I recently read a blog called Sparking Smart Meters Ignite Public Outrage in BC by one of my classmates, and I thought that the debate over the smart meters was very intersting. A lot of consumers are against the installation of BC Hydro’s new smart meters, which will track individual hydro usage, because they say that it is an invasion of privacy. In addition, critics state that it is a health concern, as the meters use radiation to track consumption, although BC Hydro says that it is no more cancerous than talking on a cell phone.

I come from Ontario, where these smart meters have already been introduced, and I see them as a good investment. They will help BC Hydro track power consumption more efficiently, and help them prevent power theft. This will lead to money saving for BC Hydro, and ultimately for consumers, as BC Hydro is a Crown Corporation. The smart meter program has been relatively successful in Ontario, and has helped Hydro One, Ontario’s hydro company, come up with time of use pricing to help consumers manage their hydro usage more effectively.

Time of Use Pricing in Ontario developed with Smart Meter System

McDonald’s, one of the world’s leading fast food restaurants, is beginning to increase its efforts to be a leading competitor in the coffee industry as well. McDonald’s already serves coffee, but it is going to start selling bagged coffee in grocery stores, something that Starbucks and Tim Hortons already do. What’s interesting about this is that McDonald’s is starting to introduce its bagged coffee in Canada, before it even introduces it in the US. McDonald’s coffee is not exactly in market as Starbucks coffee, being much cheaper, but it is very similar to Tim Hortons coffee, a brand that is basically synonymous with coffee and doughnuts in the minds of many Canadians. McDonald’s has been trying to compete with Tim Hortons for a while, and even has a week-long promotion every year where they give out free coffee. This is to try to attract people to try their coffee and they will see how good it is, because most people have never even tried McDonald’s coffee. Why would they need to when they can just go to Tim Hortons, right?

The very famous ‘Golden Arches’, instantly recognizable by most North Americans

I think that McDonald’s will have a hard time competing in the coffee industry with Tim Hortons, but if they can get their name out there as a major competitor, it can be worth the effort. Especially since Starbucks made almost 10% of its revenue in 2011 from selling its bagged coffee, according to this article.

After our lecture on social entrepreneurs, I was inspired to write a blog post about one, and so I chose Craig Kielburger, one of Canada’s activists and social entrepreneurs, who also happens to be from my hometown, Thornhill Ontario. When he was 13 he found an organization called Free the Children to help the fight against child labour in developing countries. Since then, he has also created Me to We, a social enterprise. Me to We provides volunteer trips for people to work on Free the Children sites, and also sells clothing and accessories.

A goup of volunteers from Me to We helps to build a school in Ecuador

Half of the profiits are donated to Free the Children, and the other half are re-invested back into the enterprise to keep it sustainable. I find it very interesting that Kielburger created a social enterprise to help support his own charity, which in a way makes not only his social enterprise self-sustainable but also his charity, as he is helping to support it himself. I also found learning about social enterprises very interesting because it opened up a new world of possibilities to me that I can do with my business degree from Sauder.

I suggest you all read more about Me to We on their website, it’s a pretty cool organization.

I recently read a blog on the iPhone 5 that I found very interesting. The blog is talking about an article which states that the iPhone 5 sales could boost the US economy by almost a percent. I found it amazing that Apple has such a defined position in the market that their sales are actually believed to be able to boost the economy. Apple expected to sell 8 million iPhone 5s in the first weekend, however sales were slower than they expected and they only sold about 5 million in the first week. I do not think that the iPhone will be able to boost the economy as much as economists had predicted, because their sales were much lower than expected, and I also think that the money spent on the iPhone 5 would have been spent somewhere else instead, therefore not a gain to the economy, just spent in a different market.