I learned today that a long-time acquaintance is hiking, kayaking, biking and otherwise traversing the proposed route of Enbridge’s 1,150km oil pipeline from Fort McMurray to the Pacific Ocean. Along with Ian and Karen McAllister of Pacific Wild and film maker Frank Wolf, Todd McGowan aims to provide insights into local points of view, and raise awareness of the very real dangers of this project:

The Enbridge project has the potential to radically alter the social and ecological landscape of Western Canada. The construction of this massive pipeline and the roads used to access it will result in extensive loss of wildlife habitat. Waterways and communities will be contaminated as statistically inevitable oil spills occur along the pipeline route. It will lead to expansion of the tar sands- adding to already critical global atmospheric carbon levels.

The 1,150km journey is a very long walk. But here’s a very short lesson: The length of this pipeline makes oil spills a statistical inevitability.

Of course, if we just ban the tankers, the pipeline idea will just go away….

Annalea Krebs, Founder & President of Octopus’s client TheChange.com presented last week at EPIC. Check out their story:

She hasn’t eaten in a week. Don’t get me wrong: She can eat. In fact, she works in a fabulous Lebanese restaurant across the street from our office. She’s just choosing not to eat.

You see, Maddy’s on a hunger strike.

She’s the most recent in a week-by-week relay of awareness-raising citizens who are concerned about the fact that roughly half of all Canadians live in fear of poverty. More to the point, there are somewhere between 10,500 and 15,000 people in BC alone who have no homes. Every 12 days, one homeless Canadian dies.

Scary statistics. But scarier still is the fact that until 1993, Canada had one of the most widely recognized social housing programs in the world. Federally funded and progressive, it was canceled after 20 years of effective support for people marginalized by hard luck or hard times. Since then, support for the most troubled of our fellow citizens has become fragmented. And progressively less effective.

So Maddy’s hunger striking for a new Federal Housing Program. There’ll be a new volunteer every week throughout 2010. Maddy’s the face of week 73. She follows UBC Professor Michael Byers, Vancouver activist David Eby and many others. I wonder who’s going to be number 74… 75… 76… 77….

Learn more about the Homelessness Hunger Strike Relay.  They might be on to something here….

On Thursday evening, Vancity Community Foundation, Enterprising Non-Profits, JDQ Systems and BC Social Venture Partners hosted the 2010 edition of their ‘Social Enterprise Dragons‘ event. Three social enterprises pitched their organizations to a crowd of 200, and in particular to four ‘Dragons,’ who judged their business plans and awarded prizes based on their businesses’ needs: Tamara Vrooman, CEO, Vancity; Alanna Hendren, Executive Director, Developmental Disabilities Association; Jon Morris, President, JDQ Systems; and Jim Fletcher, Managing Director, Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital.

Octopus Strategies’ involvement was through my invitation to sit on the application review and selection committee, which shortlisted the numerous applicants to the three presenting companies. Along with Adam Wilkins of REV and BC Social Venture Partners, I also coached Katrina Pacey of Pivot Legal LLP on her presentation.

Pivot was first to present. Katrina, their Managing Partner, outlined a unique social enterprise law firm, whose purpose is to turn the profits from their general law practice to the advantage of social change initiatives such as their recent Red Tent campaign.

Mission Possible’s MP Enterprises went second. Their Executive Director, Brian Postlewait, presented an ambitious but promising plan to develop their graffiti cleanup company into a diverse general maintenance company.

And third was Public Dreams‘ Samantha Jo Simmonds, who explained their organization’s 25-year legacy, their recent success with 2010 Winter Olympic Games contracts, and their goals to develop their social enterprise—a full service event management firm.

All three presentations were inspiring. Each organization is uniting the value of business with the values of mission-driven mandates. And in the end, the Dragons couldn’t decide between them, and awarded one prize to each organization. Public Dreams was awarded a $2,500 grant from ENP, MP Enterprises was awarded a pro bono engagement from JDQ Systems, and Pivot Legal was awarded $15,000 from Vancity Community Foundation to develop their marketing and outreach.

The event itself also featured a good deal of networking among the sold-out crowd, catering by Vancouver’s Pot Luck Cafe & Catering, a social enterprise itself, and a showcase of the wares of various local social enterprises. It was a great opportunity for the social enterprising community to come together, and share ideas, contacts and plans. I look forward to being even more involved in the 2011 edition!

The Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association hosted one of the most admired leaders in the modern business world at Vancouver’s Pan Pacific Hotel yesterday. Howard Schultz is Chairman, President and CEO of Starbucks, one of the most successful brands in recent memory, and one of the strongest business success stories of the 20th century.

In a brief but illuminating address, Schultz talked about his roots “growing up on the wrong side of the tracks” in the projects of Brooklyn. He also talked about the heartbreak of seeing his father’s despair after he was injured on the job, and could no long support his family.

Amazing, isn’t it, how great leaders seem to endure adversity before achieving the loftiest of goals?

And lofty, indeed, were Schultz’s goals: He spoke of a time when Starbucks had only 12 stores, but a vision of a world-renowned brand. Today, more than 30 years into the Starbucks story, the company operates more than 17,000 locations in more than 150 countries. And they employ over 180,000 people.

Most memorable from among Schultz’s comments, though, were his discussion of the challenges he and his leadership team have faced during the past year: Starbucks is renowned for treating its employees better than most retail brands can manage. Their extended medical plan is exceptional for a company in their industry—especially in light of its annual $300M cost. The economic downturn of 2009 presented an opportunity to reduce this expenditure, but Schultz would have noting of it:

“To cut back on our commitments to our people would be to tear the very soul out of our company.”

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The Social Entrepreneurship Experience, a student-run conference under the Enterprize Canada umbrella, took place November 21 at the Museum of Vancouver. The organizers’ goals were to “tackle the question of what social entrepreneurship really is and how local businesses are radically changing Vancouver and communities abroad.”

I put it a slightly different way: “Traditional business is a flightless baboon,” I said. (It’s a long story!) “I’m interested in the evolutionary next step.” And I believe it’s social enterprise.

The nature of ’social entrepreneurship’ is as diverse as the individuals who adopt the moniker. Each of us can choose how we’ll build our organizations, but what we all hold in common is a purpose beyond profit, and an open, collaborative approach to resolving issues of sustainability. Yet it is the diversity that makes this burgeoning sector so hard to pin down. And so fascinating.

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