No More Bottled Water in T.O.; Pay 5 Cents for a Bag

While this is a technology blog by definition, I couldn't help but discuss the City Council's recent decisions to ban bottled water in Toronto, and to charge grocery shoppers $0.05 for plastic shopping bags. Are these good steps toward a better, more environmentally-friendly society?

Let's look at the water issue first. Before you bottled water-aholics go nuts, you will still be able to buy bottled water by the case or individually at grocery stores and some other locations. Where you won't be able to purchase it is in city facilities. This mean concession stands, vending machines, school cafeterias, subway shops, convention centres, etc.: essentially any spot owned by the city. It'll take 3 years for the ban to come into full effect as the city works to ensure that tap water is available wherever the ability to buy bottled water is removed.

"Bottled water's 15-minutes are up," says Joe Cressy, Campaigns Co-ordinator for the Polaris Institute. "The marketing scam is out of the closet, and it's time to go back to the tap."

I'll be the first to admit that I buy bottled water all the time. Will taking it out of city facilities help, though? People that go to the gym need something to hold their water; but they could just re-use their own bottle, filled up with tap water. True, a group gathering for a sales meeting in a convention centre don't want to raise their hands and head out to take a drink from the fountain whenever they're thirsty either. But why not have a jug of tap water and glasses/cups available to attendees? Ironically enough, a Toronto Star report cites one Councilor as stating that a water ban in theatres like the Sony Centre could force workers to give away water in plastic cups. How is that helping the environment if we're still using plastic?

(As an aside, if you're a fan of the flavoured bottle water concoctions like I am, these are not included with the ban. "Toronto City Staff defined bottled water as water that is bottled and re-sold without added flavouring," Cressy tells me. "Though," he adds, "we are continuing to liaise with the city to strengthen this definition to include flavoured water."

Now, what about the bags? Grocery stores like Price Chopper have been charging a nickel per bag for some time now. But we'll see this in every store starting June 1, 2009. Is this fair? The city calls plastic bags "throwaway" items. I don't know about you, but I often save the bags and re-use them for other purposes: transporting stuff from one place to another, accumulating garbage if I've run out of dedicated garbage bags, etc. If I use one to bring something to work, for instance, I'll often stuff the bag into a drawer in our office kitchen where someone else might pick it up one day and use it once again for another purpose. I don't see plastic bags as throwaway at all! In fact, I probably use them more than I'd use a cloth bag! So why am I paying for the supposed actions of others?

On the other side of the fence, though, an extra 50-cents per shopping trip (assuming you'd use about 10 bags) isn't a major concern. And if it will help the environment in any way, so be it. The LCBO has already gotten rid of all plastic bags, only offering free paper bags, or cloth bags for $0.05 each. It's inconvenient when I have to lug a couple bottles of wine held to my chest instead of hanging from my fingers in plastic. But in the grand scheme of things, it's not a huge deal.

BUT: the main concern is where will that money go?

The Green Theme: Are Customers Buying It?

Everyone and their grandmother is focused on the "green" environmentally-friendly theme these days, but are customers actually buying into it, both literally and figuratively? A study conducted by Gandalf Group (on behalf of ad agency Bensimon Byrnes) set out to find out, and the results might surprise you.

While many Canadians consider themselves environmentally-conscious, or at least concerned about our environmental impact, few are willing to pay more for a product that's labeled as such. Why? Some feel they're getting "hosed" since the products tend to be more expensive, while consumers don't believe that they actually cost any more to produce. Others say they are simply not financially able to support these sometimes more costly initiatives.

So what can manufacturers do to help convince customers that an environmentally-friendly label really means what it says, and that their commitment to helping the planet is sincere rather than just a marketing ploy? There are a number of things.

First, the study found that consumers might be more willing to buy a green product if there was a government-enforced standard for products, along with detailed labels that explain terms like "green", "organic", and "low emissions". If you can avoid using the word "green" altogether, that might also help. Sixty-five per cent of those surveyed said that the term has been used so much, it doesn't have as much impact on them anymore.

Women are the most likely seekers of environmentally-friendly products, so tailoring marketing and packaging toward this gender might help build sales. Gandalf Group discovered that 88% of women are more likely to consider environmental impact when making a purchase versus just 71% of men.

If you're looking to take the leap into the green theme but aren't sure where on the development scale you should put your money, consider that Canadians are really keen on recycling because it's seen as credible, and doesn't require a whole lot of additional effort on their part. Surprisingly, focuses on energy efficiency aren't as successful as we might hope: while 93% of consumers surveyed said they believe purchasing energy-efficient appliances would benefit the environment, only 38% are willing to fork over the extra dough to buy them.

A small, but significant, move a manufacturer could take is to reduce the amount of packaging used (why use a huge, plastic cartridge for a miniscule product?), and utilize renewable energy sources for production, like solar and wind. There's a simple way for retailers to help reduce their carbon footprint: turn down the lights, and turn down the heat/AC. While a nice blast of cold air on a hot summer day is welcome, I don't want to have to bring my jacket into a store so I don't freeze!

As for consumers, it's important to note that many environmentally-friendly claims are backed by stringent requirements. For example, any product labeled as Energy Star-certified must meet certain criteria set by Natural Resources Canada. The RoHS-compliance logo confirms that a product has not been manufactured using certain hazardous substances.

The bottom line is that if you're ever skeptical about the truth behing a "green" claim, research it before you buy. In many cases, the manufacturer is involved in a much larger scope environmental initiative that will be easy to substantiate.