Java "Script"

Do you ever get confused by the labels on coffee? Fair Trade, Bird Friendly, Shade Grown, Organic, Rainforest Alliance……and so on. It can be frustrating to wade through all of them in a quest to be more “socially responsible”. You almost need to bring along a dictionary when shopping to figure out what everything means.

Then….once you have determined what kind of coffee to buy, you have to consider what kind of cup you are going to drink it in. Are you going to use a china mug, or a TO-GO cup and is that TO-GO cup plastic? And if so, is it BPA free? And what the heck is BPA and why should I care about it?

Advertisers know this and they also know how to wordsmith themselves into your shopping cart. Which brings me to a conversation I had recently with a 20 something young lady with a tight budget. Disclaimer alert***Please bear in mind that while the premise of this story is real, the other part is made up to make it funnier and/or to protect the innocent :)

Melissa was shopping at Rostco (the uber wholesale store) and was on a tight budget. She desperately needed to restock her coffee supply and had been standing in front of the coffee selection for the past ten minutes, unable to make up her mind.

Normally Melissa purchased Fair Trade coffee beans and then ground them at home. On this particular day, she was struggling with the price difference between the Fair Trade coffee beans and the remaining brands on the shelf and unfortunately was going to have to purchase a “non” Fair Trade brand of coffee until her bank account recovered sufficiently. Normally the two or three dollar difference didn’t weigh that heavily on her decision making process, but after watching a television marathon of “Til Debt Do Us Part”, Melissa had been bitten by frugal bug and her grocery “money jar” contained a limited supply of purchasing power.

Not willing to completely abandon her sense of social responsibility, she was carefully weighing the choices before she made her decision. There were two different types of coffee and each indicated that, while they weren’t Fair Trade, they did give a portion of their profits to children. Hmmmmmmm…..Melissa was perplexed. Does she buy the coffee that supports children in sports? Or does she buy the coffee that supports children in the Arts? Relieved that she had brought along her iphone, Melissa quickly Google searched each coffee company prepared to compare “apples to apples” or actually, “coffee to coffee”.

Each company extolled the virtues of their corporate social responsibility and generously listed all of their community accomplishments. Satisfied that she had done her due diligence, Melissa decided to purchase the coffee from the company that supported the children in the Arts and reached for a bag. It was at this point, that out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a ribbon on the corner of the other coffee package. After pausing to examine the ribbon more closely, is appeared to be cream coloured with a gold edge. The presence of a ribbon on one of the bags certainly trumps the sports versus arts comparison. “What does a cream ribbon with gold edging support?” Melissa wondered aloud, getting more frustrated and confused by each passing moment. All she wanted was a bag of coffee – but all of a sudden that simple bag of coffee was becoming a personal and political statement.

Once again taking out her iphone she Google searched “what does a cream ribbon with gold edging stand for?” and watched the search icon blink…..and blink….and blink. The answer? Ribbon status: pending.

To make a long story short, unable to make an informed decision that would enable her to sleep at night, Melissa left Rostco without purchasing any coffee.

Like I said, I took the liberty to change a few things in the story, but the premise remains the same. Advertisers like to baffle us with steer manure in an attempt to gain our purchasing power. Melissa was an informed individual willing to research her way towards a coffee purchase and even she was left confused.

I should have something eloquent to say now to wrap this up. A famous quote about choices, a comment about sustainability…..but I have nothing.

Making decisions in the 21^st century is exhausting and stressful. Make the right one and you send a child to school; make the wrong one and you have supported child labour or denied a worker an honest, living wage. Such pressure, but oh so much power!

And you thought you were just buying coffee….

Father's Day 101

Father’s Day is right around the corner and it has me stymied. What to get for my dad? I know he doesn’t really need anything, but when they say, “I don’t really need anything” that usually means that they secretly wish you would surprise them with a Prince Rupert fishing trip or something else really cool.

There are definitely Do’s and Don’ts to Father’s Day gifting. I thought I would go over them briefly in advance of the special day.

The phone call – For those kids who are off to college or living away from home, there is an unwritten code which states, “if you are going to give your Father the gift of your precious voice for Father’s Day, that phone call must be made before noon (that is when both hands are pointing straight up kids). That phone call should be made with enthusiasm and love. The phone call should not be made in that post-drunk whisper (you know, the one where the sound of your own voice makes your head hurt). Please refrain from imbibing too heavily the night before.

The homemade card – Oh yes….the homemade card. The homemade card is honestly one of the most wonderful gifts a small child can give her daddy. But…when the child is 19, and the ink is still wet because they “created” it 15 minutes earlier with a Sharpie after remembering it was Father’s Day……it isn’t quite as “special”.

The “IOU” card – Once again, the IOU card or the card that is crafted that states, “this is good for breakfast in bed” is charming when it comes from your 10 year old twins. When it comes from your 30-year child who still lives in your basement because he/she can’t hold down a job, it loses its luster.

The gift of time – “Hey Dad…..it’s steak night at the golf course, lets go!”, which is code for “I would like to go golfing, but I have no money right now….if I offer to go with you, you will probably pay”.

The Imaginary Gift – The imaginary gift is the gift that is best explained by, “I was going to get you this cool *insert something extravagant/priceless/cool/hard to get*, but they were all sold out”. The imaginary gift is given when the child can see a sibling give an actual gift to their father and feels guilt ridden.

The last minute gift – normally something from the local convenience store, i.e. Sen-Sen packets, snowbrush and Mentos

The “ask” – The “ask” is when the child comes to mom for a loan because they want this to be the “best Father’s Day ever” for dear old dad.

The Dad’s that say they don’t want anything – these guys are the hardest to shop for. They only say they don’t want anything because they have been burned before….when they were hoping for some recognition on Father’s Day, but it never came through. Now they use the “I don’t want anything” phrase as a defense mechanism. These are the guys that you have to go a little overboard on, spend that little bit extra.

I hope these made you smile - Happy Father’s Day!

Squirrel!

“Squrrel!”, a word that became part of our vernacular following the release of the movie “Up” when Doug, the dog couldn’t focus on one thing for very long.

Do you use the “Squirrel” approach to your green meeting planning? Let’s face it…..there are so many products and services in the market place to support sustainable event planning that it can be easy to abandon the boring “less flashy” strategies from days of yore (that word has been sitting on my desktop BEGGING for a place to use it).

Badges made out of corn plastic, lanyards made from pop bottles, plates made from wood fiber, biodegradable pens, eco friendly bags and totes, bird friendly, fair trade, rapidly renewable, energy star……so many choices out there. Don’t get me wrong. I think it is wonderful that industry is recognizing that there is a market for these products and that the market itself is driving industry to come up with better alternatives. What I am concerned with, is that some will abandon their decision making process (good, better, best) because they are distracted by shiny things (aka the next big thing) “Squirrel”!

How can you continue to focus when everything is moving so quickly around you?

Here are some tips:

Keep a portfolio of products you trust – When you find a great product or service and you have taken the time to research it thoroughly, put it in a portfolio. These products and services are now in the “Circle of trust” (Meet the Focker's movie reference). You have done your homework and can call upon these products and/or services at a moments notice.

Proceed with caution – When a colleague sends you a link to the next best/greenest thing…..do your homework and check it out thoroughly.

Embrace the boring stuff – All the newest and greatest products in the world won’t green your event or label it “sustainable”. It is the decision making process up to the point of the purchase that helps to minimize the environmental impact that you are making. You need to employ the same process as you always have:

· ReDUCE our willy-nilly purchase of unnecessary “stuff” – will it enhance the attendee experience?

· ReUSE all the “stuff” that we got before we didn’t know we could live without it

· ReCYCLE as much as we can and if we can’t recycle it – know that we probably shouldn’t have purchased it

· ReTHINK everything that we use which includes our suppliers

Squirrel!

A Girl Named Sue

What do you think of when you hear the term “social responsibility”? Social responsibility, the theory that an organization or individual has an obligation to benefit society at large, is interpreted by each of us differently. Many of us do it passively, meaning we avoid participating in socially harmful acts. How many of us are actively engaging in social responsibility?

Which brings me to a Ninja, actually a “Super Ninja” and her name is Sue.

For Sue, a trip to Central America became a journey of self-discovery and appreciation for the world in which she lives. The story really began when her friend Debbie, tragically lost her daughter in Afghanistan. In 2008 Shirley Case, a small town British Columbia girl from 100 Mile House, along with two other aide workers, was gunned down by Taliban insurgents. Shirley was only 30 years old and had dedicated her life to helping people. Fast forward to 2010. In partnership with SchoolBOX, a Canadian grassroots charity, Shirley's families and friends celebrate Shirley’s life by building a school for over 100 children in Monte Olivo, Nicaragua creating a living testament to this amazing woman. It was an opportunity for the Case family to have a connection to the kind of life that their daughter lived. When Sue finds out that Debbie and her husband Alec are about to embark on a trip to Monte Olivo, she volunteered herself and her sister Karen.

This past Easter, after a four-hour flight from Houston, Sue and Karen arrived in Managua, Nicaragua. They joined ten others, forever known as Shirley’s Super Ninja’s, to help begin building a four-room school in the community of Monte Olivo.

For six days, traveling for over an hour each day to the school site, the group worked in the scorching heat, digging trenches, laying rebar, mixing concrete. “It was the hardest I worked, but the most fun I ever had” said Sue. They also had a daily connection with the locals, especially the children who would get to attend the new school. “It was seeing the children and how hard they worked for something that we take for granted that had a profound affect”. When I asked Sue what was her “awesome”, meaning what was something that she will remember forever she said, “working side by side with a seven year old boy shoveling dirt and knowing I couldn’t quit him and he wouldn’t quit me”.

The trip changed Sue’s life and much like someone who has had a life changing experience, she is reflective about how she has lived in the past and how she can see things differently. “I am much more thankful than before. When I watch programs like World Vision I get emotional because it is real to me in a way that was different before ”.

Sue will be the first person to admit that you don’t have to travel across the world to make a difference; but for her, getting out of her comfort zone, getting the dirtiest she has ever been, crying tears of joy and tears of sadness, working so hard she felt sick, was very rewarding.

For more information about the project in which Sue participated, check out www.schoolbox.ca

I loved hearing about the trip to Central America. But let’s face it, the majority of us will not get to Central America to build a school; we won’t get to Japan to help rebuild after the tsunami and we won’t even get to Slave Lake to assist them in rebuilding their community after the devastating fire. Nevertheless, we can be active socially responsible citizens in our own community. We don’t have to belong to a group to get something done. Personal actions can have a profound impact. Simple actions may include keeping our community clean and free of hazards, ensuring that our children have a full tummy when they go to school, and assisting our seniors.

Shirley Case was known to have said to each person she met, “Be the change you want to see in the world” Mahatma Ghandi.

Are you the change?

The day I ran away from home

White Space. Graphic designers describe white space as the “absence of content”. We live in a world with very little white space. We brand ourselves as “accessible” and the fact is that we pack our smart phones EVERYWHERE and are available 24/7. How healthy is that? Where are our boundaries? Where is our personal “white space”?

We are scheduled and programmed to the extent that spontaneity is no longer possible. If I were to ask you, “when was the last time you did something crazy and impulsive?” what would be your answer?

Today I ran away from home. I will be back tomorrow, but for today I am a runaway. I chose to drive 5 hours to a meeting instead of flying. I chose to sit in a car for 5 hours with no cell phone, no computer, and no one else to talk to. I created 5 hours of “white space”.

I set my cruise control for 110 kph, put the “Devil Wears Prada” book on cd in the player and drove. It was heavenly.

Tomorrow I get to drive the 5 hours home. I can’t wait