Change.

CHANGE.

Those of you who have met me know that I watch out for our environment. In my business we have been using less and less paper. We tend to deal with insurance companies who were the first to transition over to electronic applications. We like to deal with companies that accept electronic signatures. We are starting to use electronic media to have face to face meetings with clients.

I have seen our world change in my 50 years of walking it. Change for the better, environmentally speaking. I remember throwing everything into a black garbage bag and putting it at the curb. Now we have a three-stream system (in Guelph) so not as much is going to landfill. Remember acid rain? I wonder where we would be had we not changed the emissions standards from factories.

Leaded gas to unleaded gas. Diesel engine emissions. Clear-cut logging. Dumping industrial waste in the river. I was born and raised in Guelph. It has grown and now has ‘big-city’ problems, however, is it that we have these problems or are we just more aware? I am proud of many of the initiatives Guelph has taken towards the environment. Are some of them out there in left field? Yes. But let’s remember what people said when Ben Franklin was out flying a kite in a lightning storm (and he used hemp string to hold the kite!). We need to be creative about things in order to move forward. The Wright Brothers. Thomas Edison. Elon Musk. They have all been ‘out in left field’ but didn’t give up. I grew up beside the Speed River in Guelph. I have seen it change...for the better.

This is what I appreciate. We see that something is not right and work to change it.

I worry about the kind of world we are going to leave for my two daughters and want to do my part in making it better environmentally, the same way my parents did. Every little bit counts.

I want to be part of the change.

Since every little bit counts, I am committing to using even more electronic media in the future. I will be using electronic forms with the technology to sign right on the tablet. I will use less paper than I have in the past (we are already down 80% from four years ago) and I will use more web- based media to conduct meetings.

Every. Little. Bit. Counts.