Torbjorn's Blog

More than 8 billion disposable cups are thrown out every year in Canada., according to Change The World For Ten Bucks: 50 Ways To Make A Difference. Buy a resuable mug for your coffee

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%

Ah May: the leaves are opening, flowers blooming, your eyes are a watery haze and your nose is running like a faucet. Allergy season is here!

In its Spring edition, Allergic Living magazine looks at the hidden toll of spring allergies and finds a lot more than cases of the sniffles. In fact, there is widespread "presenteeism" on the job - in which allergic employees show up but are too irritable, congested and sleep-deprived to do a proper day's work. And the costs? One study puts it at a staggering $593 per employee a year - ahead of high stress.

Speaking of stress, Allergic Living for Spring also reveals the growing level of anxiety among children with food allergies. The problem, according to experts, starts with well-meaning parents who talk too openly with young children about the risk of death from anaphylaxis. Rather than preparing their children to manage the condition, the kids become scared, and by school age are mistrustful and anxious.

For excerpts from the issue, see www.allergicliving.com

 

CIBC is taking a major step towards preserving Canada's boreal forest by switching its office paper supply to FSC-certified paper. This includes copy, printer and fax office paper, and also client statements, statement envelopes, ABM envelopes, and annual reports. CIBC also has cut its office paper purchases by 22 per cent since 2004 by implementing environmental best practices.

On April 1, CIBC switched its office copy, printer, and fax paper to FSC-certified stock, equivalent to approximately 365 million sheets a year, across its Canadian operations.

Annually, CIBC is transitioning to FSC-certified stock:

            -   203 million sheets of client account statement paper

            -   116 million statement envelopes

            -   76 million ABM envelopes

CIBC has printed its annual report on FSC-certified paper since 2006. 

FSC is an international certification and labeling system that guarantees that purchased forest products come from responsibly managed forests. Under FSC certification, forests are certified against a set of strict environmental and social standards, and fibre from certified forests is tracked all the way to the consumer through the chain of custody certification system. The end result is products in the marketplace carrying the FSC logo.

FSC certification helps protect the long-term health of boreal forests found in Canada, Russia, United States, and Scandinavia. Canada's boreal forest, which covers more than one-third of our landmass, is the largest intact forest remaining on the planet, rivaling the Amazon in size and ecological importance. It stores twice as much carbon per acre as tropical rainforests, helping to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Visiit: www.cibc.com.

A national magazine picked Planet Organic Markets as the top organic food retailer across Canada.

The survey of 14 major grocery retailers by Corporate Knights magazine gave Planet Organic an overall "Excellent" rating or an 'A', while Planet's most direct competitor, Whole Foods, garnered second spot with a 'B+'.

Other major retailers such as Loblaws, Safeway and Sobeys came in with distant 'C' ratings, meaning they were either "showing potential" with their organic food retail sections or were "average."

Corporate Knights magazine is distributed in a variety of ways across the country and specifically through the May 1st edition of the Globe and Mail. The magazine rated all of the 14 food retailers in five categories, ranging from the amount of local organic foods they carried, to consumer education and in-store conservation initiatives.

Visit: www.planetorganic.ca

Elected officials, environmental organizations as well as ordinary Canadians of all political backgrounds should take note of the lifetime achievements of recently-deceased U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson, the founder of Earth Day. Nelson's work prompted the head of the Washington-based Wilderness Society to describe Nelson as "the founding father of the modern environmental community". Earth Day,

To understand carbon offsetting, one must first have at least a general understanding of carbon emissions, also commonly known as "greenhouse gases".

These are atmospheric components-like carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane gas-that contribute to the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect is responsible for the warming of the atmosphere that, in respectable levels, makes our atmosphere

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