Garbage Catch 22 Opportunity for Starbucks et al

I have to give my husband credit for this idea. What can companies with a storefront presence do in the middle of a garbage strike when the coffee cups with their branding all over them start to pile up and litter the streets for all the locals and tourists to see? Encourage self-responsibility with a surcharge.

If every Starbucks and their competitors charged customers during a garbage strike an additional $0.25 for a take out cup, because the customer did not bring their own, then the money could be used to clean up the mess outside and creatively dispose of it.

Conversely, if a customer brings in their own cup, deduct $0.25 and do so loudly so all can hear. Or, the coffee company could choose to sell their own permanent mugs at cost.

What does this type of conversation sound like.

Barista: “Welcome to Starbucks. What can I get for you? “

Customer: “A double tall mocha frappachino with extra whip, please.”

Barista: “Would you like a cup with that drink or did you bring your own?”

Customer: “Cup, please. I’ll have to remember to bring mine next time.”

Barista: “Would you like it in our travel mug? We are offering them at cost during the garbage strike.”

Customer: “Oh, well in that case, the travel mug will be fine.”

Barista: That will be $3.75 plus 2.25 for the travel mug, the proceeds of which we will be using to help us clean up the cup litter out on the street during the garbage strike. Thanks very much for doing your part on this!”

Way to be the ripple Starbucks… or will one of the local coffeehouses pick up this idea first. We shall soon hear about it or see it. Which coffee company will use this Catch 22 to turn it into a brand building opportunity for themselves and have a clean front sidewalk and which logo will we see being attacked by the crows and rodents and kicked around by the tourists?

Strikes are going on in Alameda and Vancouver and Forbes Magazine is already writing about the impact on tourist business.

I will be keeping track of which companies get on the bandwagon. Tell me what you see out there. Send photos. Send your stories.

Going Green 101 for Fortune 1000 – Its not What you do, it is How you do it

Over a glass of wine last week, a colleague was showing me plans for how their multi-national was going to embark on the green journey. “What do you think?” He was eager and tentative.

I looked at the list. Electric cars, green roofs, e-waste recycling, lunch time talks with noted ‘local experts’. I nodded but was quiet.

“Where can we fine tune it… I mean what should we tackle first?”

Here’s what I shared that I thought readers going down the same route might want to know:

1. What’s your goal? If reducing your impact on climate change is the goal, only do projects that reduce your GHG emissions. Biggest contributors? Buildings (50%) and transportation.

2. Pick the projects that don’t involve people changing behavior in order to get a result. Why? We don’t like to change our habits. Many habits that contribute to GHG emissions are unconscious. Too hard. Examples? Change the lighting  and look at other lighting and energy controls in every building throughout the multi-national organization. Measure electrical and GHG emissions usage before and after. Get help doing this from this handy reference and look at other organizations’ examples like the University of Victoria.

3. Celebrate your achievements. Tell everyone what you will do, how you will measure it, do it and then show them the result. Do this internally first, then tell the world.

“Light bulbs? Like Live Earth was going on about?” He looked at me like sustainability and greening should be harder than that.

“You will get big results. Employees, leaders, suppliers, will be proud. You will be doing a good thing, being a great ripple.”

I added the next thought with a smile. “Then you will have buy-in for the tougher stuff that involves people doing things differently. You be a good ripple for them, they will be a good ripple for you. You have to start first.”

“Oh and by the way, make sure you get budgetary approval first by showing the cost savings the lighting change project will save. Payback is usually 1-2 years. Then you’ll get the buy-in from the CFO too, especially if he reads this survey of what other companies are doing about energy costs and how they are viewing the economic vs. environmental payback.”

The sun came out about that point. He nodded. ”I can do this… no, we can do this.”

Our conversation will continue in later posts while you digest this one.

Whole Foods ripples into a Catch 22 – The Wizard is Revealed to be Human

There are great ways to ripple that seemed to be a good idea at the time, and then they can turn on you. Then you get to meet your old foe, the Catch 22 marketing effect which I last wrote about with respect to Toronto’s refusal to allow Toyota Prius to be accepted as a limousine.

When your ripple becomes negative it creates a catch 22 for you and a ripple opportunity for some other organization.

Whole Foods’ CEO, John Mackey has apparently been posting anonymously on Yahoo Finance message boards tooting the WFMI stock and bashing Wild Oats. You may know that WFMI is now trying to buy Wild Oats but has been stymied by the FTC. So who benefits from WFMI’s catch 22?

1. The FTC may have additional ammunition information to block the merger.

2. Wild Oats gets the sympathy vote.

3. Cultural creatives (the educated shopper is WFMI’s target market) might see Mackey’s Wizard of Oz caper as a reason to stop shopping there and choose other options. Wild Oats stores may benefit.

4. Mackey could choose to spin his Wizard caper in his favor and come clean … but that train may have left already. What else could he do to turn this catch 22 back into a positive ripple? Start saying nice things about Wild Oats? He was already doing that since announcing the merger. Start his own blog to share his voracious desire to share? That would be sad.

5. Mackey might just have to do some self-reflection and ask himself what he was trying to accomplish in lurking around the message boards. His company is ten times bigger than Wild Oats. He was already a darling of the stock market. Why did he need to hoot louder? Understanding why you want to ripple a certain way is the first step to undoing the damage. The wizard of OZ is not all powerful. But sometimes he thinks he is. Maybe this is the curtain that the FTC was trying to open.

6. Remember, when you start on the journey down that yellow brick road to going green then your business practices are going to be viewed in the same light as your products on offer – walk the talk. Just because the label says its natural, doesn’t mean it’s organic through and through. We are still learning how to be congruent as leaders and in business – sustainability refers to the entire organization, not just to the pretty press release announcing you now carry organics and send your unsold produce to the food bank… or does Whole Foods do that?

OK… Mr. Mackey is probably feeling the effects of this catch 22 right now. What would we recommend his next steps are? a) Own up tomorrow. Apologize.

b) Meet with his executive team and all his store directors. Apologize.

c) Issue one press release. Apologize.

c) Don’t defend or explain. Talk about what he will do from now on to assuage the itch to communicate.

d) Spend time in reflection wondering what need he was trying to satisfy that he is not paying attention to. Get a coach who knows how to work with sticky situations in leadership to help him face the blind spot.

e) Examine where else in the organization this blind spot of his might be manifesting other brewing catch 22s. There will be more. Turn them into ripples.

Eggs on the Range cause Change

For every new innovation that causes a positive ripple for the innovators, it leaves catch 22s for the status quo… until the statu quo learns how to turn it into a business opportunity ripple for themselves.

Take eggs. Everyone buys them. Some people care about free range, others care that they come in a recyclable container and then there are buyers who them cheap and plentiful. Labels are confusing. Different target markets, right? If you are a farmer, could you cater to them all? Not very well, it turns out.

The plight of chickens held in captivity to produce our eggs is becoming a big uncontrollable variable in many farmers business plans. Why should you care? PETA and the Humane Society are out to protect chickens, not only for their benefit but for our health benefit too. They want the recently caged Paris Hilton as the chicken spokesmodel. They have been successful in getting educational institutions and city governments to ban all but free range eggs.

If more institutions and governments follow this ripple it will then affect:

1. Packagers – Will styrofoam packaging finally be a foot note in our landfills? Will this increase business for recycled cardboard packaging or some other innovation?

2. Grocers (Safeway, Costco, Whole Foods) Will consumers vote with their wallets? Or will grocers take a stand too and only sell the cruelty-free eggs in recycled packaging? Wild Oats and Whole Foods have adopted new policies. But then what if they can’t get any true free range eggs? How deeply will they invest in their supply chains to help those farmers convert? Could be a ripple, or a Catch 22.

3. Food supply (Compass Group) Will they have to build new supply agreements with Free Range chicken Farmers who are already producing at maximum output?

4. Regulatory bodies (Egg Marketing Boards) Will they have to bow to grass roots interests and really live up to their mandate ‘to ensure a safe (for both human and chicken?), clean (for both human and chicken or is it the egg?) and consistent supply’? Or will they wait for consumers to demand that to be safe and clean for humans then you have to have safe and clean for chickens laying the eggs? Then the board would have to scramble to catch up. Catch 22.

5. Caged Chicken/Egg Farmers – Will they find sales declining which may force them to change their chicken accomodation practices? Hilton, anyone? What new service suppliers may now spring up to help this conversion from prison to freedom? Who will help match newly minted free-range egg farmers with newly green grocery chains? New business innovators already hatching plans, I hear.

6. Free Range Chicken/Egg Farmers – Will growing demand outstrip their ability to supply forcing the price of their eggs up even higher, making it difficult for lower income people to participate in the greening of the economy? Will farmers have to pay consulting groups to change their chicken management practices?

6. Chicken/egg systems and cage manufacturers (not needed anymore?) Will new chicken management systems be needed to monitor running chickens instead of caged chickens?

For every ripple there is a catch 22 for some business. How your business deals with it can make or break your future home on the range. Go on, get cracking!

Refreshing Road Ripples – Thanks to Earl’s Restaurant!

So its Friday afternoon. Hot. July. Snail’s were moving faster than we were. It’s like this every afternoon on the ramp to cross the bridge. But hey, we have the top down and we’re going to be sailing soon so no big deal right? Of course the cars around us weren’t in the same frame of mind.

Suddenly, brakes light up in front of us. Must be some competitive type trying to change lanes. Out of the shimmering heat steps a tall man dressed as a waiter with a tray of what… margaritas in little plastic cups with convenient straws? Mirage? No… can’t be because I now have one of these frozen concoctions in one hand and the wheel in the other. I had to ask him where he came from. Earl’s Restaurant, he said and pointed down the street and smiled at me as he went on to the next car. He wasn’t wearing a sign, there were no logos in sight and he didn’t broadcast the restaurant. All around us, people were now smiling, slurping, waving at each other, and yes these were virgin drinks. Rather than raging at each other in the traffic we were rippling happiness. Which was good because the big merge from two lanes to one lane was coming up and boy, do you have to manage your irritation with other drivers at that point on the bridge. (We need a better green solution for transportation here… but that is another story)

Way to ripple, Earl’s. Will I remember this? You bet, I’m writing about it. Will I go to Earl’s soon. Probably.

Innovation makes big ripples in Toronto and how Catch 22s can become opportunities

Life is a catch 22. You think of a great way to help out on climate change and then you run headlong into a regulation, policy, insurance issue, nay-sayer or glitch that just won’t get out of the way for your innovation to do the job. Take Green Limousine  (to the airport, to your hotel, please and do your ripple for the climate) in Toronto, Canada.

Steven Frei and his partners had a great idea. Those big limos and extended football field size SUV’s idling in the traffic jam on the 401 are adding significant GHGs to the Toronto atmosphere. 35% more CO2 than your average car.

He thinks, why don’t we offer to take people to the airport in Toyota Prius cars instead? As long as the two suitcases fit in the trunk (check) this little measure can reduce CO2 emissions by up to 90%. (check).  What a great way to ripple – new business, new competition to fuel the economy, job creation, more Toyotas purchased and less smog so Toronto can prevent itself from becoming anymore polluted than it already is. I wonder if tourists care about the air they breathe?

So Steven et al goes off to the city of Toronto to apply for his taxi license to operate at Pearson Airport. Ooops. Sorry, Toyota Prius aren’t big enough to meet the regulations to be a limousine. The city is worried that if they allow the Prius and Green Limousines to get a license it will have a ripple effect on the limousine industry at the airport. Change will upset the apple cart. Yes, it will. Life is a catch 22. Steven Frei took his plight to the CBC, voila catch 22 becomes instant press.

Ah, but then the catch 22 has moved on to greener pastures. The big limo companies may soon have to deal with a regulation change. They will have to come up with another creative way to deal with that catch 22. I wonder what change they might make as a result of the ripple that Toronto is considering? 

But let’s compare and contrast the catch 22 Toronto has with green limousines to the events in London, England. Before Toyota’s Prius became a hot ticket item, that city placed a congestion tax on its citizens. It doesn’t matter what you drive, if you go past Hammersmith into the city, you will pay tax. There’s a camera that takes your license plate picture (yes, that’s you in the background, madam) and sends you a bill. The city councillors gave special dispensation to those vehicles that minimize their CO2. Prius gets in and out for free. London took control of their future before the market decided to come control it.

Which led my cousin Jonathan Broom (in the interests of full disclosure here) to start ecoigo – the green executive car service that now zips around people like Al Gore and execs at companies that need to buy themselves some green guilt relief (ripple). So London planted a catch 22 challenge (and added revenue to the city coffers) to its citizens and several have risen to the occasion to fill the need created by the regulation change (ripple).

So the choice is yours. Do you want to be at the mercy of the catch 22 or at the steering end rippling your way to greener profits? Governments slow to get off the mark on their regulatory initiatives might want to think about this. Toronto, didn’t you sign up to be part of the Clinton Climate Initiative? Ah, that was only making a commitment to a green building retrofit program. That’s a great start. Now what about air quality. It’s time to take the next step before the markets do it for you.

Ripple Riddle 1 – Reflections on the daily grind, cell phones, lattes and irritating people

Ripple Question 1 – How can I tell what kind of ripple I am being toward myself? 

I took my irritation to the gym this morning so it could have a change of scenery. It could work out on the bike instead of on me. How did I know I was irritated? Could not focus on anything else but. I listened in on the conversation going on in my head. “Learning how to do this blog thing is hard. Figuring out how much to edit my book before releasing it on the blog is frustrating.”

I know when I’m skipping steps, trying to get to the end before I’ve barely explored the beginning. “Evolution is a journey… blah, blah, blah.”

So what did all this listening in do for me?

1. It told me I feel frustrated with what I am trying to do because it’s new for me. Did you know that adults learning anything new are the biggest whiners? Or is that only me? We don’t like not being good at something immediately. It is uncomfortable. Yeah, it’s why most of us don’t change our behavior much until its affects are glaring us in the face. I mean kudos to Courtenay Love. She saw what 182 lbs looked like and then did something about it. Immediately. Set up a plan and followed it. Now if she can be that disciplined, can’t you and I? So if I feel frustrated about something, I better do something about it right?

2. The hard part can be figuring out what to do, rather than continuing to roll around in the frustration like a pig enjoying it’s mud puddle. So what do I do after listening, hearing frustration and accepting that’s what my ripple is about today? Think of one thing I can do to alleviate that frustration. Now I have a rule here. You may like to have some new rules for yourself here too. The solution to the frustration will not come from: eating, shopping, sugar, taking it out on someone else, channel surfing or a glass of fine Australian Cabernet.        Sigh. Instead I ask myself “what is one creative thing I could do or one person I could ask that would be a step toward making this situation better?” And Whoo Hooo, some cool ideas show up to help me resolve my issue! How come? Because creativity emerges only after we’ve listened in, accepted what’s there, had a moment of compassion for the fact we’re rolling in the mud and then asked an opportunity question. (What did I do? I called my friend Troy: champion blogger and mind mapper for help. He reminded me to be a grasshopper, at peace with being a beginner blogger. Ok. Hop, hop… hop one hop at a time.)

Ripple Answer:

The gym is a good place for reflection. Reflection is a valuable tool in my box so that I can be a positive ripple with myself. That’s the first answer to the Ripple Riddle.  Find time for reflection – in the car (better than talking on the cell phone and drinking your latte at the same time… yields a longer life expectancy), during a walk at lunch, while chatting to a long winded friend on the phone (OK, maybe that isn’t respectful but if you find yourself running back commentary on everything the friend says, let me tell you, it is time for some reflection!). Listen in on the conversation in your mind and find out what agenda you’ve got running today. Whatever tone you’ve set in your head is going to be the tone you have with your work, interactions and yourself. So… what kind of ripple are you having today?

It’s not easy being Green – AirTransat, Thomas Cook MyTravel, Easy Jet et al

I wanted to commend all the low frills airlines trying to give us cheaper ways to get around the globe.  EasyJet’s attempts at being green are getting news. Yup, they care about the environment… but at what cost to customer service? MyTravel and Canadian Affair use baggage weight bouncers controls to keep hefty passengers suitcases from stepping foot onto their planes. So there we were, unpacking on the grubby floor at Gatwick Airport, while those waiting in line for their own bad news perused the detritus of our three weeks jetting to and fro in Europe. Our goal? Attempt to re-distribute the weight in all our bags so we’d arrive at the magic weight for our check on bags before MyTravel closed off the flight.

Now I don’t know about you, but how many of us carry a weigh scale while we are on holiday? What does this airline think we are going to do at this point in our travel? Pay the fine of course. What a great way to bring in additional revenue. Alienate your customers by humiliating them in front of their fellow passengers and then charge them more for the pleasure.

Now folks, this is not a great way to be the ripple. I bet you that bag weigher lady goes home each night ready to tear a strip off of someone from having to be MyTravel’s enforcer. What kind of ripple does she spread with her colleagues? Seemed the check-in employees were a little beyond irritated with all of us by the end. I wonder why they thought it would be a great idea to broadcast all that frustration right in front of us as if we weren’t really there? Airing some dirty laundry, me thinks. You get what you (see!) think about all day. That’s a big red flag to me that all is not sunny behind that green curtain.

Hmmm… you know, I bet there must be a better way to be green and eliminate the hassle for your customers. At the rate the competititon is growing for bargain fare airlines, I bet the next green wannabe EasyJet or MyTravel will find a way to do both. Or can Thomas Cook really do a better job now that they are acquiring MyTravel. Can we help them avoid some big customer gaffes while they wrestle through their transition?

People… CEOs… there is a better way to be green and customer friendly!! I bet we could all think of a few things that EasyJet could do. I’ll start brainstorming, you add…

1. The airline could place a weigh scale at the beginning of the line and place a curtained-off area for passengers to work out how they will deal with their luggage before they’ve just spent 1.5 hours in the queue.

2. The airline could set up a joint venture with a package delivery service and have a customer counter with that firm right there, beside you in the line after you’ve just gotten the bad news that it will cost you big bucks to send home your dirty laundry and that lovely bottle of Limoncello you just had to buy. Better yet, EasyJet could start their own package delivery service and charge half the rates of a competitor to get your overweight treasures home. Then they could get that extra revenue they would forgo by removing the customers’ pain.

3. I’ll add your ideas here as you send them to me in the comments.

Its all in the book cover

Seth Godin says in his advice for authors that the cover really matters. He has great advice even if you are not an author but a blog writer or marketer. Seth is a good rippler.

I now have artwork for Be the Ripple. (See below) Tell me which cover grabs your attention.  Would you pick it up if you saw it? Does the title entice you to read it? Why? Or Why not? I’m looking for constructive criticism here. Add your comments… after you register (sorry this is a hassle, but registration keeps spammers away)

Cover #1: Sand Waves

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Cover #2: Golden Waves

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Cover #3: Money on the Hook

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Cover #4: Leveraging Money

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Can’t decide? Need more information. Read the synopsis of the book here. synopsis.pdf Come back here after ward and give me your feedback. Thanks!