BPA & Bottles

Sunday, and here I am in Denver waiting for my connecting flight from Dallas, Texas to Vancouver. Sandy, Darrin and I were at a conference on our company software. I was sipping a bottle of water, and started thinking about the recent news on the chemical BPA that is found in some plastics. Was this one of the unhealthy bottles? What is the story here, and how does it effect our customers?

I'm sure you have all seen the news about BPA and how some retailers like The Bay and Mountain Equipment Co-Op have removed product from their shelves. What I have found is there is ample evidence that North American human exposure levels are approximately 100,000 times below (TDI) Tolerable Daily Intake levels established by various authorities. The big news recently is the announcement by Health Canada that they are ready to become the first jurisdiction to take the unprecedented step of listing BPA as a "dangerous substance".

At Costless Express we sell over 3,000,000 recyclable containers, and many are plastic water bottles. I am happy to report that plastic water bottles are not made with BPA. Feel safe and chug away. It does raise a concern for me though. What is on the list of nasty things we are consuming that is on Health Canada's Tolerable Daily Intake list?

Calvin

Healthy Planet, Healthy Office

You will soon see one of our "Healthy Planet, Healthy Office" flyers in the mail over the next few weeks. We sent one to over 55,000 businesses in Vancouver.
Our flyer has 16 pages of eco and healthy products, such as recycled paper, eco-friendly cleaners, and tasty, healthy juices and fresh fruits. All the flyer products are found in our large catalogue, but I think customers like seeing what we offer that is healthy and eco-friendly.
The highlight for me has to be the back cover of the flyer. It shows a neat diagram of why Costless is the eco-friendly choice for ordering office supplies. Thanks to Erin, our graphic designer, for a very engaging diagram. Erin, you always do great work! Respect!
Calvin

Happy Earth Day Savings!

I wanted to celebrate Costless Express going Carbon Neutral, so we held a super sale on a few recycled products for our customers.

I lowered our 30% recycled paper from a great price of $39.99 per case to an incredible $29.99 per case. Our recycled single fold towel went from $29.99 to a crazy price of $19.99.

I wanted to spotlight a few recycled items and have customers try something new, and think about recycled products as an alternative. We sell over 2500 recycled products, so have a look in our catalogue, or call your fantastic account manager.

I hope you took advantage of our sale!

Calvin

Happy Earth Day!

Earlier this year, our company set a very lofty goal of being Canada's first carbon neutral office supplier. Today on Earth Day, we met that goal! Costless Express is now a Carbon Neutral Company.

Darrin and I attended our final Ecotrust Canada workshop and purchased our first carbon offsets. Costless Express will continue to lower its CO₂ emissions each year, and our goal over the next 12 months is to remove 40 tonnes from our carbon footprint.

I wanted to spotlight Alison Cretney, Magdalena Szpala and Michelle Bonner at EcoTrust Canada. They were exceptional, supportive, educational and very professional in how they ran the workshop.

Calvin

Dinner With Peter Frost

After visiting the EPIC show today I met up with my great friend Peter Frost. If you recall in my November 12th entry, it was Peter who really kick-started my interest in becoming environmentally aware.

Peter had just landed in Vancouver from London, and we met up for dinner to catch up. Peter is internationally known for his forward insight of the Office Products industry, and does public speaking on topics such as marketing to women in business, competing against the big box retailers, and most notably, his experience on all things Eco and Green.

We had a great dinner at Morton's Chop House downtown (fantastic service, but that's another story) and Peter filled me in on where the industry is heading. He says it was a real tipping point year for Eco awareness in business all over the globe, but was specifically impressed with the knowledge and commitment Canadian businesses have continued to show. We discussed Costless Express going Carbon Neutral on Earth Day at the graduation of our EcoTrust 3 month workshop on Carbon Neutral companies. He had not heard of another Canadian Office Supply company being Carbon Neutral - so we could be the leader.

By dessert and coffee I had all the motivation needed to complete our process and become the First Carbon Neutral Office Supply Company in Canada!

Peter, you owe me dinner next time.

Cheers

Calvin

United We Can

Today I went to see George Metrakos, the executive director of United We Can. His organization is well known on the downtown east side for all sorts of programs to assist people in the area who are challenged with numerous obstacles. He operates a bicycle repair shop, a computer shop, a house plant rescue center, and one of the busiest Encorp Recycling Centers in Vancouver. The goal at United We Can is to create jobs and skills for those who want to have an opportunity to get clean and a reason to get up and show up.

I came across George because of a fantastic new program he has started. Its called UBU, short for Urban Binning Unit. What is an UBU? Its a mobile cart custom designed to collect recyclable containers. He works with "Binners", people who make a living collecting recyclable containers from trash bins, and turns it into a reputable business opportunity to connect the Binner and corporate customers. He has taken digging in trash cans and using shopping carts into a sustainable, modern, eco friendly, business opportunity.

Here's how it all works. All a "Binner" needs to do is show up at United We Can's office in the morning and sign out a UBU cart. George will give them a route of predetermined companies who have stored recycled containers for a scheduled pick up. The Binner will then walk or attach the UBU to their bicycle and make their rounds collecting throughout the downtown area and as far away as Broadway. When their UBU is full, they return to the United We Can recycling depot and sort their cargo. Each UBU Binner is dressed in a sharp uniform and visibly shows a ID badge identifying himself.

Each Binner can make money from the recycling refunds, and as well, United We Can pays the Binners by the hour. It was a great project to see in action and a very clever way to connect the downtown east side with the corporate side of Vancouver. The SFU Psychology class has been so impressed with the project that each day one or two students accompany the UBU collectors on their routes to assist and immerse themselves in the lives and stories of the Binners.

It seems a natural fit for Costless Express to support George and the UBU project. We sell over 3,000,000 recycled containers per year and a portion are delivered to downtown customers in George's area. I thought we could help set up some customers to have scheduled UBU pick ups. I will continue to work with George to roll out the program from the current 10 UBU's to a target of over 40 UBUs.

Great work George, and all the staff at United We Can!

Calvin

EcoTrust Workshop

Yesterday Darrin and myself attended our first of three workshops hosted by EcoTrust Canada. The course is three months long, and we meet once each month to learn how to measure our carbon footprint and reduce our footprint.

Surprisingly, there were only 10 companies in the workshop. But in the end the smaller group worked well, as we all had tons of questions. The EcoTrust staff was well prepared, with a fast paced agenda, a catered lunch, and a guest speaker from the past workshop - King Pacific Lodge. We all rolled up our sleeves and immediately began drawing out our own company's "Emissions Scope Map". From there, we learned what Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions were, and what emissions were directly controllable by our company. As you see, we were not the greatest artists.

We left with homework on measuring our carbon emissions, and we are to collect the data and enter it into the EcoTrust calculator to determine the amount of tons of CO₂ our company is emitting per year.

Over the next month we will look at our trucks, gas and electricity, and even how our staff commute to work. Darrin and I both felt the workshop was well done, and we look forward to the challenge of measuring our footprint.

Calvin