Tamara Giltsoff is the MD of OZOlab. OZOlab creates and markets eco businesses. She writes regularly for Treehugger.com on service innovation and green growth. We spoke with her in New York.
What is OZOcar about?OZOcar is a 'luxury' eco car/taxi service in New York. It competes with the black Town Car/limousine services that ferry corporate execs all over the city and are used as a bookable taxi service by individuals. OZOcars are all hybrid Toyota Pruis' (and some Lexus') – each equipped with wifi, XM radio, AC power (to charge laptops/phones) and access to an Apple laptop. And all the drivers are trained to give personal customer service and invited to engage in the success of the company.We often talk about OZOcar being the 'first seed of green' for many. OZO exists to make sustainable living a desirable and intuitive choice. Does it make sense to drive a car in Manhattan at all – even though it is a not so emissive one?I don't drive in the city, but occassionally I need to take a taxi. The subway is excellent in Manhattan, but connections to the airport aren't great for instance. It's not an integrated transport system here. And sometimes, when there is an important meeting and work to be done on the way, yes it makes sense. OZOcar makes much more sense than sitting in a car twice as big that burns more twice as much as fuel with less than half the service experience. How do you see the future of individual mobility?I see the future of individual mobility not being 'individual'. This is a huge leap of faith, particularly in the US. Each time I've written a piece about this on Treehugger.com I get a barrage of comments from (rightly) cynical readers who assure me that Americans will never give up the (big) cars they own and certainly will never share them. "This country was founded on the notion of property and ownership", I am told. But here's a thing: We have reached peak oil. No one really talks about this. I saw a great film The Crude Awakening the other day. I live and breathe this stuff, but I was even surprised about soon there will no more fuel for us to be driving around like loonies in cars 40 times our weight. Couple this with pro-social trends sweeping the networked society and the rise of community supported initiatives and cooperative models, that are changing our notion of property and single ownership.I am not saying we are all going to ride-share, but I do think that it will soon/is already beginning to be socially un-acceptable to sit in traffic alone in a large car amongst thousands of others doing the same. Living in the US and the UK – do you see any difference in the level of awareness of the people regarding ecology / climate change and a difference in the consumer reaction?I am going to talk about the market not people. And by that I mean consumers and businesses because one responds to the other. Since I left the UK, exactly a year ago, awareness levels have tipped there largely because of consistently provocative and brilliant media coverage (God bless The Guardian, The Independent, The BBC, and George Monbiot) as well sustainable development becoming a political obsession. I am very proud to hear about the innovative policy debate around sustainability building momentum in the UK; I also want to see market action. A year ago I would've responded by saying that in the UK we are ahead on policy (compared to the US), but the market is slow to respond and is stuck in a "I will if you do" situation (waiting for gov to implement policy before market innovation). Today I might be disagreeing with myself. Marks & Spencers are case in point. They have put sustainability at the strategic heart of the organisation; it is a business issue but also a problem opportunity. M&S are using their presence as a retailor to demonstrate their role and the opportunity to consumers, inviting them to participate in sustainable consumption and "look behind the label". This is strategy, not reaction. Plus, eight major companies in the UK (including M&S) have rallied together to unveil "We Are In This Together", a campaign to provide consuemrs with compelling products and services that make it easy to reduce their CO2. (Check this at www.together.com/solutions)
The US in contrast to the UK 'is' an enterprising nation. It responds and is somewhat largely led by markets, not policy. Hence, this country is in trouble because it's the world's greatest consumer of natural resources and because central policy has chosen, until recently, to ignore this. So the market kicked in and change started to happen.