Commercial
Cost-free fundraising program: Think Recycle
Think Recycle is a cost-free fundraising program that rewards members with money and environmental incentives for the collection of unwanted electronics including laptops, tablets, cell phones, digital cameras, inkjet cartridges and toner cartridges! Organizations that are eligible to participate in Think Recycle include schools, charities, institutions, churches, teams, clubs and even businesses.
Think Recycle works with more than 20,000 members, across the United States and Canada, to meeting their fundraising and environmental goals.
Renew Newcastle shows how to create a people magnet
Toronto Star / Catherine Porter / 20 January 2012
Newcastle is an Australian steel town an hour and a half north of Sydney. Last year, Lonely Planet named it one of the Top 10 cities to visit in the world, along with New York and Delhi, citing its great cafes, artist culture and surf.
What makes that amazing is that three years ago Newcastle was a ghost town. Or at least its downtown was, with 150 boarded-up buildings dotting its two main drags. You went there to get mugged.
Was it a new urban plan, an aggressive business improvement association? Or today’s version of a gold rush — four Starbucks?
Nope. It was Marcus Westbury, a festival director with a deep love for his hometown and a really good idea.
His idea: borrow the empty storefronts from their owners and fill them with artists, designers, fledgling food cooperatives. By borrow, he meant occupy them for free. Clearly artists and creators would love a crack at turning their dreams into a business. What about the property owners?
“They weren’t that hard to convince,” Westbury told me over Skype from Australia. “They’ve seen an enormous amount of benefit. We now have a national program, and property owners are paying us to take over their spaces.”
Ontario: Changes to the building code
Ottawa Citizen / Sheila Brady / 14 January 2012
The greening of the housing industry has gone mainstream, with four provinces now making it mandatory for all builders to wrap and insulate homes to toughened energy standards.
Starting on Jan. 1, Ontario, Nova Scotia, Manitoba and British Columbia changed their respective building codes, demanding that big and little contractors and custom, urban and suburban builders up the insulation factor, install air exchange fans and eliminate drafts by ensuring work crews carefully wrap all new homes in a tight vapour barrier.
The new guidelines virtually replicate levels under Energy Star, a highly successful voluntary program launched in 2004 by Natural Resources Canada that cut energy bills by 25 per cent compared to the building code that just expired at the end of 2011.
So what’s next?
Kingston: 2012 Green Profit Conference and Exhibition
The 2012 greenprofit Conference and Exhibition, Accelerate Sustainable Change will bring together delegates and speakers to learn about sustainable energy innovations and best practices that are making a difference in the world today, and how they can be applied to your business, municipality, home and community. Please join us for this dynamic sustainable energy conference in historic downtown Kingston.
greenprofit presents proven solutions for your business, municipality and home:
° Reduce the real financial and environmental costs of energy
Buying Local Yields More Jobs, Stronger Communities
American Independent Business Alliance / Michael Shuman, Jeff Milchen / 16 December 2011
Consider the many benefits of patronizing local independent businesses for whatever you choose. Among the benefits:
* You’ll create local jobs. And not just any jobs. While chain outlet’s create mostly positions for clerks and cashiers, local businesses are hiring accountants, graphic designers, webmasters and many other positions the chains (or online giants) centralize at corporate headquarters. A multitude of small entrepreneurs provides a more vital and durable financial base than dependence on a few large corporations.
* Local businesses typically require less driving, consume far less land and have a lighter environmental impact. Because they focus primarily on local markets, local businesses place a high premium on being easily accessible by local residents. They tend to bolster community character and vitality, rather than segregating residential areas from clusters of big box development.
* Part of what makes any community great is how well it preserves its unique culture, foods, ecology, architecture, history, music, and art. Local businesses celebrate these features, while chains tend to homogenize, following a corporate template rather than respecting local architecture or customs.
* We know from studies by respected social scientists like C Wright Mills and Melville Ulmer going back more than half a century (Small Business and Civic Welfare) that small-business oriented communities “provided for their residents a considerably more balanced economic life than did big business cities” and “the general level of civic welfare was appreciably higher.” A few years ago, Professor Thomas Lyson of Cornell University updated that study by looking at 226 U.S. counties dependent on big outside manufacturers. He found these communities “vulnerable to greater inequality, lower levels of welfare, and increased rates of social disruption than localities where the economy is more diversified.”
* Studies of voting behavior suggest economically diverse communities have higher participation rates in local politics. The long-term relationships fostered by local business tend to enhance commitment to civic institutions like schools, churches, charities, and fraternal leagues that are essential to both local economic success and community cohesiveness.
* Finally, going local is better for you! You’ll enjoy more personal interactions, more distinctive choices, and real value.
Ethical Community Building Investment: Kingston's first Local Organic Food Co-op
This ethical, community-based, green investment opportunity will allow community members to co-operatively purchase and develop the 3,000 sq ft building at 692 King St. West, Kingston, so that it can become an affordable home for the new, not-for-profit, Village Co-op: Sustainable Local Food from Kingston and Countryside.
A meeting for prospective investors will be held on Monday, Dec 19, 2011, 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm at 1168 Trailhead Place. Local organic food will be provided. An overview and updates on finances, incorporation and the develop timeline will be provided by Board members and the general contractor, but most time will be reserved to address questions from prospective investors.
Video: The Economic Prospects for Food Localization
