emily.

One of my favourite books is Song for the Blue Ocean by Carl Safina. It’s a thick heavy book and not a light read either, but I love it. The first section of the book is on the bluefin tuna, and I remember some parts - no, feelings it invoked in me, vividly. In particular, I remember feeling waves of frustration as I read about the International Commission for Conservation of Atlantic Tunas inability to see the dire state of

Photo: Environment360

the bluefin tuna populations, and the measures that needed to be taken to save the species.

Unfortunately, as the most valuable animal on the planet (400lbs fish sells for over $150,000), there is a lot of pressure to keep fishing bluefin despite populations down 90% in Western Atlantic. This morning I read a post by Carl Safina that reminded me that although a piece of sushi is small, the global demand is huge.

The increasing rarity of bluefin—and escalating worldwide sushi madness—has only intensified fishing efforts. And as the fish diminish, demand further drives up the price of bluefin meat. As extinction nears, the fishing keeps escalating.

Fishing has already demolished bluefin populations. The last few decades have seen gold-rush bluefin fisheries disappear off Brazil, in the North Sea, and the southwest Pacific. Wherever they still swim, they are aggressively hunted…

Although consumer demand plays a role in saving the bluefin, there is also urgent work that needs to be done to list bluefin on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) list. As a fish that migrates across the ocean, it is difficult to manage the fishery on a global scale. However, the USA is in the position to protect the bluefin in one of their major breeding grounds, the Gulf of Mexico.

Conservationists must work to get the west Atlantic bluefin population listed under the Endangered Species Act. Meanwhile, the U.S. should seek legal action against European fishing countries under the Pelly Amendment for undermining the efficacy of officially agreed-to fishing limits. And management of international trade in bluefin tuna should be turned over to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species [CITES], which enacted the ban on ivory that saved Africa’s elephants.

In the end, there is a lot of work to do if we want to save the bluefin. Understanding the problem is one step, and then supporting sustainable fisheries is another. If you’re really inspired - get involved with a local conservation group…. or make your city bluefin tuna free!

Read Carl Safina’s entire post here.

“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity… and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself“. William Blake

Shrenik Rao cycled almost 4000Km to raise a pledge of 3 million trees for the UN’s Billion Trees campaign. Starting in Kanyakumari (southern India) and completing his journey in Kashmir (in northern India), he spent about 80 days cycling. I found his story inspirational, and enjoyed reading the micro-blogs and pictures he posted during his adventure.

Old bicycles in a recycling shop in India. Photo: Shrenik Rao

I look forward to hearing how Matthias’s tree planting expedition goes in Malaysia next weekend!

Photo: Mike Reynolds, Garbage Warrior

I watched Garbage Warrior the other night - very cool!

Michael Reynolds grew up in a household where everything was saved - his father had every mayonaise jar they’d ever used stored safely in the basement - now, his life’s purpose is designing sustainable homes that use recycled materials. He calls them EarthShips.

Reynolds’ inspiration is simple: humanity is a heard of buffalos about to charge over a cliff, and he doesn’t want to go with them. He’s spent 35 years researching, developing, and testing using alternative building materials.

Along with the tires, beer cans, plastic bottles, cement, and dirt, the EarthShip recipe calls for a healthy desire to live off the grid. No heating bills, no water bills, no electricity bills - no hook up to any grid.

That all sounds great, but my green thumbs perked up at the sight of indoor gardening space - very Solviva-esk.

Photo: Lorne Bridgman www.lornebridgeman.com

We’ve got our own EarthShip here in BC; Rick and Sandy Moore of Colville built it a few years ago.

To learn more about Reynolds’ EarthShips, seminars, book, or the movie Garbage Warrior - check out their website. Chris Turner from The Walrus has also written an excellent article.

I was ambushed yesterday.

I suppose that I’m actually lucky that it didn’t happen to me until December 2nd, but I was still shocked.

I walked into one of my favourite coffee shop, Smart Mouth, and I hit a wall of merry-season-cheer-and-sparkle. Decorations hung from every surface, and in their usual cheeky way, SmartMouth employees were ’singing’ along to Christmas oldies.

GAH! I’m not ready! Sooooo not ready.

With my head hung low, wallowing in my lack of holiday spirit, I checked out some cool recycled gift ideas. Click on the image to go directly to their website. 

If you’re looking for more recycled gift ideas, this article at the Daily Green has good ones!

Climate Counts is an organization that is bringing consumers and business together to fight climate change. Sometimes I get overwhelmed by “climate change,” and take on the persona of Eeyore

with a little black cloud sitting over my head - nothing gets done with this sort of attitude. Most of the time, I try to take climate change as a motivation to DO SOMETHING, and that’s where Climate Counts comes in. They’re making it easier for us to make consumer based decisions to address climate change. In their own words,

“We have come together with a shared conviction that the time for talk about global warming has passed, and that significant corporate, consumer, and political action is now necessary. Our goal is to motivate deeper awareness among consumers-not only that the issue of climate change demands their attention, but also that they have the power to support companies that take climate change seriously - and avoid those that don’t. When consumers take action and raise their voices on issues that matter to them, businesses pay attention. A loud and clear consumer movement that demands more aggressive corporate action on climate change will not fall on deaf ears. Read more…

Climate Counts Ratings

Part of Climate Counts’ message relates directly to PodMobs on a local level, but it is also important to be aware of what’s happening on a larger scale. Climate Counts has a great scorecard that assesses businesses on a 0-100 point scale with 22 criteria that look at if they have: measured their carbon emissions, reduced emissions, supported climate change legislation, and publicly disclosed their climate action plan. Their scorecard is easy to navigate and understand, but focuses on American businesses.

Note: Starbucks had a “striding” indicator, but just got slammed for wasting water - maybe there is more to their story, or Climate Counts focuses on emissions versus resource consumption?

One of Climate Count’s big messages is to divest from companies ignoring climate change. I went to a talk on the impact of the Alberta Tar Sands on BC on Tuesday night, and as I left someone handed my a flyer on Climate Friendly Banking. I have accounts at two different banks - RBC and Vancity. The operational carbon footprint of a bank is minimal, BUT the footprint of what they’re financing makes up 99% of their total carbon footprint, and is financing energy projects that will impact Canada’s emissions for decades!

I checked out my banks’ profiles on Climate Friendly Banking, the result:

RBC has $50.5 million invested in fossil fuels, or 198 million tonnes of CO2 emissions financed. Their total financed emissions as a percentage of Canada’s energy emissions is 34%!! GAH! They’re the worst of Canadian banks. On the other side - Vancity ranks as the best with less then 0.1% of their total financed emissions as a percentage of  Canada’s energy emissions. Vancity has invested $0.2 billion dollars in fossil fuel emissions, equaling 0.5 million tonnes of CO2. Climate Friendly Banking reports that

The “financed emissions” from Canada’s five largest banks totaled 625 million tonnes of CO2 in 2007, exceeding the total CO2 emissions in 2006 from all energy use across the country – including all power plants, industry and manufacturing, transportation, homes and offices – which totaled 583 million tonnes.”

So here’s a to-do item of the week - DIVEST from ‘dirty’ Banks. Join the campaign to switch banks!

(c) istock photo - Marianne Guntow

What an exciting Monday morning!

The WWF’s Living Planet Report of 2008 was just released. The report looks at the current state of species, water resources, and humans’ ecological footprints. The mapping of eco-debts (ecological foot print greater then country’s biocapacity) and eco-credits (ecological footprint smaller then country’s biocapacity) is worth taking a peek at. You guessed it! Developed world is a swath of RED eco-debtors.

The impact of excess carbon emissions in the atmosphere is ranked as the most pressing issue facing humans. However,

“Using a wedge approach (as pioneered by Pacala and Socolow in 2004) the report illustrates how, for example, moving to clean, efficient energy generation based on current technologies could allow us to meet the projected 2050 demand for energy services with major reductions in associated carbon emissions…“

Obama has embraced a call for a $100 BILLION stimulus package for the green-collar economy,

“Obama has embraced calls for a “green jobs” program that invests as much as $100 billion in projects to slash harmful emissions. This could include projects such as retrofitting buildings to make them more energy-efficient, upgrading the electrical grid and improving mass transit…”

The Green Collar Economy - Van Jones

The Center for American Progress is holding a discussion today, see the webcast here, on their recent report tilted, “Green Recovery: A Program to Create Good Jobs and Start Building a Low Carbon Economy.” They argue that investing in the green economy is the best way to achieve both short and long term economic goals in the current times of economic uncertainty. Accordingly, Obama’s stimulus package is intended to,

“promote economic mobility, growth, job creation, regain technological leadership in the global innovation marketplace, and fundamentally change how we produce and consume energy in this country and transform our economy to a low-carbon model. Investing in clean energy and efficiency will enable the United States to regain technological leadership in the global innovation marketplace, grow our economy, reduce global warming emissions, and invest in national security…”

Van Jones’ book, The Green Collar Economy, calls for the very same type of stimulus. Check out this video - he explains it all!

“Our very survival will demand invention and innovation on a scale never before seen in the history of human civilization,” Van Jones

SO it looks like the USA is stepping up to the challenge. What about Canada?

The Liberal-NDP-Bloc Coalition is moving forward in response to Harper’s failure to recognize the economic crisis that Canada is facing in last week’s economic update. Although the Conservatives have backed down on their contentious proposal to cut public funding to political parties and have post-poned votes until December 8th - there is still a very good chance that the Harper government is facing a opposition coalition government. The coalition would consist of an two and a half year agreement between the Liberals and NDP - providing a 24-member cabinet made up of 18 Liberals and six NDP, with Bloc support.

With headlines like “Canada’s Government Could Topple,” hitting the Wall Street Journal, I dare say Canadian Politics are actually interesting for a change - maybe my friends will start voting. Maybe we’ll see change.

Crisis Hits Bowen Island Recycling Depot - Picture from Salish Sea Blog

I just talked to my mom on the phone.

“Emily! It’s really bad over here - there is a recycling crisis! There are signs all over the depot telling people not to bring their plastic recyclables in because there is no one to take them. It’s awful.”

I guess the financial crisis is hitting more then just pocket books. The price of plastics has dropped significantly since October, and now the market recyclables is close to non-existent. Across Canada the prices for plastics and aluminum are one-tenth of September prices.

“We’ve never seen a crisis like this before - there have been fluctuations, but nothing like this,” said Pierre Lemoine, a spokesman for TIRU, the sorting company that receives the majority of recycled materials from the Island of Montreal’s recycling-collection programs….

The turmoil in the auto industry is impacting the value of steel and aluminum, and the demand for plastic packaging has dropped with consumer spending. The Hook has written an awesome article on the root of the problem.

“The effect the economy is having on recycling programs shows the interrelations between different markets,” said Dave Griffiths, the director of Waste and Recycling Services in Calgary…

On Bowen Island, Bill Carr from the Bowen Island Recycling Depot (B.I.R.D) is

“… asking, please could you hold onto the plastics, in your garage or at home or whatever until the situation changes and we can again start passing along the plastics we collect…“

We can stockpile at home, but for the Islanders that are willing to come into “town” (i.e. Vancouver) there is an alternative. Pacific Mobile Depots is a company based out of Victoria that has recently expanded it’s “mobile community recycling depots” to Vancouver.

They set up in the theater parking lot at Chesterfield and 3rd Street in North Vancouver. 9am -12pm on the third Saturday of the month. They do charge, but you could drop off all your family’s monthly plastic recycling for about $10 - when I went in the summer it would have cost half of that.

Not many smiling recyclers out there any more!

They have a long list of accepted materials that you can check out here.

Most important: they are still taking the low grade plastics (#3-7) that most depots are simply refusing to take because the market prices have dropped so drastically. They’ll also take electronics - always handy to know with holiday presents approaching.

Another alternative is to simply reduce your recyclables - buy bulk, avoid packaging, bring your own bag, re-use stuff - you know the deal! The Recycling Council of BC also has some great resources.

We can change business as usual.

We buy things everyday.  Businesses will do anything for money. Businesses will do anything for our money… so why don’t we use that power?  To use our purchasing power requires organization, and until the Carrotmob came around, groups hadn’t seen ‘our money’ organized on a grassroots level successfully. We took the concept to Vancouver, and we’ve called it the PodMob*.

Chalk drawings on Robson Street

*Pod - group of Vancouverites. Mob – the act of organizing our purchasing at one place and time.

The concept: A big group gets together and agrees to buy things at one place and time.  Now, we have pooled our money into a large sum we can use to negotiate with. Negotiate what?

How about sustainable sushi?

Vancouver is full of sushi – the West End alone has over 20 sushi spots. I can’t convince a sushi restaurant to drop farmed salmon from their menu or start composting scraps by threatening not to purchase a $10 sushi combo.  But a group of 100, 200, or 300 people that stop in for sushi on a particular day does have enough combined money to persuade a sushi restaurant to step up to our challenge to green their restaurant.

The challenge:

1. Green your operations (i.e. energy efficiency, water conservation, waste management, and purchasing/supply chain).
2. Label your menu so we know what items are sustainable (based on the Seafood Watch Sustainable Sushi Guide).
3. Offer at least one “Best Choice” item from the Seafood Watch Sustainable Sushi Guide.

What does ‘greening your operations’ really mean? The Green Table Network heard about the PodMob and stepped in to offer a one-year membership to the business we PodMobbed. They are experts in greening the hospitality industry, and their membership provides tools, guides, and a great network.

The Seafood Watch Sustainable Sushi Guide bases it’s ranking of ‘sustainable fish’ on the state of natural stocks, fish farming practices, harvesting methods, and health concerns (i.e. PCBs and mercury).

The Flores Brothers from Sushi Bento Express

The bidding:
It all started on a rainy November day. I walked into almost every sushi restaurant in the West End, and told them I would bring them a mob of paying customers if they committed the highest percentage of one day’s revenue to ‘greening’ their restaurant.  Considering the state of the fish stocks across the globe, we also asked the restaurant if they would spruce up their menu with some sustainable sushi options.

Shad DJ's ROCK!hi options.

A handful of restaurants stepped up to the challenge and wanted to dig their teeth in and learn more.

The top bid came from Sushi Bento Express at 31% of revenue from November 20th.

The PodMob

I met a girl while I was canvasing the sushi restaurants that thought her boyfriend, Simon, would totally be into lending a hand. So I met up with Simon, who works at Change, about a week before the PodMob. He also introduced me to Lorien, from Limelight Events. Between the two of them we handled a whole bunch of last minute things that I hadn’t had time to think about and designed some awesome posters! We pulled together a great night that harnessed West Enders’ purchasing power to create change in a local business.The PodMob was a success!

Lisa Johnson from CBC covered the story on the 6 o’clock news, and the CBC wrote an article on sustainable sushi. I also got

the chance to speak with Mike McDermid from the Ocean Wise program on BC Almanac with Mark Forsythe. Jackie Wong wrote an article in the  WestEnder that featured our story on November 20th. Sushi Bento Express put together a sustainable sushi combo menu just for the day. Shah DJs pumped out awesome tunes. Boyd, our sponsor from 3rdwhale.com, asked trivia questions and gave out bamboo t-shirts.  Tiny Bites popped in to review the sustainable sushi scene. An intrepid trio from Bowen Island even made the trip across the drink to munch on guilt-free sushi. Of course, there was also a mob of West Enders that kept the Flores brothers busy all night. We’ve got pictures to prove it!

What impact did we have?? Drum roll please…..

85% increase in revenue!

Over 100 Podmobbers on the scene.

Sushi Bento Express upped their contribution to ‘going green’ to 33% - they rock!

The Flores brothers were amazed by how many people showed up for the PodMob, and they’ve decided to keep the sustainable sushi combos on the menu full time. They’ve also committed to labeling their menu with green, yellow, and red dots so you can make informed choices, and exploring Ocean Wise Certification.

Where did the PodMobbers come from? Some saw our youtube videos, got an email, saw a poster, facebook, or heard about it from a friend.

Eat sushi. Save the ocean.

Line up out the door

With an introductory meeting with the Green Table Network under their belt, the next step is an audit. A Green Table representative will spend half a day at the restaurant observing how things run, and then they will be able to compile a list of suggestions. This is where energy efficiency, water conservation, and waste management will improve.

Eat sushi. Save the climate.

We’re going to keep tabs on the changes that happen at Sushi Bento Express, and report back what the impact. How many kilowatt-hours, liters of water, and kilograms of waste are diverted? Stay tuned!

Eat sushi. Save the planet.

Congratulations to everyone that came out and participated in the PodMob! You rock!

A 3rdwhale Bamboo T-shirt Winner

Community gardens are uber popular in Vancouver, and the number of developer-started gardens is on the rise. Land developers, like Onni, are taking their idle land and turning it into temporary community garden space. The gardeners have to move on as soon as the development company is ready to start building, but until then AT LEAST they have a plot.  I think that Vancouver is at the front of the pack on this one - I haven’t been able to find examples from other cities. Granville magazine recently wrote:

Private developers have caught on to the trend. The development company ONNI turned a vacant site at Seymour and Pacific streets in the heart of Yaletown into a community garden. Seventy-nine plots were made available on a first-come first-served basis to community groups and residents to grow food on a temporary basis, until the site is developed within one to three years. Mike Clark, ONNI development manager, was surprised at how much interest the garden generated and how quickly the plots were taken. “We had overwhelming response. The lineup of people is unbelievable – hundreds of people pounding down the doors trying to get some dirt on their hands,” Clark says. “We have learned there is a major need for gardening facilities in downtown. Everyone is going condo-living, but people are just dying to get their hands dirty and they don’t have the opportunity; they don’t have a backyard.”

Onni Community Gardens Viewed from the Bridge from Michael Levenston on Vimeo.

The Vancouver Public Space Network (VPSN) was involved in the initial start-up of the Onni Garden, and now we’re taking on the new garden at the corner of Burard and Davie Street - Davie Street Community Garden. So that means that I’ll be heading up getting this garden off the ground and into the hands of the community.

The incentive for developers to start gardens? BC Tax Assessment will asses property taxes at a lower rate if the pre-developed land is being used for a community or public purpose (i.e. a garden). If anyone knows any more of the details on this, I’d love to know more!

Photo by Tiny Bites

Thank-you to everyone that came out on Thursday night! Sushi Bento Express put together a wicked “Sustianable Sushi” menu based off the Seafood Watch Sustainable Sushi consumer guide. They’re going to keep the sustainable sushi menu, and they’re pursuing Ocean Wise certification. They’ve already met once with the Green Table Network, and are planning on being audited later this month.

If you’re all for guilt-free sushi, but want to make sure to satisfy your taste-buds, Tiny Bites says Sushi Bento Express is a safe bet!

We gave a bamboo t-shirt to the 3rd PodMob customer of the day, and a few more in the evening. To get a bamboo t-shirt, PodMobbers had to answer trivia questions like ‘Name one criteria of “sustainable sushi”?’ and ‘What is your best guess for the meaning behind the name 3rdwhale?’.

SHAH DJ’s rocked the night - their music kept PodMobbers happy, and lured in more from the street all night! Not only was the music awesome, but their set-up was so simple - all I had to give them was an outlet. They are all over Vancouver, so check out their event calendar!

Photos on Flickr (search podmob)