Sustainable Marketing

China has always been subject to much ridicule on many social aspects, the environment being one of them. The olympics in Beijing only highlighted the problems China faced. Fortunately for the government international scrutiny has a short attention span. Unfortunately for the its citizen their lives and health continue to deteriorate from all the pollution. Don’t think for one second that this only affects China. Much of its pollution extends into neighboring countries and even across the Pacific Ocean onto the western seaboard of Canada and the US. Luckily the…read more

Undoubtedly one of the most debated topic these days are in regards to Canadian oil. The expansion of  the tar sands via pipelines have sparked many political and ethical questions. Robert van Waarden is one of those people that have been drawn into the debate. Van Waarden’s project is a photographic documentary of the lives of the people that will be directly affected by the planned TransCanada East pipeline. By putting a face on the issue van Waarden wants to inspire people nationwide to voice their opinion on the topic….read more

Farming has been a human necessity for centuries that’s gradually evolved. From a simple idea of planting a seed repeatedly in the ground has grown into a complicated network with many factors to consider. The drawback with farming is how resource heavy the entire process is. Add to the fact that the human population has been greatly expanding in the past few hundred years has only exacerbated the problem further. Growing food just isn’t sustainable given the planet we live on. This have sparked many opportunities to innovate solutions to…read more

Food waste has always been a topic of importance. How many times did your parents tell you to finish your food for the sake of the starving children in Africa? While people are certainly conscious of food waste it continues to be a problem. Furthermore when people think of food waste they usually think of the end user that actively throws out food. What may be surprising to some is 40% of food is lost throughout the supply chain. Additionally the amount of some food lost is greater than the…read more

Eco-friendly vehicles are all the rage these days as consumers become more environmentally conscious. Nearly every vehicle model now has or will have a hybrid version but how eco-friendly are these vehicles? Sure the vehicle itself doesn’t emit much emissions nor consume additional fossil fuels, but they simply adopt another form not easily seen by your regular consumer. Norway conducted a study on global warming potential of the lifecycle of electric vehicles and showed an improved of 24% over gasoline powered vehicles and 10-14% over diesel, but depending on the…read more

  Single use plastic bags are quickly becoming endangered species around the world. Most initiatives have started at a local level but now California aims to become the first state to ban the use of plastic bags. The movement behind the ban is to reduce the overall use of plastics, which is among the least sustainable products made. The problem with plastics is that it’s made from fossil fuels, but the most damaging aspect is it cannot biodegrade. While the overall goal of reducing plastics is undoubtably good for the…read more

The current capitalist system cannot continue to operate as it has done so for centuries. That is common knowledge to most folks but what is unclear is how businesses can adapt to sustainable practices.  A common method is for businesses to determine its total operating footprint within the world. One might be quick to assume becoming sustainable is a matter of changing the practices of the business but in reality fail to realize the largest portions of a business’ environmental impact comes indirectly, or better known as externalities. The difficulty…read more

Aviation has been a mainstay in transportation ever since its inception when the Wright brothers took to the skies over 100 years ago. While aviation has been a crowning technical achievement many tend to forget the byproducts of flying, most noticeably the emissions. A single jet engine consumes several hundred gallons per hour! (Hummers would seem fuel efficient) . Yet there are thousands of planes with multiple engines flying all over the world at any given time. Which makes you wonder why the industry hasn’t been more scrutinized  like so…read more