Torbjorn's Blog

In the first six months of the "Bag the Bag" program, IKEA Canada has reduced its Plastic Bag use by 90 per cent across the country. Last October, IKEA Canada conducted a survey with its customers and received more than 60,000 responses, which concluded that plastic bags were an environmental issue that needed action. Shortly thereafter, the retailer began charging for its plastic bags, donating

Biometric fingerprint payment, interactive dressing room assistance and intelligent shopping trolleys could depart the realms of science fiction for the real world, as a TNS study reveals that new technologies look set to revolutionize the way we shop.

Six in 10 Internet-connected consumers across the globe believe that they will be able to pay for purchases using just their fingerprint by 2015 - with this innovation rated top by the greatest proportion of people questioned. The UK is most in favour of this shopping solution - with 31 per cent giving it their thumbs up. Canada ranked slightly below average with 24 per cent in favour, but above their neighbours to the south. In the United States, 19 per cent support the concept.

A confident 73 per cent of shoppers say that they expect to be using interactive touch-screens in dressing rooms to communicate with sales assistants by 2015.

For Canadians, the interactive dressing room rated highest among all future retail technologies presented, in terms of both appeal and likelihood to use.

Interestingly, as with fashion, shopping priorities change dramatically between countries. While Chinese consumers rate the concept of an in-store holographic sales assistant far above other countries (named as first choice by 59 per cent compared to an average of 23 per cent), German shoppers are far more concerned about having a body scan to help their clothes to fit.

Consumers across Canada, the US, Europe and Asia ranked these concepts among a range of futuristic product innovations which look set to revolutionize the way we shop over the next decade. Next generation Web-based services, new technologies and the need for tighter security and faster shopping will drive demand - with concepts as far-fetched as networked refrigerators automatically ordering groceries likely to fuel new product developments.

TNS's New Future In Store report surveyed 4,500 primary household shoppers online in eight countries - Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, UK and US - and asked them to comment on 12 innovations.

Other result highlights include:

• 41% of consumers see biometric fingerprint payment as having 'high appeal' - rising to 69% in China but falling to 24% in Germany
• 81% of consumers believe collaborative product development Web sites will be in use by 2015. Canada rated higher than average in both  appeal and likelihood to use
• The concept of receiving product sales and promotion information via mobile phone (based on location) rated lowest among the future retail technologies surveyed
• North American consumers are most keen on 'smart' shopping carts - consumers in France and Germany are least interested
• 3D body scanning is most popular amongst Germans (21%) compared to an average of 12%
• Spaniards are keener than other Europeans on the concept of a fridge networked into other devices to order groceries and have them      delivered. 29% of Canadians claim they would likely use this technology, a rate slightly below the average
• 59% of Chinese consumers rank a holographic sales assistant as their top innovation - while Japanese and British like this least, at 15%

Hudson's Bay Company (Hbc) has entered into a three year partnership with Canadian companies The Global Group and Harkel Office Furniture to furnish its newly redesigned head office in Brampton, Ontario, with eco-friendly products.

Hbc and The Global Group are Canada's largest companies in their respective fields. Harkel Office Furniture has a 28 year history of providing superior service in this country. This partnership is one of the largest of its kind in the Canadian market place. This announcement helps mark Hbc's 338th anniversary.

Through this partnership, The Global Group will manufacture eco-friendly furnishing for approximately 1200 new work units in Hbc's Brampton office. Harkel Office Furniture will distribute and service the office furnishings. Harkel is expected to have all the furnishings installed at the Brampton office by the Winter 2009. The newly designed office will house Hbc's buyers and retail operations personnel.

The primary products to be provided are manufactured out of recycled aluminum. These products will not get dumped in the landfill at the end of their lifespan. They are designed to be easily recycled to create new aluminum products.

The partnership signifies Hbc's ongoing commitment to social responsibility embodied in its Global Mind brand, which promotes social and environmental sustainability in its policies, processes and products.

The amendments will be made to the tax law upon the passing of a Revenue Bill by the Legislative Council, the HKSAR government said in a statement.

Environmental protection machinery includes low noise construction machinery or plant registered under the Quality Powered Mechanical Equipment system, certain waste treatment, wastewater treatment and air pollution control machinery or plant.

A deduction under profits tax for 20 percent of the capital expenditure incurred on the construction of eligible installations will be provided in each of the five years starting from the year of acquisition.

Environmental protection installations, mainly renewable energy installations, include solar photovoltaic installations, wind turbine installations, thermal waste treatment installations, and certain energy efficient building installations.

The reductions will also be available to those who own or have been using environmental protection machinery or installations before implementation of the proposal, according to the HKSAR government statement.

TD Canada Trust is increasing the cash rebate on its Green Mortgage and Green Home Equity Line of Credit for qualified purchasers who apply between April 25th to July 31st, 2008.

Customers will continue to receive 1% off the posted interest rate on a
five-year fixed rate mortgage or on a five-year fixed rate portion of a Home
Equity Line of Credit AND will now receive a cash rebate up to 1.5% (up

A Leger Marketing poll* announced today found that Canadians are printing and wasting more paper than ever before - and feeling guilty about it. The survey, issued at the You, Me and Green conference on Green IT, reveals there is a clear need in Canada for environmentally responsible solutions that help save paper while enabling Canadian businesses to remain productive and secure.

Paper abuse and office use

Poll results show that while the average working Canadian prints 30 pages of documents every day, nearly four out of 10 pages are tossed - accounting for a staggering 10 pages of wasted paper every day by the average Canadian. Additionally, two out of five Canadians say they are printing more documents than they were five years ago.

Despite the fact that Canadian workers create so much paper waste, the survey shows that the majority of employees (77 per cent) across the country are concerned about their impact on the environment, and over one quarter (27 per cent) want to be environmentally conscious. But they don't know where to start.

TELUS Secure Contracts - The digital road to recovery

Increasingly, companies in the Canada and the U.S. are embracing digital signature and electronic agreement technology, one of the most cost effective and environmentally responsible means of simplifying and safeguarding day-to-day business processes. In fact, results showed that nearly one in two Canadians (49 per cent) would use digitally secured documentation in order to reduce paper wastage, and that 42 per cent already handle as many documents as they can electronically, to do their part to protect the environment.

TELUS Secure Contracts powered by Recombo helps make doing business more efficient with a secure, accurate and auditable legal digital signature solution that converts traditional, static documents into Web-based, interactive interfaces.

TELUS Secure Contracts is convenient for business, reduces courier and administration costs and is a significant step toward reducing paper waste that is associated with paper-based documentation.

To improve customer convenience, it reduces data entry by integrating with customer relationship management or back office systems, and automatically extracts critical data from contracts. It prevents incomplete documents with configurable form fields, allows complete visibility into agreement status (read/viewed/signed) and contract data, and provides a Web-based self-service portal for clients to complete and sign forms and documents.

Green is good for business

While 61 per cent of respondents polled believe being green is good for business and over half (51 per cent) believe their company should incorporate more office practices to limit their impact on the environment, only 16 per cent say that they have a full blown paper management policy to follow in the office.

TELUS' unyielding commitment to the environment has lead us to be the only North American fixed telecom on the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index as one of world's top economic, environmental and social performers. Following on our commitment to reduce waste and improve the environment, through Tree Canada we funded the planting of one tree for every cell phone recycled in 2007. This, in conjunction with online billing and other initiatives, resulted in the planting of more than 50,000 trees last year. Additionally, during the 2007 TELUS Day of Service, more than 6,000 TELUS team members, retirees and family members took part in numerous environmental projects nationally.

In October 2007, TELUS House, which is designed to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) "silver" requirements from the Canada Green Building Council, is one of the most environmentally friendly buildings in Ottawa, was opened. LEED is an internationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high-performance sustainable buildings.

Tip # 1: Get on your bike!
For every kilometer you ride your bike instead of driving a car, you avoid the production of about one kilo of carbon dioxide.

Tip # 2: Save water with powder detergents
Switch from liquid detergents to powders. Laundry liquids are mostly water (approx. 80%). It costs energy and packaging to bring this water to the consumer.

Tip # 3: Save a tree, or two, or three
Get

If Canadians had a magic button and could press it to deduct one bothersome thing from their lives, credit card debt and mortgage payments would be the first to go. According to a new Angus Reid Strategies survey sponsored by Intuit Canada, makers of QuickTax, debt is at the top of Canadians' deduction wish list, with stress and weight gain following close behind.

Debt is the first to go

The Angus Reid/Intuit study, which polled 1,045 people across Canada, revealed there's some interesting dreaming going on:

• More than one-quarter (26 per cent) of respondents would strike credit card debt from their everyday life if they had the chance, followed by mortgage debt (22 per cent) and winter's extra pounds (15 per cent).
• Atlantic Canadians were the biggest credit card debt dreamers, with 32 per cent claiming they would strike it before anything else compared to only 22 per cent in Alberta. Atlantic Canadians tied with Quebeckers for deducting school debt (14 per cent each).
• Not surprisingly, mortgage debt elimination was highest in Ontario where housing prices continue to skyrocket.
• Ten per cent of Canadians are eager to get rid of school debt while another 10 per cent would deduct work stress and seven per cent would choose snow.
• Annoying partners/spouses and in-laws appear manageable, each accounting for just one per cent of deduction button wishes. Those living in Manitoba and Saskatchewan feel otherwise, with five per cent wishing to eliminate annoying partners/spouses. Three per cent of Albertans would ditch the in-laws if they had the chance.
• While it's unclear who's actually fatter or more stressed, women ranked higher than men in wishing their extra pounds away (17 per cent vs. 13 per cent) while men ranked slightly higher than women in wishing their stress away (10 per cent vs. 9 per cent). But when it came to credit card debt, a whopping 30 per cent of women wanted to dream it away compared to 21 per cent of men.
• The largest group that wished their credit card debt to disappear were between 35 and 54 years old (33 per cent), followed by those over 55 (23 per cent).