Canadian Living – Go Green Issue

Further to my rant about how we respond to, react to, and respect each other, I've had my share of applications that were sent off with my best intentions, to which I never received a response. Off they went, on a one-way journey accompanied by a succinct cover letter, leaving me to wonder if my email or fax went to the right place. Ironically, many of these were to apply for positions in the touchy-feely social science field. Maybe not so much ironic as revealing.
I experienced this recently when I contacted Canadian Living Magazine which, upon reflection, likely has more to do with how we view criticism and responsiveness than with business etiquette.

I can't help but be a bit annoyed when reading any publication containing the word Canada or Canadian, when I feel the point-of-view being cultivated is more regional than national, speaking only to a select few. And so, after much thought, I sent an email to Canadian Living Magazine (I'm still waiting for a response) ...

May 1, 2008 - Canadian Living Magazine

Your Go Green Issue accomplished one of its goals without even the use of good content. A fan of the magazine and a pretty “green” guy, I almost bought the issue without even looking inside, based simply on the cover.

Fortunately I was able to borrow my neighbour's copy because, sadly, I was disappointed.

I’m sure I’m not the only person who’s beginning to feel “green” is becoming just another marketing program – I don’t need to be told to change my light bulbs or buy an Energystar appliance. It’s time for some remarkable leadership, and Canadian Living could certainly be a strong leader.

I appreciate you are trying to “do your bit” by greening an issue, and of course there are some really good bits (particularly the green communities and green warriors features), but you do seem to be living in a mythical, perhaps kinder, world where shopping more carefully is going to make enough of a difference.

To me, the magazine reads like Canadian Living Magazine is in the wake of a movement, rather than cresting the wave. And I know you can do much, much better.

I think people are preparing to make bigger changes, but are lost as to how to start or are overwhelmed with the pressure to adopt new technology.

May I suggest some ideas for your next green issue, based on my own attempts to do my bit;

1) follow a typical home in each province as the owners convert from fossil fuel to solar or turbine power. Perhaps include a condo or apartment which used roof-top solar panels to power the exterior lighting, partial hallway lighting and laundry machines.

2) show how a typical Canadian can convert their grass lawn to a drought resistant, dog friendly, mow free carpet of clover or indigenous fescue. Include a bit about push mowers for die-hard grass lovers

3) advise how a home can be retrofitted with a grey water recovery system; using shower water to fill the toilet tank, sink rinse water to hydrate potted plants or your veggie garden, and water from the rinse cycle of your clothes washer to water your trees and shrubs (a bit of soap can help roots to absorb!)

4) follow a family as they enjoy a normal work and play week, utilizing their power assist, Canadian made electric bikes

5) show where to buy and how to install a simple solar panels which can be used to power exterior lights, charge your electric mower or bike, perhaps even run your grey water recovery landscape irrigation system (now that’s efficient!)

6) have a tankless water heater installed in a home and compare it’s efficiency with a traditional tank heater.

7) profile a house / kitchen / bathroom as it is renovated without using any new materials or appliance or paint (accommodating a reconditioned gas stove, installing a 50’s bathroom using fixtures from a Habitat Re-Store or salvage yard, utilize re-tinted paint, use flooring ends or reclaimed linoleum)

8) compare the various types of heating stoves (wood, pellet, corn, gas) and analyse the results based on self-sufficiency, sustainability, pollution etc.

9) profile a “green” office (I worked for a property management company which used recycled copy paper, had banned bottled water, got Autoshare on-site and generally set a good example to tenants and the industry)

As well, we have enough home-grown talent and Canadian made products to keep it a mostly Canadian, greening the red and white, kind of issue.

Please accept my criticism and suggestions in the spirit in which they are intended; living in Canada is a wonderful, remarkable, progressive experience and Canadian Living has the talent and vision to spread that experience around.

Keep producing beautiful, inspiring magazines!

Best Regards

I’d like to know who decided “only qualified applicants will be contacted”, because I have a question for them -

Why?

Why can’t all applicants be contacted?

Is it because it takes a minute or two; about the time it takes to cover your mouth when you sneeze, or say excuse me when you bump someone.

Is it because we don’t need to; like when we accidentally litter and don’t return to pick it up, or only signal a turn when we know there’s another car around?


Well I think all applicants should be contacted.

Thanks for applying.

There, I just did it.

15 seconds; maybe add another 15 to hit the email reply button. Worse case scenario would be 2 minutes to respond by phone.

I guess my point is, I don’t know who made this decision on my behalf, and I’d like to put it back on the agenda.

I move a motion that we all respond to anyone trying to communicate with us, if even just with a nod or smile.

Call me a Pollyanna but maybe there’ll be a little less frustration and alienation in the world.

Which brings me to my latest “only qualified applicants” moment …

Two Great Ladies

We lost two great ladies this week;

One passed quietly, surrounded by loved-ones;

One went in a blaze, having been abandoned, neglected.

Margaret Jean Kerr (Dobie)

Margaret Kerr, Mrs. Kerr to me and thousands of others, was my kindergarten teacher who died this week at 91.

Many of us have fond memories of our first teacher, and my connection to Marg extends beyond teacher/student, as I remember her kindness to me during a difficult time early on in my life.

Our paths crossed several times over the next forty years, most recently last September where I had a moment with her at a church event. At ninety, still living in her own home, poised and assured, she welcomed me back to St. Thomas, and asked me if I'd found happiness in my journeys, to which I responded I had. Later, when I heard she wasn't well, I wrote her a note, sending a big warm hug, returning the affection and comfort she'd given me long ago; comfort I carry with me today.

I hope she was able to feel that hug. While writing it I realized that a moment of kindness can support a soul for a lifetime, as hers had for me.


Alma College
1871 to 2008

When her doors were opened "to the daughters of the worlds elite" in 1881, Alma College was really more of a dame than a lady, offering a liberal arts program and athletics alongside her domestic science, elocution and fancywork (stitchery)

You could catch a glimpse of one of the pointy slate towers almost anywhere in town (keep in mind, most of St. Thomas is no taller than a three story home) and most everyone has their own "Alma" connection.

Apart from those who attended school there or raised a family in the staff accommodations, there were weddings in the chapel and graduations in the amphitheatre, swimming and music lessons. Many were extras in the two movies filmed there. The Alma College International Alumne Association continue to meet, though this year will be bittersweet, now that the inevitable, predictable moment has arrived.











I remember rehearsing a play outside in the amphitheatre, and performing on the small stage inside. The deserted, ruined estate was always part of the tour for our out-of-town guest, who mirrored our amazement that something so beautiful was left to rot; our own Mrs. Haversham, right to the end.

Gutted by it's current, owners, it's downspouts removed to, some have accused, accelerate foundation deterioration, the site was left to the hands of vandals, nature and the elements.

Alma took only minutes to burn to the ground, as much the result of arson as deliberate neglect. Though a couple of bored kids sparked the final flame, her days were quickly coming to a close; her fate was sealed with a demolition order granted shortly before the fire. And in spite of our "saw that coming" attitude, it was shocking to see such a cruel finish come to such a gracious lady.

So, two proud figures of St. Thomas history are now relegated to the world of lore. I, for one, will continue to celebrate both, privileged to have been a witness, and will continue telling my stories.

Three Sons with Three's Company

Growing up, I logged some pretty significant time watching “jiggle” television; Charlie’s Angels, Three’s Company, the Solid Gold dancers etc. Though the obvious point(s) of this kind of programming was completely wasted on me, the lives of the folks in these shows did help plant the seeds of unrealistic expectations for my future life as an adult; glamorous, always fun, exciting.

Oddly, now that these programs are old enough to play on the retro channel, when I think about how I want to live I’m more of a “My Three Sons” kinda guy; low tech, frugal, more likely to fix than discard. A gentler life, without a beach or klieg light in sight.

The result of this predisposition is particularly evident in the pleasure I get from our garage.

In keeping with the age of our modest, working class house (turning 58 this year), our little out-building was originally clad in insulbrick (since sided with vinyl) and has a most unusual door. Instead of rolling or swinging up, fan-folding, or opening outwards with a push of a button, this puppy manually slides horizontally; three hinged panels rolling along a wall mounted track.

Unfortunately, the building had sunk over the years, forcing the door upward, its wheels moving clear of the track, leaving the door purposeless. With its full weight on the pavement, the door was left permanently open, destined to be dismantled, updated.

As luck would have it, my Dad prefers home remedies to store-bought solutions (I guess I’m the acorn from his tree), though he had unfortunately already exhausted all his magic prior to our move-in; he’d managed somehow to get the wheels and track back into working order and convinced the door to close (likely by way of some “blue” language). The contents of the garage were now secure but, save for one panel which would swing open; the interior was banished to darkness.

Long story short, I managed to slice an inch and a half off the bottom of the 9 foot expanse, and was relieved to witness the door suspended, once again, in its track, ready to be rolled open and closed, and open ….

To complete the job, my dad and I added some weather stripping which won’t actually prevent weather from entrance, but will keep skunks, racoons and feral cats at bay. We also added a barrel bolt to the middle panel to stabilize the middle panel to the floor.

It feels right to me to restore rather than replace and I think Fred MacMurray would be proud; me in my cardigan, with my push mower puttering about in, as Ken called it, our 4 bike garage.

Spring flowers

Spring at our house started early with some forsythia twigs Laura had clipped for us, which soon sprung to vibrant life, golden with blossoms.

Soon after, we had blue bells and miniature daffodils, then large daffodils and narcissus, fragrant and sunny;
pale, brilliant, and butter yellows, yellow tinged with scarlet, and white

Shoppin' for some bio*life

Here's the quandary ...

In spite of it's red-white-and-blue-ness, Shoppers Drug Mart is a Canadian company, one of our largest chains at 1,055 shops. And as such, it's likely that their products end up in most Canadian homes. Personally, I've tried to resist the call of this lumbering siren by shopping at our own very successful, local, small town pharmacy, Yurek's, which has been around since 1963, only one year less than Shoppers. But there are times when I seem to need acres of stuff to choose from to remind me that, in reality, my needs are quite simple.

One enterprise a Super Pharmacy can undertake that an independent cannot is to brand their own product, which is why we have Life Brand and more recently bio*life. And it was the promise of bio*life which drew me back into Shoppers; finally an environmentally sensitive product truly available to the masses, 'cause there is nothing that says "destroying the planet for no good reason" more than clear-cutting ancient growth forest to make toilet paper! Thanks Kimberly-Clark.

But it's kinda weird how I can't find any information about bio*life, no matter what search engine, and even Shoppers own website will not provide any results.

My spidey senses are tingling.

In December I sent an email to Shoppers asking for a bit more information;

Thank you so much for your Bio*Life product line! Up to now, I have been buying my recycled paper products at Whole Foods in Toronto and can now shop more frequently at Shoppers (much more convenient and a better price!)

I have been unable to learn more about your product line - there doesn't seem to be any information on the internet. Could I have some more information about the Bio*Life paper products such as; is the paper from Canada? Is the toilet tissue made in Canada or is the product just assembled / packaged here? Thank you for your help!

to which I received a friendly, informative response;

Hello,

Thank you for writing us and for your interest in our Bio Life products. Regrettably, we are unable to provide detailed manufacturer information on the Bio Life products because it is proprietary information.

Please do not hesitate to contact the Customer Service Call Centre at 1-800-SHOPPERs should you have any further questions or comments or require immediate assistance. Regards,Trevor, Customer Service

Fair enough Trevor, it's none of my business. But I did have further questions, prompted by their constant promotion (thanks for the invitation Shoppers);

Dear Shoppers Drug Mart
It was a very good day when I received a Shopper’s Drug flyer some months ago and saw the announcement of your bio*life products. Suddenly folks had a couple less reasons not to buy green – not only are the prices very good, but most everyone has access to a Shoppers!

My question is this; will Shoppers be eliminating the products from their own brand which compete with the bio*life items? Since bio*life is “tough on dirt, easy on the environment”, what does that say about your Life Brand equivalents?

Shoppers Drug Mart seems genuine in wanting to provide Canadians with healthier products, not just because it is a growing market. And so, it seems to me, now that you have your own environmentally friendly products that you should discontinue what would now be considered your own environmentally unfriendly products, which compete with your own line.I look forward to many more bio*life products! Thank you, Neil Hubert

to which I received a friendly, informative response;

Hello Neil,
Thank you for your E-mail complimenting our Bio Life products. It is always a pleasure to receive such positive feedback from our customers. Our promise is to provide superior customer satisfaction beyond expectation.

At this time, we do not have any current plans to discontinue our other Life Brand household cleaning products, however your comments will be forwarded to our Corporate Brands Department for future consideration.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to share your comment with us and please do not hesitate to contact the Customer Service Call Centre at 1-800-SHOPPERs should you have any additional comments or concerns.

Regards, Angela, Shoppers Drug Mart/Pharmaprix Customer Service

Well Angela, blah, blah, blah - it feels like just another grab for my "green" dollar, a dollar which I was going out of my way to hand over.

Since the bio*life toilet paper carries the Ecologo and yet, oddly, bio*life and/or Life brand is not listed on the Ecologo website, in February I contacted Ecologo, our federal program which "is a tool to find, understand, and trust genuinely “green” products";

Good morning.
I’ve been on your EcoLogo website for a couple of days attempting to answer my own questions but find I cannot find the information I am looking for, so must ask for your help. I recently purchased Shoppers Drug Mart bio*life bathroom tissue. The package features your EcoLogo and claims to be made from “100% post consumer paper deflected from landfill”. When I asked for confirmation of this from Shoppers, they responded with “Regrettably, we are unable to provide detailed manufacturer information on the Bio Life products because it is proprietary information”. I now find that they are not listed on your website under Certified Green Products or Participating Companies. Can you please confirm that they are entitled to display the EcoLogo and are satisfying your certification requirements? Thank you for your time, Regards Neil Hubert

This time I received no response at all - not even a ping-back indicating they'd received my inquiry. So I sent it again and on April 15th I received this response;

Neil

Thank you for the email, I had not received your previous attempt and apologize for the seemingly lack of response. We are currently looking into the Bio-life brand and will let you know if it is a misuse or not upon further investigation.
Best,
Sales & Marketing Coordinator TerraChoice Environmental Marketing

While all of this was going on, something very nice happened; I received a Canadian Tire flyer with an ad for Cascades Enviro toilet paper.

Now, I'm familiar with Cascades, and their Enviro line from having purchased it at Whole Foods in Toronto. Not only is Cascades a Canadian company, they are proud of their environmental achievements and there is endless chat and stats to be found on their corporate website, and their simplegreenaction sub-site.

Their products carry several certification logos and a facts chart listing;
100% recycled content, majority post-consumer
0% Virgin fibre
0% chlorine bleaching
80% water saved
100% hypoallergenic
and even the packaging is made of recycled material.

And though I'm no fan of Canadian Tire, thanks largely to the thugs our local store is staffed with, I am very pleased they are offering this Cascade product, and at a very good price of $5.99 for 24 double rolls. I've also seen it at A&P supermarkets.
Cascades also make other 100% recycled paper products such as paper towel, facial tissue, napkins and copy/printer paper.

So, our excuses not to make healthier environmental choices are sinking away, like squares of toilet paper flushed down the crapper, pardon the product tie-in.

Now if only Yurek's would stock Cascades Enviro and our local stationer would stock their 100% recycled paper .... next emails

Un-canny

Early in Thom Hartman’s fascinating Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight, Thom hypothesizes that if on Monday we humans discovered how to preserve food (drying, salting etc.), then on Tuesday we discovered conquering. Thom’s theory is that once we learned how to store food to consume at a later date, rather than immediately eating what we harvested or killed, we then felt the need to accumulate as much as possible, by whatever means.

Ah, the dawn of pillaging.

Jump ahead thousands of years and we’re now so removed from our food that most of what we eat has been “stored” by someone else. This is not only because we no longer grow our own food; we’re also accustomed to eating whatever we want, whenever we have the hankering. Waiting for a food to “come into season” before purchasing simply isn’t good for food business. The reality is most people don't think twice about buying fresh summer fruit in the winter months - I'm just now attempting to be more diligent, making a shift in my consciousness.

It’s a tough habit to undo, our habit of convenience, especially when you want something sunny in the depths of winter. Some might call it devolution but I think of it more as righting a wrong.

And so, Robin and I have gradually un-canned our lives, one food at a time until we've found ourselves with three remaining, canned items; Utopia organic tomato paste, Heinz brown beans and Ontario Natural organic tomatoes.

Facing the realization that we likely can’t shake our dependence on these last three, I’ve contacted the manufacturers to inquire as to the safety of their canning procedures …..

Thomas Canning, the canners of our Utopia Organic Tomato Paste, though quick to let me know where we could find their product locally (I had asked that as well), would not speak to their processes.

Heinz, whom I expected would not respond at all, were quick to explain “BPA is a necessary component of the coating of cans to ensure adequate package integrity”, “it has been used safely for over 60 years” and “we regularly request updates on the research analysis of this component”. Not surprising but fair.

By far the best, most comprehensive response came from Ontario Natural / Ontario Natural Food Co-Op. I’m somewhat biased towards this organization as they are quite transparent in their concern for the health of all of us, and of the earth. They provided a fairly comprehensive, 3 page discussion of BPA, specifically with regards to its use in cans. It stated that though the highest levels of BPA were detected in cans of peas (with an average of 23 ug per can) and there was no detectable BPA found in cans of palm hearts, asparagus, peppers or tomatoes, there was in those of artichokes, mixed vegetables, corn, mushrooms and, yep, beans.
Drat.
And since I’m no gambler, as when I was a smoker kicking the habit, I’m watching our cans of brown beans dwindle, like the last few cigarettes in my last pack.

And yes, home made baked beans are in my future. Anyone care to share grandma's recipe?