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.