Potluck Café and Catering will be holding their annual fundraiser featuring Barney Bentall & the Grand Cariboo Opry at the venerable Vogue Theatre on December 11, 2010. For the past few years, Potluck and Barney have provided a toe-tapping good time for those in attendance. The show is comprised of humourous monologues and all sorts of amazing musical guests. This year’s performance promises to be better than ever!

Potluck is a social enterprise in the Downtown Eastside that runs a café and provides catering services, both of which serve hundreds of customers in the area. Potluck offers many great community programs to residents of the Downtown Eastside. They (rightfully) believe that no one should be deprived of quality, nutritious food and are committed to sharing this message.

BOB has maintained a good working relationship with Potluck for a number of years. We have partnered with them on numerous occasions, including collaborating with them for monthly SHINE dinners for clients, as well as employer breakfasts.

Barney and the band

BOB and Potluck also worked together to offer a Banquet Server Training Program last year. As a part of BOB’s Business Links program, clients were taught valuable skills in order to enter the workforce and were given the opportunity to interview with employers once they completed the training.

The night at the Vogue not only supports a fantastic cause, but is guaranteed to be a good time. Tickets can be purchased at: https://tickets.voguetheatre.com/Online/default.asp 

If you are not able to make it to the fundraiser and still want to support Potluck, visit their café at 30 W. Hastings from 8-4 Monday to Friday or donate here.

This image is from the Waterloo SPP

Social enterprise along with social purchasing directories, portals, green directories and other platforms represents  a new consumer psychology and a new way of socially responsible economic thinking. Products and services in these directories cost no more than their average competitor, in fact they are most often a more competitively and attractively priced option! But they have a distinct advantage in that they directly contribute to the economic, environmental and social health of our communities. New research has shown that consumers will even sacrifice luxury or performance in favor of the perceived social status of green products. While some might think this is somewhat shallow, it truly shows that the pendulum has swung in our time. Buying responsible, sustainable products is COOL! And pretty soon it will likely be beyond cool, as it becomes the status quo. To help us fully make this transition we have a growing number of  directories or portals offering us environmentally and socially minded options  Here are some examples:

Australian organization Social Traders is working with numerous partners for a directory of Australian social enterprise while in China a social purchasing directory created by the group Collective Responsibility, provides socially and environmentally responsible choices for citizens and companies there.  Some major cities with large urban economies to themselves have their own directories and portals like London, England’s SEL (Social Enterprise London). Several Canadian cities including Ottawa, Winnipeg and Kitchener-Waterloo also have active portals that they are building and improving upon as well.

In Vancouver, the Social Purchasing Directory hosted by Building Opportunities with Business is the most comprehensive and accessible directory of its kind in our city and possibly Canada. Other guides like Vancouver’s Green Zebra Guide and the Greater Vancouver Green Guide offer comprehensive lists of businesses, buildings, parks and even projects that are environmentally sustainable.

Vancouver inner-city business Eclipse Awards International and social enterprise Tradeworks Training Society, have strong sustainability and social objectives and make top quality products with reclaimed or FSC certified wood

As our urban economy continues to grow, BOB’s directory will be updated and managed to meet the needs of businesses and individual consumers looking for competitively and attractively priced goods and services from innovative,  socially and environmentally responsible companies or social enterprises.

More than ever people have realized that what we purchase has a powerful impact on the environment, on cultures, regions and on ourselves. The new research shows it now has a powerful effect on our identities now as well. I believe the rise of social purchasing directories social purchasing portals and of green directories and guides for those looking f or  sustainable products that benefit our communities demonstrates a real shift in consumer psychology. “We vote with our dollars” is a quote that sums it up nicely as the world we live in is shaped by the leadership we democratically choose and the producers of goods and services we support with our purchases.

Vancouver's Olympic Village is the world's most sustainable community and was built largely with goods procured from businesses on the Social Purchasing Directory hosted by Building Opportunities with Business

We also say what kind of people we are through these actions, and I would wager to say that most people enjoy being seen as good people who support good businesses and want a better world for themselves and for future generations. It took us a while to see the damage that our old products and systems created and some time for producers of better options to reach economies of scale, but now we have a huge selection of quality products and services- healthy and responsible options-at our fingertips.

So next time you’re looking for a socially responsible gift, a sustainably made product, or an environmentally friendly cleaner, look first to social purchasing and green directories available to you in your city.

-Wes-

Last night Brian Smith, Business and Social Enterprise Developer at Building Opportunities with Business was honored at the Business in Vancouver 40 under 40 awards reception held at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. I can imagine he’s already getting tired of being repeatedly congratulated and lauded for the recognition of his work in this city but from all of us at BOB, CONGRATULATIONS BRIAN!!

There were a few 40 under 40 winners who traditionally may not have been included in years past as it is an award given out via Business in Vancouver, to business people. I’m glad to see that the judges have now begun to recognize social entreprise, non-profits and even the medical profession in their body of candidates though. It made me think about how much our collective business culture and business philosophy has changed over the past 20 years alone. Brian has worked with a range of people in the DTES to create and manage what many believe is the best social purchasing directory in Canada. The directory is a comprehensive list of businesses in Vancouver’s downtown eastside and inner-city neighourhoods that offer socially responsible and environmentally sustainable goods and services. Many of these companies create jobs for local residents that may have been hard to employ. And he wasn’t the only winner last night who was doing something that was not only good for business but good for communities, the environment and those in need of help. To me it really seemed like what was once on the fringe of business culture had really become central to it.

If one tries to think objectively about the history of business and industry since the industrial revolution we have to remember that all these great challenges within economics, environment, society and culture are byproducts of an incredible and sudden explosion of productivity and change. To put it in perspective, it’s like a few hundred years ago we opened a pandoras box, and only 50 years ago did the revolution in chemistry offer us a chance to create plastics and other materials and with them the effluents, gasses and other byproducts that quickly accumulated. And while the environmental challenges mounted a host of socioeconomic challenges also grew in tandem with rising population and shrinking space and resources.   When considering the age of human civilization this literally happened in a blink of an eye. And all things considered, though we could’ve reacted faster, we’ve reacted pretty fast. 20 years ago was your office recycling or composting? did your building have a green roof? Was it LEED certified? Were green enrepreneurs being honored along with captains of technology and industry?

The fact that business leaders are also being recognized for being environmental leaders and socially responsible leaders is exciting. While some may say it’s just a fad and that when the chips are down we’ll do things cheap and dirty I firmly believe that we’re beginning to leave behind the days when all that mattered was the bottom line. Yes there still exists greed and excess, there are still the Gordon Geckos of the world, but if the recipients of the 2009 BIV 40 under 40 awards were any indication they’re becomming eclipsed by the new breed of socially and environmentally responsible business leaders like Brian. So once again congratulations to him and to all the winners of the 2009  BIV 40 under 40 awards.

Adam Smith would approve of this year's BIV 40 under 40

The Flack Block. Photo: Steven Ballegeer

In today’s post I interview Boris Mann of Bootup Labs. Housing several tech startups,  Bootup is an accelerator designed to help founders build their companies and products and take them to their first round of funding. They offer direct mentorship and support over an 8 month period directly helping creative ideas and fledgling companies take form.  Having relocated to the increasingly attractive Flack Block on Hastings, Bootup is a growing company themselves and could have relocated anywhere in the city but they chose Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Boris gives us some good reasons why.

BOBBlog: Your company is doing well, you’re growing, you could have chosen to relocate to Yaletown or another part of the city but you stayed in the DTES. What were some of the benefits of locating your offices in this part of the city?

B Mann: The vibe of the area was one of the biggest factors. Food, drink, art, diversity. The opening of the new W2. Cost was definitely a factor, as was the type of building / space we wanted. Part of Bootup Labs is to build a great atmosphere for culture to flourish in. Culture has trouble doing that in big corporate office spaces. We wanted bricks, open spaces, and quirky features like the old safe in my office.

Honestly, I just can’t see locating a web business anywhere else in the city. The concentration of companies in the area doing great things – Nitobi, Mozilla Messaging, and Joyent to name a few – just isn’t happening anywhere else in the city. And I didn’t even start mentioning the service oriented businesses like Work At Play, Giant Ant Media, and so on.

BOBBlog: Having been operating in the DTES for nearly half a decade have you seen improvements? What are some of the most noticeable changes in your opinion?

B Mann: Street traffic is now much more than just tourists along Water Street. There are lots of “locals” that live, work, and play in the area. No one has Yaletown envy any more (maybe the reverse is even true?)

BOBBlog: Favorite pub- favorite quick lunch bite- favorite coffee shop?

B Mann: This is hard, because there are many pub/lunch/coffee places that are springing up and doing excellent, new, innovative food and drink in our little corner of the city. The rate at which places are opening AND instantly excelling is dizzying. I’ll focus on food places for now.

Currently, I believe the Revel Room actually is serving the best burger in the entire city (with apologies to Moderne Burger). They are made from Pemberton Meadows natural beef and served pink. I also love the lunch at 2 Chefs and a Table. Oh wait – and La Taqueria is serving the best San Fran-style Mexican tacos in the city.

BOBBlog: Do you feel that this neighbourhood has the potential to be recognized as an area with a high tech/software and creative cluster?

BOBBlog: The neighbourhood won’t be recognized outside of Vancouver. Vancouver itself must grow up and be recognized as a whole. We *need* to point to universities westwards (UBC) and eastwards (SFU Burnaby Mountain), the Microsoft Dev Center in Richmond, the EA buildings in Burnaby, and so on. Once inside the city, early startups will gravitate towards the DTES as bar/coffee/tech culture grows.

We need more common gathering spaces. We need less expensive live/work spaces. We need coffee shops and other stores that stay open late / 24 hours. We need lots of wifi. We need more commercial ventures that aren’t high end fashion or tourist knick knack stores. We need to commit to building a cluster in the area that supports the “top of the funnel” of people starting ideas and companies in coffee shops, moving into their first shared space, their first private office space, and growing from there. Part of that growth will include moving to commercial office space

BOBBlog: From a business owners point of view what is the greatest challenge to this area of the city and what do you feel is the most important next step in improving the DTES?

B Mann: We can’t let the area gentrify too quickly. I see signs of this already. And perhaps by that phrase I mean “rents go up and everything gets gold plated so that beginning businesses start elsewhere”. Look at an area like The Mission in San Francisco – it has a certain edge to it, and that’s part of the reason that it retains its vibrancy: art, tech, food, residential and so on. I think diversity and co-existence are key – of both types of people and businesses.

BOB welcomes Bootup’s decision to stay in the DTES and wish them continued success. For more information on the vast array of services and products helping to make Vancouver’s historic inner-city a great place for businesses visit BOB’s Social Purchasing Directory.

For more information on Bootup.

For more information on BOB.