Zero Emissions Coffee Roaster

Bellwether Coffee - Zero Emissions Commercial Coffee Roaster

Wow! Is this the future of the local coffee shop?
It would be pretty cool to have one at Lykki.

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day! Hope you have a chance to get outside on the sunny Vancouver Sunday.

Abundant Providers

Thanks to Brad Caton for inviting me to be a part of his new mission - Abundant Providers (.org) to feed the world. Great brain storm session last week. People like Ron Finley are already leading the way. Super cool project ready to launch soon - stoked to jump on board with.



Ron Finley plants vegetable gardens in South Central LA -- in abandoned lots, traffic medians, along the curbs. Why? For fun, for defiance, for beauty and to offer some alternative to fast food in a community where "the drive-thrus are killing more people than the drive-bys."

Happy Earth Day

If there is one thing your business could do right now to make a significant impact of the environment what could it be?

I argue that reducing the number of deliveries from suppliers can make a significant impact of the amount of CO2 emissions your company creates. You see, each time your company orders some supplies a truck must deliver them to you and that truck is creating emissions.

So less deliveries, larger orders less often is the trick.

Have a look at why Lykki is such a great choice as a supplier by checking out our cool info graphic.

Cheers

Calvin

We sell it cheap - customers stack it deep.

Here was a picture from Mo - one of our awesome Lykki drivers.

He snapped this great pick showing an order he delivered where the customer ordered many cases of copy paper. What was special is how the customer needed the paper taken out of the boxes so they could use the empty boxes for file storage.

What a great way re-purpose the boxes, he thought, and wanted to share.

Thanks Mo - keep sharing the cool ideas you see from our customers.

Cheers

Calvin

What is a Wheat Sheet?

We are super excited to roll out our newest sustainable copy paper brand "The Wheat Sheet". We have been working with the distributor for the past 12 months testing and offering our feedback on this innovative paper. 
Click her to learn all about this new product. http://socialprint.com/
Lykki plans to roll out some amazing pricing in our launch of the Wheat Sheet in 2014. Our goal is to one day offer a sustainable paper at a price point equal to a virgin based paper and eliminate the need to cut down trees to make paper. 
Join us and try the wheat sheet on your next order. At Lykki we have switched all our copy paper consumption to the Wheat Sheet, please do the same and save the planet one box at a time.  Order now!

Cheers
Calvin

I remember when...

Some strange guy was driving up and down our street tossing  these yellow books on everyone's doorstep. What is this book used for? 
OK, I'm old enough to remember the awesome Sears Catalogue and the toy section where I would dream of the toy Santa might bring me or the Canadian Tire catalogue and even the classified section of the newspaper where I found my first car to buy and apartment to rent but technology has replaced all that. And that's a good thing at least from an environmental standpoint. 
I think the only good part about these yellow pages is the fact my kids are just old enough that they will remember the books and reminisce many years from now .... I remember when they still made the Yellow Pages.  
Cheers
Calvin

Timmy Ho goes Eco

Look what was installed at the Tim Hortons near the Lykki Headquarters. Charging stations for electric cars.
Good for Timmies and the City of Coquitlam for being quite progressive. I love this picture - can you see the old 60's car parked in the charging station? Imagine the buyer of that car back in the 60's being told one day the car would be evolved by the electric car. Will the next specialized parking spot be for a flying car??



I was wondering what kind of electric cars were available to buy, so for this blog post I stopped into a Tesla electric car dealership. It's actually one single car in a store inside the mall. The car was incredibly impressive with acceleration faster than a Porsche 911 and an immense amount of room for 7 passengers and luggage due to the fact there is no extras like a motor transmission or exhaust to take up space.
Although the cost of this model S was close to $100k, I'm sure costs will come down.

Personally I'd prefer free WiFi everywhere before charging stations.

Cheers
Calvin

Eco Afternoons

 
 
 
 


This summer Lykki is again booked into several Eco Fairs.

What is an Eco Fair you may ask?
It's an event held usually in the lobby or breeze way of an office tower downtown. Several non competing businesses set up booths and present their services and products. The catch is they all need to be very environmentally committed in what they offer.

Lykki is representing the Office Supplies Category while other companies like Zip Car and HSR Happy Stan's Recycling did their part also.
This year we had a very popular booth by creating a game show type environment with our "PAPER CHALLENGE". How it works is we have three stacks of copy paper for contestants to look touch and feel( some even sniff and chew the paper!!). To win a prize the contestant needs to correctly identify what stack is Virgin Paper, 100% Recycled Paper and Sugar Cane Paper.
It was amazing to see how hard it is for the general public to differentiate the types of paper whith over 80% of people not able to get all 3 correct in the first try.

Only a few years ago recycled or alternate source paper looked quite different from the bright white virgin sheets we were accustomed to using in our offices everyday. Well, all that has changed when you look at the three papers we had in our Paper Challenge. They were indistinguishable between each other, even when you tried to tast e them looking for the sugar cane sheet - and people tried :-))

Keep an eye on our Lykki Facebook page for our next Eco Fair and come try the Paper Challenge for yourself.

Cheers
Calvin

Happy Earth Day!

We recycle all your used Ink and Toner cartridges. Just give them to your friendly Lykki driver and we'll take care of everything.

Did you know we were the first office supply company in Canada delivering orders with an electric trike - we call it our ECO YIKE.

Did you know we deliver orders in our snappy reusable totes? Saving tons and tons of cardboard boxes.We Lykki.

I'm not sure what Gumby and Pokey have to do with Earth Day but they sure seem excited about driving the EcoYike around town today. We are swamped with orders full of eco friendly products since we launched our 20% off all Green Products Sale this week.

You may be interested to know that we have gone from just a few hundred green products a few years ago, to now well over 3500 eco products. Almost every category of office supplies has some sort of eco alternative. And while selection has continued to increase, the cost has stedily decresed to a point where the green alternative is sometimes the same cost as the non green. Just the way it should be.

Looking good Gumby and Pokey!

Cheers
Calvin

New Totes - Blue Totes

For over 10 years we have been delivering our orders in signature red totes. A first in Vancouver, and long before the moving industry started using totes. I remember watching Dragon's Den a few years back and seeing FrogBox pitch their moving tote concept and thinking, hey this looks familiar. Kudos to FrogBox (he's a buddy of mine now) for picking up on the same thing we saw - replace cardboard boxes with reusable totes.

So we are happy to see our new snappy blue Lykki Totes in the building, and we can recycle the old red ones.

Cheers
Calvin

Don't eat our paper!

Today we are launching a new copy paper that is 100% Tree Free. That's right; No wood pulp, no trees, no recycled paper - nothing. This paper is made from sugar cane.

We have been testing several brands of Tree Free paper for 9 months and have chosen the Canefields brand Cane Paper as our house brand 100% Tree Free Paper.

I'm excited about where the paper industry is going with new innovation. It parallels the innovation happening in the automotive industry with electric vehicles. Once the performance and price are similar, people will pick the eco-friendly alternative. Please try a box of our Cane paper and if you are not totally satisfied, email me at calvin@lykki.com and I'll personally see you are credited every penny and $5.00 more for your troubles.

Click here to order a box from our snazzy website. 

Cheers
Calvin

Frogs and Dragons!

Costless customers will recognize our unique red or green totes we use to deliver orders in.

A local company FrogBox has taken the tote idea to a new level by making a business of renting the totes to people who are moving. And they have become quite a success story by getting a deal on the CBC show Dragons Den.

Doug is the founder of Frog Box. Doug and I have met several times and as entereprenurs we had some fun ideas on how to work together promoting our brands.

Have a look at our latest Costless Express and Frog Box promotion.

Who knows, you might see me on Dragons Den soon ;-)

Cheers

Calvin

"Dunn Dunn Daahhh"

WHEW - Is it getting hot in here, or is it just me?

Whether you think Global Warming is real or some sky is falling fallacy - watch this 30 second video from NASA and make up your own mind. Watch it here.  

Don't worry - the video only shows the 9th warmest year on record.

Can you guess what year was the SECOND warmest in history? See here.

Want some ice in that drink?
Cheers,

Calvin

Thanks Karoline for the KUDOS letter!

Today Sidney from our sales department emailed me asking if I could write a note to a customer. He wanted to really WOW Karoline, his customer, and put her mind at ease that she has chosen a supplier who is passionate about the environment. Here is my email to Karoline and her lovely response..

ps - Standing ovation for Sidney!!!

Hi Calvin, Thank you ever so kindly for such an informative e-mail regarding Costless' green initiatives. Your overview definitely provided much greater insight as to how important this is to you as a company, its employees, customers, and more importantly, the city itself. Although I never doubted it, I think it's safe to say that I feel at ease knowing that my office supplier cares about the environment just as much, if not more, than I do. I probably have at least one of your competitors come in for a sales pitch on a monthly basis and I always feel confident declining their offers knowing that Costless provides the best customer service, product selection, prices, etc... This is another great addition to the list of why I'm so happy to be your customer. On that note, I want to take this opportunity to let you know what a pleasure it's been working with your company. Sidney always handles any tasks or requests, no matter how large or small, with such accuracy, thoroughness and professionalism. His upbeat personality and his attention to detail (even in personal matters) have made this working relationship an added bonus to my job. In an age where we're constantly faced with automated responses/answering machines, e-mail templates, etc... I have to applaud the extra mile Sidney goes every single time. Additionally, the contact made with the delivery guys is always a delight. Coupled with such a prompt and detailed email from the CEO himself, I have to say congratulations on the culture you have built within your company! I look forward to a long and enjoyable relationship with Costless Express. Warmest regards, Karoline

Calvin on the EcoYike Hello Karoline, thanks for giving your feedback to Sidney and not switching your business. Looks like we need to toot our own horn a bit more so all customers understand how passionate we are about the environment. To put your mind at ease, Costless Express is an excellent choice as your office supplies supplier since you too are passionate about reducing environmental impact. As the owner and Chief Energizing Officer I have been leading the environmental charge in our company but also as an innovator for other companies in our industry to follow as an example. Here are some of the exciting initiatives we are most proud of. The first Carbon Neutral Office Supplier in Canada and one of the first to graduate the ECO Trust/Pembina Institute 3 month Carbon Neutral Class Reusable Totes 7 years ago we replaced over 80% of our cardboard boxes with plastic totes for order deliveries 2 years ago we purchased FROGFILE OFFICE PRODUCTS to become a force in the eco supplies business Our EcoYIKE electric delivery trike was a first in our industry and a first in Canada. We have been delivering with our ECOYike for almost a year now. Costless Express offers the largest selection of environmentally friendly products of any supplier in Canada Our unique selection of Office Supplies, Breakroom and Janitorial Supplies offers our customers the ability to significantly reduce their carbon footprint by consolidating business supply orders. This is the #1 way a business can help reduce CO2 emissions - ( each time a business orders supplies, a truck is delivering those supplies - so less deliveries from less suppliers = happy planet) Only Costless offers such a wide selection in one delivery from soup to nuts, fruit to file cabinets :-) Karoline, you mentioned an electric truck and personally I'm not convinced there is much of a win to the environment for the cost. How we view our delivery fleet is actually our proudest part of our business. We do not use computers to sort and route our daily orders (we used to 5 years ago) but instead we manually route each order by hand. How this is important is we maximize each route our trucks drive so as to minimize distance travelled and idling time. We also concentrate our customers to a very dense route territory and strongly avoid delivering (single orders) to addresses far outside our territory. (See this infographic to learn more) How this is significant compared to our competition is that our competition also has mainly gas and diesel powered vehicles and their policy is not as ridged as ours and as such they can be found delivering a single box 75km outside the city and this contribute significant amounts of excess CO2. Costless Express has made a conscious decision not to sell to Government Agencies such as school districts for this reason, as they would want service to all locations no matter how far away and how small the order. It would only take a few long distance deliveries to Abbotsford to negate any wins an electric truck could deliver. How about I call it a day for now or I'll keep typing pages :-) I'm very happy to chat with you to set your mind at ease that you have chosen a great supplier who is passionate about the environment and our city. If you would like to follow more about our initiatives and fun stuff we do here - please check out my blog http://costlessexpress.blogspot.com/ We are so happy to have you as a customer! Cheers, Calvin Johnson