And if you want London Drugs to continue getting even greener, don’t forget to tell your friends about What’s the Green Deal. That’s how social media works.
Many thanks to ace shooter and editor Don Barnard for cutting out most of my mistakes.
One sunny Friday I decided to take a closer look at Vancouver’s most visible renewable energy landmark – the Eye of the Wind turbine at Grouse Mountain. This is the world’s first power-generating turbine with a viewing platform. As your green blogging hippie, naturally I was curious. How much power does it make? Does it wobble? Is the view really worth a quarter-of-a-hundred dollars? Do they serve beer? Armed with my stealth video iPhone, I went to get some answers.
The Green Briefs Marketing Viewpoint: This tower is truly a remarkable structure, though it’s more of a symbol than a workhorse. As such, a higher public profile among the green-friendly would benefit both Grouse Mountain and Vancouver’s Green Capital status. (OK, technically it’s North Vancouver – but you get the idea) Imagine a promotion for a private green Valentine’s dinner in the pod at 4176 feet… or a contest for schoolkids to write an environmental essay and win a trip to the Eye for their whole class… These sorts of events would give this landmark the exclusive cachet it deserves. It would also be a good idea to connect locals with the idea of wind power generated right here, perhaps with an online contest to guess the date when the Eye reaches a selected amount of generated power. I hope the team at Grouse can keep this turbine positively in the eye of Vancouver’s many green fans. I for one would like to have an organic beer up there some day. (Hmmm… they didn’t check my pockets…)
More Details: The Eye of the Wind was a global project. Conceived and assembled in Canada, designed in Italy, tower made in the USA and Korea, viewpod designed and constructed in France, elevator from Denmark, controls made in Mexico, machine carrier assembly made in Austria, and the 12,000lb carbon fiber blades were made in Finland. It transfers power with a gearless assembly, and is pinned to the mountain with 32 anchors that run 15 meters deep. Check out some cool construction shots here. The Eye of the Wind is part of the Blue Grouse sustainability program, which also includes snowcats that run on biodiesel, recycling programs, organic food options, fair trade coffee and water conservation.
OK, it wasn’t called that. But as my second green business shmooze in 12 hours, (see Power Plant event blog, below) I was bleary stumbling into this 7:30am Metro Vancouver Sustainability Breakfast on food certification. Balancing a cup of BCIT coffee, 2 preservative-laced danishes and a Happy Planet juice, I took notes as best I could from the three very qualified and interesting speakers. So if you are confused about competing eco logos, curious about what ‘Fair Trade’ really means, or just care slightly about what stuff down your gullet, grab your own cuppa joe and read on.
Mike McDermid, Program Manager for OceanWise, started the set, with the erudite, likeable delivery of a favourite biology teacher. Unfortunately, the data he brought to the table was, to say the least, distressing. To start, 90% of all big fish in the ocean are gone, and we’re shoveling the last 10% into the boat as fast as we can. Quoting from a 2006 study led by a Nova Scotia biologist named Boris Worm (no, I didn’t make that up) Mike further let us know that by 2048 there could be a complete collapse of all fisheries. Everything. No anchovies for pizza, even. So the case was made for the need to change the way we consume fish.
There are two ways to do this. Through Regulatory Reform (slow and bureaucratic) and Market Transformation (sounds way cooler, for sure). The OceanWise program is a form of the latter, designed to ‘drive demand for sustainable seafood’ from the consumer on down through the supply chain. Apparently, it’s working. From humble beginnings with a few restaurants in 2005, OceanWise has grown to over 300 partner businesses in 2700 locations across Canada. Perhaps most telling, the fish wholesalers who wouldn’t return Mike’s calls at the beginning of the program are now eager to get on board. It appears the voting wallets of educated fish munchers have some real bite. The Green Briefs Two-Bits: One of the key components to the success of OceanWise has been the support of the Celebrity Chef set. This is ‘Influencer Marketing’ at its best, and promoters of other worthy programs should take note. Their clean design and association with the Vancouver Aquarium have also given this program a fin up. However, as I noted in an earlier blog on OceanWise, I think they still need to do some more promotion work at the restaurant table level. The story is so compelling, it should be discussed over every seafood meal.
Brad Reid, President of the Certified Organic Association of BC took the podium next. “At this time of day I’m usually talking to a few thousand chickens.” he began, as he described the grassroots origins of the COABC. This organization grew from the lifestyles of the farmers and growers involved – “Overage hippies looking for a cause” as Brad describes them – and now represents 80% of the organic farmers in BC. What’s more, the COABC also administers the BC Organic Logo on behalf of the Provincial Government. Brad showed a few of the most common logos currently in place on organic goods in BC stores – the USDA symbol, the Canada Organic symbol and the BC Organic label – and described the challenges of both educating consumers about their choices, and educating farmers about what consumers want these days. He also introduced the concept of a less bureaucratic form of labeling that would allow smaller producers, urban farmers and gardeners to brand their organics without the onerous certification costs associated with existing third-party verified standards. Called CVO – Community Verified Organic, this level of certification would be an open approach that would depend on consumer and/or community enforcement to make it work. Green Briefs Deep Thoughts: A few questions crossed my mind about Brad’s presentation. Firstly, there may be confusion for consumers between the ‘BC Organic’ label and the COABC name. Adding CVO to the mix will require even more education. The brand designer in me would love to see a more logical name-tree hierarchy between the three levels so shoppers could envision it as different facets of the same system. Secondly, the local advantage of BC Organics should be played up way more. Once carbon footprint from shipping is included in the decision, it really should be perceived as the gold standard and support a higher value as a result.
Last up was Lloyd Bernhardt, President of Ethical Bean Fair Trade Organic Coffee. If Lloyd’s word-per-minute count is any indication, he is obviously as dedicated to the testing of his product as he is to as the principles behind it. Having just returned from a World Coffee Conference in Guatemala, he offered a rich overview of the Fair Trade process, blended with a few of its more colourful character flaws and a refreshing aftertaste of its success. (The complex layers of the system as he described it are already leaving my addled brain, so if you are reading this, Lloyd, please feel free to step in.)
Start with the fact that it takes some 3500 beans to make up one pound of coffee. That’s a lot of fingers doing a lot of work. Fingers traditionally attached to workers completely at the mercy of the coffee commodity market. To address this, Ethical Bean is certified by TransFair Canada. To qualify, coffee producers have to meet a variety of criteria that focus on a range of areas including labour standards, sustainable farming, governance, and democratic participation. Producers report their sales of products to Fair Trade buyers to FLO-Cert, the Certification arm of the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations (FLO) International, which also conducts on-site audits to ensure producers continue to meet the standards. Through the chain of custody, a shipment of beans is tracked and audited at every step from producer to roaster. This all sounds like a lot of hassle, but the upshot is that by doing it right, Ethical Bean has been increasing sales 40% a year for the last 5 years. It’s not a perfect system, Lloyd admits. Workers with a history of being screwed over will occasionally short on weights and use other creative tactics to their benefit, but by and large, a difference is being made. Even though FairTrade only accounts for some 2% of world coffee production. Lloyd also pointed out that not all certifications are the same. A certain ‘cute frog’ label (representing the Rainforest Alliance, an organization created, he claims, as an industry-sponsored answer to the fair-trade movement), only requires that 30% of the coffee so labeled needs to be certified. This fact is well hidden on their website – and I was REALLY looking – but to their credit, the guidelines for application of their logo suggest that the seal be accompanied by the percentage included. The Green Briefs P.O.V is that none of these certifying organizations are directing enough of their resources into consumer education. Diligently tracking a coffee bean around the planet is great, but if no one staring at the shelf knows about it, the effect is lost. These are good stories. They deserve better telling.
Overall, the message from the morning was “Do your homework.” Or, as Brad only half-jokingly suggested “Get your kids into the certification business.” Competing certifications aren’t perfect, but they do provide a rallying point for consumers and a pressure point for industry that can honestly move things in the right direction. It’s up to consumers to find out more about what’s behind different certifications and decide which to support. It’s up to marketers to make those stories as transparent and compelling as possible.
What do you think? Leave a comment. Start the dialogue.
This was my second Power Plant event, and once again I found the density of interesting green types per square foot to be much higher than the average marketing fest. Even better, their presentation format gives their four featured presenters just 3 minutes and 20 seconds each to wow the crowd. Which leaves plenty of time to shmooze. Armed with a NatureLand Organic Ale, I navigated the venue (the ever-interesting Lighthouse Sustainable Building Centre), listened to the four presentations and came away freshly energized with a wealth of green business talent and ideas.
Saul Good Gift Company – Saul Brown, a long-time Green Briefs associate, (he helped my consulting company, Unicycle Creative, source some very unique pens), introduced the crowd to his particular warm fuzzy brand of corporate recognition. It’s not all small cookies, however. Saul also showed off some sweet recycled packaging he helped develop for the distribution of Olympic bibs. Nice to see a genuine local spin-off from that multi-billion dollar shindig.
Pulse Energy – David Helliwell did a good job of condensing a large corporate mission in his 3 minutes of fame. Otherwise I would have had no idea from their name that they actually specialize in developing software for tracking and optimizing energy efficiency in buildings. Pulse also boasted an Olympic connection, as they developed on-line tracking for the energy use of all the venues for 2010. At VenueEnergyTracker.com you can see the energy performance of each of the 2010 buildings, expressed as charts that let you see how the power consumption varies over time. They also show you what the usage would have been without involving ’sustainable practices’, (though it isn’t really clear what those are) What is clear are the advantages of the Pulse system for customers that operate building(s), and the clear potential for this company to grow. The Pulse Energy business card has an interesting positioning line that asks ‘Does your building have a Pulse?’ David could have worked that branding into his presentation to better explain the name, but it was obvious from the reaction of the room that the Pulse concept is alive and well.
Resilient Consulting – Mary Sturgeon introduced her company with a reminder that collaboration leads to better results. She then challenged everyone in the crowd to ditch their regular event dependents and connect with new people. Which it appears everyone did. Mary could have used a mnemonic of some kind for her company, though. I would have liked to come away with a better idea of their actual business model.
James Hoggan – Vancouver’s premier eco-PR guy took the anchor spot, closing the show with some statistics that came too fast for my beer-addled fingers to record, but nonetheless left everyone in the crowd with a sense of the growing gap between public awareness and appreciation for our current climate crisis and the woeful inadequacy of our institutions to address it. His basic premise was a quote: “If you don’t tell your story, someone else will. And it will be bad.” The DeSmogBlogger and author’s most inspiring words for us beleaguered sustainability types: “You are not alone..”
The rest of the evening was spent chatting with companies like Climate Smart – a group that helps small business track and improve their carbon emissions, URDevelopment – who wants to bring a Euro-style zero-emission go-kart racing circuit to the Lower Mainland, and GoodEnergy – a software-based research company that lets individuals track their behaviour for ‘lasting positive change’.
Stay tuned for possible follow-ups on these sustainability up-and-comers. In the meantime, if you’re interested in meeting a bunch of inspiring and energetic green types, Power Plant is worth getting out to. If only to show you how effective a 3-minute business presentation can be.
I must say, since getting an iPhone, a day doesn’t go by where I don’t discover (or at least imagine) a new way to use the crazy thing. Sure, it may just be flicking a virtual zero-carbon Zippo lighter for cheap effect at a concert. Then again, it may be an app that lets me blow the whistle on the next major eco-crime.
I’ve found a few cool ‘green’ apps, and along the way have also been working to understand when it makes the most sense for companies to develop their own apps as part of an online or social media marketing strategy. So warm up your touch-screen fingers and let’s have a look.
Findgreen - an industry-leading green app developed right here in Vancouver This app was originally called 3rdWhale, brainchild of a Vancouver-based company of the same name. In October, 2009, 3rdWhale Mobile merged with Colorado-based GenGreen, forming GenGreen Digital Media and inheriting North America’s biggest green business database (and a much more logical and usable moniker) in the bargain. Findgreen has a handy ‘roller’ interface that lets you select categories for green products or services which the app then cross-references with your phone’s location to give you options withing walking, biking or driving distance. It feels a little light on content locally, but a recent partnership with Green Zebra (the eco-conscious coupon book) adds a cool discount feature. When you see a listing with the ‘coupon available’ tag, you can click it for an instant Green Zebra discount that you can use just by showing your phone. Only thing missing? A whole list of the ‘coupon-only’ pages for us Scots.
The Green Book (LITE) – Find one at a used bookstore This app is based on a New York Times Bestseller, billed as the ‘Everyday guide to saving the planet one simple step at a time’. I rather Scottishly opted for the free ‘LITE’ version, and found it to be a fairly basic level offering of green information. Perhaps the paid version As well, the interface is linear – you flip through it page by page like a little booklet. I’m getting more used to interactive apps on my iPhone and found myself wishing for a bit more fun.
Green Spot – A great place to start some green research Billed as “Your one daily place for news, views, and podcasts on Sustainability and Green Living”, this app gets my vote as an excellent source of stories, articles and podcasts to get the green cells thinking. Good fodder for killing time on public transit. Unfortunately, the interface looks like it was designed in Microsoft Word.
EcoSnoop – Put on your balaclava and get in the trenches When I read about this app’s use of the iPhone camera to catch eco-offenders in the act, and post ‘cases’ according to GPS location, I was intrigued. Not all reviewers share this view – one poster called it ‘a disgusting climate Nazi app’. It hardly seems too offensive at this stage, as most offences are of the ‘Mid-day watering’ or ‘Excessively lit museum’ variety. I think it could go viral with a high-profile post or two, though. Watch for future blog articles as I might try to up the ante with this one.
A Walmart business summit, with keynote speech by Dr. David Suzuki. How could these two seemingly opposed global forces exist in the same confined space? This I had to see.
The sun was just rising as I wheeled up to Vancouver’s Pan Pacific Hotel, to find out what Walmart had up its sleeve when it invited 350 top retail execs and competitors for the Walmart Canada Green Business Summit.
The Mayor, the Premier, environmental alarm, sustainability case studies, live wireless polling, this show had it all. I even got to ask the Walmart CEO, face-to-face, about their business model and position on packaging take-back recycling.
This blog is going to run on a bit, but I wanted to keep all of the info in one document, so grab an organic java and get comfortable.
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson opened with a rapid-fire blitz on Vancouver’s green agenda (unfortunately he didn’t use our new ‘Green Capital’ brand name once that I heard) One stat he lobbed was that Vancouver’s carbon emissions have settled at 1990 levels, even as our population has grown. Still, buildings account for 54% of that carbon. So he’s looking for collaboration with companies that can retrofit buildings – looking to reduce that footprint by 2% per year. He also mentioned the city’s new Open3 program – Open source, open standards, open software – that lets entrepreneurs have access to the city’s data to help develop more efficient systems. Can we become the world’s greenest city? When the Mayor rides his bike to a conference like this and talks with this kind of green acumen, it’s a good start.
Our host, Mark Miller of Discovery Channel fame, kept things moving smoothly, introducing the Main Man of Walmart Canada. In this corner…
The Sustainability Challenge a la David Cheesewright Walmart Canada’s CEO is another leader who bikes to work each day (20k each way) He’s also been at the forefront of making BIG changes. So he welcomed us from a position of inspiration. “You’re here because of a common purpose… Solving some of the problems we’re going to face, requires people to work across boundaries they haven’t had to before.” he said. “Today is your opportunity to start to build a bigger team.”
Rebecca Harris from Blue Sky consulting then led a short collaboration exercise – asking delegates to share a personal breakthrough moment with their table. The hubub of conversation tells me its breaking the ice, but its hard to imagine hardcore business competitors truly collaborating with sworn corporate enemies.
David Suzuki, taking no pinstripe prisoners: “The Triple Bottom Line is absolute nonsense.” Ouch.
Well, he started with good news. “In 1962,” he began, “there wasn’t a single ‘department of environment’ in any government anywhere.” Suzuki then went on to describe how a certain Provincial Minister of Environment told him flat out he puts the economy ahead of ecosystems. Hmmm.
“Nature doesn’t care about human boundaries.” he continued. “Nature sets the limits. We can’t shoehorn nature into the human agenda.”
Suzuki describes groups like The Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Fraser Institute as paid lobbyists, confusing the issue.
“Climatologists say they are over 90% certain we are entering a period of human-induced climate change. Would you get on a plane if it was 90% likely to crash? Or even 10%? We don’t argue with investing money in insurance against theft, earthquakes… When it comes to climate change, we’re not willing to shell out a cent. Why are we turning our backs on the reality of what’s happening to the planet?”
Most surprising to me was his statement that the Triple Bottom Line (equal overlapping circles representing economic, social and environmental interests) is “absolute nonsense”. In reality, says Suzuki, 30 Million species of organisms share one circle. Human beings should have one circle within that. Our economy a smaller circle within that. “We have to start by all agreeing that the health of the ecosystem is the highest priority.” he said, “We make nature pay the price for our economic problems.”
Suzuki further claims that anyone who says we should get a free carbon pass because we live in a northern climate and can’t afford to freeze, is lying. Sweden (somewhere up near Whitehorse in latitude) has had a carbon tax since 1991. They now pay $120/tonne (compared to $15/tonne in BC). Since then they have reduced emissions 8% below 1990 levels, yet their economy grew at a 4% rate.
He pointed to the human ability to envision the future as our survival advantage, and then dropped the responsibility for change loudly on the silent tables of suits before him. “Without the private sector we’re never going to make it.”
He got a thorough, if reluctant, standing ovation.
It was kind of weird to see David Suzuki speaking in front of a Walmart logo. But in terms of getting the agenda back to the big picture, he did not disappoint.
Panel Discussion:
Here, 5 business leaders shared a case study on sustainability, along with a few of their thoughts on the future.
Peter Luik – Heinz – Stat: 98% of tomatoes come from within 100km of their plant. Mr. Luik defined Sustainability as ‘another term for wasting less’. A narrow description of the problem, to be sure. His pet peeve is the lack of commonality in local/provincial/federal recycling standards. Too true.
John Peoples - S.C. Johnson and Son, Limited Stat: By the end of 2009, GHG emissions at their Canadian marketing facility were reduced by 53%, while manufacturing volume continued to increase.
David Labistour – Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) Stat: MEC diverts 94% of their waste from landfill. Yet, says Labistour, their true footprint lies upstream in their products (not downstream in waste) A full 25% of the world’s chemicals are used in textiles, he continues, and processing of textiles may eventually cease to exist in some areas where human needs take precedence over water demands.
Anne Tennier P.Eng –Maple Leaf Foods – Stat: Working on an ‘Integrated ‘Protein Value Chain’ (my vote for the scariest term of the day) In 2006 Maple Leaf created a 30 million litre/year biodiesel plant co-located with their rendering plant. (Biodiesel GHG emissions are 99% lower when compared to petro diesel)
David Cheesewright – CEO, Walmart Canada Stat: Introduced Walmart’s Personal Sustainability Project – individuals commiting to their own ’sustainability’ plans, from walking to work to quitting smoking, in front of their peers. Over 200,000 PSPs are now in place chain-wide. There’s no downside in engaging the masses to do the small things. Being big is not always great, (he acknowledged Walmart is unloved by many) yet when it comes to making sustainable changes, size is an advantage.
Matt Kistler, Wlmart Senior Vice President of Sustainability, on the big picture.
Walmart’s global sustainability guy talked about their ‘360′ approach, which has three pillars “Our footprint, Our Supply Chain, Our customers.” To their credit, Walmart offers clear, broad, aspirational goals: 1) To be supplied by 100% renewable energy; 2) To create zero waste; 3) To sell products that sustain people and the environment.
As the Walmart supply chain represents 92% of their footprint, they are helping fund an organization called sustainabilityconsortium.org – that generates ‘open source science’ available to all. This will be a sustainability research group and a resource for all companies to use.
Their newest initiative is a Canadian version of the Sustainable Product Index. (See separate Green Briefs article on the news release) This Sustainability Index will allow consumers to be able to compare materials, resources and the life cycle of products. Sort of like a planetary version of the Nutrition Information labeling. One day a scannable version will allow us to access information on our smart phone, right from the shelf.
I wanted to go deeper into Walmart’s business, to find out more – I was about to get my chance.
The Big PRESS CONFERENCE. Green Briefs asks the tough questions!
At lunch, the media were invited to a special press briefing on four new announcements from Walmart. We lined up in the chairs, in front of us were the big execs at the big table with the big microphones. David Cheesewright and Matt Sistler unveiled a new Perishables Distribution Centre in Balzac Alberta, new wind and solar power projects in Ontario, the Sharegreen.ca web site, and the new Sustainability Index for Canada. You can read my blog article on the release here, but what really excited me was the chance to ask Walmart Canada’s CEO about the very heart of their business model, and get their response to London Drugs’ Bring Back the Pack initiative.
“We’ve heard a lot about efficiency and streamlining the supply chain, but what about the basic Walmart business model? Selling more stuff? Do you have plans in place to address more sustainable consumerism?”
The short answer was no. Cheesewright talked about giving consumers more and better choices, but at the bottom of it all, the business model stands unchallenged.
Said Cheesewright, “The first thing you would do if you wanted to create a really inefficient supply chain would be to ask consumers to bring back to 313 different locations… one of the good things about Canada is… the program of getting waste either from our stores or from home back into the system is not bad. If we can get that consistent across the country that’s a way more efficient way of dealing with the packaging…”
Way more efficient for Walmart, for sure, as consumers face the inconvenience of finding depots and municipalities and local governments pick up the tab for recycling. London Drugs has been working really hard to make the reverse logistics on recycling take-back work. Seems to me Walmart could do it even better if they tried.
Working Session: Innovation Ideas
The afternoon at the Green Business Summit was spent in working sessions. I was not part of the working groups, but noticed quite a bit of enthusiasm from a room full of such dark suits. At the session’s end, the moderator highlighted several of the ’sustainability innovations’ various tables had come up with. Among them:
Creating an LED light that uses only 1 watt of power to produce 60 watts of lighting
100% closed-loop cradle-to-cradle product – the bamboo bicycle frame. (I think this exists already, but a nice thought)
Creating universal consumer acceptance of non-white (unbleached) paper. Encouraging greater recycled content, reducing the demand for fiber. (This was introduced by Scott McDougall of Terrachoice Marketing – don’t be surprised if you actually see this one go!)
Create a global standardization for all product manufacturing worldwide. From materials to production. You can’t get on the shelf unless you meet the standard.
The real-time table-top vote clicker. Love to have one of these to judge everything. All the time.
Finalists were judged with a unique system – each delegate clicked their choice on a wireless device and votes were tallied in real time. The winner by a wide margin: Global Standardization.
I’m sure the Walmart juggernaut was listening.
Gordon Campbell addresses the masses.
What began with the Mayor, ended with the Premier, and his messaging was similar. Bring the environment and the economy together in a spirit of ‘coopetition’… (?!) Campbell used the Pine Beetle epidemic to illustrate the multiplying costs of climate change, linking the dying forests to increased flooding (through less water absorption), and rising firefighting costs. He waxed visionary about BC as a world source for clean energy – listing not just hydro power, but cellulosic ethanol, natural gas reserves (?!!) and the always-sexy-but-somewhat-impractical examples of fuel cell development, and the fleet of 20 hydrogen buses in Whistler. No mention of where the hydrogen is coming from.
Then he switched to beating the drum for BC forestry, describing China’s devastating earthquake of a few years back as “a $3 Billion opportunity for Canadian wood.”
After that it was all hope, vision, future, green blah blah blah.
The last Spike – Sustainability Commitment Signing Ceremony
In a moment designed to be a photo op, but unfortunately over-dramatized with a mounting soundtrack reminiscent of the music track for ‘The Weakest Link’, Walmart Canada challenged companies to take part in a Sustainability Commitment. They asked businesses and organizations to commit to implementing a new sustainable initiative in their business over the next year. Eleven companies had pre-signed the deal, and the Walmart website says another 13 signed on during the day. Here’s the total so far as I have them: 3M Canada, BISSELL Inc, Canadian Tire, Coca-Cola Canada, Hewlett-Packard Canada, Home Depot Canada, Kraft Canada, Maple Leaf Foods, PepsiCo Foods Canada, SC Johnson and Son Ltd, Walmart Canada, Heinz, MacDonalds, Natures Grilling Products, Unilever, Staples, Kruger Products, and Spin Master.
My last Green Briefs 2-bits: Walmart should have had each delegate make a ‘Personal Sustainability Plan’ from this meeting. As it is, I hope to follow up with the companies that made sustainability promises and see where they are in a year.
If there’s a Summit II in 2011, my typing fingers should have healed by then.
As part of the Feb 10th Green Business Summit, David Cheesewright made some ‘major announcements’ for Walmart Canada. Here are the strongest 2:
Sustainable Product Index: This will be a system designed to “… help customers across Canada evaluate the sustainability of the products they purchase, from raw materials to disposal.” It is to be implemented in 3 phases:
- Phase 1 – Supplier assessment
- Phase 2 – Creation of database
- Phase 3 – Development and launch of customer tool
This could one day prove to be as powerful a tool as the ‘Nutritional Information’ labeling we all rely on for our food shopping. The trick will be establishing criteria that consistently work across geography and product types.
Green Briefs POV: IMHO, it wouldn’t hurt to come up with a different name. “Sustainable Product Index” makes it sound like a review of goods that are already sustainable. “Product Sustainability Index” would be closer to the mark.
Welcome to ShareGreen.ca– A new business sustainability resource: This is meant to be the start of a virtual ‘centre of excellence’ for Canadian businesses going green. Among other things, itt features sustainability case studies from Canada’s top brands.
“We have a great opportunity to usher in a new era of collaboration and sharing when it comes to green business practices,” said David Cheesewright, President and CEO of Walmart Canada. “While much work still needs to be done, there is already some strong sustainability work happening across Canadian organizations. Our hope is that the launch of ShareGreen will be a first step to help capture green practices and drive collaboration.”
Green Briefs POV: Looks like a good idea. Though as media colleague Colin Isaacs (Canadian Institute for Business and the Environment) pointed out in the media scrum, a case study by Nestle Water Canada on bottled water, seems to fly a bit in the face of many people who believe the category itself is eco-evil. So it could to be hard to regulate.
That was the main message I picked up in today’s hour-long webinar with ‘Green to Gold’ author Andrew Winston. The presentation was hosted by the ‘Board of Change’, an up-and-coming organization of green entrepreneurs and sustainable types based in Vancouver.
Winston remotely presented a powerpoint show which, while plagued with a few technical difficulties at the outset, was well worth the time spent eating (no doubt toxic) mini cinnamon buns while waiting.
Winston began by forecasting the global environmental solutions market at a whopping $2 Trillion by 2020 (Source: HSBC) He then quoted some prominent capitalists who said we’re basically losing that race to China and India. Green, he stated, has moved from being about polar bears to being about solar panels.
Besides the usual quick efficiency type of green upgrades that pay for themselves right away (example: one hotel chain that spent $400,000 to replace lighbulbs and reaped $1.2 Million in energy savings the first year) Winston gave the advantage to companies that move quickly to voluntary transparency and sustainability standards.
My favourite quote: “If your competitors have stronger standards than your government, that’s the new standard you have to meet.”
So what is to be done? Winston’s prescription is as follows:
Get Lean, Get Smart, Get Creative. Ask the toughest quations of yourself. How would your company work in a $500-a-barrel oil market? Could you operate if your key product (e.g. plastic bags) were banned?
Beyond that, Winston says, ask the ‘heretical’ questions. Can a shipping company stop turning left? (Yes) Can cement be made in a way that captures carbon instead of emitting it? (Yes, again) What happens if a trucking company decides to actually go slower? The answer, in the case of shipping giant Con-way, was a 3-million-gallon fuel savings from recalibrating trucks to drive at 62 MPH instead of 65.
All in all, it was a great energy boost from the bigs, if a little short on the kind of initiatives Canadian mom & pop small cap firms might implement.
But at least the world seems to be moving in the right direction.
There’s something about full-size cars stacked in a dumpster that really makes a guy stop and ponder. I imagine that was the idea behind the display I saw at Nanaimo’s Galaxy Motors on the weekend. As a nifty take on the ‘cash for clunkers’ program, this piece of street art works quite well, practically screaming, ‘Trade in the old piece of crap!!’
But on another level, it makes a statement about our disposable culture that might not reflect too well on the entire automotive industry.
First off, these cars are not antiquated rust buckets. At least, not to my increasingly old-fogey-ish sensibilities. So just what is the lifespan of an automobile supposed to be? Five years? Ten? At what point does increased efficiency of a fresh vehicle make up for the embedded carbon in its manufacture, and the energy required to recycle the old beater?
Moreover, when you decorate your dealership with a garbage bin full of cars (which were once shiny and new on a lot themselves not that long ago) what does that say about the quality of the product on the outside of the dumpster? You’re next?
Now, if the lot were selling only plug-in electrics and hybrids, the dynamic changes entirely. Heck, you could make the car-in-a-garbage-can your LOGO for an auto dealership like that. Perhaps Galaxy is just ahead of their time.
I figured Detroit would invent the Disposable Car someday. I just didn’t think it would be all of them.
If you are reading this online, you have no doubt seen those motion-graphic info-style videos that redefine the boring statistical approach with hip soundtracks, shoot-from the hip voiceovers and hipster animated graphics.
Well I’m pleased to tell you about a local company who is not only producing these top-quality motion graphic vids, but is pioneering a for-profit/non-profit business model that is quite interesting, indeed.
The company is Thought Bubble, and I had a good chat with founders Jonathan Corbiere and Suzanna Brusikeiwicz, (Pronounced Broo-See-Ke-Vich, as we all know) to find out more. The basic idea is that they do commercial motion graphics projects, for eco-friendly & sustainable companies, (as much as possible), then use a portion of the proceeds to fund similar projects for non-profits with important stories to tell. This could be a charity, a community organization or an author.
To get an idea of the power this medium projects, check out their Thought Bubble demo. It not only describes the ‘information graphic’ approach well, it also tells a nice tidy brand story with the Thought Bubble name as metaphor.
As a majority of respondents in my Green Briefs survey indicated that online video was going to be a top trend for them in 2010, this resource could come in pretty handy.
If you like this style and want to find out more, drop me a line or check out the Thought Bubble website directly.
Mike McDermid, Program Manager for 
Brad Reid, President of the 
Brad showed a few of the most common logos currently in place on organic goods in BC stores – the USDA symbol, the Canada Organic symbol and the BC Organic label – and described the challenges of both educating consumers about their choices, and educating farmers about what consumers want these days. He also introduced the concept of a less bureaucratic form of labeling that would allow smaller producers, urban farmers and gardeners to brand their organics without the onerous certification costs associated with existing third-party verified standards. Called 
Last up was Lloyd Bernhardt, President of Ethical Bean Fair Trade Organic Coffee. If Lloyd’s word-per-minute count is any indication, he is obviously as dedicated to the testing of his product as he is to as the principles behind it. Having just returned from a World Coffee Conference in Guatemala, he offered a rich overview of the Fair Trade process, blended with a few of its more colourful character flaws and a refreshing aftertaste of its success. (The complex layers of the system as he described it are already leaving my addled brain, so if you are reading this, Lloyd, please feel free to step in.)
Producers report their sales of products to Fair Trade buyers to 
Lloyd also pointed out that not all certifications are the same. A certain ‘cute frog’ label (representing the 
This was my second 
At 
Findgreen 
The Green Book (LITE)
Green Spot
EcoSnoop
Beyond that, Winston says, ask the ‘heretical’ questions. Can a shipping company stop turning left? (