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!

As my clients and friends will tell you, I’m seldom without a notebook in my pocket. It’s just too easy to miss all the brilliant words, catchy concepts and million dollar ideas flying around that I might someday be able to take credit for. As a result I have boxes of bound dead-tree-skins, bursting with… well, let’s just charitably say that perhaps I’m before my time.

But the iPad is threatening to change all that. I have discovered three apps that offer almost as much spontaneity and doodle-ability as my ubiquitous notebooks, and one that has made quite an impression on my impressionistic painting style. All without using more trees. More than were already harvested to make, document and promote the iPad itself, anyway.

Notes Plus

This was my first note-taking app, featuring stylus-based writing and the ability to type text and even make recordings. (Not a feature I really use, but might come in handy) Multi-page notebooks can easily be created, and Notes Plus stores them in a hierarchy that is missing in most iPad apps. The writing and drawing capture is a little primitive, compared to the ‘Paper’ app below, but I have actually enjoyed the blocky interpretation of some of the lines when drawing cartoons in meetings. You can zoom in for more detail, change the colour of your text and pens and vary line thickness as well. But what I love most is that it lets me sketch and type on the same page, as notes can be exported as PDFs which lets you grab the typed text later. Drawings are also editable as vectors in Adobe Illustrator, which is kind of neat as well. A handy palm pad keeps the heel of your drawing hand from writing its own messy opus at the bottom of the page. At $7.99 it’s about the same price as an 8″ x 10″ paper sketchbook.

Paper by 53

As a lifelong Moleskine sketchbook aficionado, the clean interface of this app appealed to me immediately. The selection of pens, brushes and erasers is just what I might carry in my pocket, and the interpretation of the stylus sketching is the best I’ve tried. Opening the Paper by 53 app gives you a simple selection of notebooks to work in, to which you can add custom covers, using photos from your gallery. Adding more notebooks is a one-click process, as is adding page spreads to the books themselves. Once within a book, you pinch to open the pages and sketch away. Undo is kind of a neat two finger rewind process, but it’s limited. Page spreads can be exported as jpegs with email, so it’s easy to share million dollar doodles with clients, friends and venture capitalists. My biggest beef is with the colour palette. The designers wanted to keep things simple – I get that – but really, being able to select your own crayons is grade 1 stuff. I’m sure the app people at 53 will be releasing upgrades. If Moleskine does not merge with them first. Free with one pen, $1.99 a pen for the rest and $7.99 if you order them all. About half the price of a real Moleskine.

Sketchbook Pro

This is more of a painting app, at least the way I use it. Best advantage, besides not containing any nasty chemicals like cadmium red, is that I always have a paint box with me. With SketchBook Pro I can swipe out a blobby picture anywhere without so much as a cup of water for my brush. The interface takes a little getting used to, but I love that I can make layers like Photoshop, and blend them, delete them or control their transparency. There are a variety of brush textures and sizes, and it works great in low light conditions. Downsides are, it seems to be a bit unstable. I have lost entire paintings that didn’t save themselves when the program crashes, which it occasionally does for its own temperamental artistic reasons. Perhaps it feels it’s really worth more than $4.99

The Sustainable Art in the Deal

I don’t know if programs like these will make a huge dent in my consumption of artistic consumables. I most certainly will still leave a box of analog sketchbooks for posterity, or the recyclers to dig through and/or burn for heat. So use fine Arches watercolour sheets for your masterpieces, but for quick notes and on-the spot sketches, why not save the paper? Or who knows, sometimes those quick sketch-from-the-hip shots are the real gold. Just ask Picasso.

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.

Last night I attended Vertality2, a sustainable business networking event put on by Vancouver’s Board of Change. It’s part of my 2012 Resolution Pak™ to attend more of these things and network a little more effectively. Which sounds good until I am really too busy to go, and find myself looking around a room full of people I don’t know and thinking I should just get back home to catch up on work.

Fortunately, beer came to the rescue. I had one, which caused me to hang around long enough to spot someone I did know. Chris Livingstone, the Director of All Sorts Of Things at Globe (including the EPIC Vancouver show) and a guy who can put more names to faces than anyone I know. So I had another beer (Thanks, Chris) and before I knew it, I was talking to more people I didn’t even know.

The best part is, these were really good conversations. Green building standards, sustainability in the oil patch (?!), entrepreneurial ventures, sponsorship, yoga, car co-ops… smart people sharing lots of good ideas. And of course, more beer.

Mercifully quick speeches from representatives of Saltspring Coffee, Vancity and Hollyhock reminded me of just how human the successful corporate face of change is in this city. Monika Marcovici and Sonny Wong folowed up with the announcement of the one-thousand and first member of the Board of Change.

As I had another beer, I began to feel invigorated. Maybe we are building a critical mass of positive green thinking. Maybe the Rebel Alliance can muster a charge against the Empire. Maybe the changes I am working to make in my life and work are part of something greater.

Thanks, Board of Change. Thanks, Beer.

“OK, team, here’s the brief. We have a planet. Beautiful blue ball. Happy inhabitants threatened with a global emissions crisis that could cook the whole thing like an egg. We need to brand a planetary climate treaty. A deal that will galvanize everyone from CEO’s to little old ladies into international action to save the day! It’s the pitch of a lifetime!! So what do we call it? I need ideas, people!”

“Uh… how about Kyoto…”

“Kyoto?? What the hell does that have to do with anything? Who in their green mind is going to rally behind the name of an obscure Japanese town that doesn’t even have a Whole Foods™ market? You’re FIRED! And I need a drink…”

I know branding can’t solve everything, but it’s no surprise that the headline ‘Canada withdraws from Kyoto’ is met with a shrug. Sounds like a failed minor military campaign from WW2. “Sorry, chief – we pulled out. It was just too boring there.”

It would have sounded much more dramatic if Canada had to announce they were pulling out of the “Save-Our-Planet Agreement”. Or that Harper moved to block the “Global Disaster Aversion Treaty”.

Nothing against the fine people of Kyoto, but even they must be feeling the backwash from the negative press the name of their fine city is receiving.

Now we have Durban. (“Rhymes with turban! Could be catchy….?” No?”) And yet another deal in the making. Next year, negotiations will begin on a new, legally binding accord that will be signed by 2015 and come into force by 2020.

So we have about 3 years to come up with a better brand to save the world.

Don Draper, where are you?

If Santa doesn’t show up at your house Christmas Eve, look for him at the corner of 8th & Cypress in Vancouver, dangling above a rather creative display of recycled ornamentation in a Kitsilano traffic circle. At least that’s where I last saw the guy. Not so fat, definitely not jolly and looking, frankly, a little worse for wear. Not sure who he pissed off (Hell’s Angels? The RCMP?) but I hope they show some mercy by December 24th. Otherwise this whole town could be on the coal list. Not that the mining-happy BC Liberal Government would mind that at all.

Merry Christmas.

P.S. The guy who set up the display saw me taking this pic and asked me to donate to the Food Bank. So I did. You should too – come on, it’s a 5-minute online transaction. Maybe it will help save Santa.

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.

Why should I risk my fingers rinsing out locally line-caught albacore tuna cans when some steel-toed doofus can mindlessly chuck his big mac wrappers right on top of the perfectly-recyclable cardboard, steel, and wood waste he spent the morning mixing together in a landfill-bound dumpster? How hard would it be to invent a materials separation system that is as easy as chucking it in the bin?

Well, the answer turns out to be, not very difficult at all. If you have Photoshop.

It’s a little more challenging to do in real life, but the City of Vancouver and Metro Vancouver appear to be taking it on. Under the Zero Waste category of Vancouver’s Greenest City Action Plan, a section called Enhance Construction, Renovation & Demolition Recycling tackles this very issue, with a series of proposed projects and legal amendments. A bit more Googling led me to this Metro Vancouver PDF, asking for feedback on mandatory construction and demolition  recycling regulations.

No doubt many trades and developers will be howling like scorched cats at this latest affront to the easiest possible path to profit. But it really has to happen. And when it does, the recycler that can bring the easiest most intuitive system to market should be able to really clean up.

And all us happy home recyclers won’t feel quite as duped.

So how do you tell that story in a way that appeals to the fashionistas? (And still include the sustainability branding of parent company Cadillac Fairview…?)

Well, everyone loves a good discount.

By framing the ‘Green At Work’ message in a 100% OFF price tag format, Unicycle Creative got instant shopper attention and described Pacific Centre’s waste diversion rate in one clean graphic.

The team at Pacific Centre went one step further, designing an in-mall Recycled Runway Fashion Show, using local artists to create a stunning ready-to-wear-it-again collection. Unicycle designed a pair of banners to frame the show and communicate key zero waste messages.

Some of my deeper green readers may look down their noses at the idea of such a bastion of consumerism dipping a pedicured toe into the sustainability pond. But I see it this way: Shopping isn’t disappearing anytime soon. Putting sustainability on the radar of fashion shoppers is an important step in creating the conditions that will put pressure on all parts of the retail supply chain to green up their act. Zero Waste is a solid start.

It might as well look good on them.

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.