A couple of months ago, some friends and I stuffed ourselves into a cargo van (donated to us by the Biology Department at the University of Waterloo) to support something very important to us. SCIENCE! The Death of Evidence march/rally was organized in response to recent changes to environmental assessments in Canada (which will focus […]
Category Archives: Business Sustainability – News and Commentary
This past spring, Kitchener-Waterloo MPP Elizabeth Witmer resigned to embark on a new opportunity as chair of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board. As such, residents of the riding of Kitchener-Waterloo will head to the polls in a by-election scheduled for Thursday, September 6th to elect her replacement. This by-election is unique. While they are […]
Watching the Rio+20 proceedings on Sustainable Development this past June, I couldn’t help but feel a little disillusioned with the stagnation and harmful rhetoric thatcame from the halls of Brazil. It’s the same disillusionment I felt when I decided to pursue a Masters in International Environmental Policy after my undergraduate degree in Business seemingly produced […]
Before I really thought about it, I used to think the environmental cost of emails and digital information was somewhere between nil and negligible. Then I was forwarded an email from my friend’s workplace tech department. It asked colleagues to limit the large attachments sent in emails because they were quickly filling up their server […]
As the winter season winds down, you may find yourself questioning if it ever really came in the first place. March 21st will mark the end of what some are calling the winter that never was. There has been a lot of chatter across the country about this unusually warm and variable season, but how does […]
As a social enterprise operating in the tech hub of the Tannery District in downtown Kitchener, it’s easy to see how much our not-for-profit culture clashes with the for-profit business world around us. On the surface, for-profit entrepreneurs build businesses with the ultimate purpose of making money, while social entrepreneurs build their enterprise to impact […]
Last week I, along with colleagues Sarah and David, test drove a new Mitsubishi i-MiEV (Mitsubishi Innovative Electric Vehicle) through WISE (Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Energy) at the University of Waterloo. I was surprised by the general power, feel, responsiveness, and handling of the vehicle itself. Even at 110 km/h on the highway, the i-MiEV […]
Later this fall in October, I will be attending the 9th Annual Canadian Business for Social Responsibility Summit in Toronto. This event will focus on how Canadian business is perceived globally – how do Canadian initiatives impact our bottom line and world beyond our borders? Given corporate Canada’s global operations, international supply chains, and culturally diverse workforce […]
Businesses and individuals are increasingly striving to reduce the environmental impacts of their purchasing decisions. As consumers have demanded environmentally responsible alternatives, providers have begun offering lower impact (often called “greener”) products and services. Unfortunately, it can be difficult for consumers to objectively evaluate a product or service’s relative level of environmental impact on their […]