When we first received an email from Chad Pescod, owner of Enviroresponsible Inc, I was a tad skeptical to be totally honest. We get a lot of e-mails requesting links or suggesting we write an article about this and that (and the other thing), so I figured his email was no different.
My skepticism probably tripled when I tried to access Chad’s site and I found it completely inaccessible – all I saw was a message from the hosting company saying “account suspended”. If I had been in a bad mood, I might have simply left it at that and not bothered to reply to Chad’s email at all, but I at least wanted him to know that I had made an effort. I’m glad I did! Once his website (and presumably email) issues were resolved, he got back in touch to let us know – and of course the rest is history.
I definitely have a soft spot for green entrepreneurs, especially when they are fellow Canadians (and ok, perhaps I’m even more biased towards those located in Ontario – haha), so Chad lucked out across the board. Once I saw that he owned a small green business in Whitby (just outside of Toronto) I definitely wanted to learn more – and of course that has led to writing this post on the blog!
Enviroresponsible is in the business of selling used building supplies, salvaged architectural materials and rain barrels (made from previously-used food-grade barrels). Aside from offering quality recycled goods, the company is providing a valuable service – acting as a community used-goods drop off facility, thus helping to prevent a lot of material from ending up in the landfill.
This is certainly not the first business of its kind to spring up in Ontario, but I suspect that with Chad’s energy and enthusiasm he’ll have no trouble setting himself apart from the rest. Aside from that, there really should be businesses like this in EVERY community (apparently Enviroresponsible is the first of its kind in Durham Region). Just take a look around on garbage day or drive down to your local dump drop-off area and you’ll see exactly how much usable stuff gets chucked in the landfill every week.
Online services like FreeCycle and Gigoit are certainly useful in their own right, but not everyone wants to deal with the hassles of posting listings and dealing with other people etc.
Anyway, we definitely wish Chad the best of luck with his endeavour, and look forward to seeing how Enviroresponsible develops in coming months and years.
Technorati Tags: used goods, recycling, used building supplies, salvaged goods, freecycle, gigoit, enviroresponsible, whitby, toronto, ontario, green business, eco entrepreneurs, durham region
Written by Bentley on January 18th, 2008 with no comments.
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I just caught a post on the AIDG blog (from yesterday) re: Google.org’s recently released philanthropic plans for the next 5-10 years. People love to slam Google more and more as they (big “G”) continue to spread their influence FAR beyond the cool search engine that started it all. In a sense I can understand people being wary (what is that saying about “absolute power?”).
Nevertheless, I’ve been pretty impressed with their apparent desire to make the world a better place (as they rapidly take it over – haha!). This new plan is certainly no exception.
Here is the first chunk of the press release on the Google.org site:
In its continuing effort to use the power of information and technology to help people better their lives, Google.org today rolled out five core initiatives that will be the focus of its philanthropic efforts over the next five to ten years. Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), will collaborate with experienced partners working in each of these fields, investing its resources and tapping the strengths of Google’s employees and global operations to advance its core initiatives.
Today’s announcement includes more than $25 million in new grants and investments to initial partners. The resources come from a commitment by Google’s founders to devote approximately 1 percent of the company’s equity plus 1 percent of annual profits to philanthropy, as well as employee time.
“In their first Letter from the Founders (2004), Larry Page and Sergey Brin said that we wanted to ‘make Google an institution that makes the world a better place.’ The work of Google.org will help us do that by applying Google’s strengths in organizing information and scaling technology to these complex issues,” said Sheryl Sandberg, VP Global Online Sales & Operations, and Google.org Board member.
Added Dr. Larry Brilliant, executive director of Google.org, “These five initiatives are our attempt to address some of the hard problems we as a world need to face in the coming decade. We have chosen them both because we think solving them will make a better, fairer, safer world for our children and grandchildren – and the children and grandchildren of people all over the world – but also because we feel that these core initiatives fit well with Google’s core strengths, especially its innovative technologies and its talented engineers and other Googlers, who are really our most valuable assets.”
Be sure to check out the full press release for all the details:
Google.org Announces Core Initiatives to Combat Climate Change, Poverty and Emerging Threats
Technorati Tags: google, clean energy, solar power, green initiatives, natural disasters, poverty, hybrid vehicles, plug-in vehicles, green energy
Written by Bentley on January 18th, 2008 with 1 comment.
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