Saturday night I attended the Corb Lund show at Vancouver’s Commodore Ballroom. One of the best (and only remaining) mid-size venues in the city. The music was fantastic. Corb Lund (and his band the Hurtin’ Albertans) are a tight ‘alt country’ act that brings a genuine thinking person’s perspective to ...
Dear Mayor Gregor: Three free ideas to get Vancouver’s new bright green brand out of the boardroom and on to the streets.
I was unusually buoyant, (considering I was reading a government document), as I waded through the new 72-page PDF report – Vancouver 2020, a Bright Green Future. This is the much-awaited guide to Vancouver City Council’s ambitious plan to be ‘a top-five global clean-tech city’, complete with a shiny new ...
Is ‘Granville Island’ Brewing now serving up Localwash?
Next time you reach for a frosty British Columbia ‘microbrew’, you may want to take a closer look at the fine print. Yesterday it was announced that Granville Island Brewing was bought by Creemore, itself a sub-brand owned entirely by Molson Coors. Big brewers taking over small brands is nothing ...
‘Local-Washing’ BC Wineries get caught red-handed. And there’s a lesson for all businesses here.
Newspapers, blogs and on-line articles were alight last week with the rapidly-maturing story of how large wineries got caught selling wine made from imported grapes in the ‘BC Wines’ or ‘Canadian Wines’ section of the liquor store. The three winemakers, including the Ontario companies that make Peller Estates and Jackson ...
Which rocks more: A greener CD package or a digital download?
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 ...
Want 600 horsepower? Take the engine out of your car.
It’s a daring leap of logic that could delight motorheads and granola crunchers alike. By taking the motor out from under the hood and putting electromotors in one or more of the vehicle’s wheels, engineers can now burn rubber without burning carbon. In 2008, a company called PML Flightlink unveiled ...
Cleaning the world’s largest ashtray.
This past weekend I went with my family to the TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup. It was a gorgeous day on English Bay as we showed up with about 50 or 60 other people to scour the beach and shoreline for litter. As I kneeled in the sand, picking up ...
What’s electric and sits under your butt cheeks? The Electric Unicycle!
Honda recently unveiled an indoor transportation unit they call the ‘U3X’, which is essentially, an electric Unicycle. (!) Powered by a lithium-ion battery which lasts for about 60 minutes, it only weighs about 10 kilos. But the real trick of this thing is that it balances itself, making the unique ...
London Drugs styrofoam recycling video floats through the blogosphere.
The latest green initiative from London Drugs seems to be striking a chord with eco bloggers. A few weeks ago, as part of my work creating their ‘What’s the Green Deal’ program, I scripted and narrated a YouTube video to show their recycling process in action. Hardly the kind of ...
The Age of Digital Distinction
There’s now one more way for us to measure ourselves against the world. The Online Identity Calculator, created by the Reach Branding Club, promises to “…evaluate the strength of your online brand”, by having you enter in some statistics and leading you through a self-assessment of the Google results on ...