It was a beautiful day to be hanging out at Vancouver’s newest and (some say) most sustainable neighbourhood. This was the Grand Opening for the Athlete’s Village, and London drugs was there with a booth focused on What’s the Green Deal, and yours truly joining the LD crew behind the table. Come September there will be a new London Drugs right there, giving people shopping options without having to use their cars. In Fact, the whole zone is an extension of Vancouver’s Smart Growth philosophy, letting people live an ‘Urban Village’ lifestyle, with walking, transit and cycling being the main modes of transport.
Interest in the booth was high, with a good number of folks stopping to find out more about Styrofoam recycling, Bring Back the Pack and browsing our display of What’s the Green Deal products. Though many more were interested in entering our contest to win the basket of Green products and the DVD Player/ Flat-screen TV we had running our Green Deal videos.
A few challenged us on our green-ness. One lady felt we were ‘green-washing’ by promoting the GreenWorks line of cleaners from Clorox. Others loved that we recycled Styrofoam, but were disappointed it was only for packaging on purchases from our stores. But still more were impressed to learn how diligent London Drugs is at recycling electronics properly.
By 3:30pm, a boisterous and musical crowd of protesters showed up to show their obvious disappointment at the reduced amount of social housing in the new mix of suites. This provided good entertainment value, but event organizers were not amused.
All in all though, it feels like more and more people are making green shopping decisions, at whatever level is right for them.
My favourite conversation was with a young couple pushing their baby in a stroller, who described themselves as ‘totally green’. “We shop at London Drugs, specifically because of your green programs’ they told me.
Music to my ears.
