This year I attended the EPIC Vancouver Sustainable Living Show as an exhibitor (with two clients) as well as a blogger, shopper and beer sampler. There were brand and product concepts aplenty, offering a creative marketing boost as well as a feeling of genuine entrepreneurial optimism. Sure, the usual flock of ‘green’ graphics were on [...]

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I recently completed a very fun project, the CD and package design for The Bent Nails, a band I have been involved with off and on for more years than I care to admit. I have always rather detested the classic ‘jewel case’, so I was eager to find a solution that was more compact [...]

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I love seeing a brand start out with a great idea.  An idea so strong and genuine, that with just a little ripening, it could set a new standard for its category.
On a recent trip to the Okanagan, I discovered just such an opportunity. The Beaumont Family Estate winery has 36 acres of grapes under [...]

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Well, after months of palative care at the bedside of a dying cel phone, I finally succumbed to the lure of the iPhone. Is it sustainable? Uhh… Is it recycled? Um, no… Is it cool? Oh yeah.
But it also further emphsizes the opposites in my existence. The push and pull between my love of technology [...]

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This was one booth that almost stumped me. It had something to do with EM (effective microorganisms) and involved some sort of kitchen composter for meat, bones and other food waste. (!) As I spoke with their enthusiastic and friendly rep, Lynda, I gradually came to understand that EM represents a proprietary combination of some [...]

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The logical vs. emotional question has been debated in smoky ad agency back rooms since back room smoking was actually allowed. So what does this have to do with marketing a solar-powered beer fridge? Well, that’s really just a fake product ad I created to illustrate a theory I discovered in a recent online article [...]

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What is the best post-apocalyptic ride to park in your bunker? Wired Magazine sought some answers to this increasingly important question in a recent on-line issue. Turns out at least one reader had enough savvy to nominate the most sustainable ride on the planet to this top-10 list, a selection which seems oddly matched with [...]

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We entered the huge, well-appointed ballroom for the plenary speeches. A glowing centre stage fit for a TV talk show, with five overstuffed chairs was flanked by video screens. The lighting was dramatic, the sound and pacing polished. The crowd eager to get to the 7pm cocktails. But there was both inspiration and optimism in [...]

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4:45 AM – Even the birds are rolling over for another hour of sleep. The taxi shows up to take me to the Main Street Station for my 5:30 bus to Seattle, and as though by design, it’s a Prius hybrid. Vancouver’s Terminal Station looks proud in the rising eastern glow of a cloudless travel [...]

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I began my pre-trip journey on the Carbon Footprint calculator, adding up the emissions for my various travel options from Vancouver BC to Monterey CA.
Distance: 2,810 km
CO2 emissions if traveling by air: .67 tonnes
CO2 emissions if traveling by car (@ 9L/100km): .586 tonnes
CO2 emissions if traveling by rail: .169 tonnes (about the weight of my carry-on)
This made the choice pretty straightforward from [...]

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