Measuring Up To Carbon Neutrality

Meeting Peter Frost last week really has me excited to become Carbon Neutral. I announced our intentions to our staff Monday and there were resounding cheers of approval.

Over the weekend I spent a fair amount of time learning about CO2 emissions, Global Warming, Carbon Footprints and how Costless Express can become a Carbon Neutral company.

Yesterday I connected with THE CARBON NEUTRAL COMPANY in London. The call didn’t start out as smoothly as I was expecting. They immediately interviewed me for about 20 minutes to gauge our commitment level. There are only about 1000 companies currently that are Carbon Neutral Certified and can adhere to the strict yearly guidelines.

Gladly, Costless Express was already doing a lot of the right things, and our value proposition to our customers of single sourcing was quite interesting to them. “If your customer can have all their supplies delivered with just one order, that really saves on the amount of trucks on the road and the emissions they would produce. We like that.” was their response.

To move forward, we will need to submit a full assessment and detailed report of our Green House Gas Emissions. I will need to hire an independent science partner to advise and measure Costless Express’ yearly carbon output. There are only about 3 companies in the world authorized to do this report. They will advise us of our emissions, create emissions reduction programs and submit their report to The Carbon Neutral Company for consideration of becoming Certified Carbon Neutral. There are some significant costs and time commitments at this stage. No turning back now!

I’ll be keeping everyone updated to the progress.

Please visit http://www.carbonneutral.com/ to learn about our environment and how everyone can make a difference – we only have one planet, lets take care of it.

Calvin

Costless Express is Going Carbon Neutral!

Last week I was in Toronto on business and met a very interesting person named Peter Frost. He was a guest speaker at the conference I was attending and is world renowned for his forward thinking on educating businesses about social responsibility and the environment.

Since I could not stay for his presentation the next morning I invited him to dinner with my controller Darrin and another business owner. We were all very interested to hear what he had to say and we weren’t disappointed. Peter spent over four hours discussing how our company can make a difference in the global environment by managing our Carbon Footprint and offsetting our CO2 emissions. Peter was amazing and his ideas have given Costless Express an exciting direction for the future.

I have always managed Costless Express with environmental sensitivity. We use plastic totes instead of boxes, recycle, 50% of our staff take public transit, we use and sell recycled products and on and on. What I found out is that there is so much more we could be doing to reduce our company’s impact on the environment. Peter was excited about our single source concept where we can offer our customers ALL their supplies in one delivery. You see, our truck can deliver what it could take ten other suppliers to deliver and this reduces the carbon footprint of that customers order, causes less traffic congestion and less emission. Our customers need only order from us and we are helping the environment. That was nice to hear from him but he suggested we really push ourselves as a company and strive for the top company ranking of being a CARBON NEUTRAL COMPANY.

I made a commitment at the dinner table that Costless Express will become a Carbon Neutral Company by April 22, 2008 – Earth Day.

Now it’s time to see what I’m in for!

Calvin

Our New Items For 2008!

This is my favorite time of year at Costless Express. Our 2008 Catalogue is completed and off to the presses. Now, it's time to bring in all the new and exciting items for our catalogue launch!

Just last week, we had our coffee and tea shipments arrive. It was Christmas a bit early for me as I went to the warehouse to see the shipments arrive. It was satisfying to see the product cycle complete. From finding a supplier, negotiating prices, adding the products to the catalogue and receiving our first shipment—all that's left to do is ship the new items out to customers.

I know our customers will enjoy our new 2008 Catalogue. We listened to our customers' feedback and added some exciting new items and categories, such as:

• More healthy snack choices
• More environmentally friendly items
• More Buy More & Save pricing
• Focus pages on your favorite items like Starbucks, Tazo, Stash and more
• Free hand soap and Purell dispensers
• Health and Wellness program
• Over 4500 new items

I'm excited to show all our customers our new catalogue and products. Keep an eye on our website: we'll add new items online before the catalogues arrive!

Calvin

Our War Room

Q: How do you eat an elephant?
A: One bite at a time!

Recently, we completed our 2008 Catalogue. With over 1100 pages of products, it really is a massive project. Our catalogue is now off to be printed, and we hope to see the finished product in December.

I'm sure everyone has been involved in large projects with deadlines. How do you stay organized? At Costless, we have our "War Room," and we plaster the walls with whiteboards and calendars. We are a visual group, and we like to see and feel the project.

The best part about our War Room is that it's where all our new product samples are kept and photographed. Once a new product is shot, we sample the product. Hey, someone's got to do it!

A large project can be so overwhelming when looked at in its entirety, but when a broken down into mini projects, it seems manageable. My advice to our marketing team has always been "One bite at a time!"

Calvin

Spread the Word, Not the Germs!

Flu season is fast approaching, and if your business is anything like ours, when one prson gets sick, we all feel it in one way or another.

This year at Costless Express, we partnered with Purell to combat absenteeism in our workplace with our first Health and Wellness Committee. Our goal is to combat germs in the workplace and reduce the spread of viruses that cause the staff to get sick.

If you have not heard of Purell, it's an instant, alcohol-based hand sanitizer that kills 99.9% of the most common germs that may make you sick, without the need for soap or water. It's an easy way to keep your hands clean and fight the spread of germs without having to leave your desk!

Recently we were asked by one of our customers to assist them in launching a Wellness Program in their 300 seat call centre. We gladly launched a program that included wall dispensers, desk dispensers, phone wipes and posters—all for free. We even brought along a cake with the wording "Spread the Word, Not the Germs" to help kick off the campaign. Thanks to our Call Centre lead Kathie Jenson for the nifty words and setting up the program!

Comprehensive studies on workplace wellness and cleanliness have shown dramatic results in the lowering of company absenteeism due to illness. Read and learn more about how FedEx lowered their numbers by 25%!

If your company would like some help in setting up a Workplace Wellness program for your staff, please give your fantastic account rep a call!

Calvin

Snacks For Schools

Like some of you, we here at Costless Express have children heading back to school. For us, it's about 100,000 children, give or take a few!

You see, our company has been delivering snacks, candy and beverages to over 150 schools in BC for the past three years. We fell into this business quite by accident when we were approached by a soon-to-be-bankrupt candy company, and overnight we started supplying schools. It is an interesting side story that maybe I'll tell next time, but for now, I wanted to stand up on my soap box and have a bit of a rant about the current government legislation to ban all "unhealthy foods" in schools.

Here we go.

I agree, children are eating far too much junk food and live a very sedentary lifestyle. Congratulations to Gordon Campbell this week for implementing mandatory physical fitness in schools for all children. Hey, it's a start. Also you can now write off your child's sports dues. I only wish they allowed the sports gear to be written off also. Okay, okay, you came to read me ranting and raving.

I'm sure you have heard about the government imposed legislation that will commence starting this year. No candy, kick out the vending machines, NO MORE JUNK FOOD IN SCHOOLS hooray!

What you haven't heard are studies showing 1 in 4 students who leave school grounds at lunch never return. Where are they going? To the corner store, McDonalds, the mall?

Take a look at a school that has already banned all "unhealthy" food and drink, and what you'll see are swarms of kids jaywalking across busy 4 lane highways to the nearest 7-11. Once the kids reach their destination, there is a line up out the door, and usually a security guard or some kind of policy about how many kids are allowed in the store at one time. You see, kids will be kids, and if they want to eat junk food, they'll find it! Costless Express also supplies schools with healthy choices, such as granola bars and even fresh fruit, but it just sits on the shelf and no student will buy it. Not when Mickie Dees and Timmy Hos are just a walk away from most senior high schools. Coincidence?

The question is safety and absenteeism? How long before a kid gets run over sprinting across the street for a bag of chips? How many kids wait so long in the store line-up that they miss class? I want my kids to be safe at school, learn, and come home in one piece. If they eat a chocolate bar or god forbid - get fat, as a parent, that is my responsibility. Why should the school be responsible for my child's diet? Dont let me off the hook so easy! As a parent of two young boys, it's my job to see they get exercise, teach them self control, moderation and pride in their appearance.

Ohhh now you got me going! I'll cut it off here and pick this up next time.

"Junk food" sales in schools directly generated revenue for sports activities- ironic, isn't it.

Calvin Johnson

Driver Appreciation Day

As a customer of Costless Express, you cant help but meet our Fantastic Drivers. Today we held an Appreciation BBQ for the 6 hard working people who drive trucks for Costless Express.

Our drivers start their day at 6:30am and load their truck with all their orders (our night shift has just finished picking at 6am). After loading everything from pallets of water to custom birthday cakes, they're off to battle morning traffic. Some customers arrive at work and our drivers are in the parking lot waiting to drop their first orders of milk and coffee for the day. Some customers we have rely on us to deliver coffee supplies every day and we don't want to disappoint a large company with hundreds of employees - never mess with the morning coffee!!

Our drivers cover an assigned territory and get to know their customers by first name and our customers get to know them. During the BBQ the drivers shared stories about covering each others territory during holidays and how customers really missed their regular driver. You see, our drivers get to know exactly where to put the order, when to arrive, who to talk to and how to deal with any building security and protocol. They even wash coffee pots and make coffee! So when another driver covers a territory there is a tall order to fill. In the end our customers enjoy all our delivery drivers but there is always a bond with the regular driver.

During the BBQ our inside staff was able to thank the drivers for all the great work they do. We handed out some great folding chairs and umbrellas to each driver as a gift and ate and ate and ate. The highlight for me was singling out our driver Terry. He has been with me for 14 years! We aimed to guess the amount of deliveries he has done over the years and calculated at an average of 45 per day that would be an amazing 163,800 deliveries!

Great job Terry and all the drivers. You are the face of our company and we couldn't do it without you.

Calvin