CO: Municipalities like Ottawa are subsidizing water efficiency in residential areas, businesses should follow the trend.

• Free kits combined with kit delivery within certain areas should speed adoption
• All of the incentives are in the right place: save money on water costs, save water and the environment, no additional costs to the consumer (except perhaps for the inconvenience of waiting for the kitchen sink to fill...)
• Corporations with a strong sense of corpobligation could see this as an opportunity for change, which will appeal to newly aware consumers.

• The City of Ottawa kit contains:

  • One low-flow showerhead
  • Bag test to determine showerhead flow rate (prior to installation)
  • One energy efficient kitchen aerator
  • Two energy efficient bathroom aerators
  • One Toilet Tank Bank

CO: Livestock and the food they eat occupy 30% of the world's landmass and produce loads of terrible green house gases (GHG).

• "In a comprehensive 400-page analysis, published last year, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) described the spiralling increase in greenhouse gases from livestock as "massive" and asserted that the world governments must urgently address the problem. It explicitly chided environmentalists for their apparent indifference. In essence, the FAO says , livestock have inherited the Earth - with disastrous consequences."

• Vegetarian anyone?
  

CO: Publishers are seeing the benefits of choosing post-consumer recycled paper: publicity, reputation and endorsements by Harry Potter's author J.K. Rowling.

Corpobligation wants a slice of Harry Potter:

• books are made of paper, which comes from trees, which destroys forests
• But publishers like Raincoast Books have garnered loads of positive PR through the use of "100% ancient-forest free, 100% post-consumer recycled paper"
• For example: The Globe and Mail's, James Barber, reports [Harry Potter and the] "Deathly Hallows called 'greenest book in history'" (July 17, 2007).
  

Inpirational first steps...

CO: London may follow other cities in banning plastic bags, which could have a huge impact given London's identity as a shopping mecca.

• According to the Guardian Online (July 13, 2007) The mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, said: "I am in favour of having a levy on plastic bags which could lead to a huge reduction in the use of plastic bags, cutting back on waste and helping our efforts to tackle climate change.
  
• British consumers use an estimated 10bn plastic bags - 167 per person - a year, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
• Ireland introduced a "plastax" of about 30 cents (20p) on each bag in 2002 and there has been a 90% reduction in use.