Westport Volunteers in the Community Schools Program – Part 2

About a month ago, we told you about Westport’s involvement as a United Way corporate partner in their Community Schools Program. Three Westport employees (Teresa K., Kat W., Heidi C.) led a seven week program called, “Yarn Artists” which helped Grade 4 and 5 children to discover all the fun and creative things with yarn.

“I am happy to report that the collaboration between Westport, United Way and the Vancouver School Board has been a success,” Teresa said. “I had so much fun and I think the kids did as well, since they asked us to go back to the school the next term. I feel great that I get to share my interest with the children and that they have fun learning new skills.”

The Community Schools Program gives Westport an opportunity to contribute to our local Vancouver community beyond a traditional corporate giving program, and gives staff a way to personally contribute and volunteer.

Be a Driver for Change at Westport Connection Weekend at Science World

Have you ever wanted to find out what the connection is between natural gas and the milk on your cereal? Or how about learn how natural gas can help to make texting easier in India?

You can find out this weekend at Science World. As part of Around the Dome in 30 Days, Westport will be encouraging visitors to become a Driver for Change during Westport Connection Weekend. Westport volunteers will take future scientists through a circuit of fun and interactive activities, demonstrating the benefits of using sustainable energy – like natural gas - in their everyday lives. Participants will power a blender with their own energy, make carbon dioxide and learn about its effect on greenhouse gases as well as learn about natural gas as a fuel option by finding clues hidden on Westport’s own WiNG Power System Ford F250. After completing their challenges, participants will receive their very own Driver for Change license!

Westport is a supporter of Science World’s Bridging the Science Gap program – working to inspire youth towards careers in science and technology. As part of the program, Science World recently opened the Ken Spencer Science Park – an interactive outdoor space dedicated to educating youth about the future of new, clean technologies. Westport has sponsored the “Clean Transportation Story” exhibit, which helps demonstrate how everyday choices can impact our carbon footprint. Westport is proud to be part of this initiative and work with Science World to educate the public on how making more sustainable choices can help make an impact on the community.

Check out our Twitter page for updates and photos from the event!

Westport Volunteers in the Community Schools Program

Did you know that British Columbia has one of the highest child poverty rates in Canada? Also, children in middle childhood, aged 6-12, spend about 67 hours a week in unstructured activities - that’s more time than they spend in school! As a result of the generous donations by Dr. Phillip Hill and Westport employees, we have the opportunity to become the United Way’s corporate partner with their Community Schools Program. These after-school programs are offered in most Vancouver schools for children aged 6-12 to provide a safe, fun, and educational environment. From 3:30pm to 5:00pm each school day, students are able to participate in a range of programs like academia, music, sports, crafts, and art, organized by the Vancouver School Board staff and trained volunteers.  

Starting today, three Westport employees get the chance to act as volunteer program leaders through the fall term at Lloyd George Elementary (just a few blocks away from Westport). These “Yarn Artists” (Teresa K., Kat W., Heidi C.) will help kids discover all the fun and creative things they can do with yarn - from making crochet holiday ornaments to cool accessories. The students will get to do a different project each week for the next seven weeks. What other fun things can you do with yarn?  

“I’m looking forward to teaching the lessons and think this is such a great experience for the students as well as the youth leaders (high school students) who get to learn about social responsibility by contributing to their own communities,” Teresa said. “When we teach high school students about social responsibility, we are creating a future community with caring people.”

At Westport, we recognize the responsibility we have to the neighbourhoods in which we live and work.

Check out this short video showing the kids' experience and the high school volunteers' perspectives: http://vsb.bc.ca/communityschoolteams

Westport Attends HHP Summit in Houston

A couple of weeks ago, the High Horsepower (HHP) team from Westport attended the first-ever HHP Summit in Houston, which brought together delegates from key industries (rail, mining, marine, drilling, agriculture, construction, and on-site power generation) to discuss the use of natural gas for high horsepower applications. Over three days, 60 keynote speakers and 800 delegates from around the world shared their visions and ideas for the future of natural gas, including its economic and environmental benefits.

As part of his keynote speech at the conference, Joel Feucht, Caterpillar’s Director of Gas Engine Strategy, underlined the economic incentives of moving to natural gas and confirmed Caterpillar’s intentions to go “all-in on natural gas”. Feucht confirmed that Caterpillar is committed to a long-term investment to provide natural gas fueled equipment and engines across its product lines. This signals that the industry recognizes Westport as a key partner in developing natural gas transportation solutions - and that the time for natural gas is now.

This statement comes shortly after Westport and Caterpillar announced their agreement to develop natural gas technology for the HHP off-road market. (Read original announcement). As you can imagine, Feucht’s remarks created a stir about what’s in store for the future of natural gas for high horsepower applications. Listen to the full speech here. As a principal sponsor of the event, we had our Westport WiNG™ Ford F-250 on display at the summit and Westporters on-site. With all of this activity, there was a sense of excitement surrounding all-things-Westport and we were happy to be a part of the summit.

In another key announcement last week, Canadian National Railways (CN) stated that it is exploring ways to make the switch from diesel to natural gas in powering its trains. CN is presently running two of its diesel-fired locomotives on natural gas as part of an evaluation program. This test also involves a longer term demonstration project with Westport, Electro-Motive Diesel (a Caterpillar subsidiary), and Quebec gas distributor Gaz Metro, with funding from Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) to develop a natural gas locomotive engine and tank car to carry the fuel. Westport eagerly anticipates the first results from the test engine in Q2 of 2013. Check back for future updates on the progress of natural gas for high horsepower applications and updates from our participation at the LNG 17 Conference in April.

The Driver's Seat Twitter Campaign - Lance

As mentioned, Westporters are taking turns in The Driver's Seat of our twitter account (@WestportDotCom). To date we've heard from Nick S, Caroline S, John L & John H, and Astrid Z. Our next contributor is Lance F, read on to learn a little more about Lance.

Lance F

Fuel: Café 

In Lance’s role as Vice President, European Market & Partnership Development he deals with many people in his travels – in fact, extensive travel – but he is a complete newbie on the online and social media side. Lance is responsible for helping to create the commercial arrangements Westport enters into with its partners. He has been involved in designing and negotiating Westport's agreements with Weichai, Volvo, Caterpillar, and Delphi, among others.

Lance enjoys this role structuring commercial arrangements, and, as he puts it, “Working with some very smart people, within Westport and its globally-located strategic partners, to creatively structure the commercial arrangements that extract value for all stakeholders from the opportunities associated with natural gas fuelled transportation.”

When not working and travelling for Westport, Lance enjoys exploring Lonely Planet’s website to find places to visit with his family; he and his wife have three boys and two dogs. Relocated from Vancouver to Lyon, France in 2010, he says his downtime is spent singing his kids to sleep at night, walking through Lyon’s markets with his family, and jogging past the Roman ruins in and around the Lyon area, once the capital of Roman Gaul.

Indulgences for this physicist cum lawyer cum negotiation expert include watching sports with his sons (or imposing educational programming on them) and having dinner out with his wife. Foods he particularly enjoys are Thai green curry, Vancouver sushi, or Rhone valley cheeses. When asked the question who he would have dinner with if it could be anyone from any era, even fictional, Lance replies, “...it would be Newton and Einstein together – just to see the sparks fly.”

Even folks who know him may not be aware that Lance has a collection of electric and acoustic guitars and loves to play them. This writer is still trying to figure out when he would have time for this!

The Driver's Seat Twitter Campaign - Astrid

As mentioned, Westporters are taking turns in The Driver's Seat of our twitter account (@WestportDotCom). To date we've heard from Nick S, Caroline S, John L & John H. Our next contributor is Astrid Zeppenfeld, read on to learn a little more about Astrid.

Astrid Z

Based in: Vancouver, BC, Canada

Fuel: Coffee in the morning, tea all day

In her role as Program Director at Westport, Astrid’s responsibilities are to cross-functionally manage all stakeholders and ultimately deliver the HHP Fuel System to the customer, on time and on budget. These are the Westport projects for very large engines such as those in locomotives.

Astrid enjoys the broad, collaborative role she has, bringing together people of varied skill sets and several departments to find solutions and deliver the targets. Westport is a growing company and Astrid finds satisfaction in forming procedures and processes as the program and team develop.

Though she is not a seasoned social media user, Astrid is dependent on email to communicate with family and friends in her native Germany, and she is a fan of Amazon for shopping! Thursday evenings you will find her scouring The Weather Network website to determine her outdoor adventure for the upcoming weekend. As an outdoor enthusiast, and immigrated to Canada only two years ago, Astrid is busy travelling all over BC with her husband every chance she has. They have a truck camper and they take many weekend or longer trips driving throughout BC, the Yukon and Alaska.

Anyone will tell you the scenery and the fishing are wonderful in BC, so when asked her favourite food, I’m not surprised Astrid tells me it’s smoked fish – personally caught and smoked by her husband (yum!) – but she loves a great curry dinner with friends as well. When asked about her indulgences, Astrid is pensive. She concludes, “Well, we are building a sauna in our backyard.” Again, if Astrid’s not working, she’s outdoors!

Where in the World is Westport WiNG?

The buzz you’ve seen on twitter is true: we’re taking it to the open roads! From May 21-24 our team will be driving a Ford F-250 Super Duty bi-fuel pick-up featuring the Westport WiNG™ Power System from Detroit to New York, running entirely on compressed natural gas (CNG).

Why, you ask? Our team needs to be in New York City for the Westport Innovations annual Investors’ Day on May 24; but instead of flying there, we see this as the perfect opportunity to showcase the WiNG-powered Ford F250, and meet our friends and fans along the way. We’ve planned stops along the route where you can come visit us, learn more about the bi-fuel truck, and even give it a test drive! Since Westport will start delivery of the trucks later this year, this will be the first opportunity for many people to see and drive the truck. This isn’t just about showing off the truck, though, it’s also about promoting the use of CNG as a vehicle fuel. By driving the entire route on CNG we hope to demonstrate how easy (with a bit of planning) and affordable it is to use as an alternative to gasoline.

Throughout the 700 mile journey our road trip crew will be documenting their experience driving the super duty bi-fuel pick-up. The three Westporters who will be taking turns behind the wheel are Nicole Adams, Alissa Marczewski, neither of whom has ever driven the truck before, and John Howell. They’ll be recording the entire experience on video, giving our blog readers, Facebook fans and Twitter followers the chance to see first-hand what it’s like to drive a bi-fuel truck for the first time (so we expect to see some shaky video at the start!). Their video diaries will not only record their impressions and experiences along the way, they will also demonstrate the capabilities of the truck and how easy it is to fuel up with CNG. In addition to video, the team will be sharing photos and Tweeting throughout the trip.

Want to come say hello? Here’s where we’ll be stopping:

• Valley Ford Truck Sales, Cleveland OH – May 21 from noon to 3 p.m.
• SARTA-Clean Energy, Canton OH – May 21 from 4 to 5 p.m.
• Allegheny Ford Truck Sales, Pittsburgh PA – May 22 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• John Kennedy Ford, Pottstown PA – May 23 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• Times Square, New York City, NY – May 24 from 1 to 5 p.m.

If you’re planning on visiting Nicole, Alissa and John at any of these stops, please RSVP to media@westport.com so they know who to expect (and so we can order enough barbecue, too!).

Stay tuned as we share more about our road trip crew and updates from the road starting at 8 a.m. on May 21st!