in water conservation through best practices, efficiency and innovation.

Earlier in the day, California Secretary for Natural Resources John Laird will deliver keynote remarks at the summit, which will focus on water conservation programs and practices as the drought continues to threaten our water supply. Attendees will learn from experts what works and ways to find tools and services to help save water and money. A Vendor Expo with product and service providers will showcase state-of-the-art technologies.

The event takes place at the William J. Walker Recreation Center, 650 Shell Blvd., Foster City, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., followed by the water awards ceremony.

Admission and lunch are free, but reservations are required. Visit Silicon Valley Landscape Summit to register.

The chairman of the California Energy Commission, Dr. Robert Weisenmiller, shared the commission’s policies and goals with our SEEDZ group at the quarterly Climate Prosperity Council meeting, hosted by Google.

SEEDZ is convening a series of seven roundtables to explore pursuing grant funds under the state’s new Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) to support development and deployment of next generation clean energy technologies.

Read about the Weisenmiller visit, EPIC and the Sunnyvale Community Solar Feasibility Study in the latest SEEDZ newsletter.

Joint Venture’s Climate Prosperity initiative is a finalist in the Acterra 2014 Business Environmental Awards program. The initiative includes the Public Sector Climate Task Force, Renewable Energy Procurement (SV-REP, R-REP), and the Smart Energy Enterprise Development Zone (SEEDZ) initiative. The City of San Jose, Google, PG&E and Rethink Waste are the other finalists in the Environmental Project category.

Acterra’s Business Environmental Awards is one of the Bay Area’s oldest and most prestigious environmental recognition programs. Initiated in 1990, it is considered a heavyweight among award programs due to its rigorous application and judging process. This year’s winners will be announced on March 17.

Read more about the awards.

Our March Spotlight

Salman Khan

Khan Academy

When Salman Khan began tutoring his young cousin, Nadia, in math and placing his lessons online in 2004, no one could have predicted that these one-on-one lessons would evolve to become the ubiquitous Khan Academy whose mission is to provide a “Free World-Class Education for Anyone, Anywhere.”

With more than 10 million student visits and nearly 6000 instructional videos, Khan Academy is on its way to accomplishing its mission, and in recognition of that Sal Khan was awarded Joint Venture’s highest honor, the 2014 Packard Award for civic entrepreneurship, at the State of the Valley conference last month.

Read Sal Khan’s profile.

Joint Venture Teams up with Economist for Innovation Forum 2014

Joint Venture is partnering with the Economist to support their fifth annual Innovation Forum 2014, to be held March 27 at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

A diverse group of senior executives who manage innovation and new product development in their organization will participate in a full day of discussion and debate. The Economist’s editors aim to answer the ultimate questions for business leaders, technologists and futurists: Are we thinking big enough? If not, how do we get there?

Learn more about Innovation Forum 2014.

State of the Valley keynotes on KQED radio

KQED radio will present three special programs over the next month to rebroadcast keynote presentations from the recent State of the Valley conference by Dr. Manuel Pastor, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and Khan Academy founder Salman Khan.

The station will broadcast the Pastor program on March 6, Newsom’s keynote on March 13 and Khan’s remarks on April 2, all at 8 p.m.

Visit KQED for more information.

Article of the Month

“The Shape of Things to Come”

Vanity Fair

In a probing article about Silicon Valley’s changing built environment, Vanity Fair’s Paul Goldberger explores what building choices by Apple, Google, Facebook and other companies reveal about their cultures, their workforces, and the shifting relationship between city and suburbs.

Read the article.