Campus & City Climate Collaboration Cooperative (C5)

The initiative starts with the design for rolling out the Campus & City Climate
Collaboration Cooperative (C5). Given the complete collapse in national policies to
spur climate solutions, while blindly promoting both climate denial and fossil fuel
growth, this failure of leadership should be superseded by locally driven leadership.

It is a critical imperative given just a dozen years to achieve unimaginably deep

reductions in emissions. This is all-important to prevent triggering global tipping
points that lock-in the planet’s temperature rise 3 to 5 times higher than the 1.5
degree C temperature increase considered the safe level by the recent IPCC
assessment.

Local Assets & Dividends

Remarkably, it is a most auspicious time for cities to do this, given the local well-
being and long-term prosperity actually to be gained from deep reductions. Simply
by taking advantage of the expanding pool of financially attractive investments in
solar and wind powered, ultra-efficient electrification. The global value of
accomplishing this over the next several decades is estimated to be worth several
tens of trillions of dollars per year in direct savings, new benefits and avoided costs.

Distributed Network Platform

This is where C5 comes into play. It is a distributed network platform for local
change agents (public and private) to collaborate in accomplishing the mission of
emission-free local economies.

As clearly shown by nearly half a century of efficiency gains delivering energy

services while saving hundreds of billions of dollars per year on energy bills, best-
in-play market practices and aligned policy measures have driven greater economic
and ecological outcomes with declining inputs of money and natural resources and
outputs of waste and pollution.

But now the pool of lower cost-and-risk efficiency, solar and wind electrification
opportunities is staggeringly immense. This is due to the convergence of and
synergisms between digitalization, Internetization, and AI-ification (Artificial
Intelligence) in overhauling every facet of the economy. The distributed network
platform is the tool par excellence for moving beyond slow incremental change to
exponentially accelerating the scaling of “best-in-play” results.
Successful Model

C5 takes advantage of the same technical, organizational, and social dynamics of

such incredibly successful Internet (cloud-based) network platforms as Wikipedia: a
self-organized, expanding network maintained by ad hoc clusters of self-motivated
individuals all focused on achieving a specific mission. Wikipedia’s mission is to be
the world’s largest open-access encyclopedia, built and operated by volunteers –
and more than 50 million citizens have participated to date.

Launched in 2001, the Wikipedia network grew exponentially in volunteers,

content, and users. Within 60 months and six employees, Wikipedia surpassed by 10
times the size of the Encyclopædia Britannica, and now ranks among the top five
most-accessed web sites worldwide. As of 2017, there were 40 million free usable
articles being translated into 293 languages, and now exceeding 60 times the size of
the Encyclopædia Britannica.

Tapping the Pool of Cognitive Surplus

Quite tellingly, an IBM research team estimated it took around 100 million hours to
self-organize, grow, and maintain this open-source knowledge asset over the first
decade. That’s the amount of time Americans spend watching TV ads every weekend,
and far less than the time Americans spend each day on Facebook (178 million
hours, and 950 million hours each day worldwide).

It is also a tiny fraction of the time people spend on smartphone apps – 1.5 trillion
hours worldwide in 2016, projected to rise to 3.5 trillion hours by 2021. As experts
have emphasized, these immense amounts of free time spent on media represent an
enormous pool of “cognitive surplus” that can be tapped for building other
Wikipedia-like platform networks.

Asset Generation

Most impressive is the estimate of Wikipedia’s accumulated information as a

valuable new asset creation: worth several hundred billion dollars, according to a
2013 analysis – or valued at roughly 10,000 times more than the annual operating
costs.

Collaboration Cooperative for Generating Emission-free Assets

The C5 mission is to be the go-to authoritative and trustworthy cloud-stored

multimedia library on how cities and towns are becoming emission-free. C5 focuses
on engaging college campuses because of the immense pool of available capital that
can be harnessed – human, intelligence, civic, and social capital, as well as
technological, physical and financial capital. For example, as of 2017 some 36,000
students in the U.S. and Canada have edited Wikipedia as a class assignment, adding
more than 30 million words. This is equivalent to two-thirds of the last print edition

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of Encyclopædia Britannica, on a range of academic subjects that were either
underdeveloped or entirely missing.

There are 20 million students attending 4,100 college campuses nationwide, and
200 million students attending 11,000 colleges worldwide. Harnessing just a
fraction of a percent of student time could result in C5 providing visually detailed
GPS mapping of cities’ readily achievable and financially attractive emission-free
opportunities. Integrated with the mappings are continuously updated technical
assessments and economic benefits, financing options, job generation, emission,
pollution and waste reductions, and tools for training, tracking results, gathering
evidence and clinical-based insights, and sharing a myriad of new, proven
innovations (technical, marketing, organizational, policy).

Carbon Dividends

C5 can also serve as a highly effective way to rapidly advance the Case for Carbon
Dividends” that numerous groups have called for adopting. Advancing the case to
campuses and cities, as well as to the far larger number of citizens, is likely to result
in many of who will become users of C5 to become effective local change agents.

Positive Disruptions

Wikipedia is a disruptive innovation, reflected in the characteristic exponential S

curve of initially growing slowly and imperceptibly, then experiencing steep and
rapid exponential growth like a J curve, and at some future point will encounter a
slower, lower growth rate. Wikipedia is also disruptive in its effective use of the
Internet (“the cloud”) to create a distributed network known as a COIN: a
COllaborative Innovation Network, or what MIT scientists call a COllective
Intelligence Network.

Successful COINs result first and foremost from the growing number of users
experiencing some form of value (non-monetary) that sustains their routine and
continuous interaction with the platform network. That makes it essential for the
platform to use best-in-play design and operating methods to catalyze and facilitate
growing interaction. Many imitators aspire to duplicate super-successful COINs like
Wikipedia, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, but few succeed for various reasons,
including poor platform design. Most COIN efforts end up on the long tail, garnering
little user traffic.

C5 is a COIN designed for growing local energy Assets with cloud ASSETs

Individuals participating in the C5 COIN will have access to a library or ecosystem of

apps for carrying out the diverse facets that go in to superseding fossil-fueled
combustion equipment with locally based solar and wind powered, ultra-efficient
electrification systems. Think of the ecosystem as constituted of ASSETs -- Apps for
Spurring Solar & Efficiency Techknowledge – that users improve upon and evolve

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over time as experience gives rise to innovative ways the apps can be more effective.
Sharing updates, edits, error corrections, multimedia resources, and ongoing results
is the essential feedback loop for sustaining and expanding a value-generating COIN.

There are numerous reasons inspiring confidence that C5 can respectably succeed,
and with luck, potentially experience a “viral spiral” driving super-successful
results:

 Consistent polls show the majority of citizens are now concerned or worried
about climate destabilization, and support actions to reduce risks.
 There is overwhelming public support for solar and wind power (even
people indifferent to or skeptical of climate risks), and C5 provides the
platform network to assess how much community-scale solar power and
ultra-efficient electrification are locally available.
 Young people express and demonstrate more concern than older folks.
 Young people are the adepts at using the Internet and apps as a normal part
of daily life.
 Upwards of 10,000 cities and campuses worldwide are signatories to
achieving deep emission reduction targets, and are now figuring out how to
do this in a fiscally prudent and financially attractive manner. That is a core
part of the C5 mission to make such knowledge available.
 Hundreds of non-profit organizations and consulting firms are focused on
promoting climate solution services, but none have harnessed the power of a
COIN distributed network for scaling and accelerating results. All will benefit
from access to and interaction with the C5 COIN.
 Thousands of businesses offer highly competitive climate solution products
and services, and hundreds of corporations are committing to go 100 percent
renewable powered given the economic benefits. C5 offers a robust
communication network for distributing the lessons learned so others can
take advantage of best-in-play procedures, practices and products, while
avoiding reinventing the wheel with outdated and sub-optimal approaches.
 Military services are the most aggressive in converting all bases, installations
and facilities to “islandable” microgrids, capable of operating even when the
grid or pipelines collapse, due to climate-triggered disasters, as well as from
malicious cyberattacks. This is a resilient economic security model (and
resources) for civilian institutions to emulate that C5 helps catalyze.
 Nearly 400 investors with $32 trillion in assets have stepped up action on
climate change, and are seeking best available knowledge on where and in
what to invest, which C5 can provide up-to-date insights.
 $100 trillion is going to be spent on new energy services in the coming
decades, and it is in the vested interests of campuses and communities to
make the case for investing the majority in locally based solar and wind

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 powered, ultra-efficient electrification systems. The C5 knowledge library is
pivotal to helping local campuses and cities in this decision-making process.

ROLL OUT

The mature giant Sequoia, scaling upwards of 300 feet tall and 20 feet in diameter,
and surpassing 2,500 years in longevity, begins as a tiny seed the size of an oatmeal
flake. The “roll out” of the seed is entirely dependent on the local resources
surrounding it -- essentially air, water, and soil -- activating the seed’s DNA design to
flourish.

Inspired by this example of nature, C5 is designed for scaling while enabling it to

dynamically adapt and evolve as experience and evidence indicate additional best-
in-play opportunities. While seeding and nurturing the platform’s growth is stored
in the cloud and accessible by anyone with a smartphone or computer, it gets
anchored on and flourishes through campuses and cities. While there is no need for
a centralized location, C5 growth would be greatly assisted by locating on a campus
already immersed in the pursuit of an emission-free campus and surrounding city.

Arizona State University (ASU) is one obvious candidate given ASU President
Michael Crow is at the forefront in advocating that universities should promote
climate solutions at the campus and city scales. Moreover, ASU has one of the
largest sustainability programs in the world, as well as the state-of-the-art Decision
Theater Network. “The Decision Theater Network actively engages researchers and
leaders to visualize solutions to complex problems. The Network provides the
latest expertise in collaborative, computing and display technologies for data
visualization, modeling, and simulation. The Network addresses cross-disciplinary
local, national and international issues by drawing on Arizona State University’s
diverse academic and research capabilities.”

There are a number of other substantive reasons for rolling out C5 at ASU, stemming
from President Crow’s national and global leadership in promoting the
responsibility of universities to actively foster sustainability practices in and with
the surrounding city; as well as the harsh reality of Arizona on the bleeding edge of
climate risks threatening the state’s economic vitality and the pressing need for
resilient and robust strategies to prevent the worst from occurring.

Role of Michael P Totten

C5 provides the platform for continually catalyzing actionable change in pursuit of

the best-in-play opportunities, while sharing a compelling story of abundant values
and benefits to be gained by communities in taking climate solution actions that
simultaneously accrue ancillary gains from averting and avoiding enormous losses
and destruction.

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Michael Totten is the curator of the C5 distributed network innovation. He provides
the cross-disciplinary perspectives essential for grappling with the complexity of
transitioning from the wicked problem of climate breakdown to the benign and
economically rewarding outcome of climate stabilizing solutions.

His more than 45 years of professional work has revolved around catalyzing win-
win solutions leading to ecologically sustainable planetary well-being for humanity
and biodiversity for generations to come.

Thirty years ago Totten drafted the first comprehensive legislation on climate
solutions (Global Warming Prevention Act of 1988), with bipartisan co-sponsorship
of one-third of the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill was promoted as the U.S.
Economic Productivity Enhancement and Export Competitiveness Act, given the multi-
trillion dollar gains and savings it would help catalyze while also accruing multi-
trillion dollar avoided costs in emissions and pollution reductions, and declines in
vulnerable foreign oil imports.

Totten’s role is to serve as the chief proselytizing persuader. Initially this involves
creating a cluster of motivated students and faculty to form the nucleus of the C5
COIN. The cluster encompasses a cross-disciplinary set of interests and skills:
software coding, applied engineering (mechanical, electrical, computational),
business management, finance, economics, communications, civics and governance,
data visualization, GPS mapping, art and design, law, complexity science,
architecture, ecology, etc.

Out of this cluster emerges the design of the COIN network (MIT’s Center for
Collective Intelligence has identified scores of templates based on several key
variables); including the front-end user interface, the back-end intelligent algorithm,
and seeding the platform ecosystem with relevant apps and knowledge resources.

Subsequently, as the chief proselytizing persuader Totten will pursue onsite campus
venues and online platform channels to communicate and motivate other students,
faculty, administrators, and alumni to participate in the C5 COIN as active change
agents on their own campuses and in the surrounding communities. The core
message is that the slow pace of incremental changes over the past 30 years must now
give way to exponential transformational changes over the next 30 years.

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Interaction Visualization

Action Knowledge
Research Campuses expansion

C5
Cities Wikipedia

Results Updates

Budgetary Requirements

Once the C5 COIN became operable as a distributed network platform, there will be a
need to budget six full-time dedicated staff: 1) Developer - front-end user interface;
2) Developer – back-end intelligent algorithm; 3 & 4) Software Coders; 5)
Operations Manager; and, 6) Chief Proselytizing Persuader, plus travel and lodging
budget. Other key costs include: office space, and computer system access and
server storage.

Time Line

MONTHS TASKS
1. Formation of ASU student and faculty cluster
2. Prototype design of C5 distributed network platform
1-6
3. Initiate campus and city mapping of solar power and ultra-
efficient electrification opportunities
1. Distributed network platform operational test bed
7-12 2. Outreach to core group of other colleges & universities to
participate in C5 COIN network, setting up campus clusters of

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 students & faculty
3. Outreach to Mayors from cities with participating campuses
4. Develop financial model for sustaining long-term operation of
the C5 distributed network platform.
1. Expand communication to all campus presidents and city
mayors inviting them to participate in contributing to C5 COIN
and applying in their own campuses and cities
2. Onsite campus workshops led by Chief Proselytizing
13-60
Persuader, priority ranking states with statewide college
networks
3. Online workshops and courses on how to get the most value
and benefits out of using the C5 COIN network.