Are you plagued with ‘why bother’ malaise when you think of the issues facing the world? Do you become immobilized, get exasperated or drift into la-la land?

Global crises are at an all time high. Economic collapse, starvation, lack of clean water, wars, and environmental catastrophes are rampant. Just thinking about these things can cause overwhelm and trigger fear and worse—apathy, but retreating to a cave isn’t the answer. Nor is crusading in protest and screaming from treetops.

But, can one person actually make an impact?

The Illusion of Us and Them

In the popular movie What the Bleep, quantum physics theorizes that everything is connected and communicating, right down to the smallest particle. If this postulate is true, then every action becomes a pebble in the pond affecting everyone and everything on some level.

Nelson Mandela said you have be the change that you want to see in the world. As you change yourself, you inspire change around you. He articulated this point in a speech by quoting author and lecturer Marianne Williamson from her book, ‘A Return to Love’.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

So, what effect do you want to have on your world, your relationships, your life, humanity?

Will you be a shining leader or an insignificant lemming?

One Way to Give

There is an organization that offers a way to bring forth your magnificence and shine. It’s a new paradigm around giving AND receiving.

Humanity Unites Brilliance is a for-benefit company that uses empowerment education as an economic engine to generate ongoing global humanitarian impact. As you receive support, HUB takes a large portion of the revenues to provide food, education, clean water and micro-loans to those who need it most. Another portion of your investment goes into a membership pool and is paid back to the members who choose to become exponential givers. So, as you receive back, you have more to give.

This brilliant model moves everyone from survival to self-empowerment to sustained abundance.

HUB provides a perfect vehicle for you to be the change you want to see in the world.

The Vancouver Coastal Health Authority has a goal to get 20% of us off bottled water by 2010. Since Vancouver is touted to have some of the highest quality water of any urban municipality, they are encouraging people to go back to the tap, and for good reasons. Bottled water is not only a waste of money—it’s unhealthy and has devastating effects on the environment.

$60 Billion Industry

Multi-million dollar ad campaigns are created to seduce consumers into believing that bottled water is hip and healthy. Yet a lot of ‘designer water’ is nothing more than tap water. Worse, not all tap water is pure. Studies conducted in the US revealed that 1/3 of all bottled water contained arsenic and/or E. Coli. Not so hip or healthy.

Dr. Hans Schreier of the UBC Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability says that bottled water is grossly under regulated and only needs to meet general packaged food requirements. Because it doesn’t contain any disinfectants it’s vulnerable to contamination.

Vancouver does have some of the purest water, however even though it is sourced from protected watersheds it becomes chemically compromised through chlorination.

Chlorine is a biological poison and produces by-products that cause cancer and birth defects. Although it disinfects the water, it doesn’t always giardia or other parasites which cause intestinal and immune system disorders. And if you live in a house built prior to 1989, chances are you have lead pipes which further degrade your water quality.

A Simple Solution

Use tap water, but filter it. There are many excellent home water filtration systems on the market. If you want to carry water with you, use stainless steel bottles. They are lightweight, non-breakable, non-toxic AND hip.

One Vancouver business, watermatters has developed products specifically tailored for Vancouver’s unique water conditions. They also feature a variety of stainless steel bottles.

More Reasons to Go Back to the Tap

Besides bottled water being far from pristine, toxins in the plastic bottles pose serious health threats.

In April 2008, Canada became the first country to ban plastic polycarbonate baby bottles after concluding that a chemical in the plastic known as Bisphenol A is toxic. Since BPA is also used in drinking water bottles, many stores pulled them from their shelves, including the popular brand Nalgene. BPA disrupts hormones, mimics estrogen and has been linked to obesity and cancer.

Besides BPA, polyethylene terephthalate, is used in most water bottles. This polymer is highly susceptible to bacteria growth and should be discarded after use. However consumers often refill their bottles, completely unaware of the potential health hazards.

Old Bottles Never Die

Billions of plastic bottles are manufactured each year yet it’s estimated that less than 20% find their way to a recycling depot. The majority end up in our landfills and oceans along with other discarded plastic. Seabirds and marine life are dying in massive numbers because they mistake plastic for food.

Instead of bio-degrading, plastic photo-degrades into smaller and more toxic fragments, contaminating our water and food chain. In some parts of the ocean, there are 6 times more plastic than plankton.

Get the dirty truth about bottled water and take the pledge to get off the bottle.

Insatiable Thirst of Greedy Corporations

The bottled water issue is only the tip of the iceberg. Water is big business grossing over $425 billion per year! And we’re running out of it—water is getting scarce and nothing is being done.

Did you know that current legislation in BC allows companies to extract up to 1,710,000 gallons of groundwater per day? Only a simple permit is required and many of these companies are not even Canadian.

But this is not merely a local issue—it’s a dire global crisis.

Many countries are facing drought and over one billion people lack clean drinking water. Corporations are taking advantage of the situation and raking in mammoth profits through bottling and privatization.

FLOW is an award-winning documentary that focuses on this world water crisis. The film takes an in depth look at pollution, politics and human rights and demonstrates how our dwindling supply of fresh water is causing the emergence of a domineering world water cartel. This film is a must see.

Water is a human right and should never be owned, bottled or sold.

Whoa! Wait a minute!

Despite the burgeoning of the internet as the major vehicle to reach potential customers, print is still alive and kicking, so don’t be too quick to plan the funeral. In fact, it’s still one of the best ways to raise brand awareness.

But one little ad in your local newspaper won’t make a quantum dent in reaching your target market. Consistency and repetition are vital. In marketing, the ‘rule of seven’ states that a potential client needs to see your ad at least 7 times before they make a connection. When they’re ready to buy, your name is top of mind.

Besides print ad campaigns, promotional material also plays a vital role in your marketing mix. There’s nothing better to put your company in the spotlight at conventions, meetings or trade-shows than a content rich, snazzy piece of eye candy. No one is going to walk by your trade-show booth and pull out their Blackberry to peruse your site. They will later, but your print collateral is the intro point so it’s important to make a good first impression.

Slow Cooking or Instant Gratification?

All forms of media can be used for either building brand awareness or to make an instant sale.

Online advertising is fast becoming the primary method for direct response. Email marketing campaigns to a targeted database are the most popular along with offers and opt-ins on landing web pages.

However many organizations are still using the highly effective snail mail approach. You know, those pesky multi-page mailers about the latest health cure that read longer than some novels. Love them or hate them—they work! When targeted to the right audience and written with a savvy strategy that only a hot copywriter can pull off, those direct mail pieces rake in hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales.

The ‘but wait…there’s more!’ approach (cheesy as it seems) really does persuade people to open their wallets.

Keeping it Green

Naturally online advertising is the ultimate environmentally conscious choice however there’s no denying that print still plays a big part in reaching potential customers.

The good news is a new paradigm is emerging in the print business. Printers are changing their reputation from a dirty industry to a clean one. This article in Green Biz shows what is being done and how you can support eco-friendly options:
http://www.climatebiz.com/resources/resource/environmentally-preferable-printing

By choosing printers that use chlorine free, 100% recycled paper and vegetable based inks, you will maintain your pro-environment leadership position AND still be able to show off without the guilt!

It has the all makings of a riveting Hollywood disaster movie, but unfortunately, it’s true. Our oceans are saturated with toxic plastic, causing devastating rippling effects throughout the entire marine ecosystem.

The facts are alarmingly staggering.

The North Pacific Gyre is a swirling vortex of ocean currents which has gathered tons of plastic debris known as The Garbage Patch. First discovered by American oceanographer Charles Moore in 1997, scientists have estimated that the area of this plastic soup is now about 20 times bigger than Vancouver Island and 30 meters deep. If nothing is done, this vortex of trash is predicted to double in size over the next decade.

Overwhelming numbers of marine life and seabirds (turtles, whales, dolphins, seals, albatross etc.) are dying as they mistake this garbage for food. Water samples taken from this area contain 6 times more plastic particles than plankton because much of this debris photodegrades into smaller fragments. Millions of tonnes of tiny sea creatures ingest these particles along with zooplankton, and the entire food chain becomes contaminated. The seafood ends up on our dinner tables and play havoc with our health.

To learn more about this dire situation, read the article in this week’s edition of the Vancouver Georgia Straight:
http://www.straight.com/article-157369/waves-disaster?rotator=1

You can also watch this clip from ‘The Synthetic Sea’ produced by the Algalita Marine Research Foundation Marine in 2001.

For more information, go to http://www.algalita.org/

So, what can we do?

Finding solutions to this monumental catastrophe seem like a daunting, if not impossible task.

A good place to begin is to refuse to use plastic bags. Did you know that over one million plastic bags are globally consumed per minute? We can prevent these from ending up in our oceans by using bio-degradable bags for garbage and cloth bags (or bags made from recycled soda bottles) for shopping. For occasions when the use of plastic is unavoidable, simply recycle.

So the next time we prepare that delicious, omega 3 fatty acid rich fish, we might think twice before tossing out the plastic it was wrapped in.

..a world where everyone has clean water
…a world where no one is hungry
…a world where everyone is empowered
to live their purpose and create sustained abundance
…a world of WIN-WIN-WIN

Think this is just silly idealism? Maybe it’s time to re-think this possibility.

What if there was a way to connect with others to help you nurture your passion and brilliance, to live your true purpose and help others do the same—AND provide measurable humanitarian support—all while creating sustained abundance for yourself and others?

There is a way. It’s called HUB.

Humanity Unites Brilliance – Where We Connect to Change Our World

HUB is a new model for business and humanitarian living that connects people and organizations to magnify our positive impact on the planet and utilize our extraordinary power allowing our brilliance to shine. This new paradigm moves all of us from survival to self-empowerment to sustained abundance.

Catch the vision. Be the change. Discover how. www.illuminate.hubhub.org

Learn more about this amazing organization:
www.illuminate.hubhub.org

Wondering what’s up with the frog on the keyboard?

Before you start thinking we’ve completely lost it and question what other anomalies are going to show up like maybe random dancing mice, there is a logical reason for the little croaker.

Because we’re passionate about sustainability we’ve taken a new direction by pouring our energy into writing copy for businesses that are dedicated to supporting people and the planet. And who better to represent the dire situation of our mother earth, than our endangered little friend?

So, we added a touch of character to match our personality and will soon be retiring our laid back serene all blue theme. Still a work in progress, so the new site is slowing emerging with the previous design intact.

One Planet—One Humanity

We’re going green because we feel it’s the right thing to do. Given the state of our planet, if we don’t do something and quick, we won’t be worrying about much else.

If your business is socially or environmentally responsible, let us help you get that message out.

(Besides, we think Kermit is really cute too.)