Photo Credit: Jason Vanderhill (jmv on Flickr)

Leading up to the Carrotmob we got some great coverage from The Courier, CTV, CBC Radio, the Epoch Times, and some awesome local blogs including Granville Online, East of Main, and Darren Barefoot. Two of our lovely sponsors, Kiwano Marketing and TheChange poured their hearts into getting the Carrotmob word out through their blogs and tweets. Of course, we can’t forget all our Facebook Group members who came out to join in the fun!

THANK-YOU VANCOUVER!!

The Carrotmob was a success and an awesome start for Vancouver! We hope to get together soon to plan the next Carrotmob – bigger and better! If you didn’t get a chance to sign up as a volunteer on Sunday, email us at carrotmob.bc [at] gmail [dot] com.

You want to know the results of Vancouver’s first Carrotmob? Drum roll please…..

Photo Credit: Jason Vanderhill (jmv on Flickr)

TOTAL REVENUE = $1632.78 + 10% = $1796.06

110% of May 16th revenue generated $1796.06 to be spent on energy efficiency improvements!
FREAKIN’ AWESOME GUYS!

That’s just over 60% increase in revenues from an average Sunday.

What’s the cash going to be spent on?

The first priority for Salt Spring Coffee is their lighting.

“This location has been here for quite a while,” said Ronda Simpson, the sustainability coordinator for Salt Spring Coffee. “We have three different types of lighting and they’re all from different eras, and they’re highly inefficient.”… read more.

Ronda is busy looking at quotes for different lighting upgrades and improvements, and we’re going to check back in with her to lend a hand where we can in determining which quote will lead to the best energy efficiency improvements. Likely, Salt Spring Coffee will roll out the upgrade/retrofits in two phases – the first to start in June, and cover the low hanging fruit like putting in motion sensors and replacing light bulbs in fixtures that are in good working order. Phase 2 will work on the larger units like the track lighting.

Any cash left over will be put into further energy efficiency improvements at the Main Street coffee shop – think along the lines of replacing old seals on refrigeration units.

What will the impact be?

Good question! After all, we did drink all that coffee to “Save the Planet!” We’ll be working with Small Feet Inc to make sure that we get an accurate idea of what the carbon emissions savings will be from all the upgrades and retrofits that Salt Spring Coffee undertakes. As soon as we know – you’ll know!

Photo Credit: Charles Tremewen

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If you came out on Sunday and had an awesome time, tell your friends about it and get them to sign up for our newsletter here on the blog, join our Facebook Group, or follow us on Twitter.

Did you read the article about us in the Vancouver Courier today? Jeremy Shepard wrote a great article about our group and what we’ve been up to, including an interview with Carrotmob Vancouver founder, Omar Mutashar.

“Omar Mutashar, the founder of the Vancouver branch of Carrotmob, hopes the first swarming of a local store May 16 will attract at least 200 extra customers to Salt Spring Coffee on Main Street. The Carrotmobbers plan to patronize the store near Main and 27th Avenue between 11 a.m. to 2 p.m”….read more.

Omar also made it clear that this may be the first Vancouver Carrotmob, but it won’t be the last! Judging by the response that we have received from community members and other green-minded businesses and organizations, there is a lot of support for this event and the support it brings to both Salt Spring Coffee and the community.

Speaking of supportive eco-minded businesses! We’ve got an AMAZING line-up of PRIZES that we will be giving out as door prizes at the Carrotmob. Everyone that shows up to participate in the Carrotmob between 11:00am – 2:00pm will get to enter their name in a draw for some great prizes! Here’s some of what we’ve got for you:

Designer Reusable Bags from Lavish&Lime

Envirosax designer reusable bags from Lavish&Lime - selling eco-friendly, natural/non-toxic, and Canadian made products!

3 Pairs of Tickets to EPIC !

The Vancouver Sun Sustainable Living Expo is Western Canada's largest sustainable consumer tradeshow and eco-marketplace!

Eco-homewares from Dream Designs

Hemp napkin & placemat set, organic flxseed eye pillows, and lavender dryer bags to add some eco-luxury to your life.

That’s just a sneak peak of some of the awesome prizes that we have lined up for you!

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The Carrotmob is just eleven days away! How exciting! We need your help:

1) Email, tweet, and Facebook message, phone, or even TALK to your friends to invite them to the Carrotmob at Salt Spring Coffee on Sunday, May 16th!

2) If you haven’t already, join the Facebook Group and RSVP to our event!

3) Get ready – make signs, and carrot costumes! We’ll be posting an event to do this as a group on our Facebook group soon.

4) Are you a musician, juggler, fire dancer, or other sort of amazing entertainer? Want to show off your skills at the Carrotmob?! We’d love to hear from you and get you to join our awesome line up of live entertainment between 11:00am – 2:00pm on May 16th! Contact us at carrotmob.bc [at] gmail.com

Dareen Barefoot is a local writer and more, who I’ve met a few times at social media events like Net Tuesday. He’s very knowledgeable and great to talk to, so I was stoked to see that he is planning to pop in on the Carrotmob on May 16th.

“I’ll definitely drop by and buy something. It’s interesting that the organizers chose Salt Spring Coffee as their vendor for this Carrotmob, the first one in Vancouver. I think of Salt Spring Coffee as a pretty progressive organization already (after all, their paper cup laid a guilt trip on me last winter). I’m sure they could be more environmentally responsible, but I expect that they’re probably ahead of the curve.

The point, as I understand it, is to highlight to Salt Spring Coffee’s competition that consumers care about the environmental footprint of the products and service they use. So that maybe next year we’ll have a Carrotmob at a local Starbucks instead?” … read more.

Darren brings up a good point, and one that has been echoed on the Carrotmob Vancouver Facebook Group. Generally, we choose to focus our energy on independent stores because it’s easier to get them on board and we can avoid the bureaucracy of larger organizations. However, we can make a bigger impact if we work with larger organizations, right? Maybe and maybe not! In terms of scale – yes. When you look at the energy that the small business owners put into the Carrotmob and get recieve from participating in the event and meeting the people that show up, there is a profound shift that happens. They may have gotten involved because they saw the dollar signs flashing, but they follow through with their commitments because of the conversations they had with Joe and Jane, and the energy they gained from being part of the event. It’s that experience that has the potential to drive further and deeper change in a small business’ operations. I’m not sure if that could make it up to the executive or leadership level in a large organization, and how much could each individual store do if it didn’t.

The point in working with Salt Spring Coffee on this Carrotmob is simple – the people voted, and Salt Spring Coffee won. They made a big commitment (110%), and had a clear plan – improve energy efficiency. Perhaps people recognized that although Salt Spring Coffee has done amazing things in terms of the environmental and social impact of the coffee they serve, that the “footprint” of their physical locations also needed to be addressed.

Should we try to work with Starbucks next? Would it be a regional event – all Starbucks stores in Vancouver to be mobbed on one day?

Also, what is the most fair way to choose which businesses are involved in the Carrotmob? Does the voting process actually add value to deciding the winner, or should the biggest % revenue committed win no matter what they plan to use the cash for?

Interesting questions!

Tah Dah! The date is set, so mark your calendars.

SUNDAY MAY 16TH

Carrotmob will descend on Salt Spring Coffee at 4295 Main Street.

Get your costumes ready, and tell your friends. It’s going to be a great event with live entertainment, great coffee, and a whopping 110% of the revenues from the day going directly to improving the energy efficiency of the shop!

Join our Facebook Group or sign up for the newsletter on this web site. If you really want to get updates as it happens – follow us on Twitter @CarrotmobBC.

It’s been a whirlwind week of voting! A big thank-you to all the coffee shops that participated in this Carrotmob! The bids on the table were excellent, and I hope that each of the coffee shops finds new ways to engage and inspire their customers to support their sustainability initiatives. It would be great to see each of the ideas presented in the video interviews happen!

Thank-you Voters! It was tough choice between so many excellent ideas and bids, so we appreciate the time you took to share your opinion.

The Vancouver Carrotmob Winner is…..

Salt Spring Coffee

For the curious at heart, the votes were distributed check out the Small Feet Inc blog – click here.

Stay tuned because we will be releasing the details on WHEN the Carrotmob will be held soon! In the meantime, tell your friends about Vancouver Carrotmob, and get them to join the Facebook group!

The ol’ Carrotmob slogan to applies now more then ever, and in our case it is:

Drink Coffee. Save the Planet.

We’ve got bids in from five fantastic coffee shops in the Main Street area. Now we need your help to figure out which one should “win” the Carrotmob. The polls are now open, and they’re being hosted on the Small Feet Inc blog. Polls close on Friday April 16th! Tell your family, friends, co-workers, team-mates, and the next random to wink at you on the bus!

CLICK HERE TO VOTE!

Take a look at these awesome video clips from each coffee shop – the owners or managers took some time out to tell us a little bit more about what each of their shops is already doing to reduce their environmental impact, and what they want to do if they win the Carrotmob. Take a gander, and then vote for the shop that stands out to you!

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEOS!

Don’t forget to join our Facebook group and follow us on Twitter to get all the latest Carrotmob Vancouver news!

It’s official – Carrotmob Vancouver has begun, and we’re kicking off with style! All of our bids are in, and the coffee shops on Main Street have delivered!

Java-Licious started off the Carrotmob with the first bid at a generous 80%, and then re-bid at 100%.

Salt Spring Coffee was next to jump on board, and bump the competition up to 100%. They also re-bid to 110%, following Re-Entry Espresso’s lead!

Re-Entry Espresso took the Carrotmob to new heights with an initial bid of 110%.

Waves Coffee joined shortly after with 90% of revenues committed for the Carromtob.

Last but not least Gene Cafe joined the Carrotmob with a 100% bid.

We’re going to spend the next couple of days doing video interviews with each of the coffee shop owners. Once those are posted, it will be your turn to VOTE for who you think should win the Carrotmob!

BIDDING ENDS FRIDAY APRIL 2nd

It’s been a busy couple of weeks! Whew! The response at coffee shops along Main Street to participate in the Carrotmob has been really positive. I’ll admit I was a little tiny bit worried after our first round of visits, but things quickly turned around and it’s been great to talk to all these small business owners about how they want to make a positive impact.

One thing that I’ve noticed, but had not expected to see is how “green” most of these independent small coffee shops already are. From organic coffee to heat exchangers, there has already been a lot of thought put into reducing their impact and being environmentally friendly. That said, there is also still a lot that can be done to go even further! This is where it gets exciting for us Carrotmobbers.

Waste reduction is an obvious one. Although some of us may bring a reusable mug, there are a lot of un-recycled and un-composted cups hitting the trash cans. I think you’ll all enjoy some of the ideas that these Main Street coffee shop owners have, and what their bids are.

Speaking of bids – tomorrow is the last day of bidding! I can’t believe how quickly it’s come upon us!  We’re waiting to hear back from four very interested coffee shops, and those bids will be added to the two that we’ve already received. Java-licious was the first on board with an 80% bid, and Salt Spring Coffee joined quickly after that with 100% of revenues committed to reducing their environmental impact. The rest of the bids, and what the businesses actually want to do with the Carrotmob money (the most important part) will be revealed on Monday. Next week we’ll be releasing video interviews with each of the cafe owners, and then we’re turning it over to you to vote and decide who will win the Carrotmob.

It’s been a slow start, but we’re up and running, and super pumped to announce that Carrotmob Vancouver is officially under way. Over the past week we’ve been contacting coffee shops (and one tea shop) in the Main Street area. The response has been varied – as usual, but we’ll be able to convince them to get into it and start bidding.

Today we received a bid from Java-Licious, a coffee shop that just opened a few months ago. I was really impressed by all the amazing things that Java-Licious is already doing to give back to the community and improve their environmental impact. It was even better to hear that they’ve got big plans if they win the Carrotmob. To start things off, they’ve bid a whopping 80% of revenues from the Carrotmob to improving their biz.

I guess it would be helpful if I gave you guys the low down on how this is all going to roll out. By now, you’re probably familiar with what Carrotmob is – if not, check out this video:

So, that’s the basics!

What are we doing in Vancouver?

We’ve already approached a shwack of coffee shops in the Main Street area. We’re asking that each shop commit a percentage of Carrotmob revenue to improve the environmental impact of their coffee shop, as well as provide one locally roasted and one Fair Trade coffee on the day of the mob. Once all of the bids have come in, we’re going to do video interviews with each of the coffee shop owners. The videos will be posted online for your viewing and voting pleasure. You VOTE for the business that you think is committed to making the most change and best impact. The coffee shop with the most votes wins the Carrotmob! We all get together and rock out at the winning coffee shop – remember to bring a friend!

Here are a few examples of other Carrotmob groups that have gone for the coffee:

We’ve also partnered with Small Feet Inc, a consulting company that specializes in helping small and medium sized businesses “go green”. They’re our Sustainability Partner, and will provide the winning coffee shop with tips and guidance on where to spend the money that Carrotmob generates.

There are lots of ways you can stay in the loop!

Not enough for you? Want to do more? Volunteer with us! Email us at Carrotmob.BC@gmail.com