But what would their love-child be named?

If you are an advertiser who buys billboard media, chances are you may have some vinyl boards in the mix. If that’s the case, you can now get your old billboards repurposed into dashing courier-style bags by Vancouver’s ECO Apparel. This is a great re-use of material, and could become an instant hit with your staff, customers or media contacts. (Imagine sending out your next green press release in a case built from one of your own billboards, or offering them as a gift for key clients)

There’s a tasty photo essay on how they ‘harvest’ billboards on the ECO Apparel site here – each is individually ‘designed’, with the most unique & colourful billboard sections chosen and cropped by hand.

ECO Apparel also offers closed-loop recycling for corporate wear you purchase from them. If you outfit your sales team with cool fleece, they can return it to ECO to be recycled into new polyester fabric. Nice product responsibility!

All of which makes me wonder: what else could be made from corporate cast-offs? Oak chopsticks from the old boardroom table? Scratchy underwear from the fabric of discarded office cubicle dividers? Land for homeless tent shelters in unused parking stalls? It’s a whole new world! But seriously, if you’re interested in billboard bags or green corporate wear, contact ECO Apparel. They’ve got it going on.

If there’s one thing any marketer likes it’s a client who can back up their claim. When I met Kevin Pegg from Energy Alternatives in Victoria last year, I knew he was the real deal. So I was pleased and honoured when he asked Unicycle Creative to build some magazine ads to tell his story.

Energy Alternatives has been designing and installing off-grid power systems since 1984. Yet with the recent focus on green energy comes a whole crop of equally green competitors. Our strategy was to simply tell his story, referencing the green movement yet not depending on it to sell our benefits. We stayed in the realm of reality for images as well. Rather than searching for sleek, shiny stock photography, we chose to use shots from Kevin’s own extensive library of installation images – colour tinted in Photoshop to give them a unique look and represent different periods in EA’s history.

We had one other ace in the hole. Energy Alternatives was chosen to create the power system that ran the Olympic rings lighting up Vancouver’s Coal Harbour for two spectacular weeks in February 2010. Without stepping on VANOC’s toes, we wanted to tell that story as well.

If you’re a green marketer with a history, now may be the perfect time to tell your story. Just be sure to do it in a way that is interesting, genuine and relevant to your customers.

The ads are breaking in local and national publications this month. So I’ll keep you posted on the response.

Waking up at 5:30, I have to wonder if driving a carbon-spewing vehicle across an international border to sit in a room full of strangers watching someone speak about the power of remote digital connections… isn’t just a little ironic.

Regardless, I’m here at the Social Media Conference Northwest, to navigate the constantly-evolving thicket of Twitters, bloggers and Facebook Friends. Is it a green communications technology? Perhaps, compared to some. But more importantly, its a way of engaging people that no marketer, green or otherwise, can afford to ignore. I’ve had some experience in the field (hey, you’re reading this, aren’t you?) but I wanted a better idea of where it’s all going – to get more sustainable results for myself, my clients and you, dear Green Briefs readers.

As is my way with conference recaps, I’ll do my best to cover the speakers I saw, (apologies for the length, but it was GOOD STUFF!) and offer my own 2-bits at the end.

The Opener: Weak Publishing – by Matthew Dunn, ‘Chief Explainer’ at Say it Visually!

It’s good to start a conference with the Big Picture. Dunn began by describing his roots in a Colorado town so small the local newspaper is still to this day set with hot lead type. He also showed how ‘six degrees of separation’ theory collapses large groups down into close and accessible connections – person to person communication that is ‘weak’ in broadcast terms, but wide where it counts – reaching the right people.

So how does this help marketers? Check this stat: By 2011, the data captured and stored in the world will be equivalent to 300 Gigabytes for every human on the planet. And Google can only go so far. So we look at web sites from friends. We ask trusted associates for references on companies, information and resources. Social media provides short-cuts for information (read: your marketing message) to get to people.

Breakout Session 1: Online Video as Part of your Social Media Strategy – Aaron Booker, Varvid Digital Video Production.

Varvid started by doing videos for the ‘Value-Added Reseller’ community and has been live webcasting since 2002. So they’ve been there. They now also offer event-based social media solutions, corporate video projects and custom Internet video portals. Booker chose to use the classic YouTube video Welcome to the Revolution to introduce his presentation. Not a hangin’ crime, but I was surprised Varvid did not have their own version of a stats-based sales piece. The best quote from this stat-vid: Social media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the web. More relevantly, under reasons to use video on your site, YouTube is now the #2 search engine behind Google, so video boosts your search engine rankings. But not all video is created equal. What NOT to post, according to Booker: boring corporate profiles, messages from the CEO, commercials, or ‘viral video’ – (These, according to Booker, are a stroke of lightning, not a strategy) What does work: How-to video. Case studies. Video press releases. Client testimonials. Event video. (Cameras, lights, interviewers make events look exciting, and everyone wants to get their mug on film – as you see above)

Business Strategy for the Interconnected Age – James Burnes, Project Brilliant

This dude was psyched, waking up the crowd like the coffee we couldn’t have. And in no quiet terms, he told us he would be talking business strategy, not tactics. In a 20-minute presentation that stoked my marketing strategic fires, Burnes gave a branding 101 class that made it obvious Social Media deserves as much attention in the boardroom as any other communications channel:

• What are your goals?
• Who are your targets?
• How will you deal with angry customers and support your loyal fans? (The two most important groups in social media)
• What do your customers want?
• Where do they go online?
• Who is our talent? (Hint: it starts with the executive team)
• What are our core milestones and events (trade shows, sales push, etc – plan around these events)
• How will mobile accessibility to social media affect you? And finally:
• Do you need your own social platform/community? (group on facebook, etc)

Burnes then offered some real-world examples of strategies, each condensed into a tight sentence. I challenge you to get yours this tight:

• “Give prospective customers more exposure to what it’s like to do business with us.”
• “Move excess inventory through special offers and deals”
• “How do we drive referrals by making it easier to spread the word on the web?”
• “Recruit the best talent by showcasing our staff’s work and the lifestyle we live.”
• “Deliver easy ways for customers and prospects to share their product ideas.”

Burnes also drove home the need for a budget. His solution for where to get that money? Eliminate print brochures. Classic web-guy statement, but nobody in this crowd was disagreeing.

“Social Media Monitoring as a “Free” Focus Group – Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Buzz” Clay McDaniel, Spring Creek Group

Many decision-makers ignore Social Media as a “Land of the Malcontents”, populated only by whiners and geeks. But if you know where to look, there is all sorts of research information online, for free or close to it. All companies with a website are ‘Global’ – and you have access to information like never before.  Including, the entire deck for this presentation, offered online by the Spring Creek Group right here.

Begin by listening to what’s being said about you. Google Alerts is a good place to start. This service sends you an email every time Google finds a page containing keywords that you specify (like your company name). You can also place alerts for peoples’ names, your competition’s company, key issues etc etc. Other tools like Technorati help filter some of the billions of sites for you, and Twitter has its own set of tools (Twittersearch, Twendz) to monitor trends and keywords. For more robust, customizable solutions, check out Scoutlabs or Radian6. If you just want to jump right in yourself, here’s your 1-2-3:

1. Set up your Google Alerts
2. Spend 1 month determining where your customers, competitors others are posting most about you, themselves, their market
3. Pick top 2 key social media channels for you: Monthly deep-dives using one or more of the right tools.

Then look for those “a-ha” moments regarding your brand. That may be a trend in discussions, a surprise customer service issue or an opportunity to fill a need you never knew existed. But if you never listen, you’ll never know.

Blogging, Tweeting & Revenues. But really, who has the time? by Anne-Marie Faiola – CEO Brambleberry – AKA The Soap Queen

This was one presentation I had to see. How one small retailer grew her business with grass-roots social media and still mans the Twitter, blog and Facebook helm every day. Anne-Marie Faiola sells materials for handmade craft soaps, (molds, colorants, soap) online through a company she started when she was 20. In her words, “People bought my products just because I was helpful and friendly. People buy from people they like.”

Faiola budgets her social media time thus: Twitter: 30min/day Composing 15-20 tweets a day, jumping into conversations etc.  Facebook – 10 min a day. Blogs, one every single day – 60min. YouTube – (4 episodes of Soap Queen TV) 8hrs to film once a month on a weekend – (60hr project for the entire team)

Faiola then went beyond strategy to specifics. She uses Tweetdeck – to create lists of her followers so she can track them by category. Hootsuite helps her schedule her twitter updates so they appear regularly throughout the day. For blog writing, she recommends creating an editorial calendar and keeping a buffer of completed blogs.

Her YouTube Channel, SoapQueen TV has its own interesting story – the tale of another nail in the print advertising coffin. In 2006, Faiola had a $48,000 print advertising budget. With one stroke of the pen, she decided to use that money to set up her own in-shop mini TV studio. Including a local camera crew and editing services, each episode now only costs an average of $1000.

At first, her board rejected the idea of a Social Media plan. Now, using Google Analytics, Faiola tracks tangible sales directly from her online social media activities. In one example, she tracked $16,000 to a Twitter sales campaign. At the same time, year over year sales are up 29%. Cleaning up, one might say.

How to use social media to promote your brand – Brad Nelson, Starbucks

Seeing Brad, It’s like the ‘I’m a Mac’ guy got up on stage to present. His comfortable, casual delivery is perfect for Social Media. This is the guy you want talking to millions of customers every day. He began with some caveats. If your product sucks, social media is not going to fix it. If you are not willing to be transparent and open, social media is not for you. If there was one main message he preached it was to LISTEN. All media is social. All companies are media companies. Goodbye Ad Wars. Hello Conversation.  Add value to the conversation, and if there’s a fire, respond to where the fire is.

Nelson had an interesting comparison to the social media world of just a few years ago. If 2009 was the year of status updates, 2010 is the year of the check-in. When you check in with Twitter, YouTube, your Facebook page, that’s where your real world and your digital world connect. So what’s next for Starbucks?

• Location – smartphones, Foursquare, and other technology that knows where you are adds layers to social media experience
• What’s a 1-800 number? Anyone under 25 will probably not call it.
• Social media is how you discover content. Facebook helps people discover content, through links from trusted friends.
• Social Media will help us even more to decide what to buy.
• Organizing – Elections, Tweetups

Nelson’s parting (espresso) shot: Start now to build credibility in the Social Media world. One day you’ll need it.

The Green Briefs 2-Bits: More than ever I believe Social Media will be a relevant channel going forward. Social Media NW is affordable, accessible and has something for small or large businesses. Will people tire of Tweeting? Undoubtedly. Will some defriend Facebook and revert to growing organic carrots and playing guitar all day long? I hope so. But more conversations and better content will make our new connections with each other more and more important to business. Heck, I remember a time when business cards didn’t have a web site address. So leave a comment. Tell me what you think – after all, that’s what this social media thing is all about, right?

Whoops, gotta go. It’s time to feed my Tweeter.

The tap vs. bottled water debate is nothing new, but I came across an article on the Granville website which made me think municipalities may have the wrong idea when it comes to promoting it. Turns out Vancouver has recently upgraded the facilities that treat the already excellent tap water that comes from our spectacular North Shore watersheds. With this $600 million upgrade, officials in the region say they can now boast to having the highest quality tap water in the world.

“No doubt about it,” says Bill Morrell, media relations manager at Metro Vancouver, ”I would put our drinking water up against any other tap water source in the world.”

The article goes on to point out several myths in the bottled water world.

Myth: Bottled water is safer.

Fact: Bottled water can be from any source and treated in any manner. The two largest brands of bottled water in Canada, Coca-Cola’s Dasani and Pepsi’s Aquafina brands use filtered municipal tap water from Brampton, Ontario, and Calgary, Alberta.  NRDC testing also found bacteria and chemicals (including arsenic and methylene chloride) in some other brands of bottled water.

Myth: Bottled water is always strictly monitored and tested.

Fact: Metro Vancouver tests tap water everyday from hundreds of sources, up to 25,000 times per year. Bottled water plants may only be  inspected only once every three years.

With these kinds of advantages on tap, maybe it’s time to take the gloves off when it comes to marketing our own sweet mountain water. And let’s ditch the ‘tap’ reference. We have mountain water delivered to our homes, pure and simple.

Mr. Morrell, if you ever want to go up against the bottle cartel, just let me know.

I’m ready for my closeup. Er, maybe a little too close. But it’s all for a good cause, namely the continued greening of one of BC’s great independent retailers. As some Green Briefs fans will know, I helped London Drugs brand launch their What’s the Green Deal sustainability program almost two years ago. Since then they have led the way in retail responsibility with programs like in-store recycling drop-off, free recycling for small appliances or electronics you replace with a London Drugs purchase, and of course, Bring Back the Pack – the only packaging recycling program that takes Styrofoam.

So now I’m leading with my chin to help spread the word. And I’m asking you to help. Tell me what I should feature. Ask me some tough questions. Suggest some on-camera stupid-human tricks. I’ll do my best to V-blog all about it.

And if you want London Drugs to continue getting even greener, don’t forget to tell your friends about What’s the Green Deal. That’s how social media works.

Many thanks to ace shooter and editor Don Barnard for cutting out most of my mistakes.

Gotta go now. They want me in the makeup truck.

One sunny Friday I decided to take a closer look at Vancouver’s most visible renewable energy landmark – the Eye of the Wind turbine at Grouse Mountain. This is the world’s first power-generating turbine with a viewing platform. As your green blogging hippie, naturally I was curious. How much power does it make? Does it wobble? Is the view really worth a quarter-of-a-hundred dollars? Do they serve beer? Armed with my stealth video iPhone, I went to get some answers.

The Green Briefs Marketing Viewpoint: This tower is truly a remarkable structure, though it’s more of a symbol than a workhorse. As such, a higher public profile among the green-friendly would benefit both Grouse Mountain and Vancouver’s Green Capital status. (OK, technically it’s North Vancouver – but you get the idea) Imagine a promotion for a private green Valentine’s dinner in the pod at 4176 feet… or a contest for schoolkids to write an environmental essay and win a trip to the Eye for their whole class… These sorts of events would give this landmark the exclusive cachet it deserves. It would also be a good idea to connect locals with the idea of wind power generated right here, perhaps with an online contest to guess the date when the Eye reaches a selected amount of generated power. I hope the team at Grouse can keep this turbine positively in the eye of Vancouver’s many green fans. I for one would like to have an organic beer up there some day. (Hmmm… they didn’t check my pockets…)

More Details: The Eye of the Wind was a global project. Conceived and assembled in Canada, designed in Italy, tower made in the USA and Korea, viewpod designed and constructed in France, elevator from Denmark, controls made in Mexico, machine carrier assembly made in Austria, and the 12,000lb carbon fiber blades were made in Finland. It transfers power with a gearless assembly, and is pinned to the mountain with 32 anchors that run 15 meters deep. Check out some cool construction shots here. The Eye of the Wind is part of the Blue Grouse sustainability program, which also includes snowcats that run on biodiesel, recycling programs, organic food options, fair trade coffee and water conservation.

OK, it wasn’t called that. But as my second green business shmooze in 12 hours, (see Power Plant event blog, below) I was bleary stumbling into this 7:30am Metro Vancouver Sustainability Breakfast on food certification. Balancing a cup of BCIT coffee, 2 preservative-laced danishes and a Happy Planet juice, I took notes as best I could from the three very qualified and interesting speakers. So if you are confused about competing eco logos, curious about what ‘Fair Trade’ really means, or just care slightly about what stuff down your gullet, grab your own cuppa joe and read on.

Mike McDermid, Program Manager for OceanWise, started the set, with the erudite, likeable delivery of a favourite biology teacher. Unfortunately, the data he brought to the table was, to say the least, distressing. To start, 90% of all big fish in the ocean are gone, and we’re shoveling the last 10% into the boat as fast as we can. Quoting from a 2006 study led by a Nova Scotia biologist named Boris Worm (no, I didn’t make that up) Mike further let us know that by 2048 there could be a complete collapse of all fisheries. Everything. No anchovies for pizza, even. So the case was made for the need to change the way we consume fish.
There are two ways to do this. Through Regulatory Reform (slow and bureaucratic) and Market Transformation (sounds way cooler, for sure). The OceanWise program is a form of the latter, designed to ‘drive demand for sustainable seafood’ from the consumer on down through the supply chain. Apparently, it’s working. From humble beginnings with a few restaurants in 2005, OceanWise has grown to over 300 partner businesses in 2700 locations across Canada. Perhaps most telling, the fish wholesalers who wouldn’t return Mike’s calls at the beginning of the program are now eager to get on board. It appears the voting wallets of educated fish munchers have some real bite.
The Green Briefs Two-Bits: One of the key components to the success of OceanWise has been the support of the Celebrity Chef set. This is ‘Influencer Marketing’ at its best, and promoters of other worthy programs should take note. Their clean design and association with the Vancouver Aquarium have also given this program a fin up. However, as I noted in an earlier blog on OceanWise, I think they still need to do some more promotion work at the restaurant table level. The story is so compelling, it should be discussed over every seafood meal.

Brad Reid, President of the Certified Organic Association of BC took the podium next. “At this time of day I’m usually talking to a few thousand chickens.” he began, as he described the grassroots origins of the COABC. This organization grew from the lifestyles of the farmers and growers involved – “Overage hippies looking for a cause” as Brad describes them – and now represents 80% of the organic farmers in BC. What’s more, the COABC also administers the BC Organic Logo on behalf of the Provincial Government.
Brad showed a few of the most common logos currently in place on organic goods in BC stores – the USDA symbol, the Canada Organic symbol and the BC Organic label – and described the challenges of both educating consumers about their choices, and educating farmers about what consumers want these days. He also introduced the concept of a less bureaucratic form of labeling that would allow smaller producers, urban farmers and gardeners to brand their organics without the onerous certification costs associated with existing third-party verified standards. Called CVO – Community Verified Organic, this level of certification would be an open approach that would depend on consumer and/or community enforcement to make it work.
Green Briefs Deep Thoughts: A few questions crossed my mind about Brad’s presentation. Firstly, there may be confusion for consumers between the ‘BC Organic’ label and the COABC name. Adding CVO to the mix will require even more education. The brand designer in me would love to see a more logical name-tree hierarchy between the three levels so shoppers could envision it as different facets of the same system. Secondly, the local advantage of BC Organics should be played up way more. Once carbon footprint from shipping is included in the decision, it really should be perceived as the gold standard and support a higher value as a result.

Last up was Lloyd Bernhardt, President of Ethical Bean Fair Trade Organic Coffee. If Lloyd’s word-per-minute count is any indication, he is obviously as dedicated to the testing of his product as he is to as the principles behind it. Having just returned from a World Coffee Conference in Guatemala, he offered a rich overview of the Fair Trade process, blended with a few of its more colourful character flaws and a refreshing aftertaste of its success. (The complex layers of the system as he described it are already leaving my addled brain, so if you are reading this, Lloyd, please feel free to step in.)
Start with the fact that it takes some 3500 beans to make up one pound of coffee. That’s a lot of fingers doing a lot of work. Fingers traditionally attached to workers completely at the mercy of the coffee commodity market. To address this, Ethical Bean is certified by TransFair Canada. To qualify, coffee producers have to meet a variety of criteria that focus on a range of areas including labour standards, sustainable farming, governance, and democratic participation.
Producers report their sales of products to Fair Trade buyers to FLO-Cert, the Certification arm of the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations (FLO) International, which also conducts on-site audits to ensure producers continue to meet the standards. Through the chain of custody, a shipment of beans is tracked and audited at every step from producer to roaster. This all sounds like a lot of hassle, but the upshot is that by doing it right, Ethical Bean has been increasing sales 40% a year for the last 5 years. It’s not a perfect system, Lloyd admits. Workers with a history of being screwed over will occasionally short on weights and use other creative tactics to their benefit, but by and large, a difference is being made. Even though FairTrade only accounts for some 2% of world coffee production.
Lloyd also pointed out that not all certifications are the same. A certain ‘cute frog’ label (representing the Rainforest Alliance, an organization created, he claims, as an industry-sponsored answer to the fair-trade movement), only requires that 30% of the coffee so labeled needs to be certified. This fact is well hidden on their website – and I was REALLY looking – but to their credit, the guidelines for application of their logo suggest that the seal be accompanied by the percentage included.
The Green Briefs P.O.V is that none of these certifying organizations are directing enough of their resources into consumer education. Diligently tracking a coffee bean around the planet is great, but if no one staring at the shelf knows about it, the effect is lost. These are good stories. They deserve better telling.

Overall, the message from the morning was “Do your homework.” Or, as Brad only half-jokingly suggested “Get your kids into the certification business.” Competing certifications aren’t perfect, but they do provide a rallying point for consumers and a pressure point for industry that can honestly move things in the right direction. It’s up to consumers to find out more about what’s behind different certifications and decide which to support. It’s up to marketers to make those stories as transparent and compelling as possible.

What do you think? Leave a comment. Start the dialogue.

And, if you’ve read this far, (God Bless You) and you want even more Green Briefs Certified content, you can subscribe for my occasional email updates as well.

Now I think I need a Fair-Trade-Organically-Community-Verified-Rainforest-Certified-Activist-Villified Scotch.

This was my second Power Plant event, and once again I found the density of interesting green types per square foot to be much higher than the average marketing fest. Even better, their presentation format gives their four featured presenters just 3 minutes and 20 seconds each to wow the crowd. Which leaves plenty of time to shmooze. Armed with a NatureLand Organic Ale, I navigated the venue (the ever-interesting Lighthouse Sustainable Building Centre), listened to the four presentations and came away freshly energized with a wealth of green business talent and ideas.

Saul Good Gift Company – Saul Brown, a long-time Green Briefs associate, (he helped my consulting company, Unicycle Creative, source some very unique pens), introduced the crowd to his particular warm fuzzy brand of corporate recognition. It’s not all small cookies, however. Saul also showed off some sweet recycled packaging he helped develop for the distribution of Olympic bibs. Nice to see a genuine local spin-off from that multi-billion dollar shindig.

Pulse Energy – David Helliwell did a good job of condensing a large corporate mission in his 3 minutes of fame. Otherwise I would have had no idea from their name that they actually specialize in developing software for tracking and optimizing energy efficiency in buildings. Pulse also boasted an Olympic connection, as they developed on-line tracking for the energy use of all the venues for 2010.
At VenueEnergyTracker.com you can see the energy performance of each of the 2010 buildings, expressed as charts that let you see how the power consumption varies over time. They also show you what the usage would have been without involving ‘sustainable practices’, (though it isn’t really clear what those are) What is clear are the advantages of the Pulse system for customers that operate building(s), and the clear potential for this company to grow. The Pulse Energy business card has an interesting positioning line that asks ‘Does your building have a Pulse?’ David could have worked that branding into his presentation to better explain the name, but it was obvious from the reaction of the room that the Pulse concept is alive and well.

Resilient Consulting – Mary Sturgeon introduced her company with a reminder that collaboration leads to better results. She then challenged everyone in the crowd to ditch their regular event dependents and connect with new people. Which it appears everyone did. Mary could have used a mnemonic of some kind for her company, though. I would have liked to come away with a better idea of their actual business model.

James Hoggan – Vancouver’s premier eco-PR guy took the anchor spot, closing the show with some statistics that came too fast for my beer-addled fingers to record, but nonetheless left everyone in the crowd with a sense of the growing gap between public awareness and appreciation for our current climate crisis and the woeful inadequacy of our institutions to address it. His basic premise was a quote: “If you don’t tell your story, someone else will. And it will be bad.” The DeSmogBlogger and author’s most inspiring words for us beleaguered sustainability types: “You are not alone..”

The rest of the evening was spent chatting with companies like Climate Smart – a group that helps small business track and improve their carbon emissions, URDevelopment – who wants to bring a Euro-style zero-emission go-kart racing circuit to the Lower Mainland, and GoodEnergy – a software-based research company that lets individuals track their behaviour for ‘lasting positive change’.

Stay tuned for possible follow-ups on these sustainability up-and-comers. In the meantime, if you’re interested in meeting a bunch of inspiring and energetic green types, Power Plant is worth getting out to. If only to show you how effective a 3-minute business presentation can be.