social justice

GreenOne Ventures is an amazing local company with deep committments to sustainability. After meeting at Sustainability 2.0 and talking more with GreenOne founder Melissa Blyth I was quick to realize a great opportunity to work together. Not only are GreenOne bags super stylie, fashion forward, and practical but also locally manufactured while supporting the local arts community. Melissa is commited to having a positive impact on the world as seen by the depth of her consideration in sourcing materials and partners in this enterprise. Saul Good is happy to announce that we've started to offer her bags, not only as great gifts on their own, but also as packaging options for our corporate gifts, gourmet gift baskets and boxes.

Supporting the local arts community

To ensure that GreenOne has a positive impact on our local community Melissa founded Give A Shirt, a social venture that hires local DTES artists such as the infamous Ken Foster, Garnet Tobacco and Lauren Javor. Proceeds from the sale of each shirt go directly to the artists as royalties and a portion of profits from the program go into a social venture fund to address social and economic development issues in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

Top 5 things we like about Green One

1. Funky designs from local artists
2. Functional, comfortable to carry, even a couple great places to stash a bottle of wine or two
3. Sustainable materials - the conventional cotton industry uses 16% of the world's chemical pesticide use¹, damaging fresh water sources, the health of farmers and our ecology as a whole. Feel good about purchasing organic cotton, it's making Earth a better place to live.
4. Social justice - The Give a Shirt program is rad! Support for local artists and opportunties for residents in the downtown eastside helps to create an inclusive community that empowers people and values diversity.
5. Reusable shopping bags eliminate the need for plastic bags. Every time you use a GreenOne bag it reduces the need for plastic bags by 2. Plastic comes from oil/gas and we're running out of that. GreenOne helps you to be part of the solution, and do it in style!

The Strathcona Business Improvement Association (SBIA) is hosting it's second annual sustainability summit on April 2nd, 2009, 3-7pm at Chapel Arts, and I'm happy to announce that we've secured Majora Carter as our keynote speaker, a leader in the social justice and social enterprise space.  The event is focused on collaboration, how businesses and organizations can work together for mutual benefit and build sustainable communities.  I'm going to be on a panel with along with Toby Barazzuol of Eclipse Awards, Danielle of Frogfile Office Essentials, Tracy Casavant of Eco-Industrial Solutions among others.  The panel is being facillitated by Anita Burke, a leading systems thinker, so we're bound to have some great questions taking the dialogue a bit deeper.  Besides hearing from some great local leaders Majora is a speaker not to be missed.  Registration is free, sign up today to avoid disappointment: www.strathconabia.com/expo2