Seeing this booth was like walking into a living Dr. Seuss / Rube Goldberg display. Brass instruments, copper piping and elegant metalwork spiraled outward, propelled by water. Master Recycler and Artist Douglas Walker was also there, happy to exchange wry comments and discuss the sculptures. If you have a garden patio or yard in need [...]

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There’s nothing appealing about having a giant plastic barrel in your yard. But a gently babbling fountain that sits atop a sub-surface cistern, circulating the water to keep it fresh while taking some of the stress off our municipal water and storm sewer systems… what’s not to like about that? I like the upside-down umbrella [...]

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OK, so if I qualify for federal grants for my home energy efficiency improvements, I can borrow all the money I need and pay it back with the money I save on my energy bills. Can it be that easy? Well, that was the pitch from Blair Wilson at the ecoEquity booth.  Sounds like a [...]

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This is one product for which I am a prime target market. Energy Alternatives provides power systems for homes and cottages, and I am in the research phase for just such a system for our cabin at the lake. So I spent a bit of time at their booth. What Energy Alternatives has done well [...]

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This booth was a smart sharing of resources, between a responsible recycler and an artisan who uses their raw materials. The Electronic Recycling Association (ERA) works to refurbish systems that are feasible to restore, and recycle the rest for worthy charities and organizations. When I took a closer look at their website I found a [...]

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Here’s one great brand idea. Take the 100-Mile Diet concept, and become the online source for finding lifestyle products in that category. That’s the premise behind ShantiGreen. Their booth showed off some genuinely interesting products (who knew there was a local Lower Mainland source for stainless water bottles?) Green Briefs Marketing Thoughts: Great idea, wrong [...]

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This booth was staffed by people so friendly the even offered me a piece of their pizza. And overall their show presence was very consistent with their logo, colours and branding. As I was looking for some cleaner, I almost bought a bottle of their concentrated stuff, as the rep gave me a whiff of [...]

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This is one of my favourite all-time brands. (At least from a functionality perspective) I have searched for and discovered many treasures there, as well as dropping off numerous items of my own that I hope have found their own second lives with other bargain-hunters. It made perfect sense to me that they should have [...]

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Billed as Vancouver’s largest green consumer show, the EPIC Sustainable Living Expo was a must-see from a green branding and marketing perspective. As I wandered the halls, (trying not to collect to much tradeshow trash in my Toyota-branded #5 reusable and recyclable shopping bag) I sought out companies that looked ready to break out with [...]

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EPIC Sustainable Living Show 2008 Vancouver – What with energy-intensive cotton farming and sweat-shop labour, shopping for clothes with an eco-conscience can be a depressing experience. The Ecoapparel booth at EPIC offered a ray of sunshine in that world, with clean designs, tasty fabrics and an infectious enthusiasm for their business. Ecoapparel is an apparel [...]

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