Strathcona Green Zone

We're in planning mode for Sustainability 2.010 (fall 2010) at the Strathcona Business Improvement Association (SBIA) where I vollunteer on their sustainability committee. Looking back at the last year I found this footage of the 'Shades of Green' panal I sat on talking about sustainable business practices in the Strathcona Green Zone in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. It's been exciting at the SBIA with the announcement of $50,000 in funding from the Vancity enviroFUND for the development of a materials exchange network so businesses in our community can easily utilize each other's waste materials and save money on disposal and recycling services. An example of this can be seen in our use of off cut paper scraps produced by a local printer as packaging material in our corporate gift basket program. In the near future we'll be looking to hire a full time sustainability coordinator for the SBIA to run with the program and hit the pavement to learn about amd engage all our neighbourhood businesses, helping to facilitate meaningful connections identifying opportunities to save money while reducing environmental impact. Besides materials exchange a community energy challenge is another area of interest, looking at how we as a community can work together to better use resources. Building on the recent success of the SOLE Food Urban Farm project, an initative by United We Can and Building Opportunities with Business, we're finding lots of ways for local businesses, organizations and community members to find meaningful employment while addressing environmental and social justice issues.

Living the Olympic dream. With 9 days to go before the world converges in Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games we're in full swing to fulfill our commitments for 2010 Olympic partners. In November we were approached by our client Gameday Auction, an innovative sports memorabilia company based on Railway St in the Strathcona Green Zone, to help them design a sustainable packaging solution for a unique 2010 Olympic collectible, official replica jerseys (bibs), the same as the ones worn by the athletes during competition in the Games. A year ago they hired us to develop a sustainable corporate gift packaging solution for the Trevor Linden "Behind the Autograph" program and the rest has been history.

Trailblazing the road to sustainable packaging

If you think producing 100% post consumer recycled packaging is easy, think again! After much work with our various suppliers we were able to create 100% recycled (95% post consumer) gift boxes for the replica bibs. The vast majority of the cardboard packaging you'll see during the Games was produced by printing various gradients of blue directly onto bleached white cardboard. VANOC guidelines for using the Olympic logo and artwork stipulate that the logo must be displayed on a white background. From a sustainability perspective this was a very poor design decision as it meant to produce low cost packaging one had no choice but to use materials bleached with chlorine! We decided to print our artwork onto sheets of 100% FSC certified paper and glue that paper to recycled cardboard. We justified the additional costs to our client by not only the environmental benefits but also the value of creating a unique looking package that stands apart on the shelf. I brought in a great collegue of mine, Andy Maier of Courageous B who takes care of our graphic design, and we worked together to come up with solutions that work not only for our client but also that are feasible to produce with our suppliers. The bibs are being sold in the Olympic store at HBC and in the Athlete's Village (also in the Olympic venues during the Games) we're looking forward to seeing if they're a popular souvenir collectible. If you like collecting autographs the bibs are a really cool item as you can get them signed by athlete's during the Games and get them framed with photos and other things you collect during your stay in Vancouver and Whistler.

Lean manufacturing - implementing what I learned in business school

As we set up the assembly line to put together 3,000 bibs I implemented some of the lessons learned during my MBA in Sustainable Business at the Bainbridge Graduate Institute. Tact time is the amount of time it takes an individual to complete a task. If everyone's task takes the same amount of time then the assembly process flows without interruption. When one person's task is a lot faster than the others down the line, 'work in progress' stacks up and creates a 'bottleneck'. Check out the video of our team on Day 1 assembling the bibs, as I watched and timed each task it helped to figure out who should do what and how many people to put at the various stages. Although I'm a firm believer that there's a lot to learn from Toyota and lean manufacturing, at a small scale it really takes people to think on their feet, see where things are getting backed up and help out as they can to help keep the process flowing.

Carbon Neutrality - the Zero program at Hemlock Printers

The Hemlock Zero program offsets the carbon emitted during the full lifecycle of the paper manufacturing and transportation. Working with Offsetters, a leading industry carbon offset provider, the offsets help to support the development of renewable energy and clean technology projects which moves society towards a more sustainable future. If you're looking for a reputable and easy to use tool to calculate the environmental impact of your paper or cardboard project take a look at the Environmental Defence Fund's Paper Calculator site.

Lessons Learned - it's about more than profit

1. Project management - there's tremendous value in stepping back and looking at a project as a whole and having one person responsible for making sure all the details are in order. That way, one person can bring in all the people they need to get the job done as efficiently as possible.
2. Hold true to your values. Push the boundaries and create the solutions you want to see but understand that sometimes compromises have to be made to get the job done on time and on budget. Change happens in so many ways and it's important to be patient in leading the way. For example, even though we had sourced 100% recycled stickers we had to go with virgin stock product due to the long lead time needed to bring in the sustainable ones.
3. Business is more than about profit. Business is about relationships, this is how things get done. Not only from a production standpoint, thinking about how we were able to pull off tight timelines with our manufacturers and assembly crew, but also in closing the deal. It cost me money to pull off the original packaging solution for the Trevor Linden program, but because of it Gameday brought me in to help them with Olympic projects. Never compromise quality or service, that's what it's all about.

Cooperation once again triumphs. Last week Saul Good along with Eclipse Awards hosted an open house and green roof mojito party for our clients, associates and friends down at our green office space in the Strathcona Green Zone in Vancouver, BC. We wanted the opportunity to show our clients what we've been up to this past year, developing corporate gifts, recognition items and promotional products that say more than 'thank you', using sustainable materials and fair labour practices to create memorable and meaningful gifts that tell a story. Over the last couple years my strategy in this space was to throw a local, organic, wine cheese and chocolate tasting party for my clients to let them have a taste of what we have to offer in terms of our gourmet gift baskets, hosting the party in the fall leading up to holidays, giving ideas for corporate Christmas and holiday gifts. We reincarnated, made fresh mojitos, added a green roof and an amazing space and the 1st annual green roof mojito party was born.

One Planet Catering, Vancouver's leading socially and environmentally responsible catering company, provided an amazing array of things to eat and treat through the day. From hand made cinnamon buns and muffins in the morning to croissants with pear and brie to a spread of cheese and fruit into the afternoon and evening. Amazing artisan crisps from Gone Crackers paired with artisan cheeses and a selection of organic wines from Lotusland Vineyards, a local organic vineyard near Abbotsford, BC. We were also happy to showcase new artisan specialty nuts from Cocoa Nymph, a Vancouver based chocolatier, featuring espresso and cocoa covered local Agassiz hazelnuts, great items that are easy to share and enjoy for hosting or to send to your clients. Once again we were also happy to feature fair trade organic chocolate bars from Zazubean and the new single origin fair trade organic coffees from Salt Spring Island Coffee.

I felt really good getting to spend time with my clients, new and old, and meeting some of the companies that have been working with Eclipse over their 11 years in business. It was something that really pulled our team together both at Saul Good, Eclipse and how we both work as teams individually and collectively. We can't take all the credit, we had great help, insight and planning from Corwin at Red Wagon Management, whose work and experience made the event a smooth success. Did I forget to mention the party? Had a great time playing dj with Unkl' Funkl', one of my friends from BGI, mixing tunes well into the night. Thanks to all our friends and associates for coming out, contributing, good times and conversations. We're in it together and its really just begun.

After looking at the reclaimed parallam beams in our warehouse for the last 7 months I finally got around to following through on the reclaimed wood work bench I envisioned when Saul Good moved into share space with Eclipse Awards. Parallam is a recycled wood building product that Eclipse used to reinforce the ceiling to add strength for the green roof top deck on top of the building. It looks really cool, layers upon layers of in line wood grains, now playing the role of table top in our production space. It was just last week when I dropped into see our friends at Propellor Design, a local Strathcona Green Zone business that designs and builds rad lighting fixtures and furniture using eco materials, when I mentioned this project and they kicked down a super simple design that we bagan to work with. Besides scoring a design we also got a few boxes of reclaimed bamboo and nice hardwoods for our hand turned pens by Tradeworks Custom Products.

Building capacity & walking the talk

I hired Shane, one of the Eclipse production staff, to help turn the plan into action and after a day's work our new table is sorted! We're using it as our new and improved assembly benchy for our sustainable corporate gift and gift basket business. Not only does this new additon keep in line with our other green building and warehousing initiatives but also adds capacity to help meet growing demand for sustainable corporate gifts in Vancouver, BC. The new work bench has a lower shelf which we're using for our recycled gift boxes which frees up a bunch of space in our shelving for more the local organic gourmet food products we use in our gifts. With added production capacity we're gearing up for the Christmas and holiday gift season.

Strathcona area businesses are finding ways to cooperate for bottom line benefts. Last week I was honored to meet with other local business owners at Sunrise Soya Foods, a Strathcona keystone business, for the purpose of exploring ways in which we can utilized each other's waste streams.  I'm happy to report back on some of the progress we've made happen to date in addition to opportunities we're continuing toll explore.  Reducing and eliminating waste pays directly into the bottom line of a business, waste = cash, but beyond saving some money this type of work also adds value by building community and relationships with our neighbours. All of this work feeds into building the Strathcona Green Zone, an initiative by the Strathcona Buiness Improvement Association (SBIA) helping local businesses maximzing value from sustainble business practices. Through cooperation we're finding ways to work together for mutual benefit and creating a progressive and innovative business cluster in close proximity to downtown Vancouver.

Meet our neighbours

Sunrise Soya Foods - Manufacturers of a variety of brands including Pete's Tofu, Sunrise Soya Milk, Mandarin and Soyganic, Sunrise has been a corner stone business in Strathcona for over 50 years.

Wing Wing - Manufacturers of Chinese style pork sausages since 1949 shipping their products world wide.

Great Day Bokashi - odour free home composting systems that ferment organic food waste, interested in locating their business in the Strathcona area

Top Success Stories

1. Pallets - both Sunrise and Wing-Wing use orange and blue pallets for shipping, these are the standard ones for shipping into major retail stores. Last week Saul Good gave Wing-Wing 3 blue pallets, helping us figure out how to get rid of something we didn't need while helping them save money on aquire something of value. We also realized that Sunrise receives plastic pallets while Wing-Wing ships products out on plastic pallets. Pallet cascading is an easy way to allow materials to flow through the area as resources, as oppose to as waste to throw away.
2. Plastic buckets - Great Day was able to source plastic buckets from Sunrise which they use for home composting systems.

Opportunities on the rise

1. Reclaimed packing materials - Saul Good is currently experiementing with various options of using reclaimed materials for gift box packaging. Both Sunrise and Wing-Wing have a laminated plastic film product that, if shredded, may be a suitable packing material for Saul Good. Because the product is made from a variety of plastics it can't be recycled, thus by using it for packing we get one more use out of it before it heads to the landfill. Although not ideal from a full product life cycle perspective, it does add some value to waste.
2. Utilizing waste heat - Great Day is looking to utilize waste heat to dry their bokashi, a wheat bran product used in their home composting systems. Food manufacturers can create a variety of heat sources from their manufacturing processes, some of which may be suitable for Great Day. We may need to bring in our consultants to help us calculate if this is a viable eco-industrial opportunty.
3. Our friends at Kona bikes introduced us to a local artist that welds waste steel into various sculptures. As we walked through the Sunrise facility I noticed some old machines and am working on forging a connection here to help Sunrise get rid of something they don't need that's taking up space while helping an artist get access to materials.

Although competition plays a role in challenging ourselves to improve, cooperation is key to progress in a major way. By working together, people and companies are finding amazing ways to contribute value to each other and our organizations.  While working on my MBA I was introduced to Elisabet Sahtouris, an evolutionary biologist giving us a lecture on how we can learn from nature to improve business & society. Over the past while I've noticed a few things that merge together in this space.

Co-Marketing - got clients? so do we!

This past week Saul Good launched a co-marketing campaign with Frogfile Office Essentials, a local green office supply company here in the Strathcona Green Zone. It's a refer a business program giving a Saul Good gift box to every client that refers a new business account at Frogfile. With the newsletter announcement this morning I quickly landed a new client and seeing it emerge on twitter to boot. The web 2.0, digital space and social networking have opened up great opportunities for co-marketing, helping consumers and companies connect with each other based on common interests, markets, and expertise. When two companies offer various value propositions an opportunity emerges to share sales leads as everyone is helping each other to improve their businesses.

Co-Location - it's easier to get help than be on your own

After Sustainability 1.0, a green business expo hosted by the Strathcona Business Improvement Association (SBIA), Toby Barazzuol and I really started talking about our vision for a sustainable business community in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Quickly, various emerging opportunities started to present themselves as Toby's business, Eclipse Awards International, and mine, Saul Good Gift Co., found ways to work together to innovate and do business together. We collaborated with the SBIA and others on Sustainability 2.0, a more progressive expo focused on collaboration as key to sustainable community economic development (For more info on this please read a great article by Emily Jubenvill). One partnership that developed was in the Green Awards space, as we realized that both of our clients would benefit and see value in high quality, locally produced, recognition awards made from recycled, reclaimed and socially responsible labour. On January 1st of this year Saul Good moved into share the office and warehouse space at Eclipse. Having now been in here for 5 months, besides enjoying working in a beautifully designed green renovated building, we've found ways to help each other which include sharing production staff and shipping/receiving logistics, sharing sales leads and clients, collaborating on the development of new business opportunities through creativity and brainstorming sessions, and the development of shared PR contacts interested in the innovative business development happening in Strathcona. This is only the beginning. Co-location has really helped us to learn more about each other and our businesses to find ways we can help each other, after all, it's easier to get help then to be on your own.

Creating value from waste saves cash

For years it's been my passion to be involved with businesses that take useless waste products and turn them into objects of beauty and value. This is the field of industrial ecology, where no energy or resources are wasted but utilized through the development of partnerships where companies use each other's by-products (water, heat, materials) or share resources (buildings, services, employees). Just last week the SBIA hosted a waste exchange workshop that brought neighbourhood businesses together to learn about such opportunities and network in this space. I found value in the workshop as I connected with new people at Strathcona area businesses and with a tour tomorrow at Sunrise Soya I'll see how it all develops. It's amazing to see other businesses interested in cooperation for the development of a sustainable business community and even more thrilling to hear about new companies locating here for this strategic reason.

All business is about relationships, I'm sticking with that, and it's definitely all good to look and develop cooperative models for working together as businesses. It's what we need to do to evolve given the economic and environmental terms of our day. It's also our job.

Last week I went to Las Vegas for the Awards Recognition Association (ARA) show along with my friends at Eclipse Awards.  Recognition is a powerful way to build relationships, both in business and in pleasure, and going to the show was a great opportunity for me to learn more about the industry.  Sustainability has all to do with recognition and appreciation, as I learned so deeply working on my MBA at the Bainbridge Graduate Institute (BGI), as it's really about taking care of people and building culture, two powerful pillars needed to build successful progressive businesses and organizations.  One of the highlights of the trip was a tour we scheduled at the headquarters of zappos.com.  We had heard from friends that it was a great tour, and knew a bit about the success of this online retailer, but were totally surprised as to how progressive the organization was.  Jerry, the Zappos Major, took us on the tour and didn't cease to amaze.  In the photo above you can see him in his festive glory.  Behind you can see the desks of the c-suite, not what you might expect for a billion dollar company!

Management drives culture but employees create it

I was facinated to see how passionate, personal, creative and friendly the Zappos employees are.  For a company thats focussed on service, they were spot on.  They made me feel important and of value and this feeling I now attribute to their brand.  As we walked around the offices there were two things that I thought were super cool.

1. Each department decorated their own area and meeting room
2. Each department welcomed us in their own way

These factors help employees to own a piece of their job, to have creative freedom and expression and be recognized and valued for things that are fun.  This helps to build a positive culture, with happy and satisfied employees.  People who like their job and feel proud to serve their company.  They like each other and their customers.  From tiki lounges to hoola hoops to cowgirls ringing triangles to Mexican margarhita escapades, Zappos has a taste for everyone.

Zappos Library

At the end of the tour you get to choose books from their library that you promise to read, all of which looked good but a couple stood out.  I choose 2.

1. Co-opetition by Adam Brandenburger & Barry Nalebuff
2. Made to Stick by Chip Heath & Dan Heath

Since learning from Elizabet Sahtouris, an evolutionary biologist, at BGI I've been facinated by how cooperation is a more powerful tool for survival in the game of evolution.  That by working together and understanding each other's needs that we're able to best figure out how to work and live with each other.  This is the basis of what we're working towards in the Strathcona Green Zone, how businesses can work together for mutual benefit and build a healthy interconnected sustainable community.  It will be interesting to see how Brandenburger & Nalebuff tie in how cooperation and competition are related.  I'll keep you posted.  One of my great entrepreneurship professors, Paul Hudnut, talked about how to create powerful 'sticky' ideas in a presentation one day a couple years back and given my interest and passion for storytelling and marketing I'm excited to dive into this one as well.

Feeling like a king

Although my friends made me wear a tiara Zappos still made me feel like a king.  Another great moment of the tour was in our visit to Dr.Vik's office, a space used for employees to talk about things going on in their lives and get advice to help them deal with things and achieve their goals.  This sence of safety, comfort, and support again are powerful ways to build a healthy trusting culture, where everyone understands that people are people, not just cogs in the wheel making sprockets.  Success is based on people and it's manifested in the cultures that we create.