After spending 15 years working to advance sustainability in a North American context, my partner and I are on sabbatical exploring Asia for six months. Why Asia?

Because it is home to 60 percent of the world’s population and two of the fastest growing economies on the planet: China and India. And, as sustainable brand practitioners, we believe it’s important to understand where these countries are now, and where they are headed. After all, the paths they choose present a host of opportunities and impacts that will affect your brand’s success and the health of the planet.

Even before the halfway point of our journey, we’ve learned some profound lessons that provide new ways to support the shift to sustainability while deepening the meaning of your brand, positioning it with emerging consumers, and fueling growth and innovation in a competitive marketplace.

Having already toured countries like India, Laos and Vietnam (China is on the itinerary in June), I’m astounded at the gravity of the environmental and social conditions here. Yes, incomes are rising as Asian economies grow at 7 to 10 percent per year, but not everyone is benefiting equally from that growth. Poorer citizens are experiencing proportionately higher environmental impacts while the gap between rich and poor grows ever wider. For example, Mumbai is home to Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum and an environmental disaster, just a stone’s throw from glittering hotels and malls that could be found in any North American city.

In the face of this explosive growth, here are just some of the challenges and consequences Asia is grappling with:

> Transportation / Energy
Rising incomes and rapidly growing industrial capacity are driving demand for cars, ships, aircraft and energy. For example, China opens two new power plants every week and is now the world’s largest car market. All this growth is increasing the world’s demand for fossil fuels and raw materials at unprecedented rates.

> Pollution
Growth in transportation and industrial infrastructure is polluting land, air and water. Excessive fertilizer use, contaminated water, heavy metals and solid wastes have polluted more than 10 percent of China’s arable land. In India, up to 50 percent of children in urban areas have asthma. Frequent haze over the Arctic, and even on the west coast of North America, originates in Asia. It’s also fueling global climate change.

> Water
Water is one of Asia’s largest environmental issues. Water quality is abysmal in many areas. In China, 90 percent of river water and half of underground water polluted. In some parts of India, the water table is dropping by up to 6 meters (20 feet) per year. This lack of water is already creating significant social and economic upheaval across the continent. Add this to water constraints in North America and the era of cheap, abundant water is ending.

> Social Equity and Attitudes
As Asia develops, the gap between rich and poor is growing significantly. A report issued by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) indicates that this gap has widened to a threatening level in many Asian countries like China and India. According to the Sunday Times, bankruptcies, unemployment and social unrest are spreading more widely in China than officially reported, and is “painting an ominous picture for the world economy.”

Aside from these impacts, as you plan for the long-term, it’s also important to acknowledge that Asia is not necessarily seeking to emulate the western capitalist and democratic model. The dizzying rate of change is turning some countries, like China, inward and making them more nationalistic. In other countries, many blame democracy for the global economic downturn, and are growing disillusioned with western democratic values.

What does this mean for sustainable brands?
What do all of these developments mean for sustainable brands? Quite simply, what’s happening in Asia already impacts your business today and will continue to do so well into the future. So, as your map your future strategies, here are some key considerations to build further meaning and value into your brand:

> Acknowledge your brand is connected to events in Asia and that your brand’s success will depend on how Asia develops
Despite “buy local” campaigns, globalization shows little signs of slowing down. Everything local is global, and global is local. Shrinking glaciers in the Himalayas, dying bee colonies on Bhutan, respiratory ailments in China and striking workers in India are as much our problem as Asia’s. At the same time, if Asia is an emerging market for your brand, how well do you understand its consumers’ values?

> Consider your supply chain and its impacts both in Asia and on your business
The environmental and social stresses in Asia are already generating impacts across global supply chains. Products that rely on cheap labor, clean air, arable land or abundant water will increasingly face new constraints. Begin now to develop strategies that can overcome these challenges.

> Address those impacts in creative ways that help differentiate your brand
Does your community investment strategy consider your supply chain and relevant consumer markets in Asia? Can your brand help inspire others in Asia to adopt CSR and sustainability practices? How can you support the education and economic development of women, a powerful and often disenfranchised constituency in Asian countries? In the face of Asian competition for natural and human resources, how can you strengthen and deepen relationships in your global supply chain? Even if your product or service trades locally, how might the sea changes in Asia affect the future health of your brand?

> Explore potential of markets in Asia
Europe and Japan have shrinking populations, and are seeing stagnating economies and incomes. Meanwhile, Asia is growing quickly and seeing the emergence of hundreds of millions of middle-class consumers. So, where do you think you should invest for the long-term? If Asia holds promise for your brand, be sure to adapt your product for the Asian market where space is at a premium and different cultural values reign supreme. Plus, don’t just appeal to the wealthy; the real opportunity lies with the wide swath of consumers of modest means.

> Engage the talents of the Asian continent
Asia offers so much more than cheap consumer goods. China is innovating in solar, wind and electric vehicle technology. India is an IT powerhouse with strong English language skills. Asia is a multicultural, pluralistic, melting pot of religions and cultures that is home to the world’s oldest civilizations. And they are on the ascendency again. What can we learn from them, and how can we engage them, to fuel our, and their, business success?

We’ve all played a role in the significant shifts western companies are making to address issues of sustainability. We know that our consumptive, wasteful and disposable economic model is unsustainable. It certainly can’t be sustained with the rise of hundreds of millions of middle-class people in Asia. Companies that explore the interconnectedness of our economy and environment with Asia’s will realize great rewards. Your brand’s success and the future of our world depend on it.

~ Peter ter Weeme

(Originally published in Sustainable Life Media)

Is the inexorable decline of these tigers an omen for the future of India? Not necessarily. But, it provides some lessons for how the country can manage its affairs more sustainably as it continues its relentless pace of growth and development.

If you’ve never visited India, you probably associate the country with things like call centers, spicy food, colorful festivals, chaotic traffic, grinding poverty and Gandhi. The reality is that India is all of these things, and so much more. For example, it’s a leader in information technology; it’s the world’s largest producer of movies; and, it’s a leading center for “health care” tourism.

India is also on track to eclipse China as the largest country in the world in terms head count. Its 31 distinct states share 1,600 languages, six major religious groups, and 6,400 castes all mashed up into one fiercely proud and doggedly democratic country.

And if you think we have environmental and social equity issues at home, imagine the impact of one billion people. Think in terms of solid and liquid waste, water use, transportation and air pollution. Imagine too the challenges of creating social cohesion in a land with all that religious and cultural diversity and the ingrained inequality of the caste system. As one lady we met here said, “For too many Indians, life is hard and short.”

By the way, if you want a candid, business-oriented narrative on India’s future, check out India Express, a book by Daniel Lak, an international journalist, writer and broadcaster. It’s a fresh, incisive look at India’s rise on the world stage.

I’ll admit that I have no crystal ball for India’s future but having had the chance to speak with dozens of Indians – particularly those in the emerging middle class – they all agree that India is:

• On a sustained growth curve for the foreseeable future
• Becoming increasingly urbanized at a rate of 1% per year
• Liberalizing its economy and social attitudes, breaking along generational and socio-economic lines
• Beginning to develop a culture of environmental awareness, at least among educated, urban Indians.

Even so, India still faces many challenges from issues with governance, corruption, education, infrastructure and growth. Its law enforcement is notoriously corrupt, its politics is a tangled web of religion and privilege, and its business community is intensely intertwined. It will have to put much more effort into addressing these issues if it’s to have any chance of meeting its economic, social and environmental goals.

What does this all mean for sustainable brands? There is great potential for a range of sectors to grow and prosper, and be an enterprising part of India’s drive to emerge as a global force. Here’s how:

• With dozens of stores in India and customers in 67 countries, Himalayan Herbal Health Care shows the potential in India for ethical retail chains as well as lifestyle and personal care brands. So does Nourish Organic Foods, makers of health bars and breakfast foods, and Organic India, another leading tea, food, spice and health supplement company. The ubiquity of English in India, particularly in urban centers, makes it easier to promote Western retail concepts and marketing creative. Experts agree that the potential LOHAS (lifestyles of health and sustainability) market here is enormous.

• Existing major centers are seeing frantic demand for housing. Meanwhile, India plans to build six brand new cities in the next five years. According to McKinsey, this works out to 700 – 900 million square meters per year of new residential and commercial space. Those cities will incorporate smart growth and energy efficiency principles. The country has already seen a massive increase in green building floor space from 20,000 to 20,000,000 square feet over the past seven years. There’s much more to come.

• There is also crushing work that needs to be done in existing cities and towns where infrastructure and energy sources are stretched. Developing waste management systems and building additional health care capacity alone holds enormous opportunities for sustainable brands involved in planning, technology transfer and construction.

• Delhi operates the world’s largest clear air fleet of compressed natural gas vehicles and is expanding its metro five-fold over the next decade. Tata, a major Indian conglomerate with progressive CSR practices, now offers the world’s most affordable (gasoline) car. Meanwhile, the need for mobility grows in tandem with the population and incomes in India. There’s great demand for transportation-based products, especially those operating with renewable or clean fuels.

• India’s installed wind capacity (fifth in the world) and its plans to produce 20 GW of solar power within 10 years are good signs for the clean tech sector. So is the fact that India actually has a Ministry of New and Renewable Energy . In short, there is political commitment and public financial support for companies in clean tech.

• As India works to realize its potential, there are also opportunities for a whole host of services firms in the areas of education, finance, management consulting, sustainability, legal services and more. Put that together with a national emphasis on education, and you’ve got the ingredients for positive change. Imagine the contribution you could make to the social side of sustainability here.

You might also be interested to know that India’s new Companies Bill considers providing various incentives, including tax breaks, to corporations that carry out corporate social responsibility programs. How’s that for progressive?

Let’s face it. We’re all in this sustainability journey together. Our global survival ultimately depends on how countries like China and India develop, the choices their consumers make, and the paths their industries follow. The progress we make in the developed world also depends on how well we make room for countries like India at the global decision-making table.

There is also the hard reality that the economic power of the world is shifting east. Some would argue that it already has and that we in the West are only starting to figure it out now. As progressive green businesspeople, we need to be part of the wave, for our companies’ success but also to help shape and influence that growth for the better.

Take the time now to consider how your business strategy and corporate citizenship efforts can include Asia. Do it before your competitors do. Their arrival here is just a matter of time.

~ Peter ter Weeme

(Originally published in Sustainable Life Media)

Putu, a local village guide in Keliki, Bali, stops to mop his brow and sighs, “It’s hotter than I can remember.” He takes another few steps and turns, “We’re just not used to it. The seasons seem to be all mixed up.”

It’s another steamy day in Bali and difficult to see where exactly the rice paddies end and the sky begins. The horizon is merely a blurry line lost in the haze of heat. As he tramps along a muddy path in the rice field, Putu carries a cloth to wipe his glistening face and neck. He’s used to the heat but  today is too much for him to bear.

Yes, it’s May, the so-called “dry season” in Bali, but it’s anything but dry this year. Rain has fallen almost everyday for the past three weeks. The island’s climate has been organized around the rhythm of wet months and dry ones, but this year it’s definitely topsy-turvy. Putu, 35, trudges along a muddy path in the rice field as he talks about how the weather has changed. He’s no scientist but he is in tune with his environment. Nature, he concludes, is confused.

“When I was a kid, we used to head into the rice fields for the day without sun tan lotion. Now, we can barely stand the sun in the afternoon. After a couple of hours, we go inside for a break because our skin hurts so much,” he says. His voice is steady but you can hear the fear. He talks about seedlings that die from the heat, about shortages of water and then flash floods that come from nowhere. Some of these patterns were always there but now they’re magnified and grotesque, like the muscles of a bodybuilder on steroids.

And while he doesn’t understand the intricacies of climate science, Putu’s observations are backed up by the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) in Jakarta. According to their climate scientists, global warming has triggered several anomalies including rising sea levels and increased sea surface temperatures. It’s led to unpredictable rainfall that bears no resemblance to normal patterns.

All over Asia, the effects of climate change are being felt on the ground. After interviewing dozens locals in Vietnam, Laos, India, Bhutan and Indonesia, I’ve found no one who has refuted the fact that the climate is different than it was 20 short years ago. And none of them are disputing that humans are causing it.

Over in India, Delhi has just finished its hottest April in 52 years. May has been a record-breaker too. Throughout Rajasthan, the state southwest of Delhi, water issues are at critical levels. It’s not just a recent phenomenon either – drought has ravaged the state for the past 10 years, withering crops, drying up wells and virtually roasting cattle before they are even butchered.

One telling example of the drought is occurring in Udaipur, a beautiful, historical city that lies amongst centuries-old man-made lakes created by various maharajas. Udaipur has been called the City of Lakes. It’s a misnomer now.

If you’ve ever seen the movie Octopussy, you’ll remember James Bond speeding across a gorgeous blue lake with a wedding cake palace in the background. That was Lake Pichola in Udaipur. Shockingly, the lake is now almost dry and has been for a few years. The rains don’t come anymore, and under the searing sun and growing population, the demand for water is too great.

Today, instead of an azure lake set against the arid Rajasthani mountains, you’ll find a toxic concentration of green sludge and a faint ring around the shore to mark the former waterline. It looks like the residue left behind from after a good scrub in the bathtub. But it smells much worse.

Uday, a local guide, comments how the five lakes surrounding the city are all at record low levels. “The last big rain came in 2006 but now they grow vegetables on the lake bed with what moisture remains. We are all hopeful the rains will return. What tourist wants to come to see this?” he laments as he gestures at the empty lakebed. His voice is heavy with resignation.

Meanwhile, in Laos, boat traffic on the Lower Mekong River was suspended three months ago due to a dramatic drop in the water level. It is below 1993 levels, which followed the most extreme regional drought on record.

This year’s low water levels are the result of conditions in Northern Thailand and Laos, and are part of a wider regional drought being experienced upstream in Yunnan Province in China. The 2009 flood season was drier than normal with wet season river levels in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, among some of the lowest on record in the last 100 years.

This lack of water is creating regional tensions around water management. It’s also making life difficult for the subsistence farmers and fishers who rely on the water for their livelihood. Living on a knife-edge, just one bad season can generate devastating impacts and personal economic ruin. The people here don’t have the luxury of savings to cushion the losses and their governments lack cash and capacity to provide relief.

Tourism has frequently been fingered as an economic saviour. However, it too is not immune to the vagaries of a changing climate.

“One of the cruise boats that plies the upper Mekong broke up on the rocks earlier this season,” offers Myriam, a French hostess on a lower Mekong ship. “The captain hadn’t realized just how shallow the river had become. Passengers had to be evacuated but fortunately there were no casualties.” Immediately following the incident, all fast and slow boats on the river were suspended until further notice. More jobs were put in jeopardy.

These stories of climate change are but a drop in the proverbial bucket, and they have a sad irony to them. Our lifestyles, our privileged position, our arrogance has created climate change. Yet, it’s the poorest, least resilient people in developing countries that are bearing the most dramatic social, environmental and economic costs.

In dozens of conversations about changes in that region’s climate, the only suggestion that climate change is either imagined, trumped up or a hoax is voiced by European and American tourists. Whether it’s a Dutch executive at Shell or Republican seniors who live on a golf course in Pennsylvania, they’re enjoying Asian vacations made less threatening thanks to their comfortable blinders and convenient explanations.

These travellers are resolute in their belief that this is all part of the planet’s natural climate variability. Indeed, they suggest that the fact that we’ve never had such high concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere is mere fear-mongering and has no relevance. Are they ignorant or is it just easier to deny responsibility? After all, who wants to be reminded that the carbon footprint of their flight is far greater than that of an entire Asian village?

The future impacts of climate change globally remain uncertain but each new piece of data confirms that it’s not likely to be pretty. That prognosis is all too evident to many Asians already. Just ask them.

~ Peter ter Weeme

(Originally published in Vancouver Observer)

The Junxion interactive and online marketing team is working with BC Housing to conceive, design and develop an employee website, intended to encourage and support BC Housing employees to become more sustainable at work, at home and within the community.

The new site is a versatile resource that allows employees to find information quickly, post articles and links about nutrition, sustainable travel and lifestyles, and share information and links on responsible businesses and green events in the community.

Bullfrog Power is an electricity provider offering low-impact, EcoLogo certified green electricity to residents and businesses across the province. By its official launch date, Bullfrog had signed on more than a dozen residential customers, and business customers including Junxion, as well as TD Financial Group, which announced at the event that it will ‘bullfrogpower’ all of its branches and ATMs in BC. Other organizations making the commitment to bullfrogpower their operations include Frogfile, Left Coast Naturals, The David Suzuki Foundation, The Lark Group and many more.

Junxion provided Bullfrog with strategic counsel as it planned its entry into the BC market, and continues to support the company with communications and media relations expertise.

Sustainable Brands examines the rapid rise of sustainability as a driver for revenue growth and brand equity in the 21st Century. SB’09 intends to amplify business success surrounding innovation for sustainability, and educate business leaders throughout an organization about how they can help create a leading sustainable brand. Junxion’s Matt Strand is also attending this year’s SBI conference, and is helping to raise awareness and excitement around the event by blogging on sustainability-related issues leading up to the conference.

SBI ’09 was in Monterey, CA from May 31 to June 4.

Hope and uncertainty. This might just be our society’s current, uneasy zeitgeist.

As the economy reels and one headline after another preaches gloom, we are simultaneously buoyed by a sense of hope after witnessing the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States last month.

In the sustainability realm, 2008 was a year of historic highs, where we saw some clear commitments on the part of government and business alike. And although it’s challenging to stay focused given the financial news around us, Junxion is resolutely emphasizing and pushing forward ideas and solutions around sustainability — just as we continue to see some positive evidence that it remains on track.

So with this hope, we’re happy to present you with the sustainability issues and opportunities that are on our minds in 2009.

Over the next several months, we’ll use this newsletter to examine each one of these topics in more detail. We’ll call on our peers, friends and clients, and perhaps other experts we know less well, and ask them to share their thoughts and opinions. Along the way, we welcome your feedback, in hopes of keeping the dialogue going and sparking new ideas that continue to push things forward.

With that, here’s what’s on our mind:

It’s amazing what synergies can be created and what gains can be made when a business focuses not only on profit, but also on improving its social and environmental surroundings. Saturated by stories of corporate greed, business blunders and bailouts, we’re paying attention to those companies that are seeking a higher purpose: social enterprise.

Bisphenol A, overflowing landfills, recyclables worth a fraction of what they were a year ago, waste-to-energy power generation. We’re thinking it’s time to get serious about zero waste.

Although tight economic times usually call for a “less is more” approach, when you must purchase goods and services – either for your business or your home – sustainable purchasing is the way to go. In fact, sustainable purchasing can save more than just money. We’ll look at how.

It’s not just in B.C. where energy conservation is on the minds of many. Sure, by 2020, BC Hydro must meet 50 percent of its incremental energy needs through conservation. But conservation is the song most of us across the country continue to sing, even as the price of oil drops from its lofty July heights. We’ll look at some of the newest tools and initiatives that are being put into action by businesses and citizens alike.

And once your conservation programs are in place, what about making a commitment to supporting clean energy? Wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, tidal, micro hydro, wave… With a new, green energy-focused Obama White House, new signs of movement in Ottawa, and a looming provincial election in B.C., how will government policy push along clean energy opportunity and innovation north of the border?

We all know that sustainability programs can actually improve efficiency and save money, but one particularly straightforward strategy is finding ways to “green” the buildings and communities in which we live, work, and play. Green buildings don’t just save tenants and home and property owners money on their energy bills; they provide health, tenant retention, sales and marketing, and risk mitigation benefits as well. Compelling benefits, especially in a faltering economy and a faltering real estate market.

As the big three automakers continue to plead for a government bailout, we’re heartened by the news that Ontario is – ahem – paving the way for electric cars. Meanwhile, Vancouver is one of only two municipalities in the province (so far) that has passed a bylaw allowing low-speed electric cars on the city’s streets. Later this year, we’ll hear from some of the innovators out there who are creating real alternatives for consumers and businesses alike — sustainability-minded visionaries who just might be the millennial versions of Henry Ford or Steve Jobs.

We hope you’ll watch this space as we expand on these ideas. And we welcome your own ideas along the way. We agree with US President Obama, and borrow from his words when we say true sustainability comes from “[choosing] hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.”

Mary Sturgeon is a consultant at Junxion, specializing in strategic communications and media relations.

Although a clever strategy that is riffing off of our current economic challenges, Howe Sound’s new brew is a fitting example of a company using its adaptive capacity and customization to develop a new business approach: that of resilience. Resilience is defined as the capacity to absorb shocks to the system without losing the ability to function.

The Canadian dollar plummets to 78 cents US, while Stephen Harper announces the country will go into a deficit, Japan follows the Euro zone and slips into recession, crude oil sheds $100 from its lofty July levels, the S&P 500 drops to its lowest level since 1997, and the Big Three auto makers head to Washington, collective hats in hands, to seek a US$25 billion lifeline.

With this, the viability and longevity of traditional corporate social responsibility is being questioned.

So what of sustainability, and the leadership, pledges, commitments, programs, reports and targets that go with it? Is this triple-bottom line crunch crisis a test for how deeply sustainability initiatives are embedded within organizations today?

And more significantly, is there an opportunity to use this economic strife for infrastructure, behavioural and process adaptation; is there opportunity to reassign real value to eco- and social-capitalism through smarter decision-making and visionary leadership?

We think so.

In our 21st century sustainability pursuits, our focus is already on resilience. We’re seeing price signaling for water consumption, carbon dioxide emissions and materials disposal operating ad hoc around the globe, through taxes and levies, and cap-and-trade schemes developed by regulators, businesses and environmental NGOs.

New technologies focused on redesign, closed loop systems and life-cycle analysis, rather than maintenance of the status quo, are supported by emerging behavioural and process change. Viral networks and real time communications are inspiring us to move from reactive to anticipatory, from concern to hope.

With our burgeoning deficit, businesses are examining how and where to cut corners. But they also want to maintain performance and gain the benefits sustainability strategies can provide.

Responsible organizations reveal some common features:

• Strong leadership with a supportive team sharing the vision at BC Hydro Power Smart, Vancity, and Mountain Equipment Co-op
• Optimization of core business linked with both sustainable operations and accountability at Domtar
• Authentic and approachable at Nature’s Path, Skeet & Ikes, and Frogfile
• Decision enabler for stakeholders with the Green Table Network; the Sustainable Purchasing Network; and Ocean Wise
• Active collaborations and shared ROI between Forest Ethics and Limited Brands/Victoria’s Secret; Saul Good Gifts and Tradeworks Custom Products; and the Legacy North Shore Society and North Shore residents

Grassroots, viral communications have proven their utility through the likes of president-elect Obama’s successful campaign leading up to the US presidential elections. Paul Hawken, in his book Blessed Unrest, espouses the optimization of networks of people where information takes hold and gains ground across the globe. These low effort/high impact strategies are highly effective, and catch on because they are viewed as authentic.

A recent and local example of this is the PodMob event organized by 3rd Whale. The “pod mob” was a critical mass of Vancouver sushi lovers and environmentally-aware urban scenesters, who agreed to patronize a particular restaurant over a single day, and use their purchasing power to convince that business to go green.

The event was promoted via viral e-mail, YouTube videos, and through social networks like Facebook. It was a textbook example of tapping into the power and momentum of grassroots word-of-mouth. Sushi Bento, the restaurant targeted for the event, now has a fresh and growing clientele and a new sustainability plan based on its agreement to put 31 percent of its revenue from the PodMob event toward going green.

Looking inward to the enthusiasm and commitment of its own employees, Vancity used an internal eight-month campaign called ‘Cut the Carbon’ to more deeply engage its staff in its quest for carbon footprint reduction. Encouraging employees to make one behavioural change each month at work and at home, the campaign has been hugely successful. Vancity has also reassessed its strategic direction: it has recently developed a plan to invest and support local social initiatives to promote greater equity and prosperity for the people of Vancouver and the Lower Mainland.

The Canada Green Building Council is helping building owners and managers take the first steps to greening their building stock, by creating the Green Building Performance System. This system will allow building owners to measure and compare energy and water use, and GHG emissions against national benchmarks, and learn about processes and strategies to improve efficiencies. It is a complementary strategy to the more rigorous and comprehensive LEED green building certification process, and involves engaging building owners across the country to help gather and report on the baseline data.

From green buildings to green communities, in Vancouver in particular, vertical density is fast becoming a reality. We will soon be seeing many more community gardens for local food supply, green roofs to divert storm water run-off and integrated living that encourages reduced vehicle use. These are smart growth strategies that improve quality of life and promote equality and opportunity, while making good business sense.

The strategies these organizations are undertaking are not revolutionary; they are evolutionary. And from this shift springs a wealth of job creation; forty percent of the future jobs for today’s grade four school children in Canada do not yet exist. When they are developed, these jobs will centre around sustainability.

But it will be another twelve years before most of these eight year olds are on the job market, applying their sustainability skills. As today’s economic problems become increasingly urgent, there is a similar urgent need for organizations to stay the sustainability course.

The ability to manage and strategize for uncertainty is a key factor in today’s business success. Indeed, most sustainability programs actually help to manage uncertainty by creating efficiencies and reducing waste. The upsides are myriad, including enhancing share value, retaining top performing employees and mitigating risks.

Mel Phadtare is Junxion’s Director, Integrated Sustainability

Retail sustainability initiatives have to acknowledge the tension all brands face between the business of “selling stuff” and principles of sustainability (typically, more conscious – or less – consumption). It’s a challenging line to walk but it’s important to acknowledge the “elephant in the room”.

“The opportunity for impact in retail is huge: retail sustainability presents a chance to generate operational/resource efficiencies, build affinity and create new business opportunities – and influence the consumer base in unique and powerful ways,” says Peter.  “And given today’s global economic malaise, now might be exactly the time to grab hold of the opportunity to rethink this dynamic and how we can innovate to address is successfully.”

Peter is one of only a handful of Canadians asked to present. He will speak on successfully balancing commerce and conscience with discussion on the greening of “Chapters/Indigo” — Canada’s biggest retail book chain, Park Royal Shopping Mall — a high end shopping center in West Vancouver, BC and Mountain Equipment Co-op, Canada’s largest retail co-operative.