As a Province that has just spent millions to convince tourists to visit her pristine vistas, Alberta can’t be too happy with the new campaign from Corporate Ethics.  “Rethink Alberta” billboards are going up in Seattle, Portland, Denver and Minneapolis that compare the tar sands to the BP Blowout oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The ads lead to to rethinkalberta.com, a website featuring a hard-hitting 96-second YouTube video that shows some choice stats and shots that make a pretty damning case against tar sands development.

In one particularly frightening quote, James Hansen, an eminent climatologist from NASA, has said they if the tar sands are exploited fully, it’s essentially game over for global warming.

For those who agree with this conclusion, it stands to reason that the ends justify almost any means in a campaign to stop this disaster.

But a strategy designed to punish one sector to effect change in another has implications for all businesses. Think about your supply chain, your government and any local issues that may be the target of some future anti-advertising campaign. Are there areas where your business could be affected by a boycott? How would you respond? Especially if you agreed with the proponents of the campaign? (Should the owner of an eco-tourism operation in Alberta be punished for the policies of his government?)

The Green Briefs Two Bits:

As business becomes globalized, so does protest. More groups will link broad leveraged action with their causes, so know your supply chain, keep your own corporate policies transparent and be ready to respond if you get caught in the middle. Then be ready to make hay from any publicity opportunity. Our fictional Alberta Eco Tour operator could probably get airtime by offering a Tar Sands Tour complete with a protest stop at the Alberta Legislature. Then again, by doing that they might become the target of roving gangs of pickup-driving Alberta tar-lovers. Oops, was that my outside voice?

You can link to a fairly balanced Alberta newspaper article about the campaign here, and form your own no doubt equally balanced opinion.

Take a look here for the Calgary Herald newspaper’s tit-for-tat retort.

The 5th Annual ImagePower® Green Brands Survey is out, with some encouraging and surprising results. First, the environment is not going away, despite our best attempts to kill it. With over 9000 people polled in eight countries (Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India and the United Kingdom) this study concludes that overall, concern for the environment is up 3.5%. And the growth is coming from some very interesting places.

Emerging economies are the new eco marketing goldmines.

While cost remains the biggest hurdle to buying green in mature markets like Australia, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, the environment still trumps the economy as the issue of greatest concern in the emerging economies of India and Brazil. While 30 percent of all survey respondents plan to spend more on green products next year, in Brazil, China, and India that number rises to more than 70 percent. In China and India, this is a 9 and 3 percent increase, respectively, over 2009. HELLO makers of green products!! Massive Market ALERT!! In China, confusing labeling makes purchases a struggle; shoppers can’t figure out which products are truly more ecofriendly. I guess their packaging communications problems aren’t limited to bad English translations. Seriously though, China could really benefit from a well-managed certification system. Green certification agencies like Canada’s Terrachoice (managers of Canada’s successful ECO-LOGO program) have their work cut out for them.

Message from the world to corporations: Stop poisoning us.

Across the board, consumers want to buy from environmentally responsible companies. And their #1 concern: reducing toxics. It has become the cost of entry for brands in most markets, the survey says. As Google becomes a global verb, the transparency of toxic ingredients, manufacturing processes and disposal issues will only increase. Water conservation takes second place in Australia, Brazil, China, and India, while consumers in France, Germany, and the United States focus on the use of recycled materials. British consumers show the most interest in reducing the amount of packaging used, ranking it second behind toxin removal.

The Green Briefs Two Bits:

While this survey focuses on global brands and attitudes, there is learning for local green brands as well.  The good news is that consumers generally trust green advertising, especially in developing markets. But people decide for themselves what ‘green’ means, so it’s up to you to find out what your customers value most. Clear communication and transparency will always be in style. And best of all, we’re on the side that’s winning. So stay the course. The world will beat a path to our door.

The tap vs. bottled water debate is nothing new, but I came across an article on the Granville website which made me think municipalities may have the wrong idea when it comes to promoting it. Turns out Vancouver has recently upgraded the facilities that treat the already excellent tap water that comes from our spectacular North Shore watersheds. With this $600 million upgrade, officials in the region say they can now boast to having the highest quality tap water in the world.

“No doubt about it,” says Bill Morrell, media relations manager at Metro Vancouver, ”I would put our drinking water up against any other tap water source in the world.”

The article goes on to point out several myths in the bottled water world.

Myth: Bottled water is safer.

Fact: Bottled water can be from any source and treated in any manner. The two largest brands of bottled water in Canada, Coca-Cola’s Dasani and Pepsi’s Aquafina brands use filtered municipal tap water from Brampton, Ontario, and Calgary, Alberta.  NRDC testing also found bacteria and chemicals (including arsenic and methylene chloride) in some other brands of bottled water.

Myth: Bottled water is always strictly monitored and tested.

Fact: Metro Vancouver tests tap water everyday from hundreds of sources, up to 25,000 times per year. Bottled water plants may only be  inspected only once every three years.

With these kinds of advantages on tap, maybe it’s time to take the gloves off when it comes to marketing our own sweet mountain water. And let’s ditch the ‘tap’ reference. We have mountain water delivered to our homes, pure and simple.

Mr. Morrell, if you ever want to go up against the bottle cartel, just let me know.

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.

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.

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.

“Local retailer London Drugs is now taking back packaging from the consumer at the store and responsibly recycling it. Do you have plans to offer this service with your packaging?”

Again, the answer: No.

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.

Stop the Grizzly hunt, Gordo.

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.

Thanks for reading. Over and out.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Let me start by saying, tonight I had my heart (and palette) set on sushi. I could almost taste the cool, sweet rice, and the fresh tuna mixing with the salt of the soy sauce… then I happened to glance at a small Ocean Wise brochure my son brought back from a recent screening of the film, Sharkwater
This movie illustrates the threats facing the world’s fish stocks, most notably the predators – such as sharks, and the ever tasty tuna. The Ocean Wise Program is an initiative developed by the Vancouver Aquarium to make it easier to identify ocean-friendly seafood (that has been harvested in a sustainable manner from stocks that are abundant and resilient). Looking through this little guide to Western Canadian restaurants, I was somewhat crestfallen to discover there were no sushi restaurants listed. Guess that oficially puts my favourite Japanese delicacy on the Guilty Pleasures List. So instead, I chose the Cactus Club Cafe and settled for Cajun Halibut Tacos. The Ocean Wise logo was featured quite prominently on their menu, but almost completely buried on the Cactus Club website and pretty much lost on my server. (“It’s from the north shore, not farmed or caught with nets or anything…”)
Now I’m more susceptible to eco-guilt than most, but it occurs to me this could and should become a growing trend. A sign inside the huge aquarium at the front door would be a great place to start.
Now if I could just get them to offer organic wines by the glass.

SFX: Dripping cave combined with factory noises and sounds of human torment. A phone rings.
Annoying Switchboard Operator: “Hell Fuels, how may I direct your call? Oil spills? Certainly. One moment. (click)
Good morning, Hell Fuels. Strip Mining Department? Would you like Coal or Tar Sands? One moment. (click)
Hell Fuels, how may I direct your call? Missing Species Department? I’m sorry, their line is still busy. Please Hold. (click)
Good morning, Hell Fuels. The Global Political Instability Department? One moment please. (click)
Hell Fuels, how may I direct your call? Global Warming Department? I’m sorry, that doesn’t exist. Yes, I know the liberal media is full of lots of cute stories, but I can assure you… You want to talk to my supervisor? The President of Hell Fuels? The Lord of Darkness? Why sir, who did you think you were speaking with? (voice changes to deep bellowing evil laugh, then back to annoying switchboard operator) Buh bye now. Good morning, Hell Fuels….”
Announcer: “There’s got to be a better way. Fuels from Heaven – wind, tidal, solar.”
SFX: Angelic music
Announcer: Let’s put our energy investment above the ground.

Okay, so it’s a 67-second radio spot with no client. But it’s a powerful metaphor that not only clearly points out the differences in fuel technology, it also has implications for our individual behaviour.
Every time you make an energy choice, who’s side are you on?