“Join a staggering faculty of over 70 design, sustainability and brand leaders, along with peers from around the country, with the beautiful Northern California Coastline as a backdrop and explore how you can stay on the cutting edge of sustainable business and translate brand innovation into revenue growth and brand ...
Canada’s new VOC regulations give advantage to established players in the eco market
Last month, Environment Minister John Baird announced that the Government of Canada is taking action to reduce emissions from chemicals in consumer and commercial products such as paints, varnishes, adhesives and vehicle repair cleaners. These components are known as Volatile Organic Compounds, or VOC’s.You probably know them as those headache-inducing ...
White Paper: What motivates green consumers? It depends on who they are.
When I presented at an OpenDialogue conference in Toronto last year, I did a fair bit of research into green consumers. Turns out they are just like everybody else: completely different. From the deep green RAW NUTZ (Righteous And Willing Nature Unspoiling Total Zealots) to the fuzzy MOSS (Masses Of ...
EPIC discoveries, EPIC Marketing Challenges
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 ...
What’s behind a ‘green’ clothing label?
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 ...
Toronto greener than Vancouver? Compostable plastic bag maker says “Yes.”
EPIC Sustainable Living Show, Vancouver 2008 – I first stopped by the Bag-To-Nature booth to inquire about how ‘compostable’ their plastics technology was. I soon learned that other municipalities in Canada have a whole different need for such bags. “We took it for granted that the curbside collection of organics ...
What would a green show be without granola?
As usual, free food samples called to me, leading to the New World Natural Foods booth. Impressed with the flavour, I ended up purchasing a bag of Tropical Fruit Nut blend. Then I asked myself, why aren’t these local products more available? Speaking with Rajinder Bagga, I learned that the ...
Recycling with a smile.
One of the friendliest booths I came across at Vancouver’s recent EPIC sustainable living show was the unassuming home of Happy Stan’s Recycling. The Happy One himself, Stan Kaminski, started his journey into the world of recycling by collecting newspapers to raise money for the Gibson’s boys club. Stan then ...
Wish all that plastic packaging would just go away? Green Century hopes so, too.
EPIC Sustainable Living Show, Vancouver 2008 – Ironic that the styrofoam box that protects your restaurant leftovers for two days will be in the landfill until the year 3000. So who’s responsibility is it to deal with? According to Green Century, business should be doing a lot more. “We took ...
Welcome to Dahlia Drive. Where clothing goes from Thrift Store to Art Gallery.
Rich colours, subtle organic textures overlaid with bold screenprints, intriguing yet subtle in their interpretation. If this sounds like an art review, it should. Artist Wendy Van Riesen of Dahlia Drive produces her one-of-a-kind pieces from discarded slips and shirts, in her words, ‘Resurrecting the fashion wasteland’, a term which ...