EclecticLip

(Written May 18.  Posted with minor adjustments June 17.)

The EPIC conference is coming up again — the consumer-oriented kin to the industry-oriented GLOBE conference, it tends to draw a more idealistic crowd.  (And not necessarily as knowledgeable one…)  None the less, when it comes to freebies, it’s a more interesting and rewarding than its businesslike cousin — I use a “shoofoo” bamboo hand towel freebie from Epic 2009, to wipe off my desk at work.

The hand towel is probably a representative microcosm of the stuff flogged at this show: bamboo grows with a virulent quickness, so is assumed to be a “green” material.  But most bamboo products come from China… which doesn’t tend to follow environmentally sound practises.  Analogously, a lot of IKEA wood comes from Russia — which is in the same boat.  (As a side-note, this doesn’t reflect on our formerly-Communist friends — every developed country went through a growth-at-all-cost phase; environmental regulation tends to appear once enough enough people achieve a certain level of material comfort, and presumably political influence.  And admittedly, by this standard Alberta isn’t a developed country yet.    )

Fortunately, Shoo-Foo has respectable third-party certification to ensure its bamboo is grown in an environmentally conscious manner. 

Tickets are $10.  Exhibitors of interest (to me at least) include:

• Metro Vancouver, who would’ve been the hosts of my now-abandoned team-building trip to the local landfill.  Funny how there was a lot more enthusiasm for visiting the local wind turbine.  
• Salt Spring Island Coffee, who reduced their carbon footprint substantially by shipping their beans on the California-to-Vancouver leg of their supply chain, instead of trucking them over, as they used to.*
• EasyPark Vancouver, who — as a parking lot operator — would be an ideal candidate for implementing horizontal geothermal heating-and-cooling for nearby buildings (which is what Wal-Mart is doing in one of their new stores, in Alberta no less, wouldntcha know)
• BCAA, who recently introduced bike-assistance services
• BC Sustainable Energy Association, whose founder’s recent book “101 Solutions to Global Warming” was, uh, “somewhat populated” with errors.  Still trying to figure out how to broach that subject politely… 
• Clif Bar, whose booth is always crowded with freebie-seekers 

…and many, many, many others from the “D-Z” portion of the alphabet.    

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* emissions (and costs) associated with overseas shipping are usually dwarfed by emissions (and costs) from local transport.  This makes sense, since a truck might hold 10 tonnes of goods, but a boat might hold 100,000 tonnes.  Even though the boats emit a lot more than the trucks (they use much dirtier fuels, for one) on a per-tonne basis, they cost and emit much less.  As such, arguments that high fuel prices will reduce globalized trade are likely to be incorrect.  (I’m looking at you, Jeff Rubin!    ) 

High fuel prices causing recessions and decreased demand for goods in general — *that* will more likely hit trade (and thus globalized trade) a lot more.