Posted by Dario Meli

* This blog post is part of Invoke’s participation in the 2008 Vancouver Blogathon for Charity

Invoke has always been a place for people, both staff and clients, who are of the mind that doing good leads to doing well. In fact the company was founded on this principal. In order to take this to the next level and advance thought, ideals, values, and mindset to the point of ensuring action is taken on an ongoing basis, Invoke is setting up a Green Team.

While the name is somewhat corny, the team will be responsible for researching new, better and more radical initiatives to reduce our impact. We are taking a very fun approach to this in order to get everybody involved and to show how easy it is to make small changes in the office and at home.

I will be chairing the team and from our presentations you can expect to see a white-paper outlining what we’ve done, what we decided not to do, and ultimately the measured effects it has had on a number of criteria.

Stay tuned!

Posted by Chris Gravel

For most of us learning to ride a bike was right of passage as a kid. Magically one day you can balance on two wheels. Immediately you are overwhelmed with a sense of freedom that you can go faster and further than ever before. For me this magic never really went away except for a short period when I started to drive a car; for most people that’s about where their love affair with cycling ends. I suppose mine could have as well if it were not for moving out of town to go to university. Because of this, I no longer had regular access to a car. I soon realized that I could get around town and campus much faster and easier by bike anyways. I immediately dipped into my savings and bought a decent bike. When I did borrow a car, I was late for class more – looking for parking, received parking tickets, and had less spending money as gas was using up a good chunk of it.

It wasn’t long before I was working full time and had a 30km commute to work each way. I, like most people hopped in my car and drove 2hrs a day back and forth to work. For the first three months before I moved closer to work I was just about losing my mind by the time I got out of my car, so frustrated with traffic, the stress of driving and the feeling of being trapped in this metal box. What did I do to unwind after the stress of the commute – grab my bike and hit the trails. I would pedal uphill for 40 minutes and then skip and surf downhill, riding an adrenaline wave. I would return home relaxed, positive, and able to deal with another day at work and the commute.

Once I moved closer to work it wasn’t too long before I started riding my bike on nice days for fun and exercise. 1 or 2 days a week turned into 3-4 and sometimes 5. I was getting in better shape, happier, and more productive at work and saving $30 a week or more in gas. Once my son was born I knew my wife would need the car more than I did and frankly for anyone with a family, leaving a car sitting in a parking lot for 8 -10hrs and paying for parking is such a waste. I was now a full time cycle commuter and didn’t even give buying a second car more than a second thought.

It’s been about seven years of cycle commuting for me now and I have not regretted it. My in-laws and friends kept trying to get me to buy a second car or tell me how I was risking my life. I have been called crazy, a bike nut, obsessed. There has also been a lot of really positive comments but admittedly until this recent gas price hike it has been a bit of an uphill battle and this is in what most Canadians would say is our most bike friendly big city.

So what can I offer besides this story of cycling persistence? Well perhaps a few key tips on how to make this transition easier and some observations about modern life that we take for granted.

Learning to Drive

Remember how intimidated you were! It’s scary as hell until you get used to it. The dangers are still real, but you have gained experience making it safer, becoming numb to the risks involved and driving is socially acceptable. By this logic cycling is no different except that it is not as socially acceptable. It will take you some time to get used to it and in most cases the risks are lower and your health improves from increased fitness.? It doesn’t matter what you drive, it doesn’t do anything positive for your health. So if your scared, take a bike handling and safety course. Start easy on paths and the seawall and build that confidence.

Route planning makes all the difference

I cringe every time I see some one riding down Oak street at rush hour on a bike when their is a bike route 2 blocks away. Find a route that works for you that lowers your risk, reduces stress and traffic. Bike route maps are readily available at bike shops and online. Ask other cyclists or bike shop staff to help you plan your route. There is even a new online tool to help you do this! You can even search for the greenest routes with the least traffic.

Get the equipment you need to be comfortable and safe

Clothing – In Vancouver it’s rain gear. Get yourself waterproof breathable pants, a jacket, and shoe covers. If you get to arrive to work with dry feet and clothes, you wont begrudge the ride in or better yet the ride home.

Bike set up – fenders, gears, and decent brakes. An upright heads-up position is best for comfort and visibility or if you are wearing a pack. If you carry a load every day, get a pannier it will carry what you need and keep it dry without putting stress on you back.

Bike choice – There are more choices now than ever making it easy to get exactly what your looking for.? It’s more personalized than car shopping these days and they all get amazing mileage. If you are going far or uphill, speed and bike weight will matter more. If you are abandoning you car or want versatility to lock it up; get a good lock, buy something conservative, and insure it.

Going Green? Biking is more green than any hybrid car choice

Switching from driving a car to riding a bike is, by most accounts, the single most significant eco friendly decision you can make. Feel good about riding a bike, you are helping save the planet and yourself from climate change and harmful emissions. This year alone, I will have reduced my CO2 emissions by 1600 KG. That is the weight of your car or a million liters of CO2!

Do it for the Money

Who cant use more money? Every one of us has some level stress related to money and not having it to do the things they want. We spend countless hours thinking of how to make more, where to invest, and best places to shop. Look at those numbers or run your own. You will be shocked at what your car costs you.

Some conservative yearly estimates
Car? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Bike
Annual payments? ? $3600? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? $300
Insurance? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? $1800? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? $75
Gas? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? $3000? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? $N/A
Maintenance? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? $400? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? $100
Clothing? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? $N/A? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? $125
Gym? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? $300? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? $N/A
Sub total? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? $9,100? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? $600

$8,500 more per year in your pocket to spend on whatever you want. Even if you had to rent a car a few weeks a year you would still have thousand left over.

Common misconceptions?

My commute is to long

If your commute is greater than you can ride a bike – work up to it or move. Most Canadians have made poor choices on where they live at the expense of owning a home. Few of us realize that that commuting time, energy wasted, expense, and emissions are reducing their quality of life more than the gain of having that bigger place in the burbs.

You have to be young and fit

Not true. Cycling may help keep you young and fit, but you can start cycling at just about any age. I see lots of 50 and 60+ yr old cyclists and cycle commuters.

Is Cycling the answer NO, but it does beg some good questions about the common lifestyle choices that we make and it is a great way to see the world around us, reduce carbon emissions, and save money. You might just find yourself smiling as you pedal and engage in conversation with other riders or simply saying hello. When was the last time you did something like that driving a car?

Posted by Zuri Scrivens

* This blog post is part of Invoke’s participation in the 2008 Vancouver Blogathon for Charity

I love my job, I really do. In fact, I think I’m one of the alleged 47% of people in Canada (according to Maclean’s Magazine) who actually enjoy going to work every day; and no, I’m not self-employed. I commute by bike or bus, 40 minutes to an hour every day to an office where I am challenged and allowed to be creative on a regular basis. Most importantly though, I love the people I work with. Frankly, there must at least be a modicum of love there for me to whip up a batch of Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies in order to pacify a certain colleague’s current bacon obsession!

We are an eclectic, professional, yet laid-back group of twenty to thirty somethings with a weakness for dogs of all sizes (at any one time there may be up to four such similarly eclectic hounds under foot and desktop). To top it off, we are green-savvy and earth-lovin’ to the extreme… well, that is, when we choose to be.

The entrance to our office has pleasantly been converted into a makeshift bicycle and scooter lot, while we pride ourselves on indulging in healthy(ish) and organic food choices. Unfortunately, it is here that we fall short. Not so much in the food we eat, but more so in the way we treat the containers that remain once the food is eaten, or even worse, forgotten!

It wasn’t until today that I realized just how wasteful we can be. Today, for whatever reason, I chose to clean out our communal fridge. I expected that there would be a few things to throw out here and there, but imagine my surprise when I filled a medium sized moving box with the remains of our lost lunches hidden away in recyclables! Once the fridge had been tackled and I had this lovely box of rotting food in front of me, I was admittedly quite torn, with a burning question looming in my head: “Do I empty and rinse out every single glass and plastic container for recycling purposes, or do I just drag the whole kitten-kaboodle out to the garbage bin and be done with it??” For 5 minutes, I stood back helplessly as Hypocritically Green and Green-Savvy argued over this final dilemma.

Hypocritically Green, a perpetual sloth, frequently makes claims of doing her part for the Earth in order to appease the ever-judgmental environmentalists. She would rather spend her $100 Climate Action Dividend on new shoes and dinner with her husband, and of course has no desire to bother cleaning out other people’s leftovers. It’s Hypocritically Green who will occasionally drive into work when she can’t quite get into work on time (insert hanging head here).

Green-Savvy on the other hand has a devout love for the Earth, akin to that which a child has for her mother. Her love is such that guilt hits her powerfully if she even considers doing something that “mother” might not like (such as dumping out a box-full of bad plastics). Green-Savvy aspires to be a composting, home gardening, energy-saving hippie who would rather walk 2 hours to her destination than drive the 20 minutes that it would take otherwise.

In the end, Green-Savvy won out (Hypocritically Green was just too lazy to further any arguments she might have), and so I completed the task of cleaning out every last container (even the tiny one-inch creamers). Some might call me insane for bothering with this (in fact, “crazy” was the less grievous form of the word used on me today). Sadly, others wouldn’t have thought twice about dumping the whole lot. This shocking realization is what prompted me to write this post. Yet, as much as I abhor her and find it impossible to revert to Hypocritically Green’s slack “efforts” at environmentalism entirely, I am still unable to get ride of the old bag! What is worse, is that our office as a whole seems to have an ever present case of green hypocrisy. How is that we can make the effort to get off our lazy butts and bike, walk, run, even roller-skate into work day in and day out, yet we can’t even take the time to eat the food we bring and reuse or recycle the containers that house it all?? Shame on us.

One might ask why I would blog about such a thing and not just approach my work colleagues about my discontent, seeing if together we can motivate ourselves to do better. However, I figure that if we, a group of organic-munching, two-wheel-obsessive Earth babies are floundering in the waste-not-want-not department, isn’t it likely that thousands of offices within our city’s reach are doing so as well? So, if that is the case, why not get the word out there? It’s time for us all to stand up to Hypocritically Green, boot her to the curb and give Green-Savvy free reign to do her thing and keep “mother’s” house in order.

Posted by Jenn Lowther

Last night Dario, Nadia and I went to Net Tuesdays: An Evening of Green Web 2.0. This is the second event hosted by NetSquared. The gathering was located in WorkSpace who donated the space to us for the evening. There was a great spread put out for us to snack on, provided by WriteImage – in keeping with the evenings green theme, all of the plates and cutlery were made of recycled and food materials that are totally biodegradable. Once we’d chatted and filled ourselves with tasty treats, we all sat down and got ready for the evenings talks. We sat with our good friend Dustin Sacks from Silly Soft.

The first speaker was an extra surprise arranged for us – Owen from the Small Energy Group. He gave us a quick overview of Earth Hour (check out their FaceBook group its got over 725,000 registered members to date) which is hosted by the World Wildlife Fund. Owen detailed how they are working on quantifying the impact of Earth Hour so that people can gauge how their consumption habits affect the environment. I think this is a great initiative to show how people can work collectively to make a difference. The key to this initiative however, is going to be getting people to translate this small effort into their everyday lives.

Next up was Ron Williams from Happy Frog. Happy Frog is a locally based sustainability directory to help make it easier for consumers to make green choices in their everyday life. The site has been live for about 5 months now and has had an awesome response. The information on the site is generated through user generated content ie/ people and businesses can submit products and services to the site and users are also able to find, rate, and review companies within the directory. This service will help us all in making environmentally friendly choices.

Following Ron, was Rex Turgano from the Green Pages. He went to university with Dustin Sacks who was sitting next to me, so I got to hear a bit of the back story. He went through the evolution of his website and all of the different technologies that he’s used over the years. His site has been live for over 10 years now, so it was a great trip down memory lane. The Green Pages is a website dedicated to sharing stories and events related to the environment.

The final speaker of the evening was Darren Barefoot. It was really great to meet him finally IRL, as we’ve only ever communicated online. He reviewed the various social media marketing tools that he’s utilized to promote DeSmogBlog, a site dedicated to “clear the PR pollution that is clouding the science on climate change”. Darren decided to go low tech with his presentation and taped a laminated tag cloud to the back of a chair. Some of the campaigns that he’s implemented for DeSmogBlog are digg, widgets, blogger outreach, YouTube, social networking sites, and a flash game. He’s found that green companies are targeting a younger demographic and seem to be more open to trying out innovative new social media campaigns. He also mentioned the first video contest that memelabs held – windblows.us.

To finish off the evening, Dario, Dustin, and I decided to go for a cocktail and appy. We walked down the street and hit The Black Frog. Bad call. The service was horrible and the food was close to inedible - I’d highly recommend avoiding it next time you’re in Gastown. But the company was great and we had a great chat about the new SDK that Apple has released and the various implications that this has in the development world. This was a great night and I’m looking forward to the next NetTuesday event, well done Joe.