About Engine21
Engine21 is an open platform for finding, sharing, publishing, and implementing sustainability solutions.
Engine21, the early days: pioneering sustainable transit.
As the demand for real sustainability rises, we think people want something more than "green media." Too much online content is passive. When it comes to green solutions, people want to connect online answers with offline action.
- Engine21 builds on basic sustainability insight:
- Solutions, the lens for all Engine21 resources
- Locations, in particular, certified green buildings
- Websites of green companies and organizations
- News and other essential online references
- People with professional/personal experience
But if Engine21 were just a portal with directories, however comprehensive or sophisticated, we might all be yawning now.
- Two features make the Engine21 toolset much more than a portal:
- Syndication and integration: Your collections of Engine21 resources can be syndicated and plugged into other websites and services, enabling new action-oriented services to be discovered and developed.
- Group collaboration: Engine21 combines a tier of editorial oversight, ensuring directory quality, with many collaborative/sharing functions, enabling you to work with colleagues or fellow students on common projects.
- Putting this all together, here are a few examples of how you could use Engine21:
- An architecture firm could use Engine21 to create a dynamic, living portfolio of its LEED buildings, for publication on Engine21, inclusion on its own website, or reuse by third parties.
- A homeowner considering geothermal power could subscribe to the Engine21 Geothermal News, Local, and/or Professionals feed in their iGoogle homepage, staying informed about new developments, rebates, and opportunities.
- An energy advocacy organization could create a custom search engine comprised of the websites of major utilities, giving streamlined search access to utilities' energy efficiency programs.
So Engine21's intention is not to absorb good motivation, keeping our members and users on a treadmill of online activity. Rather, we aim to direct positive motivation toward constructive action. We hope Engine21 can help catalyze broader application of sustainable solutions, by offering a variety of online tools that help individuals and organizations explore, embrace, and showcase sustainability.
We'll measure Engine21's success, not with conventional web analytics, but with real metrics on its record in helping real people like you make real change.
We look forward to serving you, and to partnering with you.
For more information, please check out the Engine21 feature tour.
