Not too long ago, print was the pariah of the green movement. Piles of catalogues and reams of newspapers destined for landfill seemed fated to be replaced by the electronic word. The paperless office of the future beckoned.

Well, print’s place has certainly changed. That you are reading this on your digital device is proof of that. But ink on paper has also come a long way.

Hemlock Printers recently asked Unicycle Creative for a simple brochure to remind people of the more sustainable side of printing. As one of North America’s most environmentally conscientious printers, they have some good backup for this claim, including carbon-neutral certification and a program that even lets you buy carbon offsets for you print project. And new digital technology means more precise quantities and much less waste.

The symbol we chose to deliver this message was the humble beaver. Hard-working and rooted in nature, yet certainly a consumer of fiber. In the most sustainable way.

Choose the right technology, the right paper and the right printer, and using print in your communications mix need not be a blemish on your sustainability report.

If you want to find out more about where, when and how to use print strategically, drop me a line. For more on the sustainability of print, recycled stocks and digital technology, talk to Hemlock.

If you have a tree you need taken down on your property, we have a connection for that, too.

A ride 20 years in the making

I met with General Manager Dean Thompson in the office /ski store upstairs from the factory floor. He explained that in 1990, when the company started in Chris Prior’s garage in Lions Bay, the Pacific Northwest was home to a number of ski and snowboard factories including K2, Ride and Morrow.

“Over the last 12 years, companies have consolidated and production has continued to move offshore.” Thompson says. “Almost no one is manufacturing locally now. K2 pulled out in 2000 and bought up Ride and a few other companies. During this time it was also bought by a bigger company who also owns Coleman (think camping stoves) among other non-snow related companies. But the Prior brand is still undiluted. That’s one of the things that originally appealed to me about the company.”

One of the secrets to Prior’s survival has been carving out a niche. In 2000, they developed their first splitboard, (a backcountry snowboard that separates into two skis for climbing up and reassembles for the single-plank powder ride back down)  The splitboard market continued to grow and Prior is a major player globally. Skis came shortly thereafter and strong support from heli-ski operations and the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides helped solidify a strong backcountry customer base. Prior has now gone beyond their local roots, expanding their line and selling their pure Canadian brand online to customers and distributors in Europe, Scandinavia, Russia and Japan.

How sustainable can a ski or snowboard be?

Every Prior product begins with a wood core sourced from a small manufacturer just south of the border. (“One of the last holdouts from the old ski manufacturing infrastructure”, Thompson says) These are made primarily with apsen and maple, though Thompson says they are experimenting with some locally-sourced alternatives.

But making a durable, high-performance ride takes more than trees. Each is a multi-layered sandwich that includes non-renewable materials like fiberglass and UHMW Polyethylene. Topsheet graphics are also printed offsite, and when asked about the possibilities for recycled substrate, Thompson told me they plan to look at alternatives. “We have recently hired a product engineer,’ he added. “That will let us do a lot more work with our design and supply chain, and maybe put some positive sustainability pressure on some of our suppliers.”

Not that they have been idle.

“We actually tried using an experimental hemp-based fiberglass replacement a few years back.” Thompson says. “But it didn’t perform as well as we hoped.”

No word on whether they burned the rest of it.

Local Culture and the 20-Centimeter Rule

Perhaps the most sustainable part of the Prior brand is its engagement with the Whistler community.

Thompson elaborates, “We like to support local Whistler area talent when we develop our graphics, including using some great First Nations artists. It gives us a Whistler-inspired look that the rest of the world responds to.”

Prior is also involved with the Whistler Centre for Sustainability iShift Program and sponsors numerous local events and riders.

One of the most popular ‘community involvement’ policies is the locals rate. Anyone with a Squamish, Whistler or Pemberton address gets a substantial discount off the retail Prior price.

Growing a company in a mountain town does have its challenges, however.

“We’ve always respected the 20-Centimeter Rule,” says Thompson. “If there’s more than 20cm of fresh powder on the mountains, the factory pretty much doesn’t open ‘til noon that day. Unfortunately in the past, that has left a customer or two waiting at a locked door. So now we leave at least one or two people back at the shop.”

Presumably those who draw the short straw.

So what does Prior’s future hold?

Thompson sees lots of upside. “We have room for growth within our current space – we could pretty easily run more shifts. But it’s also important that we stay small enough to be efficient and let our people police themselves a bit.”

The biggest impression I was left with is that the Prior brand is all about authenticity. ‘Hand Crafted in Whistler’ is proudly stamped right on the skis and boards Prior makes, and North America’s biggest product testing range is right out the back door.

“Everyone who builds our product also rides.” Thompson concluded. “We are immersed in the snow culture almost year round.”

That’s one brand benefit no Asian factory can match.

The Green Briefs Two-Bits

As an independent brand, growing in a market not known for manufacturing, Prior is a great local story. Sales around the world also show the Canadian label resonates internationally. They are a ‘shop local’ option for enlightened Pacific Northwest skiers and boarders, with a mission statement that includes strong support for the community, the mountains and the environment.

Prior has already has a sustainability story to tell, and boosted engineering horsepower may let them make some more innovative advancements in that area. This might also provide some marketing partnership opportunities with other brands that share the sustainable living space. I’d love to see what brand stories develop in the next few years.

In the meantime, I will also be demo-ing a set of Prior Husume skis when Whistler Blackcomb opens, so stay tuned for the Green Briefs White Pow Sustainable Ski Review™ on those.

Basic Idea 1: Avoid the general, go for the specific. By now we should all know that terms like ‘Eco-Friendly’, ‘Natural’, ‘Planet-Friendly’, ‘Green’ and ‘Whale-Lovin’ are pretty vague. OK, I made the last one up. But you get the idea. If you have a legitimate claim, spell it out. Better yet, get your product or service certified by a legitimate third-party organization.

Basic Idea 2: Pay close attention to the ‘able’ in Compostable, Degradable and Recyclable. If your product only breaks down in a large scale, commercial composting facility, better make sure there’s one nearby that your customers can get it to on garbage day if you want to call it ‘compostable’ without further explanation. Same goes for ‘recyclable’. Unqualified recyclable claims should only be made where product or package can be  recovered from the solid-waste stream through a recycling program for reuse or use in manufacturing. Otherwise you have to say something like ‘recyclable where facilities exist’ – which is quite lame.

Basic Idea 3: Don’t claim your product is ‘Free Of’ one toxin if you’ve replaced it with another. There are more synthetic chemicals these days than you can shake a test tube at. If you are removing the bad-boy ingredient of the week and adding something else that does the same thing, better make sure it doesn’t have the same M.O. And no shady semantics with taking stuff out that has nothing to do with the category. ‘PVC-Free Applesauce’ might get you a visit from the FTC.

If you are in Canada, ignore the above. Apparently, our fair nation trusts its manufacturers and snake-oil salesmen a lot more, because even though we launched some similar ‘DRAFT’ legislation back in 2008, it does not seem to yet have been given teeth.

But why not just do it right-ish in the first place? You may have to export to the US or Europe someday, and in the meantime, your Green Karma will build nicely.

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

• Achievers – Prefer auction-style games, and games where not everyone can win
• Socializers – Enjoy the interaction of gaming with others
• Explorers – Love to find and discover
• Killers – Seek the win/lose game. Total domination.

The best games, Zicherman says, break down the A to Z journey into achievable steps, with rewards in stages of increasing complexity so users can achieve mastery. There are four basic rewards you can work with:
Status (Most engaging, least expensive. Example: ‘Mayor’ badge in Foursquare)
Access (To things, people, offers that others do not get – Example: ‘Insider’ deals)
Power (Over others, real or virtual)
Stuff (Most expensive and least engaging or unique)

Other presenters showed how even simple games can lead to better interaction with brands and behaviour change. In one Sacramento Suburban Power Project, participants were given the opportunity to track their energy use in real time and compete with other families. Zamzee is a project where children are given pedometer-like sensors that track their movements, and get points in a virtual world for being more active. This has resulted in a measurable increase in physical activity levels.

In one insidious slide, Michael Kim from Kairos Labs showed how game designers actually design for specific chemicals in the brain.

• Oxytocin – Bonding
• Serotonin – Positive Emotions
• Dopamine – Reward
• Cortisol/DHEA – Stress/Eustress (the good stress!)

So, as a marketer how might you test ‘gamification’ in a simple, easy-to-implement program? The experts’ answer:

Make it small. Shoot for small actions in a small community of users and build from there. And whatever you do, don’t try to replicate Angry Birds with your logo on it.

BC retailer London Drugs is the only major regional retailer who takes back all of their packaging for recycling, including the styrofoam. It’s a program called Bring Back the Pack, and to date, stores have relied mostly on word-of-mouth, PR and social media to spread the news about it. But what would happen if they took the news to the airwaves, newspapers and the streets? Would it increase store visits or market share? Unicycle Creative was asked to find out.

StyroCycle gets the campaign rolling – literally.

The media strategy consisted of radio ads, newspaper advertorials and PR in the Victoria area. But the most unique media vehicle of all was the one pedaled by Victoria Pedicab Company President and Owner Andrew Capeau. The StyroCycle was inspired by on-line photos of cyclists in Asia hauling styrofoam blocks in outrageous stacks. Unicycle Creative took this idea and designed a pedicab shell that would be visually arresting, stable and safe, and still allow for passengers. Then we designed a month-long schedule of weekend appearances, store visits and media opportunities.

Stop. Gawk. Take a picture. Ask questions.

Victoria Pedicab President Capeau is used to getting stares, but found that the StyroCycle was a bona-fide attention-magnet.

“Pedestrians, car, bus and truck drivers are gawking with jaws wide open.  I am seeing double takes, triple takes and even full on stops with fingers pointing.  Skateboarders to baby stroller pushers are giving me the thumbs up.  I’m posing for pictures, high fives are exchanged…it’s a love in, baby!” (For his full Day-in-the-Life of a Guerilla-Media StyroCycle Pilot blog, click here)

Pocket-sized recycling cheat-sheet handouts gave potential customers even more reasons to visit one of the four Victoria stores. Meanwhile, the London Drugs PR team was busy arranging interviews, and the StyroCycle made good on-camera opportunities for both the Mayor of Victoria and BC’s Minister of Environment.

More recycling = more visits?

London Drugs is still analyzing the overall results of the campaign, but anecdotal response is strong.

• Some stores reported increases in recycling as high as 200% the week after the StyroCycle’s appearance.
• All stores reported positive customer feedback
• StyroCycle has appeared in blogs, videos and too many snapshots to count
• One customer evcen took the time to write a letter saying the recycling policy would positively impact their future buying decisions.

For a multi-category retailer like London Drugs, where almost every store visit results in a purchase, driving store visits with recycling is a great way to do good and get more sales. By going the extra mile to market a unique program like Bring Back the Pack, recycling can even build longer term brand loyalty.

Facebook, Blogs and the StyroCycle YouTube video will continue to get the message out beyond the campaign end date, but will the StyroCycle ride again? Time will tell. But if not, at least we know it will be recycled.

BC Minister of Environment Terry Lake with London Drugs Senior VP Clint Mahlman checking out the big bumper sticker.

There’s fair trade, there’s direct trade, then there’s coffee bought straight from the farmer at a single family plantation in Atenas, Costa Rica. With such a singular product and such a genuine story to tell, Unicycle Creative was stoked to have the opportunity to name this unique blend and design its packaging.

I wanted to communicate the intimacy of this supply-chain in a way that was both fresh and human. When I found out that the name of the matriarch of the farm was ‘Sole’ and that the word has the same meaning in Costa Rican Spanish as in English, I knew I had to look no further for the perfect branding.

Using images from a Juanita, a photographer and friend of the family farm, and working remotely with my client, I designed labels for medium and dark roast varieties using portraits of ‘mama’ Sole and ‘papa’ Gerardo.

My client, Primal Echo, is based out of Fort Collins Colorado. Ana Arias, the Primal Echo ‘Chief Monkey’, actually grew up in Costa Rica and is using her local roots to design a whole line of artisan products from the ground up. Because of the limited initial quantities, Ana elected to use adhesive labels printed locally and applied to the bags. So it was that I ended up sending press-ready PDF’s all the way to San Jose Costa Rica where they were printed by Duenografica.

When Ana sent pictures of our label subjects actually holding the packages at the farm, I was incredibly pleased with both the graphic outcome and the miracle of Internet technology.

To have designed a package in Vancouver Canada for a client from Fort Collins Colorado which was printed and produced in Central America brings the whole world closer together.

But now I really think it’s time for a trip to the farm…

Find out more about Primal Echo, Sole Coffee, and the family farm on Ana’s blog here. To order online, visit PrimalEcho.com To talk more about supply-chain-conscious branding, drop me a line.

After 5 years of shredding the product shelves, the skier on our BRODA PRO-TEK-TOR wood stain can was tired. He had done remarkably well on those old-school skinny skis, especially for a royalty-free image sourced online. But we knew he needed a break.

The whole idea of using west-coast mountain imagery on BRODA labels came from their roots as a Whistler company. The product is designed for that harsh environment, and people who live the mountain lifestyle are a major target customer group. So who better to ask for help in finding a new image? And what better way of reaching them than with social media?

Thus the BRODA Photo Contest web page was launched, with a $500 first prize. We researched as many photographers, bloggers, and mountain types as we could and began sending out emails. So far, response has been great. We already have more than one image that could easily be a winner. What’s more interesting, we have discovered two of our trades customers who are also avid outdoorspeople and photographers. And we’re only three days into the contest.
Thinking about running a customer content contest? Here are a few things to think about:
1. Make sure the prize is worth it. In our case, we could maybe get a royalty-free image for less, but $500 (while low for high-end pro shots) is an amount at least worth looking through the archives for. And we have some awesome Whistler pros sending in images, too.
2. Be clear about the rights you expect for usage. If you want full and unresrticted ownership of the content, say so. In our case we opted for 5 years non-exclusive use (the photog can still sell the image for other uses)
3. Have fun and be appreciative. We plan on sending something out to all the finalists, and we acknowledge every entry.
So if you need some content, consider a customer contest.
4. Pay it forward. Look to amateur sites such as Flickr, as well as pro communities. Make comments on their blogs, shots and sites and help be a social media connector for them, too.

Above all, make sure you enjoy the process. See it as an opportunity to make new connections and social media friends. The brand, and the customers will thank you for it.

I envy early advertisers who simply had to sell new and improved soap. ‘Gets clothes cleaner‘ is a much easier proposition than ‘Biomass co-firing helps reduce the total C02 emissions per kilowatt hour of power produced, even when emissions from harvest and shipping are taken into account‘.

Such is the cross we green marketers now have to bear. But there are some pretty cool tools in the box to help. Like Illustrator and Photoshop. And with some forethought, (see the 5 tips below), you can get your readers through the stats wide awake and looking for more.

Last year I had the pleasure of working with Ottawa environmental agency TerraVeritas on a communication piece for Drax Power, one of Great Britain’s biggest energy producing plants. TerraVeritas is a a science company dedicated to investigating environmental and sustainability claims. That means they do all the hard work to dig up accurate, comparative stats to tell the story. (Which was of critical importance to me, as I was tasked with selling the benefits of adding biomass to a COAL-FIRED plant! Eeeek!) My job was to help translate these complex issues into digestible copy and images for a 16-page booklet called Field to Furnace – Displacing Coal with Biomass.

Some illustrations were designed to show a bigger picture; like describing the difference between CO2 that is in our current carbon cycle vs. additional CO2; or illustrating the benefits to farmers, job creation, shipping in one image (at the top of this article). For others I used Illustrator’s graphing tool to accurately display comparative numbers for easy interpretation at a glance.

I learned a lot in the process, not least of which was a healthy respect for the science behind the numbers. If you are tasked with illustrating scientific concepts, here are a few more things to ponder for clients and creatives alike.

1. Think ahead to future uses and formats. If you’re going to all the trouble to do a 4″ x 4″ illustration for a web site, it’s probably just as easy to make it 8″ x 8″ at 300 DPI just in case it ever needs to be used it for print. Better yet, use a vector program such as Illustrator, which is resolution-independent. Video is another consideration. Building your files in layers will make it much easier to animate later.

2. Listen to the Eggheads. Don’t cheat on size and scale in comparative charts just to make your art look better. If something simply won’t fit, or will be too small to see, include an asterisk and add a disclaimer to the copy. Likewise for clients. No cheating the numbers to make your message rosier!

3. Consider the scientific acumen of your audience. If you are presenting to a board of PhD’s, you may wish to eschew graphic frippery entirely. For your average audience-in-a-hurry, make the most important points easy to see. Clients, think about what your audience may already know that will help your designer streamline the information.

4. You don’t always have to look slick or scientific. Sometimes hand-drawn or hand-written info can be the most powerful. Especially when you want to convey things in process, or show the human side of the equation.

5. Make sure you really understand the concepts. As a designer, it’s not enough to let the client do all the thinking, even if they are scientists. Wrap your head around the context for the message. Try to see it in a different way. Pare it down to its key elements and wow your client with an interpretation that’s fresh and accurate.

You might as well make friends with data. These days you can’t even sell laundry soap without putting some numbers through the wringer.

On the evening of Friday December 3rd, over 400 guests filled the pressroom at Hemlock Printers for hParty1.0 – a gala open house and technology launch event. Besides toasting over 40 years of leadership in the printing industry, the crowd was on hand to witness the launch of a ‘new communications platform’, which promised to bridge the print/digital divide. The room was aglow, the atmosphere electric. Like something out of an alternate Steve Jobs universe, the hPad burst into life on the video screen to applause, astonishment and… laughter?

Under all that hype, Hemlock launched…. a note pad.

The irony of the event was not lost on the crowd of designers, clients, businesspeople and agency types. Invitations had come via a combination of customized postcards, personalized Nametag™ RSVP web pages and email follow-up. Visitors were toured through Hemlock’s sophisticated digital printing, offset printing and web response facilities. And the hPad video itself is now racking up hits on YouTube.

So how and why would Hemlock use old-school technology to tell the world about their integrated digital offering?

Full disclosure: Unicycle Creative was the agency who partnered with Hemlock on the development of the hPad and hParty theme. The idea began as a beer-lunch quip by Vice President of Client Services Richard Kouwenhoven that rapidly scope-crept into a full-fledged invitation campaign, notebook brochure design, and launch video.

The strength of using such a classic platform is two-fold. First, the Hemlock brand is rooted in fine printing tradition. We felt it was important to affirm print’s place in the marketing mix by showing just how flexible, affordable, reliable and sustainable it really is when compared with digital alternatives. Secondly, we wanted to get attention for Hemlock’s digital strengths with a bit of wit, humour and impact. We felt taking a few lighthearted shots at the latest gadgetry would appeal to the purist tech geeks as much as the traditionalists.

So if you have a brand with a traditional background, don’t be too quick to abandon it. Even if your message itself is highly technical. A thoughtful blend of the old and the new can have even more impact than the latest bright shiny object.

To find out more about their digital print vision and printing services, visit Hemlock.com.

To get your own hPad, go deeper on the hParty1.0 branding, or talk marketing strategy, send me (Lorne Craig) an email here at Green Briefs.

Thanks to Don Barnard for his stellar shooting and editing on the hPad video; and to James Spooner, Peter Clarke and Gord Lord at GGRP for their magnificent sound design.