Making sense
I almost missed this on the Op-Ed page - a bit of brilliant, out-of-the box thinking by a certain Greg Saunders (founder of the also commendable Clearwater - cleaning up the Hudson, bringing back sloops) entitled "Give Them Shelter".
Excerpted:
THE earthquake in Pakistan has left millions homeless. Umar Ghuman, Pakistan's minister of foreign investment...asked me to help find housing for as many of these people as possible before the onset of winter in the next few days.
Tents are not protection enough, and conventional prefabricated houses are neither readily available nor easy to ship. The solution, then, is to think of something less conventional, like the work shed-greenhouse combinations sold at Sam's Club and other retailers. Such sheds - small (882 cubic feet), plastic, weather-tight, insulated and portable - retail for around $2,000. Two hundred thousand of these houses - temporary homes for a million people - would cost less than $400 million.
...a C5-A military cargo plane could fit hundreds of units on a single flight. The manufacturer can produce nearly 20,000 units per month, but additional new machinery could be developed promptly to speed up production...
How about it, retailers? Can you contribute your inventory to start these houses on their way immediately? How about it, United States Air Force? Will you fly your C5-A's on a humanitarian mission?
There's the call - it's pretty damn clear, and doable. And a chance for WalMart (owns Sam's Club) to maybe garner a little good press for once.
Excerpted:
THE earthquake in Pakistan has left millions homeless. Umar Ghuman, Pakistan's minister of foreign investment...asked me to help find housing for as many of these people as possible before the onset of winter in the next few days.
Tents are not protection enough, and conventional prefabricated houses are neither readily available nor easy to ship. The solution, then, is to think of something less conventional, like the work shed-greenhouse combinations sold at Sam's Club and other retailers. Such sheds - small (882 cubic feet), plastic, weather-tight, insulated and portable - retail for around $2,000. Two hundred thousand of these houses - temporary homes for a million people - would cost less than $400 million.
...a C5-A military cargo plane could fit hundreds of units on a single flight. The manufacturer can produce nearly 20,000 units per month, but additional new machinery could be developed promptly to speed up production...
How about it, retailers? Can you contribute your inventory to start these houses on their way immediately? How about it, United States Air Force? Will you fly your C5-A's on a humanitarian mission?
There's the call - it's pretty damn clear, and doable. And a chance for WalMart (owns Sam's Club) to maybe garner a little good press for once.
Comments