Toronto

Time: Thursday, March 11, 2010 4:30pm – 5:30pm
Location: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) 252 Bloor Street West, 7th Floor Peace Lounge

We are having the first major brainstorming session open to everyone. We hope to grab everyone’s ideas on how, to who and where to promote the Big Event.

GO 7th Floor and you will see us there! Bring ideas and friends, this should not take longer than an hour. Also go to the Fan Page and see the official Facebook Invite

The final date has been confirmed. Start spreading the word about Toronto’s first Carrotmob, arrive Saturday April 10th 12pm to G’s Fine Foods at the corner of Bloor and Huron, see map below.

After more than a week of inviting 14 small to medium sized independent grocery stores in the Bloor/ Annex area to the first Carrotmob in Toronto, 4 stores showed a commitment to the competition. The results are as follows – showing the percent of revenue from mobsters to be given back into energy efficient renovations for their stores, and the number of Local Food Plus (LFP) certified producers and farmers they are willing to sell when available at their stores.

Bloor Village Market (25%) (20 LFP Foods)

Emart (25%) (Low LFP Foods)

Food Plus (5%) (Uncertain LFP Foods)

with the winner…

G’s Fine Fine Foods ( 100%) (15 LFP Foods)!

In the end, it was like playing basketball for the first time. Stores came to the court to try it out, and then the All-star comes in with a slam dunk of 100% and everyone gives up. As much as we wanted a fun auction style of bidding, G’s Fine Foods did not even bother and stepped up big time with their massive bid – leaving everyone else in the dust.

View Carrotmob Toronto Winning Store in a larger map

View Carrotmob Toronto Winning Store in a larger map

Their win MEANS that every single dollar any customer spends at their store during the mob day (for example during one single afternoon on Saturday) will go directly into paying for energy efficient renovations. Buying 20 dollars of groceries, all 20 dollars will go to their store for this purpose. ALSO G’s will pledge to sell, when seasonally available , foods coming from a minimum of 15 Local Food Plus certified farmers and producers.

Now What

We have met the owner of G’s Fine Foods a number of times now and he is committed to doing massive energy efficient renovations to his store and the research into providing local and sustainable foods in his store for the long term. Over the next couple weeks Carrotmob Toronto will connect G’s with environmental consultants to establish the best way funds can be spent at his store to lower his energy use. LFP representatives have already been in touch with G’s and are  prepared to guide them for the selling and advertising of LFP foods year round.

The day the Carrotmob “Attacks” G’s Fine foods should be a fun community event. We will be discussing with the owner which day works best and what kind of activities are possible (think music and dancing with groceries). The Final Date will most likely be a Saturday Afternoon next month (Suggested dates are Earth Hour day March 27th, or April 3rd, 10th, Earth Day weekend April 24)

Keep posted with the blog and become a Facebook Fan if you can – if any of you are interested in serious community organizing – we will be having a small organizing committee meeting within the next week.

Spending G’s at G’s,

Carrotmob

It has come down to the wire – two stores have come out on top with high bids:

-G’s Fine Foods (351 Bloor Street West)

with 100% revenue to energy efficiency renovation and supplying 15 LFP producers

-Bloor Village Market (580 Bloor Street West)

with 25% revenue to energy efficiency renovations and supplying 20 LFP producers

The ball is with Village Market today if they choose to give a more attractive bid. Tomorrow the final winner will be announced.

Also, Cailin O’Neil has graciously offered to manage and advise our social networking growth (aka, tweet tweet tweet). She is an up and coming film director and tv producer. She can be found dancing up a storm and traveling the world.

Thank you Cailin!

till tomorrow…

LFP is good to go! We had a meeting between our street team and LFP this morning. Take a look at the local grocery stores we will potentially be “hitting” with our Carrotmob Invitation next week thursday. This prepares us for Step 1 If you see one I have missed, let me know.

View Carrotmob Toronto in a larger map

To note, we will not be inviting major chains like Sobeys or Loblaws (for it will take a much larger mob to attack them, and they also supply the same foods, from the same farmers/producers across Canada and therefore least likely be able to change one of their stores) or “already convinced” organic LFP certified food stores like Fiesta Farms.

first carrotmob on bloor?

A basic plan

Exciting days to come. Similar to the first mob in San Francisco, our plan is to hit grocery stores around the Bathurst and Bloor area. For the winning grocery store (who has competed against other nearby stores in their area) must agree to two things:

1) Offer the highest percent of the income the store receives from the mob to be put back into their store for energy efficient renovations. (as with San Francisco, the store offered 22% of their earnings)

Unlike San Francisco mob, there are plenty of incentives and subsidies the Ontario Green Energy Act offers which may be able to double the amount the mob spends for “green” retrofits:

http://www.pwc.com/ca/en/sustainability/green-incentives.jhtml

http://www.oaa.on.ca/client/oaa/OAAHome.nsf/ArchNewsBydate/421D546A99F490908525756700581370!opendocument

This is a major win-win. An energy efficient store can save tons of money every year – and one more store using less energy is good for everyone.

2) The store becomes Local Food Plus certified http://www.localfoodplus.ca . LFP is a non profit organization that certifies farmers and processors that provide local and sustainable food under a number of conditions such as lowering and eliminating pesticide use, guaranteeing fair wages for workers, committing to lowering energy use and of course that the farm exists on Ontario soil. Retailers are also certified if they agree to sell a certain percent of their food to come from LFP farms. For example The University of Toronto was the first university to be LFP certified in Canada, guaranteeing that 10% for their food sold comes from LFP processors – and the next time they are certified, it will have to be 20%.

To avoid any wacky legal trouble, LFP is not a partnering with Carrotmob Toronto as of yet…let us just say we have had a great conversation and planned coffee date. I mean, you wouldn’t call someone your girlfriend after only one date right?

The Groceries

This gives you an idea just how many grocery stores exist in the small area around Bathurst and Bloor. Ideally we would offer the mob to all of these stores plus a few more, and of course, have them compete against each other for our mob.

More to come

It was suggested that the “Mob Attack” be Saturday, March 27 – conveniently timed with Earth Hour http://www.earthhour.org/

Beginning the first weeks of February, mobsters will be out visiting nearby grocery stores, getting contact information and discussing Carrotmob. Want to help? carrotmob.to@gmail.com

My recommendation is for fans on facebook to re-post this blog on your own facebook profile – it will catch on faster than simply suggesting your friends to become “fans”.

And that’s it! till next time, see you on Bloor,

-Nico

Welcome to Carrotmob Toronto,

This is our first historic blog post.  We are starting a crew here in Toronto to run on the first of many Carrotmobs to enter the city. Get excited.

What is it all about?

Carrotmob is an emerging form of activism. This is not a brutal fight – this is about partnership for change. Carrotmob is community organized consumer power that partners with businesses to reward them for their socially and environmentally choices. A “buycott”, the anti-boycott, that travels in masses to help consumers see the change they want, and rewards businesses who are willing to compete and act for profits.

Here’s the first video which was produced by the first Carrotmob in San Francisco that gives a short explanation of what it is all about:

“Wow, great idea! How can I help???”

First, Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Or don’t just follow  – LEAD

The initial plan involves two stages – the partnership building and the organizing. The first Carrotmob Toronto planning meeting will be happening sometime mid January 2010 at the University of Toronto St. George Campus.  We’ll be looking for creative minds, loud voices, video producers, social networking techies, environmental consultants, and casual community folk who want to know what’s up and how they can spread the word.

Follow the updates or Email us at Carrotmob.TO@gmail.com for more information.

See you on bloor,