Untapped Resources

This volume centers on the idea that innovative approaches for energy access can work with previously underutilized or unrecognized resources, as this may lead to circumstances for the development of successful and sustainable energy programs. Such untapped resources may be seen in the discovering of synergies in areas such as pre-existing service infrastructures, supply chain and value chain management, natural resource availability, financing schemes, and leap frog technologies. Additionally, decentralized approaches can contribute to climate change adaptation measures and increase resiliency for vulnerable communities. Of course small-scale solutions have clear limitations in regard to global climate, and it is important to consider how far they can extend and aggregate impact. This book assembles a selection of articles, collected from the 2014 Energy Access Conference at UC Berkeley, aiming to consider technical, financial, human, institutional, and natural resource capital. Im Fokus der Konferenz “Innovating Energy Access for Remote Areas: Discovering Untapped Resources”, die vom 10. bis zum 12. April 2014 an der University of California stattfand, war der Zugang zu moderner Energieversorgung in strukturschwachen Regionen. Dieser Tagungsband trägt eine Reihe von innovativen Ansätzen zusammen, die auf der Konferenz diskutiert wurden. In den Beiträgen spiegeln sich aktuelle Konzepte, Theorien, Methoden und Techniken im Bereich der dezentralen Energieversorgung. Im Mittelpunkt vieler Beiträge steht die Frage, wie sich vormals ungenutzte oder unbekannte lokale Ressourcen nutzbar machen lassen. Neue Potentiale ergeben sich aus Synergien zwischen supply and value innovation, neuen Finanzierungsansätzen und der Nutzung sogenannte „leapgfrog technologies“. Die Beiträge zeigen, wie dezentrale Ansätze und kleinteilige lokale Lösungen zur Bekämpfung des Klimawandels und die Anpassung an seine Folgen beitragen und die Resilienz gefährdeter Gemeinschaften stärken können.

A leading thinker on Canada's place in the world contends that our country's greatest untapped resource may be the three million Canadians who don't live here. Entrepreneurs, educators, humanitarians: an entire province's worth of Canadian citizens live outside Canada. Some will return, others won't. But what they all share is the ability, and often the desire, to export Canadian values to a world sorely in need of them. And to act as ambassadors for Canada in industries and societies where diplomatic efforts find little traction. Surely a country with people as diverse as Canada's ought to plug itself into every corner of the globe. We don't, and sometimes not even when our expats are eager to help. Failing to put this desire to work, contends bestselling author and longtime foreign correspondent John Stackhouse, is a grave error for a small country whose voice is getting lost behind developing nations of rapidly increasing influence. The soft power we once boasted is getting softer, but we have an unparalleled resource, if we choose to use it. To ensure Canada's place in the world, Stackhouse argues in Planet Canada, we need this exceptional province of expats and their special claim on the twenty-first century.

With access to higher education more important than ever, low-income students of all racial and ethnic groups continue to lag in participation. What can be done to ensure that more low-income students have adequate financial aid to attend college? That disadvantaged students are academically prepared for college and can persist to graduation? That selective universities are open to students of all economic backgrounds? As Congress prepares to reauthorize the Higher Education Act, a group of widely respected scholars proposes a number of provocative ideas in this volume. Chapters include "Low-Income Students and the Affordability of Higher Education," by Lawrence Gladieux, a former official with the College Board; "Improving the Academic Preparation and Performance of Low-Income Students in Higher Education," by P. Michael Timpane of the Aspen Institute and Arthur M. Hauptman, a higher education consultant; and "Socioeconomic Status, Race/Ethnicity and Selective College Admissions," by Anthony P. Carnevale of the Educational Testing Service and Stephen J. Rose of ORC Macro International. The volume also includes an appendix, "Pell Grant Recipients in Selective Colleges and Universities," by Donald Heller of Pennsylvania State University.

Tens of millions of people in the U.S. with criminal records are highly talented, reliable, and eager to work. Implement these second chance hiring practices to give your company a significant competitive advantage over those that do not. Researched, tested, and written by the chief investment strategist of one of the country’s leading business banks, Jeffrey Korzenik includes dozens of examples of businesses that have successfully implemented the second chance hiring practices outlined in this book. Korzenik shows those companies that have learned to go beyond the label and to evaluate the qualities of the individual applicant have tapped into an often-overlooked source of loyal and productive talent. In Untapped Talent, you will: Understand what goes into a successful second chance hire, from the support that will be needed internally to the resources that are available from outside agencies. Learn how businesses from a variety of industries have instituted successful second chance hiring programs and how this has positively impacted their culture and bottom line. Gain practical onboarding and coaching strategies that will help ensure a smooth transition and a productive, happy new employee. Acquire relevant knowledge of the criminal justice system to provide context in identifying the potential of second chance hiring. Your path to a loyal, engaged, and productive workforce starts with the clear competitive advantage you’ll gain by implementing the second-chance hiring practices within Untapped Talent.

A common perception of global resource scarcity holds that it is inevitably a catalyst for conflict among nations; yet, paradoxically, incidents of such scarcity underlie some of the most important examples of international cooperation. This volume examines the wider potential for the experience of scarcity to promote cooperation in international relations and diplomacy beyond the traditional bounds of the interests of competitive nation states. The interdisciplinary background of the book’s contributors shifts the focus of the analysis beyond narrow theoretical treatments of international relations and resource diplomacy to broader examinations of the practicalities of cooperation in the context of competition and scarcity. Combining the insights of a range of social scientists with those of experts in the natural and bio-sciences—many of whom work as ‘resource practitioners’ outside the context of universities—the book works through the tensions between ‘thinking/theory’ and ‘doing/practice’, which so often plague the process of social change. These encounters with scarcity draw attention away from the myopic focus on market forces and allocation, and encourage us to recognise more fully the social nature of the tensions and opportunities that are associated with our shared dependence on resources that are not readily accessible to all. The book brings together experts on theorising scarcity and those on the scarcity of specific resources. It begins with a theoretical reframing of both the contested concept of scarcity and the underlying dynamics of resource diplomacy. The authors then outline the current tensions around resource scarcity or degradation and examine existing progress towards cooperative international management of resources. These include food and water scarcity, mineral exploration and exploitation of the oceans. Overall, the contributors propose a more hopeful and positive engagement among the world’s nations as they pursue the economic and social benefits derived from natural resources, while maintaining the ecological processes on which they depend.