Well I was as shocked as anyone that a recent Ipsos survey put our humble BC retailer above North American green behemoth Whole Foods on the eco friendly scale. But that’s apparently what 1,177 adult British Columbians said, 19 times out of 20, when asked to name one retailer they thought best exemplifies an environmentally-friendly business – without a pre-determined list to choose from. (See the top 10 list below) London Drugs came in at #7, and was the only ‘general’ retailer on the list.

That certainly warmed our green hearts, as we have been working very hard to get the word out there on London Drugs’ recycling and green products with the What’s the Green Deal brand, featuring our industry-leading Bring Back the Pack and Styrofoam recycling programs. (Full disclosure, Green Briefs and Unicycle Creative is a strategic consultant for London Drugs – so neutrality is out the window here)

Hats off to all of the companies on the list – it’s a contest no one really loses. And thanks, BC. We’ll shoot for number one next time!

Top 10 Mentioned Environmentally-Friendly Retailers in BC

1. Mountain Equipment Co-op
2. Save-On-Foods
3. Starbucks
4. Thrifty Foods
5. The Body Shop
6. Real Canadian Superstore
7. London Drugs
8. Choices Market
9. Whole Foods
10. Safeway

Riding your bike and putting the blue box out every week is one thing. Deciding to lay your retirement investments on the thin green line is quite another matter.
As a publicly ‘out’ green person, I felt it was time to get my investments more in line with my values. What I found was, it’s not as easy as walking down the aisle reading the ingredients on bags of organic granola.

The Generic Options
Every bank and financial institution seems to have a product (or at least an ad campaign) designed to soothe the conscience of the wanna-be green investor, from the obviously-named ‘Ethical Funds’ to more obscurely-branded options like the SUMMA SRI Canadian Fund. The basic layer of screening for these funds usually excludes the usual suspects in the Merchants of Death lineup – weapons, tobacco, nuclear and (for some) alcohol. Beyond that, they can vary greatly in their content, and you might be surprised to learn that some of these funds hold stock in such tree-hugging enterprises as Athabasca Oil Sands Corp and the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan. Now some of you may be saying, “Hey wait a minute, hippie, there’s nothing wrong with those companies!” And if that’s what you believe, then you would be right. Because in order to invest with your values, you have to define what’s ‘green’ for you. And there is more to green investing than simply what the portfolio holds.

Finding an expert – Meet Tony Edwards
Howe Street isn’t exactly chock-a-block with green investment companies. Through Google, I found Tony Edwards at Portfolio Strategies Securities in the bustling Vancouver Island burg of Courtenay, BC. On his website, Tony says, “When building a socially responsible investment portfolio, I look for companies that don’t cause me to lose sleep at night thinking about dead birds, or slave labour, or nuclear meltdowns.” On that quote alone, I thought it was worth a few kilos of highway carbon and ferry boat emissions to meet him.
We sat in Tony’s small office, on a sunny Friday afternoon, sharing a few cups of herbal tea.
“Companies aren’t ethical, or not,” Tony began, “It’s all in their behaviour. In order to make change happen, you can’t just throw up your hands and divest. You’ve got to have a seat at the table.” He showed me a report from Ethical Funds, (Make Money, Make a Difference.™!) showing how their shareholder activism process had led to positive changes in environmental policy with companies like Suncor and Enbridge. “These discussions happen before the shareholders meeting,” he continued, “Companies are a lot more responsive to their shareholders than they are to protestors.”
In one recently successful example, shareholder activist group As You Sow introduced a shareholder proposal in 2011 asking McDonald’s to consider stronger environmental policies for its beverage containers, such as setting recycled content and post-consumer cup recovery goals. McDonald’s now says they plan to test a new hot cup in 2,000 of its U.S. stores that could replace the polystyrene foam cups currently in use at all locations.

Who are today’s green investors?
“Many Canadians are not that financially literate. They think they can get all of their information from the big banks. Then, for some, something changes.”
“My average customer is an educated woman, or couple, between ages 55 and 65, who are fed up with the same old solutions, have done some research and just want to better align their investments with their values.”
Tony starts with the sort of due diligence and financial fact-finding you would expect of a certified financial planner, but then includes more in-depth discussions around sustainability as well, getting to know each client’s values as well as their overall financial picture.

How do you market the Green Market?
“People don’t want this stuff marketed to them,” Tony says, “They come in pre-disposed to a sustainable investing solution, usually through word-of-mouth. It’s a category that doesn’t seem to appeal to younger investors as much.”
“I’m a positive person, and I like to keep the whole tone positive.” Tony continues, “I sponsor local events like the Music Fest, the Film Festival, and sometimes write articles for the local paper.”
I couldn’t help but think if Tony could combine more of the information from his years of web articles with his positive tone and passion, and get it out there in the rich-media world, he would probably engage a whole network of very interested followers.

The Bottom Line
“People tend to think you can’t make any money in Socially Responsible Investing. That’s just old, in-the-box thinking. Some investments, like clean energy, may be too long-term for the average investor, but there are opportunities.” Turning his monitor toward me, Tony pointed to a stock curve that climbed like an Al Gore temperature chart. “This is a company I’ve been watching that makes denim fabric from flax. They just cut a deal with Levi’s.”
Want to do some research on SRI Funds? Here’s a list.
Want to go deeper? Here’s a link to Tony Edwards’ website and article archive.

Happy green reading!

But this investment could (and should) go beyond green labeling. LEGO could do a whole lot more to promote their sustainability, while helping to create a new generation of green energy engineers at the same time.

The Vestas LEGO Wind Turbine Set 4999 was originally released in 2008 with wind company Vestas. Unfortunately, it required batteries to operate. (?) Some diligent Googling revealed this obscure Renewable Energy Add-On Sets from LEGO Education  featuring a real WORKING turbine and Solar Power Kit. Come on, LEGO, time to get these off the back pages of your catalog, make the package design more action-packed and put them on the shelves at Toys’R'Us and WalMart.

Bringing renewable energy to the playroom is only the beginning. I would love to one day be able to snap full sized solar panels on to the LEGO roof tiles of my home. And replace them just as easily. As once I wrote in a blog for Sustainable Minds, If I was King, I would Make the Whole World From LEGO.

Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside is known the world over as a tough neighbourhood. So when we were asked to brand a redevelopment of market homes on the border of this area, we knew it would not be easy. But with a strong developer and a surprising number of community advantages, this project has become a small but effective redevelopment success story.

Salient Group, with offices right in Gastown, has used their local knowledge and love of heritage renovation to launch some of the area’s most innovative residential redevelopments. Just a bit further east, a local property lending institution was stuck with an old stratified concrete and brick building which had sat vacant for a number of years. They called upon Salient’s expertise to reconceive, develop and market the homes.

Salient called Unicycle Creative.

Establishing the story
In the original branding session, we realized there’s more to Gastown and the Downtown Eastside than you’ll see on the evening news. It is home to some of Vancouver’s most exciting new restaurants, shops and businesses.

“Our buyers are people who know this area, and may even already live or work here,” says Robert Fung, President of the Salient Group. “They see the possibilities this neighbourhood has, and they like its creative ‘edge’. So we knew we didn’t want a traditional real estate campaign with smiling people sipping lattes.”

From a sustainability perspective, the re-use of an existing building shell, the addition of density to an ‘urban village’ neighbourhood and the focus on affordability for entry-level purchasers all reflected quite positively on the development. But a purely ‘green’ angle was secondary, we felt, to the rich story of the community itself.

21 Doors. A name that opens a lot of possibilities.
Intimate. Understated. An approachable scale of community development. A limited number of buying opportunities. These are some of the qualities communicated in this unique development identity.

“We knew an over-the-top creative name would be trying too hard,” says Unicycle Creative Director Lorne Craig. “Yet branding this building with the address alone would not say enough. We wanted people to imagine sharing time in the central courtyard with their neighbours. We also wanted to respect the fact that the Downtown Eastside is already a community, and we are part of that. 21 Doors has a close-knit quality to it that we hope will continue to inspire the people that live there.”

Celebrating a ‘Community of Independents’
The LiveAt21Doors identity was designed as a combination of art and journalism, using line drawings, gritty concrete textures and a duotone colour palette. A neighbourhood map boldly features hip new local restaurants and businesses right next to Downtown Eastside landmarks like the Carnegie Centre and Pigeon Park.

A gallery of artistic photographs by project designer Arno Apeldoorn brought a fresh eye to the Gastown area, showing off the textures and light that make this historic area such a treasure. These were also used prominently in the display centre.
The traditional glossy real estate lifestyle brochure was abandoned in favour of a simple door hanger, distributed to local businesses. This piece played off the ‘door’ theme, while showcasing the many benefits of living in the Gastown/Eastside area with a bit of fun. A print ad in the Georgia Straight drove more prospects to the LiveAt21Doors.com website, setting the stage for opening day.

Open for success.
After the dust settled on the first weekend of sales, 19 of the 21 Doors were spoken for. The affordable price point of these homes and the intelligent courtyard design by Taylor Kurtz Architecture & Design were the real draw. But overcoming the negative perceptions of a neighbourhood in transition by putting it in full view and celebrating its diversity no doubt played a valuable part in such a successful launch.

These units were never designed to gentrify the area with million-dollar homes. They were offered as an affordable opening into one of the world’s most expensive real estate markets.

So perhaps most satisfying statistic of all is the fact that over 50% of sales went to first-time buyers. The sales team worked extra hard to make deals happen for those new home owners who love the Gastown area and want to bring their own energy to the community.

All of which makes these 21 Doors a worthy contribution to the revitalization of Vancouver’s original neighbourhood.

Make a visit to Honest Ed’s Bargain store on Toronto’s Bloor Street and you are instantly transported back to an almost impossibly innocent era of extra buttered popcorn, cars without seatbelts and genuine retail optimism. This magical feeling, in large part, is due to the proliferation of hand-painted signs on everything in the store. From a basket of 99¢ ‘leather’ wallets to a 10-foot high cuckoo clock, literally every piece of in-store communication is lettered by a (very talented) human being with a brush.

So why wouldn’t they just use a digital printer like everyone else? Honest Ed Mirvish was one of the original rags-to-riches entrepreneurs – perhaps he just never wanted to spend money on a computer. But perhaps he knew that a real bargain has to feel like a bargain, not a cheap rip-off. And perhaps he had an intuitive sense that hand-lettered signs would someday play a part in differentiating his store from the big-box retail annihilators that would eventually sweep most of his kind from almost every town and city on the planet.

When is the last time you saw a real hand-painted sign? Looking closely you can actually see the imperfections and brush strokes on each individual letter, yet the fonts are remarkably consistent, and each stroke is confident and clean. If you have every tried to paint your own ‘Garage Sale’ sign, you will know just how difficult this is.

I am a self-admitted non-big-box shopper. Yet in Ed’s Honest environment I found myself happily buying souvenirs for my family back in Vancouver, while marveling at the unique range of items offered. (Purple tuxedo vests anyone?) I chalk this feeling up to a sense of escapism, from the supply-chain-paranoid world of globalization back to a simpler era. The fact that Ed’s itself is an independent brand has much to do with it, but I think there’s more.

What these signs add is a sense of humanity that no number of ghoulish, price-dropping WalMart happy faces can ever hope to emulate. People are employed. A sense of beautiful handmade imperfection is brought to the retail environment. Maybe it’s OK to get a bargain once in a while, and enjoy shopping again.

On second thought, I hope WalMart never reads this.

——-

For graphic designers, sign geeks or anyone who doesn’t believe humans could possibly paint this many signs, this excellent blog from the Torontonian takes you inside the world of Honest Ed’s in-store signwriters: http://torontoist.com/2009/04/boards_of_ed.php

When those wimpy patio gardening containers just won’t cut it, try filling your car with dirt. You’ll never have to vacuum it again, and good luck to the tow-truck driver who tries to enforce the 2-hour limit.

Spotted in Toronto’s Kensington Market, a neighbourhood thast shows just how creative you can be when city bylaw officers aren’t allowed in.

This is just one of the conclusions of a study done by OgilveEarth (itself a mainstream version of a green brand) in their latest study, Mainstream Green, presented by Freya Williams.
Ogilve’s main thrust is that most people would prefer not to change the habits and attitudes that Madison Avenue has so lovingly taught them over the last 75 years or so. That is, life is to be lived conveniently while driving fast and keeping up with the Joneses – all at WalMart prices.
For marketers of more sustainable products and services here are a few key points, edited for brevity. And maybe just a bit editorialized. Sorry.

• Most people value themselves first, then their families, then community, then country, while the planet that supports the whole thing falls to a distant 5th.
• 70% of Americans would rather cure cancer than save the environment (presumably not linking the two issues very effectively) In China, where you can cut the air with a chainsaw, the ratio is reversed.
• Keep innovating. Sustainability should be New! Modern! SEXY!
• Lose the burlap, leaves and earths from all green packaging.
• Turn eco-freindly into male-ego-friendly. Apparently carrying a reusable shopping bag is too purse-like (No, I didn’t make this up!)
• Reassure people that they are ‘normal’ in making sustainable behaviour change.

Certainly the report makes good points.
Of course, they are correct when they say the masses are key to massive change. And I would love for all electric cars to have the performance of a Tesla with a Hyundai price. But to me, if Al Gore is a doctor saying we have to exercise or we will die, OgilveEarth’s report is trying to sell us a fat-jiggling belt that melts off pounds while we sleep.
Download the report for yourself here and let me know if you agree.

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.

Not always. At least, that’s the message I’m trying to convey in this latest London Drugs video. I took a tour through my local store and helped the manager build a display of green products for Earth Day. These are products identified under the What’s the Green Deal program Unicycle Creative helped them launch more than a year ago. Have a look, and if you think you know anyone who likes to shop green, send them a link. The more, the greenier.

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.