Saul Good Gift Co.

This Saturday, June 26th, the culmination of thousands of hours of hard work and creative brainwaves will take shape in the form of The Cheaper Show No. 9. It's a project that I'm very proud to have helped out in a small way as a volunteer. As the finish line nears, and final preparations for the Show are made, I've been thinking about the community focus that's a principal driver behind the show and the relationships that develop with volunteering.

First, about the Show: The Cheaper Show is a one-night only event that has grown leaps and bounds since its original inception ("Cheaper Than A One Night Stand") ten years ago. However, the concept has always remained the same. For one night, a collection of artists showcase their work to the community, and agree that everything displayed will be sold for one, accessible, price. For the past two shows, that price has been $200. While this represents a remarkable a bargain for the work that's available, the Show is not about being a fire sale for art. Rather, the act of sacrifice (on the part of the artists, some of whom regularly sell their work for many times the asking price) shows a concerted willingness to engage everyday people with the arts and offer them a chance to own a piece that sings to them. With the cost barrier lowered, many more people can participate in the normally rarefied air of art collection, which in turn, promotes a different level of interaction with what's in the gallery. Even for those not looking to buy, the strength of the show and the chance to commune with so many talented people promises an extraordinary evening for everyone passing through the doors.

As a volunteer, I've had the chance to appreciate the talent and dedication behind this show first hand. A small corps of staff and volunteers have completely transformed the W2 Storeum into a gallery space to be proud of. Behind the scenes, the Cheaper staff have marshalled funds, recognition, and artistic support to make this the largest art show in Western Canada. I've met incredible people through the Show (many times working back to back painting, mopping, or measuring hanging points) and I know we all share deep feelings of pride and satisfaction as the night approaches. I've felt similar feelings working with the Strathcona Business Improvement Association and their green zone initiative in the Downtown Eastside. It's no accident that the Show is located on the edge of Vancouver's most challenged neighbourhood. The motivations behind bringing art to the public echo the efforts being made by innumerable groups to improve the quality of life of many of the DTES's residents.

Saul Good Gift Co. is proud to be the gift sponsor for the Show. We will be recognizing the efforts of the volunteers by putting together unique customized gift boxes for everyone who helped make this event happen!

I first learned about B Corporations (B Corps) in June 2007 as a delegate at the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) international conference in Berkeley, CA. Up on stage stood the founding B Corp members including some of the grandparents of green business. Guys like Jeffrey Hollender of Seventh Generation, Jeff Mendelsohn of New Leaf Paper, Jason Salfi of Comet Skateboards and Peter Strugatz of Icestone, people there from the beginning figuring what it means and how what how to run sustainable businesses. So why did all these deep green businesses commit to joining, and creating for that matter, the B Corp community? I argue that it's a way to support fundamental changes in how business is run. Beyond the financial bottom line, successful businesses also add value in the communities in which they operate, empower their employees and constantly find ways to be innovative with materials and processes, making them more efficient while also limiting their impact on the environment. That's why I became interested in business and see how it can be competitive advantage.

What makes a business green?

Green claims are easy to make. All a company needs to do is source some organic baby clothing and a BPA free sippy cup to claim they're a green gift basket business. How are consumers able to know who to trust? 3rd party certifications are a solid start as they put the onus on professionals to follow up and audit companies to verify their claims and hold them to a meaningful set of standards. B Corporations are evaluated on 5 key areas including accountability, employees, consumers, community and environment. Certified B Corps need to meet minimum standards in multiple categories, thus if a company only sources eco friendly promotional products they're not eligible for certification. An advisory committee of the leading sustainable business minds, the leaders of the most successful green businesses, continually revise what it means to be green and raise the bar as we continue to improve. Although the survey is self administered, B Corp staff review and go over the survey with applicants to ensure that questions were answered properly. In addition, companies are required to submit documents and data that substantiate their claims. Click here to see how we did!

Audited sustainability claims

Every year B Corp audits 20% of their certified companies to verify the claims they've submitted in their surveys. This assurance is important as it creates meaning to the certification. It means something to be a B Corp and sets us apart from greenwashers in the marketplace. B Corps are audited every year to ensure that standard remains meaningful and also give us the opportunity to review our policies and processes to find ways to improve.

All businesses are different

Depending on the type and size of your business, you complete a different B Corp Assessment Survey. This better allows one to see how they actually compare to other similar businesses and give consumers the ability to compare apples to apples. It also doesn't overwhelm small business owners with factors not relevant to them. As we're developing LoCo BC, a business network in Vancouver that promotes the benefits of local purchasing and sustainable business to local SMEs, we've been finding it valuable to look at the B Corp model for how we define our membership criteria. The goal is to engage businesses where they're at and help them move toward sustainability, not exclude and sit pretty while we sit back and congratulate each other on how great we are.

Corporate DNA, culture and capitalization

B Corp requires one to make changes to the corporate charter that imbed social, community and environmental responsibility. This means that directors of the corporation must consider these factors when making decisions and acting for the company. A corporate charter is a document that binds Directors to the Shareholders, and ensures that the Directors will act with the shareholders best interest in mind. It may seem minor but it's a big change in the game and affects how businesses grow and capitalize. Most businesses need to grow to succeed and reach the size they need to be to be optimally profitable. Although its yet to be proven, as B Corps raise money to grow their businesses they should attract investors that view sustainability as a competitive advantage. We found that becoming a B Corp gave us the opportunity to document not only the work we're doing but the mission, vision, and values in what we do and how we do it. By creating an office manual that includes this we're taking steps to building sustainability into our corporate culture.

What do you think?

What makes a business socially and environmentally responsible? Do you believe a businesses green claims? In what ways do you want to learn about what businesses are doing in the sustainability space? What do you think about our business? Is there anything we could do better? Do you find anything we do misleading? Let us know what you think, we're always looking for ways to improve.

If you’ve received a Saul Good gift box recently, you’ve probably noticed that there's some unique shredded paper inside. Well it’s more than just pretty confetti, it’s an example of sustainability in action!

What does local mean?

Transparency and assurance

Where's your shit from?

Over the last few months we've been working on a bunch of sustainable packaging projects for various clients leading up to the Olympics. Yesterday, Alex (Saul Good operations director) Andy Maier (Courageous B, graphic designer) and I had the pleasure of touring the facility of one of our packaging manufacturers. While cardboard packaging is nothing new, we were encouraged to see how the industry is finally moving towards offering 100% recycled options. For Saul Good, our involvement with this effort started over 3 years ago as part of a sustainable design project for our gift boxes. Now we've gained enough experience to become sustainable design consultants for a host of green packaging projects around the province.

100% can't be for everyone, but it's a great start

During the tour, we learned that if all the companies purchasing cardboard packaging went to 100% recycled materials we'd run out of supply within months. However, I'm of the belief that using and promoting 100% recycled packaging is a meaningful way to influence the market and promote change towards sustainable consumption. The more people who ask questions about the materials being used in products we consume, both in business and in our personal lives, the better chance we have as a society to address sustainability in a meaningful way.

Is it really green?

Chain of custody assurance is important as a way to have verifiable proof of your sustainability claim. On a recent project we collected shipping manifests, certificates of compliance and letters from suppliers down the supply chain to ensure the credibility of our recycled content claims. It really comes down to inventory management and inventory controls when looking for assurance that the materials received from suppliers are in fact the same being used in the production of your packaging. Using barcode scanning technology our supplier scans materials upon arrival in their facility and at every point in the manufacturing process. Because the dimensions of the product are customized to our specific job it would be impossible to mix our recycled materials up with virgin stock.

Post-consumer vs. pre-consumer waste

What does 100% recycled mean? Well, that depends on where the materials were recycled from. When paper is recycled post-consumer, referring to the fact that people use the material for something and then recycle it, it has considerably more environmental benefits compared to pre-consumer, or industrially recycled materials.  By recognizing this important distinction, we've ensured that our current project uses at least 94% recycled post-consumer materials compared to approximately the 20-30% used in conventional cardboard boxes.

What tools are there to help?

Environmental Defence has developed a fantastic calculation tool to quantify the environmental benefits of choosing recycled paper for your project. This is invaluable in communicating the value in sustainable packaging projects.

Besides knowing what tastes good to me, it's always a great sign when I'm at a show sampling my wares that people see the Gone Crackers box in our gift baskets and say how much they LOVE these tasty artisan wheat crisps. Heather Nichol has developed a handful of tasty interesting flavours such as Blue Cheese and Cracked Pepper and Parmesan and Rosemary. Personally I like the plain savoury styles the best, the Undressed and the Olive Oil and Cracked Pepper, as they seem to be best for tasting local wine and cheese and treats like local artisan antipasto in our gourmet gift boxes.

Top 3 Goods Gone Crackers

1. They taste amazing. Time in time out everyone loves these little bad boys. If you're loving living life then you've got to try these.

2. Locally produced in Surrey, BC local purchasing is a great easy way to support the local economy and reduce environmental impact. Although the wheat isn't grown within 100 miles it's great to support our friends, family, neighbours and community through buying local. For more info on the benefits of local check out Lo.Co. BC, a new network of Localvores - all local, all good.

3. Class. Crack one of these boxes out at your next dinner party and turn some heads. Taste buds will follow. Be careful, Gone Crackers are addictive.

November, excuse me, MOvember is flying by, but I didn't want it to pass completely without taking a moment to recognize the importance of this most hirsute month. Those in the know already realize that the month formerly known as "November" has been reclaimed as "Movember" in order to recognize the mass sprouting of mustaches which together draw awareness to men's health issues, most specifically prostate cancer.

Mustache-a-thons are nothing new (and always smashingly successful), but I really have to applaud how the Movember Foundation has tapped into the powerful and primal urge among men everywhere to cloak their upper lips in coarse fur. Raising over $2.4 million for Prostate Cancer Canada last year alone is just the icing on the cake. And the tag line is great too: "We challenge you to join us in changing the face of men's health." Bravo.

So, here is the best reason to give that 'stache you've always dreamed about a try. A month is a nice incubation period for any fledgling mustache-ito, so be brave and put down the razor. Just tell your loved ones that if they don't like it, they can pay you to shave it off. (and if they really love you, they'll understand when you take the money and keep the 3rd eyebrow).

To learn more about the Movember Movement watch the video below or check out their website.

Saul Good gifts have always been designed to be thoughtful, enivronmentally friendly, and socially responsible. In order to maintain these standards, we've learned to be innovative and think critically about how our business operates. We're constantly searching for ways we can make Saul Good better. This means meeting local farmers in order to find BC's best organic products and enrolling in programs like Climate Smart to ensure that our business is running as efficiently as possible. Now we're very proud to announce that we've adopted 100% recycled cardboard for our trademark gift boxes and shipping materials.

As happy as we are about this development, this switch has been a long time coming. Saul Good has tried to source 100% recycled cardboard for three years, but we were told that because of structural issues no box company would source recycled board for us. This was discouraging, but we were determined to get our boxes as eco-friendly as possible. So recently we started doing some research and learning more about edge crush tests and corrugate weights. We took a look at our operations and realized that our boxes would likely not face the conditions in which virgin fibres are a key asset. Once we had all this information, we approached Great Little Box Co. and made it clear that we were adamant about 100% recycled cardboard. After some discussion, they agreed to begin sourcing recycled board for us. Perseverance triumphs!

We strongly believe that the many benefits of using recycled cardboard for all our gift boxes are well worth the effort, time, and added cost. We're very proud that now more than ever, we're producing gifts that are truly 100% good.

I was talking with my Dad recently about Saul Good's participation in the Climate Smart program. Our conversation turned from greener business practices to the choices we can all make as individuals. He said that small changes like deciding to bring a cloth bag to the store instead of using a throw away plastic bag have absolutely no measurable impact on the condition of our environment, but they are in fact the most important kind of actions we can take. That got me thinking.

The truth is that we cannot hope for our individual actions by themselves to affect the kind of dramatic change we need to slacken the pace of our warming climate. But that shouldn't be a depressing reality. Because the needed fundamental changes--in industry, governments, and wider societal values--will only come through a ground level consensus that our current behaviour is short-sighted and in need of adjusting. By recognizing and embracing our responsibility to take part in that big change, we should be motivated to redouble our efforts to make all the small changes we can.

Our potential is simply this: We can all--as businesses and individuals--assume pivotal roles as thought leaders and influencers. Lead by example, agitate the status quo, and you will encourage others to do the same. In that way, seemingly small individual choices can quickly coalesce into something much more powerful.

And if you need evidence, just look out into the street. Vancouver's citizenry have pushed and led green thought for decades, and it's through this wellspring of momentum that Mayor Robertson recently announced the "Green Capital" campaign and his intent to make Vancouver the world's greenest city by 2020. I have no doubt that it's going to be our continued individual actions that spur progressive thought and eventually lead to the kind of major change needed in North America to result in quantifiable benefits for the world.