The first question one is tempted to ask is ‘why?’ … But to do so would be to miss the point. All you need to know is that the car is called ‘I am, eh’. Namaste.

— Post From My iPhone

Location:Robson St Vancouver

Anyone who thinks Vancouver is quite green enough thank you very much had better hang on. We ain’t seen the half of it. But that means more green jobs and a better economic outlook in the long term.

So says Sadhu Johnston, Vancouver’s Deputy City Manager, at a presentation put on by the Board of Change September 14th.

It was part of his launch of the city’s ‘Talk Green To Us’ campaign, which asks residents to submit suggestions for how Vancouver can meet its goal of being the ‘Greenest City In The World’ by 2020. By some standards we are already getting there, reports Johnston.

“As a city we have already reduced our C02 emissions to pre-1990 levels” he says, “while supporting an 18% increase in jobs.” This, Johnston claims, puts to rest the idea that we have to choose between jobs and the environment. He even went so far as to elaborate specifically on the groups and sectors where the city wants to support job creation. (For more on this, see the video clip above)

So what else is the city doing to reach our greenest goals? Focusing on cycling is one direction. “Cars are no longer the priority” Johnston states unequivocally. “We need to get the cyclists who are not comfortable in Spandex… The 66% who say they are interested but afraid.” To this end, Johnston supports the new separated bike lane on Hornby St, but knows it faces challenges. He made it a point to ask the crowd of businesspeople to show their support with letters and emails to City Hall.

The admittedly green crowd then peppered Johnston with challenges and opportunities in waste diversion, muni/provincial politics, and small business support.

For my part, I commented that their definition of ‘small & medium business’ as those with 500 or less employees, left something to be desired for the majority of city businesses who probably have less than 10 employees. (On a side note, Maureen Cureton from Vancity Community Investment later emailed me with some info on ClimateSmart programs for smaller businesses… but more on that later)

Johnston encouraged everyone to submit ideas to TalkGreenToUs.ca, and vote for those they feel most strongly about. For my part, I officially submitted my ‘Green Capitalist’ suggestion (Green Briefs Blog, Nov 6th) so feel free to vote early and vote often.

The Green Briefs 2 Bits:
Talk Green To Us is a good idea, with nice branding. It may be one too many brands for the public to absorb, however. What would have been wrong with extending the Green Capital brand for more consistency and participaton? ‘Green Capital Ideas’ for instance, would link the local initiatives with our global Vancouver brand.

The visual of the cement mixer spreading foliage is very well crafted and engaging, but may paint the real issues and challenges a bit lightly. Sadhu Johnston’s presentation style and personality are strong, and an asset to the city’s brand. I would like to have seen him on the video. Overall a good campaign IMHO. I look forward to seeing how they follow it up, especially with those of us who took the time to Talk Green To Them.

By the way, if you like this kind of Green Business Model thinking, you should consider joining the Board of Change. Their events are inspiring for greenies and capitalist weenies alike.

I don’t think this is Greenwash. I actually know some people who drink enough Starbucks out of paper cups to use up a whole tree.

You would think that companies as large and bristling with lawyers as Unilever and the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group would know better than to play fast and loose with health claims. Apparently not. On August 23 the FDA slammed them, saying to Canada Dry that “…the soft drink does not meet federal requirements to carry the claim that the drink is “enhanced with 200 mg of antioxidants from green tea and vitamin C.” and the ingredients “are not nutrients with recognized antioxidant activity.” To Lipton they said their labeling is misleading because it suggests Lipton tea is designed to treat or prevent disease. Ouch.

So what happened? Did some over-zealous white lab-coat type come screaming up to the marketing department carrying a rat recently in remission, claiming a glass of green tea ginger ale had anti-oxidated it back to health? Or was it a shady boardroom deal, where nefarious marketing types cackled with glee as they crafted the offending labels to deliberately mislead an unsuspecting public?

Probably neither. It looks to me like a simple case of ‘claim creep’, whereby a small side-benefit gets gradually built up until it finds itself leading the marketing pack. Usually with little backing from the research department.

Have you got a product or service claim with less than stellar credentials? Is there one thing you’ve been saying for so many years now that no one really knows if it’s even true? Take a look and do something about it.

Because if you don’t, someone else might.

Have you got a sustainability idea or initiative to get off the ground? You might want to take yourself a lot less seriously.
Less than two months ago, the Crazy Sustainable Commute was just a fun office idea in the head of Steve Unger, a Senior Director at SAP. The concept is now gaining momentum throughout Vancouver and may one day go even further. 
The event, to be held on August 27th 2010, is a campaign designed to inspire people for ONE day to rethink how they can commute to work in an eco-friendly way that is sustainable, fun and raises awareness. 
“Each small step you take to reduce carbon emissions is one BIG step closer to a healthier planet and a healthier you.” says Steve.

When the Crazy Sustainable Commute team called me I have to admit the idea was too fun to resist. Especially when Steve told me how he was planning to commute on August 27th. So Green Briefs and Unicycle Creative jumped on board by offering blog coverage, logo design and production of a YouTube video featuring Steve’s alter-ego, Canoe-Man.

The Crazy Sustainable Commute team has since been to the July Critical Mass ride and has started a web page for participants to share their fun commuting ideas at www.crazysustainablecommute.org.
If you have an event or initiative to get off the ground, remember that humour and quirkiness go a long way in today’s cluttered, serious world. A fun idea will attract more sponsors, marketing partners, media coverage and participants. (It may even get you a good deal on some creative!) So turn the wacky side of your brain loose. Joining the Crazy Sustainable Commute on August 27th is a great way to start.

When I see some of the big-money idiocy that passes for brand advertising these days, (Yes, the ad you see above is real) I want to throw this smart little book at marketing heads left and right. That’s one of the reasons I bought a box of them. The other, I must admit, is that Unicycle Creative (the agency behind Green Briefs) is featured as one of the brand examples.
Branding Basics for Small Business has a lot of information packed into its pages, from classics like 10 Key Questions for building your strategy to sections that address today’s issues (“I know my brand strategy… it’s to build a Facebook page!”) And author Maria Ross’ Brand Building Blocks format makes it easy for busy businesspeople of all levels to visualize a process that has stumped more MBA’s than a Sudoku with a typo.
I was proud to have been interviewed for the ‘Choosing a Name’ section. It was a chance to remind the world that a name with a good story behind it is well worth the up-front investment. It’s one step that, done right, can help market your business forever.
If you want a free copy of Branding Basics for Small Business for yourself, leave a comment below and offer up your best brand advice. If you miss this little promo (quantities limited, etc etc) is easy to order a copy online at Norlights Press (one of the friendliest virtual booksellers I’ve met) and it’s a bargain at only $15.95.

As a Province that has just spent millions to convince tourists to visit her pristine vistas, Alberta can’t be too happy with the new campaign from Corporate Ethics.  “Rethink Alberta” billboards are going up in Seattle, Portland, Denver and Minneapolis that compare the tar sands to the BP Blowout oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The ads lead to to rethinkalberta.com, a website featuring a hard-hitting 96-second YouTube video that shows some choice stats and shots that make a pretty damning case against tar sands development.

In one particularly frightening quote, James Hansen, an eminent climatologist from NASA, has said they if the tar sands are exploited fully, it’s essentially game over for global warming.

For those who agree with this conclusion, it stands to reason that the ends justify almost any means in a campaign to stop this disaster.

But a strategy designed to punish one sector to effect change in another has implications for all businesses. Think about your supply chain, your government and any local issues that may be the target of some future anti-advertising campaign. Are there areas where your business could be affected by a boycott? How would you respond? Especially if you agreed with the proponents of the campaign? (Should the owner of an eco-tourism operation in Alberta be punished for the policies of his government?)

The Green Briefs Two Bits:

As business becomes globalized, so does protest. More groups will link broad leveraged action with their causes, so know your supply chain, keep your own corporate policies transparent and be ready to respond if you get caught in the middle. Then be ready to make hay from any publicity opportunity. Our fictional Alberta Eco Tour operator could probably get airtime by offering a Tar Sands Tour complete with a protest stop at the Alberta Legislature. Then again, by doing that they might become the target of roving gangs of pickup-driving Alberta tar-lovers. Oops, was that my outside voice?

You can link to a fairly balanced Alberta newspaper article about the campaign here, and form your own no doubt equally balanced opinion.

Take a look here for the Calgary Herald newspaper’s tit-for-tat retort.

It was all flying high for awhile with the TV show and sponsorship deal, but when the purple one left to ‘explore his/her true self’ and their agent split to the Caymans with the cash, it all came crashing down.

The 5th Annual ImagePower® Green Brands Survey is out, with some encouraging and surprising results. First, the environment is not going away, despite our best attempts to kill it. With over 9000 people polled in eight countries (Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India and the United Kingdom) this study concludes that overall, concern for the environment is up 3.5%. And the growth is coming from some very interesting places.

Emerging economies are the new eco marketing goldmines.

While cost remains the biggest hurdle to buying green in mature markets like Australia, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, the environment still trumps the economy as the issue of greatest concern in the emerging economies of India and Brazil. While 30 percent of all survey respondents plan to spend more on green products next year, in Brazil, China, and India that number rises to more than 70 percent. In China and India, this is a 9 and 3 percent increase, respectively, over 2009. HELLO makers of green products!! Massive Market ALERT!! In China, confusing labeling makes purchases a struggle; shoppers can’t figure out which products are truly more ecofriendly. I guess their packaging communications problems aren’t limited to bad English translations. Seriously though, China could really benefit from a well-managed certification system. Green certification agencies like Canada’s Terrachoice (managers of Canada’s successful ECO-LOGO program) have their work cut out for them.

Message from the world to corporations: Stop poisoning us.

Across the board, consumers want to buy from environmentally responsible companies. And their #1 concern: reducing toxics. It has become the cost of entry for brands in most markets, the survey says. As Google becomes a global verb, the transparency of toxic ingredients, manufacturing processes and disposal issues will only increase. Water conservation takes second place in Australia, Brazil, China, and India, while consumers in France, Germany, and the United States focus on the use of recycled materials. British consumers show the most interest in reducing the amount of packaging used, ranking it second behind toxin removal.

The Green Briefs Two Bits:

While this survey focuses on global brands and attitudes, there is learning for local green brands as well.  The good news is that consumers generally trust green advertising, especially in developing markets. But people decide for themselves what ‘green’ means, so it’s up to you to find out what your customers value most. Clear communication and transparency will always be in style. And best of all, we’re on the side that’s winning. So stay the course. The world will beat a path to our door.

Maury McCausland and Dennis Dong from London Drugs, feeling the green display love.

Trade shows and networking events are a great way for sustainability-focused companies to spread their message. But if the display itself doesn’t share those green values, what’s the point?  When creating a display for London Drugs’ What’s the Green Deal program at the 2010 EPIC Sustainable Living Show, we set the objective of our booth to be 100% recycled, recyclable or reusable.

We had four main communication objectives: 1) Introduce the ‘What’s the Green Deal’ program, 2) Make people aware of our Bring Back the Pack styrofoam recycling, 3) Profile some of our green products and 4) Showcase our responsible electronics recycling.

Using a combination of custom-built displays and commercially-available ‘green’ booth components we were able to do all that and come pretty close to achieving ‘3-R’ status.

Sourcing ‘green’ stand-up displays.

Most off-the-rack booth systems we researched were more concerned with traditional variables of cost, weight and performance than the use of sustainable materials. One exception was the Panda Banner stand we discovered at Go Green Displays. The unit is made from 90% renewable resources (bamboo) and  the image is printed on cotton fabric utilizing low VOC inks. We ordered two – one for our introductory message (mostly type on white) and one for our responsible recycling info (type reversed from a darker photo). For both, we provided PDF files from InDesign and were very pleased with the crispness of the type and the rich colour of the images. The stands come in handy carrying bags and set up easily. My only complaint was that one of the two stands we ordered seemed to lean forward a bit more than the other.

To build a recycling display, start at the recycling bin.

Visiting London Drugs’ recycling partner, Genesis Recycling, is a fascinating experience. Their technicians can break a laptop down to its component parts in a matter of minutes and their styrofoam compressor turns a mountain of white blocks into polystyrene pucks with equal ease. To bring some of this directly to the booth, I had them give me one disassembled laptop and a minivan full of styrofoam blocks. It was then a simple matter of combining clean design with science-fair-project engineering to display what basically was a pile of junk without it looking like… well, a pile of junk. For the ‘exploded laptop’ display I spent an evening with zap straps and some pegboard, designing the panels to fold inward for easy portability. The Bring Back the Pack display was a cardboard box built around a tall table which held the TV/DVD unit which played some of our Green Deal YouTube videos. I surrounded this with an explosion of styro blocks held together with bamboo shishkebab sticks. All graphics were printed out on 100% PCW paper.

For the retail part of the display, we sourced some Green Deal products from the store and displayed them on a shelf that our client, Dennis, brought from his garage. The finishing touch was an area rug from the same source.

All in all, the EPIC show was successful for London Drugs. We spoke to a lot of people about What’s the Green Deal, and got TV interviews from Global and CBC. The client is setting up the display at their head offices and will use it for other community events in the future. And when it’s message becomes outdated, almost every component will be able to be kept out of landfill. And that’s a good feeling that lasts long after the tradeshow lights have dimmed.