A plea for refill stations at the grocery store

I was delighted to read the feeds this morning and see this in the Globe:

An open letter to Loblaw’s Galen Weston (Loblaws is a Canadian supermarket)

To: Galen G. Weston, executive chairman, Loblaw Cos. Ltd.

I’ve been thinking. I like what you’ve been doing with the whole President’s Choice Organics thing, but I’m not sure it’s the right focus if you’re trying to position your company as a grocery leader in the 21st century (after all, once Wal-Mart got on the organics bandwagon, everyone else became, by default, part of the crowd). So, here’s my tip to put you on the cutting edge: President’s Choice Refillables.

Yes, I think refillables are destined to be the future for grocery stores everywhere, and I’m here to make their case so you will lead the way. (read whole article)

HALLELUJAH!

I’ve had this idea (well, in parts anyways) and explained it to a friend last semester. Why can’t we have recyclable packaging? The amount of packaging that we go through on our weekly trip to the grocery store is abominable. From the individually wrapped red pepper to the awful disposable lunch packs. (of which I try to stay away from… but can’t completely avoid the plastic!)

Says the BBC over 4 years ago…. Grocery packaging ‘costs £15bn’

Supermarket shoppers are spending £470 a year – a sixth of their food budget – on packaging, a report suggests.

They found customers spent £15bn on packaging each year and that delivery lorries travel the equivalent of two return trips to the moon every day

YES. I said it, ABOMINABLE.
So, I’m putting this out there so that it’s not just for Loblaws, it’s for anyone in the grocery biz on this side of the Atlantic too.

Please, someone, be innovative and change this industry around.

Understandably, this is not just a ‘poof’, done, task. Changing the packaging industry requires all of the suppliers to get on board too. And that, would most definitely be a feat considering that packaging is all about marketing, consumer protection, marketing, and again… marketing…. So, for this to work, many players would need to get involved and accept it.

Must say, that although I love to hate Wal-Mart, the world’s largest public corp is making headways on its environmental performance and could be the one to make this a go. (A friend of mine is always quick to point that out for me with these posts.) And their clout in the supply chain is like no other. (Mattel, the toy maker relies on 40% of its sales from only three stores – Wal-Mart, Target and Toys-R-Us).

But in terms of the feasibility of refillables, I bike everywhere… so, don’t have a solution quite yet, but glass jars might be a tad difficult in my bike basket…

watching deforestation in real time

This seems very cool. I’m no techie, (although I occasionally try to be with no luck;)

Google Earth now has a new application that shows deforestation rates around the world. Visualizing hits home more than x hectares taken per year etc. (download the file here)

The KML, developed by David Tryse, provides deforestation data from a number of sources for individual countries, including a live ticker for each country.

“The world has lost close to half of its forests already today, and the continued high pace of deforestation contributes greatly to climate change and the loss of biodiversity,” wrote Tryse on his website.

Country profiles are also included as pops ups.

(taken from Mongabay)

EcoGeek has a good write up on it too.

But why again should we care about deforestation in lands far away?

Well, the word itself sounds pretty negative, so prob don’t need to explain too much about the “why’s”… but in Brazil, home of the world’s Amazon, the rain forest is being chopped away at increasing rates (yes, even with this green hayday) and yes, we should care about that.

Why is it happening? (read the economist article)

• high commodity prices (soy bean, beef prices) – economic incentive for chopping, makes more room for ranches and farms
• poor governance – ownership issues between the ranchers who claim the land and the loggers – keep cutting down and moving in and everyone gets some business

Why again should we care?

• the rain forests are carbon sinks (breathing in our toxins and exhaling clean air)
• they hold medicines that we don’ t know exist yet

Some people will stress that there is more economic opportunity though from cutting it down. True, there is some economic benefit from the cattle and logging industry. (Actually, a friend just told me that if the world recycled paper the same way that Finland does, we’d destroy Brazil’s economy – to which I most definitely chimed in with my thoughts on that;)

Believe it or not, the rain forests actually have terrible soil conditions for farming – it’s only good when the trees are there and the eco-system runs smoothly. So, when it’s destroyed, it’s hard to get it back and the farmer only enjoys the richness for a short period of time, at which point he has to move on into new lands.

There are much better ways to ‘profit’ off of the rain forests. Lots of sustainable ways that actually provide income for the native people (i.e. collecting the fruits, nuts, medicine, etc.)

So yes, I’m a pulp and paper girl, but I’m still for a sustainable forest industry… and that doesn’t appear to be happening in Brazil.

Speaking about chopping… I ended my last post with my excitement for ‘Juhannus’ (Midsummer) – and I just about chopped off the tip of my finger with an axe while prepping the sauna. Nope, wasn’t drunk on ciders, just sadly don’t know how to use an axe:( Pathetic for a country girl who grew up on wood fires ! No worries though, still got the finger and healing nicely;)

Asking the hard questions, Microsoft dodging them

Keeping on this theme of CSR’s fluffiness, I just read a Globe & Mail interview with Microsoft’s CSR guy. Sad to say, but watch him dodge the ‘hard’ questions

The happy bubbly world of CSR…

I got an email from a friend who suggested that I was being too nice on my post for Net Impact.

We had had an earlier discussion at the conference about CSR whitewashing and not being ‘real’ enough.

**update** – read his post here.

Although I still feel as though my post was a good reflection of what I really thought, I added the need for an edgier piece in the feedback questionnaire, asking to bring in a speaker/panel about the ‘dark side’ of CSR – something that will shake up the audience to start better understanding the arguments against this movement.

I love mixing with like minded people but I’m realizing the danger in doing so.

There’s a reason why the split between the environmental and economic camps took so long to see eye to eye (and can’t say they’ve reconciled but the two sides have come a long way in the last few years). Both sides have been so deeply entrenched in their beliefs, thinking that the other one has no idea what they’re talking about, that they become more divided. But finally corporate social responsibility is hitting the mainstream and it’s not a question of whether to do it or not, but it’s a question of how to do it.

Nevertheless, it is somewhat true that the followers and believers of CSR all kind of nod their head in agreement about bringing social and environmental values into the board room. But it’s never a good thing if we just keep on nodding. (A note for myself as well!) A good example came from the Director of Sustainability at KPMG. At a workshop he went to he had to do something like “speed dating” but with CSR people and investors. In 2 min they had to try and understand each other. They found out that the two spoke a different language. Interesting indeed…

We need to start learning new “languages” to understand all sides of this movement. CSR isn’t a fluffy, happy world and we should address that when all of these people get in the room together. Otherwise, we’re just preaching to the converted.

So, going back to that post, what are the hard questions that we need to start asking ourselves? What aspects of the sustainability movement do we need to confront? Not as an exercise to bring us down, but to make it stronger?

This goes for everything. If you’re a lefty, go pick up a right-winged magazine. If you’re a hard core economist, go read Silent Spring or something.

Which reminds me; I need to go read the Skeptical Environmentalist.

And on another note…

HAUSKAA JUHANNUSTA! (Happy Mid-Summer) – Saturday is the longest day of the year here (rises at 3:22 and sets at 23:15…but never dark) and most likely half this population will be drinking and sauna-ing at camps/cottages/kesämökkit for the weekend:) Looking forward to it!

This was two years ago in Finland… but expect to be doing the same thing this weekend:)

Any treehuggers in Scandinavia?

Treehugger has been looking for a Scandinavian writer for quite some time now.

I’ve thought about it, but umm, at the end of the day, I don’t understand the news… (although my Finnish is improving!) I asked people in my program but no takers I guess. But such cool things going on here it would be nice to share.

So, whoever reads this blog that is interested in sustainability issues and understands what’s going on in this neighbourhood of Europe, give it a shot!

And no, I’m not just broadcasting for the $200 reward (although that would be nice kiitos!)

Net Impact Europe Conference 2008: Sustainable Prosperity

Just on the train back to Jyväskylä after having spent the weekend in Geneva for the Net Impact conference – plenty of time to reflect.

First, to put this post into context – Net Impact is an organization that wants to change the world through business. It’s mostly MBA students from around the world that all have similar optimistic ideals about what business should be. Excellent place for myself indeedJ

Like any conference, some sessions were better than others, but all in all, it was a great conference with a slew of interesting people. It got some of the inspiration juices flowing – mostly just seeing successful people do their thing. That’s the crème.

One thing I most definitely didn’t like (to no fault of the conference, but the conference centre) – our coffee breaks were all disposable cups and utensils. At our “Sustainable Prosperity” conference, you can imagine that this peeved off a number of us. Geesh CICG.

Just to share a couple of my favourite parts:

Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid (yes, I’ve blogged about it before)

• Still nascent concept with lots of kinks to iron out and not necessarily as big as once thought when you take governance into account – at the end of the day, still hard to do business in politically instable areas
• Need to focus on high growth entrepreneurship in these areas that will stimulate the local economy – making baskets is fine, but a company founded in Bangladesh that will employ hundreds is a lot more effective at bringing about economic development
• Public and private institutions have failed. Let’s not forget about that when we debate these issues
• Need new innovative business models to attack this issue

AccountAbility keynote speaker, Simon Zadek (extremely thought provoking)

• There is no relationship to the world where we live now and the world that we will live in the future (different cultures, geo-political boundaries)
• It won’t be the developed countries that will lead the way
• Look for the change-makers, the emerging markets, the emerging powers
  • Brazil, China, India, Malaysia, Middle East etc.
  • Companies – look for ones that are at a turning point
• Collaborative Governance in the 21st Century
• Every sector governed by some multilateral agreement etc. Who owns those?
• This generation is inheriting a complex and dynamic system of international players that we will have to reform again

Our greatest enemy is cynicism and this is furthered by the media, political leaders and others. We should be breeding anger. Anger is at least healthy as it affects change. Cynicism is born out of foolish optimism.

To fight cynicism, one has to ask the difficult questions.

To start, where will you be in all of this?

Good way to end, but there’s one last reflection…

At the after party I got a little over zealous in a discussion about the last 15 minutes of the conference. It was spent thanking the organizers and although I thought they deserved it and it should be done(it was well run – and they were MBA students), I thought that the conference wrap up should be about reminding us (in the audience) what our role can be in the future as business leaders of this movement. So, to anyone who reads this that was there, apologize if it came off the wrong way… it could also be the after party drinks;)

All in all though, a wonderful weekend in Geneva.

A fantastic story about stuff

A friend just passed this my way.

It’s 20 min – but if you’re going to watch any old thing on the boobtube (yes, it’s word we use), then click on this instead.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Well put Annie.

Welcome to Academia

Big journey ahead… my thesis.

I’m sure I’ll write a bit about the ups and downs of writing a thesis. I haven’t quite dug into it yet, although, have to say it is a most interesting topic, of which I’ll share at some point.

I’m now just reading. And reading. And most likely, I’ll just continue to read.

The world of academic journal articles is not new to me – this is my 5th year of university.  But wow, sometimes… you wonder what language they’re using!

I remember reading one article while I was at Carleton about “export market selection”. The authors argued that “international market selection” methods should be used but ‘paradoxically’, small business owners do not use the models….

Interesting… some academic writes a paper, using a language quite incomprehensible for the average small business owner (who by the way, how many small business owners have time to flip through journal articles?) and they wonder why there’s a paradox?

I concluded my paper, using the ever so academic writing style, as follows:

“… Even though there is a general agreement that normative IMS models are rarely used by everyday managers (Brewer, 2001), researchers continue to provide complex models for what seems to be for the sake of adding to the literature. It is suggested that this gap is largely related to the IMS Paradox. … It is realized that the marketing literature is meant for academic journals and so the quality of information should not be limited to simplified and basic models as that defeats the purpose of the intellectual world. At the same time, however, the models are clearly made for the business world and so one would think that they should be marketed as such.”

Hehe, that paper still makes me smile:)

Nevertheless, I am finding it more enjoyable now than I did years ago. That being said, PLEASE stop me if my blogs start becoming exceedingly verbose;)

AND.. should be thankful – at least it’s not legalese!

When life just works out

Go back a year.

I was done my undergrad and debating really hard what to do with my life. Go to Finland for my Masters? Or, stay in Canada and start my own thing? I’ve had that entrepreneurial itch for a few years at least and after the mesh conference (which I sadly missed this year) I felt like, ready or not, I should just dive into the scary yet exciting startup world.

Fast forward.

I went, totta kai (of course) to Finland.

And I could not have been happier with my choice.

To give whoever reads this blog a hint into what I’m doing this summer (and perhaps for a while after that);

I was offered a job at the University of Jyväskylä to work with an amazing team on spurring growth venturing in Finland (and elsewhere), across disciplines, across fields (researchers, practitioners, students) on ‘problems worth solving’. (It can go a lot deeper than that, but I’ll stick with that for now;)

It hits the key tenets that I’ve been thinking/blogging/dreaming about:

• Entrepreneurship and access to capital is a must for getting the ball rolling (not just small business entrepreneurship, but high growth, VC field entrepreneurship)
• Mass collaboration changes everything , ala Wikinomics
• We need to move into the sustainability age (enough blogs on this topic…)
• Innovation will play a huge role in fixing yesterday’s, today’s and tomorrow’s problems. But we need to get people thinking about positive innovation. We already have a lot of problems; let’s use our creative skills to fix those, not start new ones.
• Marketing has an important role to play in getting meaningful messages out – not just the usual “buy buy buy!” message
• Think global, act local

For the most part, I’ll be writing my thesis this summer and working on some other tasks for the group.

I’ll let out pieces here and there about what’s going on, but in general thought I’d give you an idea about what’s going on in ‘ma vie’.

And, starting off on a good note, I’ll be traveling to Geneva next week to attend the Net Impact Europe Conference. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes.

Again, love it when life just… works out.

(NB: i am aware of the extreme amount of linkbacks in this post!)