Green Deal

November 4th, 2009

London Drugs employees display their GreenDeal pride.

Making green changes for the better is a group effort. When employees at 70 London Drugs stores were challenged to build an in-store display featuring recycled materials, recycling education and GreenDeal products, they really rose to the occasion.
One store covered a whole wall with LD reusable shopping bags. Another created their own green posters and handy take-home cards for customers, to remind them what is recyclable. A Halloween-themed recycling graveyard made a great tie-in with the season. Recycling creativity was fresh, with headlines like ‘Our blue is the new green’ and a Bart Simpson character wearing a ‘Recycle or Die’ t-shirt.
It was difficult to choose winners, but we ultimately narrowed the field.
Best overall display: Store 72, Nanaimo North Town Centre. This display included slideshows to run on screens in the electronics department and their own recycled staff buttons. (The buttons were recycled, not the staff)
Best use of recycled materials: Store 58,Mount Royal Village, Calgary. A completely recyclable display, with real examples of materials accepted for recycling.
Best Communication: Store 10, Kerrisdale. Using an entire window display, they showcased GreenDeal products and did an excellent job of explaining the recycling take-back program.
Thanks to all London Drugs staff and managers for taking the time to live the real Green Deal.

October 21st, 2009

10 Million pounds and still recycling!

When the London Drugs management team began calculating the amount of waste that has been recycled throughout the organization, we knew it would be significant. But I think we were all a little surprised at the tally to date. Let’s put this number in some perspective. 10 Million Pounds is approximately equivalent to a dozen full-loaded 747 Jumbo Jets. Or 42 Blue Whales. Or 6,215 Smart Cars.
This number represents total waste diverted from landfill and recycled with our partners over the last two years, from London Drugs stores, warehouses and customers returning packaging, electronics and appliances.
A majority of the recycled material is cardboard and wrap from our distribution centre, but this total also includes 49 tons of electronics and 3 tons of rechargeable batteries and cell phones.
So congratulations to all London Drugs customers, management, staff and recycling partners. Keep up the good work.

October 20th, 2009

Greening Feminine Hygiene with Natracare.

When I researched this product for London Drugs, I was able to quite favourably report on Natracare’s green composition vs. the ingredients of conventional products. But when it came to product performance, I knew I needed help. So I turned to one person guaranteed to tell it to me straight – my wife, Sharon.
To my surprise, she told me she has actually been using this product for some time! (Shows how often I help with her personal shopping…busted!) So here’s her review:

“I used regular pads for years but when I found the Natracare products I was more than happy to make a shift to improve the quality of materials I was sleeping with!
Besides being comfortable, with a large range of products (I typically use the pads and the liners as needed), the organic cotton cover padding and minimal paper for disposal appeals to my green side and I feel less angst when I dispose of the entire product. Also, the more I learn about the pesticides used in traditional cotton production, the more I appreciate the organic content in Natracare.
I definitely seek out retailers like London Drugs that carry this product over others I have used in the past.”

So there you have it. If you want a few more technical details, here are some content comparisons:

Conventional pads contain plastics in the backing, covers and the absorbent material, which are not biodegradable. Natracare Ultra pads and liners are made from over 78% renewable materials and are compostable. Natracare also uses organic cotton. When I contacted them to ask about the percentage, they gave me very prompt and accurate answers – 100% in the tampons, 20% in the Ultrapads and over 99% in the Baby Wipes and Intimate Wipes. So full marks for transparency as well.

Thanks to my guest blogger – guess I owe Sharon at least one trip to London Drugs!

October 15th, 2009

London Drugs makes Vancouver’s greenest coupon book.

The Green Zebra Guide is 320 pages of coupons filled with ‘Local Savings for Sustainable Living’. And while you will find aromatherapy and alternative energy, you’ll also see London Drugs, with a ‘What’s the Green Deal’ recycling feature and a coupon for Nature’s Path products.
Not just any retailer qualifies for inclusion in Green Zebra. In order to appear in the guide, a business “must actively demonstrate a commitment to social, economic, and/or environmental sustainability.” So kudos to all the staff and management at London Drugs who bring ‘What’s the Green Deal’ to life every day.
Sales of the Green Zebra Guide also help support TB Vets, and the guides can also be used as fundraisers for schools, sports teams or non-profit organizations.
You can get information about Green Zebra on their website, www.greenzebraguide.ca. Pick one up and look for our coupon on page 29.

September 3rd, 2009

Duncan Store #70 Opening showcases some bright ideas for green development.

On August 31st, I attended the opening of London Drugs’ latest store in Duncan. As usual, I was watching the proceedings with a green eye, and was pleased to see several examples of sustainable thinking.
To start with, this store is located in traditional Cowichan Tribes territory. So the evening began with a witnessing and blessing performed by elders and traditional dancers. The food was also catered by a First Nations facility, featuring numerous local delicacies. Local community involvement is an important component of the sustainability puzzle, and the respect and consideration shown here by the London Drugs team was impressive.
The store itself is constructed with a number of energy- and water-saving features. Chris Kidson, London Drugs Manager of Retail Store Development, took me through some of the highlights:

Sky Windows allow for natural light to be used whenever available.
Lighting is T-8 standard, a smaller fluorescent tube which uses less energy. The tubes themselves are Alto certified low-mercury lamps from Phillips, on a ballast system, allowing them to dim when full power is not required.
Lighting reflectors maximize dispersal of light from the tubes, and are manufactured locally in Maple Ridge, BC.
All water fixtures and toilets are low-flow models.
A sophisticated building management system allows for remote monitoring and maximizing of energy efficiency
Flooring uses BioBased Tiles from Armstrong Floors, a LEED-rated product
Low-VOC paints and adhesives are used throughout
PhotoLab features a new ‘Dry Photofinishing’ system which releases no liquid effluent

Although the green message was not the main focus of the evening, the What’s the Green Deal product signage was in place in all departments, and London Drugs’ Green Deal program was highlighted in the podium address by President and CEO Wynne Powell. It’s always reassuring to hear those priorities coming from the top.
One thing was clear – the community in Duncan had been asking for a London Drugs for some time. Here’s hoping green shoppers in the Cowichan Valley spread the word about a new local option for some of their sustainable living needs, and keep pushing to make London Drugs greener than ever.

August 8th, 2009

Don’t get stuck with the Styrofoam! London Drugs offers industry’s first Styrofoam take-back recycling program.

Your beautiful new flat-screen TV is all set up and the big game is about to start. You just need to get rid of the pyramid of Styrofoam packing blocks in the middle of your living room. But how? You can’t put them in the blue box because the municipality doesn’t recycle polystyrene. If you somehow manage to cram them into your garbage can, you’ll have nowhere to store the rest of the week’s trash. You even contemplate stashing them in your trunk for a midnight dumpster run, like some subversive suburban Pulp-Fiction character. Then you smile, remembering that you bought your flat-screen at London Drugs and all you have to do is bring your Styrofoam back to the store to be recycled responsibly.

Right now, London Drugs is the only major retailer taking back Styrofoam for recycling, along with any other packaging that comes with purchases at their stores. In fact, in the last 18 months, they have prevented over 40 semi-truck loads of Styrofoam – some 50,000 lbs – from entering landfills. That’s no small task.

Expanded polystyrene, as Styrofoam is officially known, is a great packing material. It’s light, inexpensive and durable. But because it takes up so much space with so little weight, and takes thousands of years to break down, it is a challenge to landfills and recyclers alike. At a recent visit to Genesis Recycling, one of London Drugs’ responsible recycling partners, I learned more about the challenges of recycling Styrofoam, and the successes of the London Drugs program.

Styrofoam returned by customers is picked up at London Drugs stores and collected at the warehouse before shipping to Genesis. There, the Styrofoam blocks are ground up and compressed into polystyrene blocks, each about 1/40th the size of their original form. This makes them a commodity that is then shipped and sold to be remanufactured into new products. At this stage, though, Styrofoam recycling is certainly no money-maker.

“In its expanded form, polystyrene is very inefficient to ship.” Says London Drugs VP Clint Mahlman. “One whole semi-truckload only weighs about 1.5 tonnes. So it is very labour intensive to collect and ship for recycling. But we’re committed to making this program work, both for our customers’ convenience and the capacity of our landfills.”
So next time you’re thinking about purchasing appliances or electronics, remember London Drugs. And don’t get stuck with the Styrofoam.

July 29th, 2009

GreenDeal 101 – Making sense of Green Certifications

GreenDeal 101 is our series of blog articles written specifically to help newcomers to the Green scene understand some of the terminology and issues in the world of sustainability.

If you browse the green aisles, you may easily be confused by the variety of seals, certifications, programs, emblems and crests that adorn products. These often feature globes, trees, leaves, water droplets and all manner of other folksy earth-like graphics, and usually make claims such as ‘earth-friendly’, ‘100% Organic’ or ‘Approved by Such-and-Such Organization’.
So how do you sift through this certifiable confusion without becoming certifiable yourself?
I always recommend that people do their own online research, but not everyone has the time or web-searching patience to take on that task. So here are a few thoughts and comments on two types of certifications.

Corporate Eco-Labels
Many companies decide to create their own certifications or programs internally. These vary widely in their scope and believability. Some go as far as offering written commitments and products with strong eco-benefits. With HP’s Eco Highlights Program, for instance, they are pledging a 25% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from their operations by 2010, and featuring their HP Deskjet D2545 Printer which is made of 83 percent recycled plastic. Not bad.
Other manufacturers’ green labels may be less specific. The claim of ‘Natural Ingredients’ for example, is not really a viable indicator of green benefits. And some green labels say so little, they appear to simply be greenwash (regular products dressing themselves up in eco clothing). Boooo.

Recognized Third Party Certifications
These represent a higher standard of green labeling, where a company or product must meet certain criteria to qualify. These third parties may be governments or organizations that are independent of influence from industry, and with these labels you can usually be sure some product testing or qualification has taken place. Requirements and processes are also usually quite transparent.
Below are some of the third-party certifications we look for when reviewing products for What’s The Green Deal. If you see these labels on products, you can be pretty sure they are believably greener in some way or another:

General:
Canada Environmental Choice EcoLogo
Organic:
USDA Organic
British Columbia Certified Organic
Oregon Tilth Certified Organic
California Certified Organic Farmers
Soil Association
OCPP / ProCert
Quality Assurance International
Fair Trade:
TransFair
QMI
Paper and Wood Products:
FSC – Forest Stewardship Council

So when you see green labeling, be critical. Read the ingredients and do your own online research when you can. Because when it comes down to it, we each need to decide what’s green for ourselves.

For more research on certifications, check out ecolabelling.org – here you can browse over 200 eco-labels from around the world.

July 11th, 2009

What’s behind the green screen at KINeSYS Performance Sunscreen?

As part of my research for What’s the Green Deal, I’m often asked to dig deeper into the green claims of certain products. It’s a rare pleasure when the in-depth story on a company reveals an even greener picture. Such was the case when I interviewed Rob Takeuchi, spokesman for KINeSYS sunscreen.
On their web site, KINeSYS describes a few key eco-friendly advantages under a banner they call ‘EarthKind™’. These include:

Bottles that are 100% recyclable
Cardboard used in packaging is 40% post-consumer recycled
KINeSYS is carbon-neutral, (more on this later)
They are part of the Social Venture Network
They are a signer of the Compact for Safe Cosmetics

This is pretty good, but the story gets even better.
Let’s start with the bottles. Not only can you drop them right in the recycling box, they are actually manufactured right here in BC. (Almost unheard-of in this era of global outsourcing) The labels and cardboard shipping cartons are also manufactured locally and printed with vegetable-based inks, while the non-pressurized sprayer units (specially designed to handle the small sunscreen molecules) are made in the US, sourced through a Canadian firm. This localized supply-chain means way less carbon emissions from shipping, better support for our regional economy, improved green transparency and greater quality control.
KINeSYS purchases energy for its warehouse and head office through Bullfrog Power, a Canadian firm that adds electricity from wind generation and low-impact hydro to the grid for every kWh purchased by its customers. Last Earth Day, KINeSYS also went the extra step to purchase carbon offsets for employees’ personal vehicles, (through Offsetters, a local Vancouver company) and now claims to be the only carbon-neutral sunscreen company in the world.
So does the stuff work? KINeSYS started selling sunscreen in 1994 to performance athletes at the Commonwealth Games in Victoria. Their website features testimonials from doctors and sun-sensitive individuals, and they adhere strictly to the standards set out by Health Canada. This is important to note, says Rob, as some retailers are importing ‘natural’ sunscreen products that do not have a Canadian DIN (Drug Identification Number). “Sunscreen is a drug product. If you see sunscreens without a DIN number, they may not have been tested to Canadian standards.” Says Takeuchi. “The other big implications of not submitting products for review is that they could contain ingredients not properly disclosed … or not deemed appropriate (for reasons of safety or efficacy) by Health Canada. And that’s not safe, when you’re dealing with protecting your skin from the sun.”
This all may sound like quite a lot of green effort, but apparently, it’s still not enough.
“London Drugs has always supported our efforts to reduce packaging and be more green at the retail level, so we’re very happy to be part of What’s the Green Deal. But at KINeSYS we’ll always be trying to do better. For instance, right now we’re looking at finding a more eco-friendly tape for our cartons.”
A small thing? Perhaps. But it shows their green cred is more than skin-deep.

June 27th, 2009

GreenDeal 101: Greenwashing

GreenDeal 101 is our series of blog articles written specifically to help newcomers to the Green scene understand some of the terminology and issues in the world of sustainability.

No, greenwashing is not doing your dishes with an eco-friendly liquid.
Greenwashing is the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service. This is especially relevant, as new ‘green’ products seem to appear almost daily. Furthermore, the issues of what defines ‘green’, and what we can do about it are constantly developing. So how do we identify what’s green and what’s greenwashing?
One of the best definitions I’ve encountered comes from environmental marketing agency TerraChoice. It’s actually a list of definitions they call the ‘7 Sins of Greenwashing’: (reprinted with permission)
1. Sin of the Hidden Trade-off – Suggesting a product is ‘green’ based on an unreasonably narrow set of attributes. (Or one small one)
2. Sin of No Proof – An environmental claim that cannot be substantiated by easily accessible supporting information or a third-party certification.
3. Sin of Vagueness – Claims that are so poorly defined or broad that their real meaning is likely to be misunderstood by the consumer. For instance, ‘All natural’ isn’t necessarily ‘green’.
4. Sin of Irrelevance – An environmental claim that may be truthful but is unimportant or unhelpful for consumers seeking environmentally preferable products. ‘CFC-free’ is a common example, since it is a frequent claim despite
the fact that CFCs are banned by law.
5. Sin of Lesser of Two Evils – Claims that may be true within the product category but that risk distracting the consumer from the greater environmental impacts of the category (eg, organic cigarettes)
6. Sin of Fibbing, (fortunately, the least frequent sin) – Environmental claims
that are simply false.
7. Sin of Worshipping False Labels – The imitation of third-party certification with fake labels or false claims of third-party endorsement.
All in all, they create a pretty stringent list of checkpoints for green marketing claims, so don’t be discouraged if some of your favourite brands fall short on a few points. Just use them as a guide to judge for yourself what greenwashing means. Then provide feedback to the companies and products you think need it and be part of changing green marketing for the better. London Drugs carries a LOT of products, and the team behind What’s the Green Deal does its best to analyze and report green product claims fairly. But if you discover a product you think is greenwashing, please let them know. The more we all do to let manufacturers know we want as much transparency as possible, the greener things will get.

June 23rd, 2009

Want to destroy data? You have to destroy the drive. (Bet the Pentagon wishes they recycled their computers here)

London Drugs has always been extremely careful with data-carrying electronics brought for recycling, developing an industry-leading process to make sure data is destroyed. Too bad the military minds at The Pentagon didn’t hear about it. During the making of a PBS documentary on e-waste disposal, UBC students were able to source old hard drives that still contained secret information from the US Department of Homeland Security.
And it’s not just military security that’s at risk. Thieves also plunder old hard drives for credit card and identity information they can use on everyday folks like us.
Erasing a drive is not always enough to completely remove data. The only way to be sure is to physically destroy it. That’s why London Drugs has been so focused on data security with their e-waste recycling program. When you bring a data-carrying device for recycling, London Drugs technicians record the serial number, physically damage the drive right there at the store and lock it up. Then, when it goes to their recycling partner, (like Genesis Recycling in BC), the drives are unloaded, disassembled and mechanically shredded, under the watchful eye of a Loss Prevention Officer. All electronics and appliances are also disassembled and separated into marketable materials right at the plant. This ensures your e-waste is not just shipped to third-world countries for scrapping, where toxins and heavy metals are creating a whole new environmental hazard.
So if you want to be sure your e-waste is being recycled right, bring it to London Drugs. Just try to get there before the Pentagon finds out about it.

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About the Blog

London Drugs employees display their GreenDeal pride.

10 Million pounds and still recycling!

Greening Feminine Hygiene with Natracare.

London Drugs makes Vancouver’s greenest coupon book.

Duncan Store #70 Opening showcases some bright ideas for green development.

Don’t get stuck with the Styrofoam! London Drugs offers industry’s first Styrofoam take-back recycling program.

GreenDeal 101 – Making sense of Green Certifications

What’s behind the green screen at KINeSYS Performance Sunscreen?

GreenDeal 101: Greenwashing

Want to destroy data? You have to destroy the drive. (Bet the Pentagon wishes they recycled their computers here)

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