While perusing through my classmates’ blogs, I found an entry about Las Vegas posted by Lisa McCann that really sparked my interest.  I recently just booked a trip to Las Vegas during the Christmas holidays, and I for sure felt that I was going to the “land of excess” (what would my classmates think of me??!).  But to my pleasant surprise, aspects of “green” have been able to make their way to this desert in Neveda.

There is a new addition to the landscape called the Palazzo hotel that has been deemed the largest LEED-certified building in the world.  Obviously, we have to leave it to this land of excess to create the largest green building (go big or go home, right?) which is more than 4 times larger than the second largest LEED-certified building.

Some highlights include:

• Artificial turf, drip irrigation and moisture sensors in planted areas result in over a 75% reduction in irrigation needs.

• Swimming pools at The Palazzo are heated with an expansive solar pool heating system. In the summer, the excess solar energy not needed for the pools is directed to the hotel’s hot water system, reducing the need to heat water for guest suites.

• Air conditioning controls in guest suites that automatically setback by several degrees when guests are not present and reset to the desired temperature upon return.

• The building’s structural steel averaged 95% recycled content, while the concrete averaged a 26% recycled content rate.

This is only to name a few aspects of the environmental design.  More info can be found in this article: The Palazzo Las Vegas I’ll have to agree with Lisa when she says “Kudos Vegas”.  I definitely think this place will change the way people perceive Las Vegas.

I can’t wait to check this place out!

Joel Makower posted an entry titled “Can General Motors Save the Planet?” on his blog a few days ago.  He writes about GM’s new initiative that was just announced last week to invest $40 million in carbon offsets with an aim to offset 80 million tons of carbon emissions.  This is roughly equivalent to the level of carbon emissions of the 1.9 million Chevrolets they expect to sell in 2011.

I always appreciate every effort that is made towards a more sustainable planet.  My only concern for GM is that they could receive more public backlash(anyone remember their huge bailout?) if they don’t execute this well.  If they are able to accurately track the amount of carbon that is being offset, then I think that they should not have a problem.  However, during a time when everyone is concerned with greenwashing, GM should make all efforts to ensure that they aren’t painted with that same brush.  I know that their Chevy Volt has been receiving some great reviews so that may not be as big an issue, but one can never underestimate consumer skepticism.

I’m looking foward to seeing their updates on how they’re doing with this project.  I hope that it also prompts other auto-makers to come up with creative ways to tackle environmental issues.

If you’re interested in learning more, Chevy has a website dedicated to this project:

Today I want to write about  my experience of visiting the SUB to grab some lunch earlier this afternoon.

Whenever I hear that my generation is more concerned about the environment than my parent’s generation, it gives me hope.  This is because as our  purchasing power increases, we will make more decisions to purchase environmental products until one day only sustainable products will be available.

But today when I was in the basement of the SUB, surrounded by those who I thought were similar-minded to myself, I learned that I’ve been generalizing too much about my peers.  I believed that I could count on my peers to continue this green wave into our futures, but what I saw shocked me and also saddened me.  All 4 of the garbage cans I saw were overflowing with waste that could have easily been tossed into the compost bin or into the recycling bin.  Trays from the Pit Burger Bar (compostable) were about to spill out while others were balanced precariously on top of the trash can.  Plastic packaging from the sushi joint (recyclable) were squeezed into the garbage can as though the challenge was to see how much the garbage can could handle before giving up altogether.

No one seemed to know or care that no more than 20 steps away was a station where they could toss their compostable and recyclable waste away.  What makes it worse is that there are these little stickers on the garbage can that say “Can that be kept out the landfill?”  It frustrates me endlessly when this type of ignorance exists.  I don’t know if it’s just a case of people not knowing that they could compost/recycle their waste or if they knew, but just didn’t care.  I really, really hope that the first one is the case.

A couple weekends ago, my group and I had the pleasure of traveling to Comox Valley on Vancouver to Island to meet our client Laura Agnew and speak to her about her catering business “As You Like It”.  This was thanks to the support of the Community Learning Initiative Office which we are very grateful to.

A short recap of our trip:

We woke up early on Sunday morning (we were all quite thankful for daylight savings time for the extra hour of sleep) to make the 8:30 am ferry leaving Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo. Some members of the group managed to fit in a extra bit of sleep on the ferry before we were on the road again driving south to Courtenay.

My first impression of the small town was how quaint it was, and how all the grocery stores had names that suggested they carried sustainable produce such as Edible Foods.  Getting a feel of the atmosphere there definitely helped us to understand the consumers.   The highlight of trip though was actually meeting Laura, who definitely spoiled us with all sorts of goodies.  The muffins, soup and don’t even get me started on the lemon tarts.  Truly mouthwatering!  Her property is a sustainable-minded person’s dream come true, especially for those who have a passion for growing their own foods.  Her garden was mightily impressive with a wide assortment of vegetables and fruits.  She even raises hens to lay fresh eggs.  And all around her home, she grows fresh herbs including rosemary, bay leaves, mint and oregano.

Meeting Laura and understanding her values really has helped me frame her business in my mind, and gives me a better vision of what our report to her will look like.  I hope to visit the Comox Valley again sometime in the near future to get a little bit more exploring done.  I promise I’ll upload a couple pictures from our trip soon!

Today’s post is in response to one of my classmates, Mike Rogers, post about American Apparel called “Hipsters Support Sustainable Development” which can be read here.  I, too, own a few of the AA brand items including those ubiquitous V-neck t-shirts (but they’re so comfy!) and the white-zippered hoodies so it was interesting to read about the company in Mike’s post.

In last week’s group lecture I learned more about how American Apparel employed “cost-based pricing” meaning that the price of the products have sought  to internalize the social and ecological costs associated with consumption.  This inspired me to learn more about the company and see some of the other things it was involved in.  However, a quick “Google News” search of American Apparel brought up some grim news.  Their quarterly financial document filed earlier today revealed that their revenues have dropped quite significantly since the last quarter, and their share price has plummeted 63% since the beginning of the year.  This makes them dangerously close to not being able to repay major debt (in the tune of around 80 million) coming due soon.  A somber quote from the filing: “These factors, among others, raise substantial doubt that we will be able to continue as a going concern”.

Although I do commend American Apparel for its effort to incorporate social and ecological costs into the pricing of its products, it is clear that consumers aren’t quite ready yet to pay this “total cost” for AA’s products especially during times when people are money-conscious. I’m not quite sure what to suggest to American Apparel because I’m sure that compromising on its value is the last thing it wants to do.   But what I do know is that AA will probably need more than the aforementioned “hipster’s” support to keep itself afloat.

Sustainability marketing is defined in the the textbook “Sustainability Marketing” by Belz and Peattie as “building and maintaining sustainable relationships with customers, the social environment and the natural environment”.  Looking for an alternate definition, I found one at the Semiosis Communications Blog written by Peter Korchnak that was “marketing that serves an organization’s triple bottom line”.

Throughout the course, I feel that we’ve placed a strong emphasis on 2 of the 3 aspects of the triple bottom line including the environmental impact of the products or services and the economic aspect of generating financial returns for the shareholders.  However, the third aspect of social well-being is one that I felt that we haven’t paid enough attention to, although it is often tied in with our discussion topics.  I believe the reason for this is that it is one of the hardest ones to frame in our minds.  It’s easy to consider how an organization should minimize its environmental impact on the planet alongside conducting its business in a way that leads to profitability.  But, benefiting communities and society overall as well?  How does a company go about doing that?

I often confuse the ideas of corporate social responsibility (CSR) with sustainability marketing.  The first is more focused on the corporate level and stakeholders whereas the latter emphasizes the product level and customers (found this from the textbook).  If a company sources its food from a local farmer and pays him/her a fair amount for the produce, then I would consider this an act of CSR.  I suppose what I’m needing a bit of guidance about is what types of activities fall under the societal aspect of sustainability marketing?  What goals would one consider being a societal goal for sustainability marketing and not necessarily a CSR activity?  Or do they always overlap?  I know this post is filled with more questions than anything, but I’d love to hear some people’s insight on this topic!

There was an article that sparked my interest in a paper called Canadian Small Business Week called “Beware of shortcuts when it comes to green marketing”.  First off, I’d like to say how happy I was that this issue was perceived as big enough a concern that it was published in this business paper.  It convinces me that this issue is important to other people (and not just myself!).

The article really ties in with our class lecture today about sustainability marketing communication.  The first thing the article mentions right off the bat is how consumers are quite adept at pointing out questionable green marketing claims.  Thus, companies can easily develop a tarnished reputation if those consumers decides to broadcast the company’s poor practices onto social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

How then can a company avoid the perception of greenwashing?  The article suggests that companies have a couple options including partnering with credible organizations and/or obtaining certification from third parties that indicate the company meets certain performance standards.  I suppose then that the issue becomes deciding which certification to obtain and then also which credible organizations to partner up with.  The business owner will have to use their own judgment in deciding which of these organizations they want assistance/designation from.  The article mentioned that there are a growing number of companies and organizations in Vancouver who offer these types of consulting service to companies to help them implement strategies to become more green.  Although I do believe this is a positive thing, I am concerned for small businesses who don’t really know how to get started choosing one of these organizations or quality certifications when there are so many choices.  In this sense, it’s becoming increasingly difficult I believe for a small company to really prove that they’re sustainable.

Another part of the article listed some advice from Michel Bergeron, the vice President, Corporate Relations at the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC).  He said that in order to develop a truly green marketing strategy, a company needs to:

1) Understand the environmental impact of your activities

2) Take action to reduce that impact

3) Tell your story

Now does that third point seem really interesting since we’ve been discussing how “green-hushing” might actually be a better strategy for some companies?  At the same time, when companies fear being described as greenwashing, it’s almost unintuitive to say to that company “tell your story” to the public, because it could potentially be feeding the critics more fuel if they don’t think the “story” is good enough.  What do you guys think?  Do you believe more companies will engage in green-hushing only because it’s becoming more difficult to prove you’re actually green and not green-washing?  I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Two things today have prompted me to think more about books.  Specifically, purchasing books and the effects this might have on our planet.  The first thing was that I purchased a gift card for Indigo books, and the second was a survey I did for Sauder regarding using e-book versions of textbooks.

Now, I love books.  I dream to have a fancy library in my future house with shelves upon shelves of books.  I love when I get the chance to lose myself in a book before bed.  But it is only dawning on me now the effects that my future library might have on the planet.  Some quick research told me that the publishing industry is one of the worst in terms of pollution.  Million of trees are cut down, waste-water is produced, and a huge carbon footprint is left on the earth every year with the production of books.  It says here each book printed contributes about 7.5 kg of carbon dioxide equivalents in the process of being produced, transported, and then recycled/disposed of.  Not to mention, the ink that is used can release dangerous compounds into the air potentially leading to asthma and smog.

There’s clearly a trend now towards moving to e-books with the Kindle and other e-book readers being the hot market item.  With a simple click of a button, books can be downloaded onto your reader with virtually no environmental impact other than powering the reader.  But rather than making me excited, the Kindle has me concerned about my future library.  Of course I know that physical books will still be published, but their costs will probably start rising if demand for e-books increases and demand for the real books decreases.  But aside from higher costs, I have to think do I want to continue buying books anyway if there is such a negative environmental impact associated with them?

… the answer to that is yes.  I do!!  I am not quite ready to switch to reading books online or on a little hand-held device (textbooks, however, are a different story).  Now the issue is how guilty should I feel about this decision??  It’s tough to say since big box book stores seem to be experiencing dropping sales lately, so I might have to switch to e-books eventually.  It’s going to be very interesting to see what will happen to this industry in the next few years.

It was difficult to decide what my first blog entry was going to be about.  There are so many different stories to comment on, videos to share, and insight to be found.  However, my topic was unexpectedly decided for me when my roommate came home with a small box of energy bars.  I asked her if I could take a closer look at the box of Clif Bars produced by Clif Bar and Company and, to my pleasant surprise, found a company that could possibly be added to our list of sustainable businesses.

A short story describing how the business began was printed on the back of the box along with the company’s mission to “improve our people, our community and our environment”.  Too good to be true?  Further investigation was needed!

After only a short period of looking around their website, I will say that I was pretty impressed.  Clif Bar and Company gauge their success not on 1, or even 3 bottoms lines but rather 5, calling them their “5 Aspirations”: Sustaining our Business, our Brands, our People, our Community and the Planet.  Scrolling through their sustainability report which they’ve titled “Raising the Bar: Our All Aspirations Report” gives an overview of the types of activities its involved with.  This includes promoting fitness within its company and community, purchasing organic ingredients, raising money to donate to various causes, and challenging their employees to give back in the form of volunteering their time.  They also offer some great rewards and rebates to their employees for walking/biking/carpooling (42% of their employees involved), making eco-home improvements, or purchasing a fuel efficient vehicle.

It’s always nice to find a company that seems truly dedicated towards sustainability and tries to integrate it into many aspects of their business.  As someone who doesn’t normally eat energy bars, reading about their products really makes me want to go out and try one (especially their White Chocolate Macadamia Nut flavour).

Take a look at their website, and let me know what you think about their business.  Am I too quick to judge them as a “green” company or does it look like there’s some genuine effort on their part?

http://www.clifbar.com