P’lovers the Environmental Store (Port Perry)

I eat a lot.

Okay, for those of you who know me, this is hardly news. For those who don’t, this is hardly interesting — so let me get succinctly to the point.

When I first saw the stainless steel, two-tier food container that we have at P’lovers, I thought “What a great design. Too bad it’s so freakin’ small.”

And then I tried it.

Yesterday, I prepared a picnic lunch for my two little adventurers, and I packed mine in the food carrier. Bottom compartment (15cm diameter, 6.5cm deep): two sandwiches; top compartment (13cm diameter, 5.5cm deep): 1 apple, a bunch of carrot sticks, strawberries, peas, and cheese (with lots of room left over).

Also consider the bonus stainless steel plate separating the two compartments was lovely to have since I forgot to pack plates. AND, believe it or not, the 1/2 sandwich I didn’t eat at lunch was still fresh 5 hours later!

Now, I’m really impressed!

-Steve

Finding that elusive balance between personal, family, and professional priorities is an ongoing challenge for me; especially at this time of year - summer time!

For the next 9 weeks my two high-energy eco-kids are out of school and will be looking for lots of fun things to pass the time.

When I opened P’lovers in 2002, both kids were quite young and have grown up knowing that Daddy works from home, sometimes rather long and unusual hours.

My daughter, in particular, being the younger of the two, has spent a lot of time with me in the business. She spent very little time in daycare, instead joining me in the store, on visits to suppliers, the lawyer, accountant, and has made many trips to the bank.

Both kids are quite used to my schedule and understand when I have to take a phone call in the middle of lunch or run to the computer to send a quick email before heading out the door or that late in the evening “dash to the store”. They have learned to be patient with me and are not what I would call high-maintenance children.

There are many pay-offs for all of us. During the school year, we walk to school everyday and I pick them up afterwards. I rarely miss a school assembly or special event and am one of the few (usually only) fathers to volunteer in the classroom and have done so with both kids since kindergarten.

And then there is summer vacation - the most fun, yet the biggest juggling act of all!

Every morning starts shortly after 5:00, with me, coffee in hand, heading to work in my home office. It’s a wonderfully quiet and incredibly productive time before the kiddies wake up to handle administration, ordering new products, writing this blog, queuing up projects for staff, digging in the garden, anything that needs to be done.

After 9:00, the rest of my day (until my wife gets home at 5:00), for the most part, belongs to the kids. Swimming at Birdeye pool, trips to every park in town, riding bikes around the neighbourhood, digging in the garden, hanging out with the grandparents in Oshawa, day trips to Toronto Zoo - these are just a few of the ways they will keep me busy this summer.

The final piece of my juggling act is the sensational staff at P’lovers who, in my absence, make sure the store looks great and the focus continues to the stay on our customers. Without Catherine, Jude, Lisa, Natalie, and Susan, the summer months would be WAY more stressful!

-Steve

Have I told you about my Tim Horton’s boycott?

Like many Canadians, this (American) institution has been part of my life for years. Many a road trip has been kicked off by a large double - double and a walnut crunch. Heck, 13 years ago when I got married, my wife and I lived in different cities. At 4:30 a.m. every Monday morning, it was always “Tim” who rode shotgun on the 3+ hour drive on the 401 to get me home to Toronto.

No more, I’m afraid.

Thanks to my friends at the Creemore Coffee Company and a new Cuisinart coffeemaker (from Tweed & Hickory, in Port Perry), I make fabulous fair-trade, organic coffee every morning at home. Great home brewed coffee plus my (Roughrider Green) Planetary Designs travel mug and I’m ready to hit the road.

Then there is the garbage issue and this really gets me.

With the hundreds of millions of dollars that pour into Tim Horton’s every year, why can’t they make even a token effort to reduce waste?

When I bring my travel mug into the restaurant, they prepare my coffee in a throwaway paper cup (using a plastic stir-stick or straw) before they pour it into my stainless steel mug. THEN they try and give me another clean paper cup so I can “roll up the rim”. When I refuse the paper cup, they either try to push it on me or look at me as if I’m a freak.

The ecological footprint of this one single transaction is massive. Multiple that by tens of thousands like it every day.

Imagine if Canada’s largest coffee chain made a real commitment to a greener planet. Imagine organic, fair-trade coffee and tea on the menu. Imagine aggressively promoting the reduction of waste and encouraging customers to “lug-a-mug”. Imagine replacing all the paper cups with compostable cups, and using only ancient forest-friendly napkins and paper products. Imagine sourcing products and materials through local suppliers.

What a difference that would make.

Interestingly enough, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of fabulous, independent coffee shops across the country that satisfy many, if not all, of these criteria.

Two such shops right here in Port Perry are working hard to provide a greener alternative — Queen Beans Coffee House (next to P’lovers in Queen Street Commons) and For the Love of Jo. (BTW, around the corner from P’lovers in Halifax, there is a great coffee shop called “Steve-erinos”. I felt at home!!)

Catch ya’ later, Tim!

-Steve

Okay, there’s no easy way to say it - P’lovers in Port Perry is for sale. There. I’ve said it. Perhaps you’ve heard already through the grapevine? We’ve been discussing it quietly for a little while now, but have yet to make an official announcement. Here it is.

After six fantastic years as “Head P’lover” in Port Perry, I need to change direction. Sadly, it’s that simple. The decision was not an easy one, I assure you. P’lovers as a business has never been stronger; eco-awareness amongst the general population has never been higher; I worked through the most difficult early years; all that trial and (lots of) error is in the past; there is incredible growth potential. When valuating the decision to leave, there are lots of things in the “You’re an idiot for selling” column.

What can I say? It’s a family thing. A matter of priorities, you know?

Of course every cloud has a silver lining and all that jazz. Since I’m stepping out of the picture, it means there’s a wonderful opportunity for another high energy, environmentally-minded entrepreneur to step forward and make P’lovers even bigger, better, more relevant — raise the bar even further.

Is that YOU?

It’s a great business. It’s a fun business. It’s a rewarding business. You really do get to make a real difference in people’s lives every single day. That’s the thing I definitely like best about P’lovers — connecting with people. Lots and lots of really wonderful people. Whether it is our longtime customers; the eco-junkies who can always teach me a thing or two about green living or the newly initiated with their wonder and enthusiasm, rarely a day goes by when my day isn’t brightened with these encounters.

Perhaps you are looking for a good retirement business. Or a good family venture. Or it is time to put a little more meaning into your career. Or you have a few good eco-conscious buddies who are all hankering for a new challenge. P’lovers definitely fits any and all of these scenarios.

It is definitely worth a click to get a little more information, don’t you think? This is how I started P’lovers in Port Perry six years ago - with a desire to make a career change, a google search, a click of the mouse, and a series of emails with Liz Crocker, “P’lover extraordinaire” and co-founder of the franchise.

Seems like yesterday. Time flies, doesn’t it?

-Steve

* P’lovers Business Listing

I love a good idea — particularly when it involves improving life here at P’lovers AND it doesn’t come from me. So when Jude came to me recently and said that P’lovers needs a lending library, I said “Cool.  Keep talking.”

She said, why not share our love of reading with the customers at P’lovers? We have a huge range of great books in our collection and it is often difficult for our customers to choose - particularly when the are buying books as gifts.  We are all avid readers and have enjoyed many of them.  While we recommend titles as best we can, it would be even better if our customers could “try before they buy.”

I was sold and the P’lovers Lending Library was born.

Here’s how it works (and it is really simple):

• Create a Profile with us by leaving your name, phone number and email
• Ask at the counter to see the available books
• Select your title and staff will register the book to your ‘account’
• Enjoy the book and return it to P’lovers within two weeks.

It was initially difficult to choose the books to lend as there are so many that we absolutely LOVE.  Here is the list we have available so far.

Lending Library Titles:
100 Ways to Keep your Soul Alive (Brussat)
Artist’s Way (Cameron)
Complaint Free World (Bowen)
Crunch Time (Monck / Hanley)
Everyday Activist (Norton)
Fast Food Nation (Schlosser)
Green Living - the E Magazine Handbook
The Ten Trusts (Goodall / Bekoff)
The Four Agreements (Ruiz)
We are the Weather Makers (Flannery)
Writing Down the Bones (Goldberg)

So, to all you reading junkies, please come on in and check out our rapidly growing Eco-Bookshelf.  If something strikes your fancy (and it will), but you are not quite sure, ask if it has been added to our Lending Library.

-Steve

With access to several hundred artists, crafts-people, and small eco-suppliers at my fingertips, I really don’t need to look far to source unique and interesting products for P’lovers. Yet it is always nice when new people approach me about a product that they feel would be a perfect fit for our planet-friendly mission. Even better, is when it just happens to be something just a little bit different.

Such is the case recently when a woman called me about a project she discovered working with families in Cambodia.

In this program, fabulous bags and jewelry are made by poor families in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Parents of former street children receive a sewing machine, learn sewing skills and work from their homes while they take care of their youngest family members. This employment provides families with 4 to 5 times more income than they earned before. These funds enable their children to go to school instead of the streets, and they also receive health insurance and other social benefits.

The families in this program use local, recycled and easily sourced low-cost materials such as recycled newspapers and magazines. The designs of the totes, bracelets and bags are creative and original. Each item is uniquely hand-crafted or made using simple equipment and much of the individual ingenuity of the producer is reflected in the final product.

This is definitely a win-win scenario and the products they make are guaranteed to make you smile.

-Steve

My daughter has been making overtures for quite some time that a “big girl needs her own room”. And who can blame her? She and her brother have been sharing – in relative harmony for almost 7 years. Enough is enough … for both of them.

This change, when it soon takes effect, essentially means that I lose my second story home office with a nice view of our tree-lined street. While our basement is lovely and all, I wanted to investigate a laptop to save me from the necessity of spending endless hours there.

Thanks to Mark Kett and my friends at The Source in Port Perry, my search started and ended with the ASUS eeepc – a super light-weight, sub-compact, ultra energy efficient, internet mobile device. Wireless internet enabled, pre-loaded with all the productivity software I need, a super fast Linux OS (saving me from all the Windows overhead and security issues), this is the perfect device for getting me out of the basement!

In fact, I’m putting it to it’s first big test. Here I sit at WestJet’s Gate C40 waiting for my flight to P’lovers in Halifax, blogging happily away. They just called my flight… talk to you soon!

-Steve

The title of this post, Unoriginally Speaking, is in reference to a smashingly brilliant, late teacher of mine (Rev. Roger McComb) who, amongst many incredible accomplishments, wrote a weekly newspaper column by this name. Which brings me to this post…

Betty Zyvatkauskas of Metroland Publishing and author of the Explore Durham Blog, stopped into P’lovers a couple of months ago for a browse. Here is her lovely account of this visit.

-Steve

You’d think that someone with 15+ years of experience in marketing and communications wouldn’t drop the marketing ball when things got too busy! Yet that is exactly what’s happened over the past couple of months.

Life just happens sometimes and occasionally, as you can appreciate, it happens with a little more enthusiasm.

The months of April and May, despite the cold, wet, lousy weather, were the crazy busiest in P’lovers six year history. On the personal front, dozens of hours were spent stage managing High School Musical with our fabulous youth theatre group in Port Perry. And the obligatory, much, much more..

As a result, all those things I absolutely love to do — blogging, creating our Healthy Planet Newsflash email bulletin, web design, special marketing projects — all the good stuff was on a little hiatus. Until now, that is.

I’m back; hiatus over; giddy up!

-Steve

I asked my daughter what she wanted to do for the hour that my wife and son were in karate class.  Expecting to read books, play in the yard, or ride bikes, I was surprised when she said “Let’s go to the waterfront and pick-up garbage, Daddy.”

So that’s exactly what we did!  Armed with gardening gloves and a large (recycled plastic) garbage bag, we dropped the ‘karate kids’ off at their class and headed for Joe Fowler Park, on the shore of Lake Scugog.  Since this lovely, naturalized shoreline trail and park was established several years ago, the kids and I have spent dozens of hours enjoying nature in the heart of our bustling little community. 

One this day, however, our little oasis in Port Perry was anything but.  In fact, with the amount of garbage thoughtlessly strewn everywhere, it looked more vandalized than naturalized.  It took Elora and I exactly 34 minutes to completely fill our garbage bag to overflowing and I would estimate we didn’t have to walk more than 50 feet from our car to do it!

A rather unscientific garbage audit revealed that the vast majority of the garbage came from the three fast food restaurants within close proximity to the park — Tim Horton’s, Wendy’s, and Dairy Queen — with loads of water bottles, beer bottles (several broken), and cigarette packs thrown in for good measure. 

While I was silently appalled at the mentality of the person who would toss their refuse amidst the bushes and perennials, my 6-year old was a shade more vocal in her opinion.  “These people are slobs!” perfectly captured the essence of the moment.

This, unfortunately, is only the tip of the proverbial ‘garbage iceberg’ that is threatening to overwhelm our society.  It did get me thinking a little more about Extended Product Responsibility, the fancy term for requiring garbage-makers to be financially and/or physically responsible for the products and packaging they produce. 

If the immense and very real cost of dealing with the garbage generated were actually factored into the cost of that blizzard, take-out coffee, or cheeseburger, would consumers take an extra moment to re-think their purchasing choices?  Would producers use their immense purchasing power and invest in more sustainable, biodegradable packaging options that will ultimately benefit everyone? 

Admittedly, with trees to climb, a small “forest” to explore, and birds to watch (four male red-wing blackbirds were putting on a stunning display as they competed for the attention of a lone female), I decided solving our society’s garbage problem will have to wait for another day.

Happy Earth Day!

-Steve