Month: January 2013

I was in Whistler this weekend for a conference hosted by the ICSC. I’m so glad that I decided to attend (alone!) because I learned a lot and it was a good way for me to meet people in the real estate industry and a valuable experience simply to observe how professionals in that industry interacted. Note to self: journey outside of your comfort zone more often!

On the way up to Whistler, although I have been passenger and even driven along the Sea-to-Sky Highway myself many times, the beauty of the route never ceases to take my breath away. We are so lucky to live where we live – surrounded by mountains, bodies of water, and dense greenery. It’s so cliché but that phrase on our B.C. license plates are bang-on.


Last term, I took a course called Sustainable Real Estate (Comm 486L) with Mark Monroe and we discussed in class Whistler’s pursuit of conserving its world-class resort status and ensuring that the resort municipality has a sustainable future. The Whistler Centre for Sustainability is one initiative to also extend the first-hand knowledge that the community has experienced to other communities in Western Canada. It’s an example of a consultant firm in the form of a “non-enterprising non-profit” with a mission that is clearly centered on sustainability and – something that goes hand-in-hand for many communities – tourism. For such municipalities, initiatives to minimize negative environmental impact and promote a lifestyle that leans a little more radically in the eco-conscious scale is integral to economic viability.

I wish I had a chance to stop by the Centre and see what projects they’re working on right now!

My first Spotlight! Offsetters is based in Vancouver AND completely relevant to the course (you’ll see why). Two birds with one stone!!

Offsetters is one of the companies that our class will be working with to develop a marketing plan; I believe Offsetters is looking for a stronger online presence and some social media consultancy from whichever group it will be working with. (I’m personally interested in working with CityStudio, my dad is a contractor and the entire project sounds really cool!)

I recognized the Offsetters logo but quickly realized that it was probably because James Tansey, the CEO and Co-Founder of Offsetters, is also the Executive Director at ISIS, and a guest speaker from one of my Comm 101 lectures back in first year.

I didn’t know much about the organization, and somehow stumbled upon this while I was doing a quick search on “Offsetters marketing”:

Since the core competencies of Offsetters is sustainability-driven – offering a service that helps people, organizations, and corporations to “offset” their carbon footprint – this marketing campaign accomplishes both goals of marketing in the traditional sense of promoting a business’ services, and campaigning for a sustainable and eco-driven cause. Smart!

I think that there are a ton of ways to define a “sustainable business”, and I am dreaming of ways to showcase some sustainable businesses that I know of, right here in Vancouver. This should be a good way for me to take classroom knowledge and see where connections can be made in the community. I was born and raised here, so being aware of my hometown is important to me.

When I can, I’ll post “Spotlights”: I’ll also try to tie in how these businesses can be sustainable in their marketing tactics as well. But to be honest, without being “sustainable” and “planning for the future”, there would be nothing to market anymore, right? (We briefly discussed this in class. Without sustainability, there won’t be any more need for marketing. The world has finite resources and we can’t keep producing and producing at this rate for the long term.)

I’m glad to have a reason to resurrect my UBC Blogs site, since I’m required to write weekly blogs for my Commerce 486F: Sustainable Marketing class. It’ll be really interesting to reflect on course topics and share relevant items here. I’m looking forward to this “assignment”!

First off, what is this class all about? As the title of this post shows, Commerce 486F really explores two different topics. How can we as marketers continue to promote goods and services in a sustainable manner (in the long run)? And then the latter phrase, ‘Marketing Sustainability’, is more focused on how to market the lifestyle and principle that is sustainability. In my opinion, these could be two individual courses because they are so different…but it is already impressive enough that Sauder offers anything along these lines, so let’s not ask for too much at the moment…

In regards to the marketing sustainability side of the course, I’ve always paid extra attention to companies that embrace the business buzz word that is CSR (corporate social responsibility); admittedly, it’s hard to ignore as a business student. Just last term, our Business Writing class spent a significant amount of time researching Enbridge’s Northern Gateway Pipeline project and analyzing its CSR policies. Companies seem to like to attach ‘sustainability’ to CSR, listing environmental initiatives as one of the ways they are achieving their CSR targets. However, I would argue that sustainability should not be an afterthought of how to offset damage done to the environment and promote it as a CSR accomplishment; sustainability should more and more be a mindset that is immersed into a business’ operations, its mission statement, and its management.

I’m looking forward to learning strategies to achieve this ideal business model, and am hopeful that sustainable businesses can change (and save) our world.

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Some food for thought: