This past week , the BU Zionist Organizaton, in collaboration with Hagshama, Bearcats for Israel, Her Campus Binghamton and the School of Management, held an event called Femin-Israel with guest speaker Adi Kalderon. The event was held in honor of Women’s Rights Month and celebrated the accomplishments of Israeli women. Kalderon, a profound Israeli woman who is working to make an environmental difference, came in to speak to us about a device she and her colleagues have developed to save our planet a little at a time.
Adi Kalderon was born and raised in Israel, and has traveled a great deal ever since living in various countries around the world. She describes the Israeli school system as tough, requiring a great deal of memorization. Teachers were not looking for students to think outside of the box, but in a specific way. Once she entered the army (like every Israeli citizen) she entered a whole new world. She was forced to think in an entirely new way. She commented, “people who are the most successful are the ones who are average, they are the ones to think outside of the box.”
To me, this is inspirational. I feel I have heard that I should live everyday of my own life to be nothing but the best. But it is nice to know in some people’s eyes to be average is still more than okay. Working in the army she was exposed to the new and cutting edge technology, which she had never before encountered. This fascinated her and she decided to make this her life. Kalderon explains the Israeli dream as “building up and selling.”
What have Kalderon and her team come up with exactly? A device called Cleantech, which you attach onto your energy box thus helping to reduce energy intake by 20 percent. Essentially the device reserves five percent of the world’s energy consumption. Cleantech will save the average American household $220 dollars per year!
How does this work? The box makes sure energy consumption is at the same rate and not higher, by doing this the smart meters take out the waste. This device will cost anywhere between $150-$200. There are countries already working to take advantage of this opportunity. The device is supposed to be released in the middle to end of 2012. Germany is supposedly going to have a law that every citizen owns this by 2020! There are social benefits as well, in countries like India where resources are already limited, this will help the circulation of the energy. The company will either be based in Israel or the United States, but currently they are leaning towards the United States.