This HuffPost Canada page is maintained as part of an online archive.

TEDx Toronto: Realizing My Green Dream

I'm hoping to inspire others to follow their dreams and help the environment at the same time. I'll be talking about what inspired me to design and build a solar car, and then what I decided to do with it and what happened in the process and what I was able to accomplish in the end. The dream, the struggle, the victory!
This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.
A worker uses a small boat to move logs on the Douglas Channel at dusk in Kitimat, British Columbia, on Wednesday Jan. 11, 2012. Douglas Channel is the proposed termination point for an for an oil pipeline from Alberta as part of the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darryl Dyck)
AP
A worker uses a small boat to move logs on the Douglas Channel at dusk in Kitimat, British Columbia, on Wednesday Jan. 11, 2012. Douglas Channel is the proposed termination point for an for an oil pipeline from Alberta as part of the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darryl Dyck)

I'm hoping to inspire others to follow their dreams and help the environment at the same time. I'll be talking about what inspired me to design and build a solar car, and then what I decided to do with it and what happened in the process and what I was able to accomplish in the end. The dream, the struggle, the victory!

I became interested in the field of solar power because of my experience growing up. I saw the degradation of the environment and didn't understand why that was happening. Seeing pollution and asking the teacher, "Why is this happening?" and not quite agreeing with the answer. I always thought there was a better way and I just decided to do it my self. As you can imagine, it was an interesting learning experience.

I think the best TED and TEDx speakers, their stories are distilled knowledge. You look at those 18 minutes and there's so much information packed in there. Some of the speakers I've seen are people I've admired for so long: like Jane Goodall and Al Gore, Paul MacCready from AeroVironment, the guy who built the human powered aircraft that flew across the English Channel, Burt Rutan, the guy who built the first private spaceship. To be a part of that group is very special.

I always believed in what I was doing, but being invited to participate, it validates my work, which makes me feel great, because there were a lot of struggles to get to this place. We all have things we dream of that we think are out of reach, they're too big for us. I want people to think, "No, it's not out of reach." If you think you can do it, you can.

Watch a livestream of the talk by Marcelo De Luz at www.tedxtoronto.com on Oct. 26.

Close
This HuffPost Canada page is maintained as part of an online archive. If you have questions or concerns, please check our FAQ or contact support@huffpost.com.