After a year and half of research and development, “ethipedia”, the online encyclopedia of sustainable business practices, is now available online.
This reference website hosts a database of documented practices adopted by organizations seeking to incorporate greater social and environmental responsibility into their operations. With an initial store of over 75 case studies from around the world, this is the largest free resource of its kind.
“The goal of this portal is to offer a library of replicable strategies for applying sustainability principles to one’s organization. By making this information accessible, this site hopes to accelerate the market shift towards sustainable operations,” says the site’s Co-Founder, sustainability consultant Brenda Plant.
To ensure a high degree of credibility, ethipedia’s administrators monitor and vet submitted practices according to a set of concrete social and environmental criteria made available online at the following address: http://ethipedia.net/criteria
ethipedia is online at the following address and offered in English and in French: www.ethipedia.net
Montreal’s Ecolo Cycles produces bicycles with electric motors. Technically, they are called “electricity-assisted bicycles” and the company is doing well, last year selling $1.5-million worth of electricity-assisted bicycles and scooters in Quebec alone.
The company is launching a new, fully loaded $3,000 electricity and pedal-powered scooter that has a range of 100 km and zips along urban streets at 32 km/h. Next year, after testing by Transport Canada, they will introduce two sporty electric scooters that will reach speeds of 70 km/h and 90 km/h.
So, it looks like this electric bike is quickly turning into a scooter!
Bixi, the bike sharing/rental service has finally arrived in Montreal. You can rent bikes by the hour at over 300 self-service stations in Ville-Marie, Plateau-Mont-Royal and Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie. Other stations will be available in Outremont, Sud-Ouest and Villeray–Saint-Michel if the first phase of the roll-out goes well this summer. Find a Bixi station near you.
To try the service at first, you can go to any station and insert a credit card/debt card to rent a bicycle for the hour or the day – just $5 for 24 hour access. Once you’re hooked, you should subscribe to the bike sharing service at the Bixi website. One year subscriptions are just $78; or you can opt to try it for 30 days, at $28.
A new movie about Permaculture (also known as Sustainable Agriculture):
Coming to Boston (the closest screening to Montreal) May 28th, but I have contacted the filmmaker and requested a screening in Montreal…Stay tuned and keep your fingers crossed!
