Vancouver Brand Battle for Good: A Zero-Waste Challenge

What happens when you bring together a group of Vancouver’s top zero-waste experts and some of the city’s biggest brands to share knowledge, strategize, and spark change in the region? The short answer is transformation. A new community of changemakers was forged, armed with the data to look at Vancouver through a zero-waste lens, resulting in actionable ideas transpiring from the premiere Brand Battle For Good. As with any battle, only one team could be crowned the winner, and as it turned out, the underdogs emerged victorious.

What started out as an exchange of text messages between Brands For Better founders Karla Peckett and Scot Sustad, developed into the 2 day virtual event with over 200 volunteers, 225+ participants, 41 subject matter experts, 33 sponsors, and 29 engaged brands across 19 teams in attendance. The Brand Battle For Good had originally been planned to take place in-person on Earth Day in 2020, but with the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, a major pivot was required. Thanks to the event production title partners at Clark’s Audio Visual Services, O2E Brands, and ConnectSeven Group, the conference and award night went digital, being pulled off without a hitch.

Let's Go Zero Conference

Day 1 of the event was kicked off on the morning of April 28th with a virtual performance from musician Brayden Alexander, a live painting session from muralist Jesse Gouchey, and an opening speech from Minto Roy on positive disruption to set the creative stage for the Let’s Go Zero Conference that followed—putting everyone in the right frame of mind to tackle the ever-present waste problem in our city. Teams met with their dedicated design-thinking facilitator for the first time to be debriefed before heading out to the first wave of the Brand Battle.

“A common passion and desire to impact change in our city helped bring us together instantly,”

said Dan Marrett of the winning team. The teams split up to divide and conquer, attending sessions and absorbing the knowledge shared by the subject matter experts in the 25 workshops that followed from industry leaders like Jeremy Douglas and Brianne Miller. Movement and Hydrate breaks were welcomed and provided by MOVR's Aaron De Jong to keep everyone limber in the heat of the battle.

Lunch was filled with keynotes from Adam Corneil sharing the story of A New Future For Old Buildings and Dr. Love-Ese Chile with her inspirational talk on Solar Punk Visions of Our Future noting,

"my heart is just so warm and full to see so many innovators, activators and influencers coming together to create this community of transformation".

Following lunch, teams divided again to participate in sessions from impact and consumer behaviour experts such as: Kristy O’Leary, Melissa Orozco, Rob Newell, and Dagmar Timmer, arming the teams with the tools to apply the knowledge gained in the morning sessions to formulate ideas that will truly make a difference. The day was wrapped up with a keynote from sustainability specialist, anti-oppressive community builder, and a serial changemaker Tesicca Truong, Co-Founder of CityHive, leaving teams hungry for the next stage of the Brand Battle to take place on May 5th.

Strategy Hackathon For Good

Day 2 of the event started with some soothing tunes from artist Sadé Awele as folks Zoomed in from their locations, prior to breaking off into their respective teams to distill the learnings from the week prior. Each team was led by a design-thinking facilitator to guide them through an expertly crafted Miro board from our impact facilitation design partners at Decade Impact and Realize Strategies. This is where the real fun started as each team member brought forward the unique facts and data from the workshops they had attended, ultimately honing in on the direction they would like to form the big idea around.

As the day progressed with each team zeroing in on their idea, Jesse Gouchey's painting progressed along-side, producing a thought-provoking work of art that would be auctioned off following the event. Breaking for lunch, attendees got to consume more than nutritious food—they were fed a platter of knowledge from speakers; Anthonia Ogundele delivering a talk on “Conscious Consumption: Creating a Zero Waste Culture”, Felix B?ck with “The 100 Billion Chopstick Business Opportunity for a Circular Economy”, and Alexandra Karnig sharing “How Transparency on the Environmental Impact of Products Can Enable Brands to Gain Loyal Customers” all the way from Stockholm, Sweden.

Teams spent the following two hours finalizing their ideas and creating the decks that would be used to deliver their pitches in the first round of judging. The minutes flew by and the clock struck 3:30pm, signalling each team to submit their file and prepare for presentations. Time for battle. Allotted 5 minutes to get their idea across and create an impact, the presenters were also subject to 3 minutes of Q&A from the judges to poke holes in the ideas that were brought forth. As judges deliberated and converged on the top 3 ideas, participants attended a virtual networking event provided by networking social partner The ReFrame Group using the innovative Kumo Space platform.

Brand Battle Award Night

Time to celebrate, keeping in tune with the start of each session, award night attendees were treated to an in-studio performance from The Long War as emcee Zain Meghji prepared to introduce the evening judges. The award night panel was made up of trusted experts from various fields including: Tim Reeve (Reeve Consulting), Dr. Love-Ese Chile (Regenerative Waste Labs), Brian Scudamore (O2E Brands), Jane Cox (Cause + Affect), Denise Taschereau (Fairware), and Patty Jones (PS DDB).

The three finalists were revealed—with Vancity first up to battle, sharing their idea in true co-operative fashion—the Reimagine Apparel Co-op (RAC), addressing clothing waste and habits driven by decades of fast fashion. They were followed by the joint Hootsuite and Swany squad presenting Zeroes Are Heroes, an educational challenge where teams from Metro Vancouver schools collect plastic waste, collaborate with local artists, and inspire Vancouverites to zero waste.

The last team was up. Team Talent Pool—a mixed bag of individual participants including Daniel Marrett, Jill Robinson, Jennah Dohms, Sue Lee, Ashley Moore, Joel Hansen, Rick Bezuidenhout, and Alex Cronje, all led by Arthur Kononuk, Co-Founder of tentree. Better known as the “singles table at the wedding” they outshone influential brands and well established teams like Arc'teryx, Deloitte, LUSH, and Thinkific on the road to the finals and ended up proving beyond a doubt the strength in diversity.

Team Talent Pool shared EcoMeter—a restaurant rating system focusing on environmental impact, including food waste strategy and packaging, to help people "know your food-print". Based on New York City's ABCEats program, an assessment and grade based on restaurant sanitary standards, EcoMeter has the ultimate aim of getting the City of Vancouver on board, aligning with the Zero Waste 2040 goal. Judges commended Talent Pool for targeting the surge in single-use food container waste caused by 4.2 million more Canadians ordering takeout weekly compared to before the pandemic.

Award night attendees were split up in breakout rooms to discuss the ideas presented and were brought back to put the finalists to a vote. The prizes were announced, with ad agency partner PS DDB providing $40,000 to assist with brand strategy and media support and a complimentary listing on the Local Carbon Registry valued at $500 provided by GHG Accounting. Brands For Better’s digital media partner Daily Hive pledged an additional $10,700 in digital marketing support and social media coverage to help bring the idea to life. As the votes came in, Felix B?ck was preparing to announce the official winners and present the recycled chopstick trophies for the winning team presented by ChopValue. The people had chosen, EcoMeter was declared the winning idea of the first-ever Brand Battle For Good.

“We heard a lot of great ideas from teams that really care about our city,”

said Karla Peckett, Creative Director at?SOLE/ReCORK and Founder of Brands for Better Foundation, the not-for-profit that hosted the contest. “Ultimately, the idea?that was most implementable and offered the biggest impact captured the support of the crowd.”

What’s Next?

After a much deserved break following the heat of the battle, Brands For Better Foundation and the EcoMeter team have begun meeting to turn this idea into a reality with the support of the partner network. Follow the Brands For Better LinkedIn page for updates on this project. Stay tuned, as we will be uploading and sharing all of the zero-waste workshops that occurred during the Let’s Go Zero conference on Brands For Better's YouTube channel. The next Brand Battle for Good will focus on a ‘People’ cause, sparking positive social impact in the community. A youth career development initiative called The Spark Factor and a collaboration with Habitat for Humanity are the next projects for Brands for Better Foundation.

A huge thank you goes out to each person who volunteered their time to make this event happen, and each brand that has joined this community of changemakers. Special thanks goes to Maxine Bulloch for capturing the magic throughout the event as seen in the included photos, see more here.

The Brand Battle for Good was developed by and made possible with the help of industry pros across various brands within the?Brands for Better’s network?- with everyone donating their time and efforts to the cause.?Thank you to our Founding Brands below for making this event and all Brands for Better events and initiatives possible.

Brands for Better Foundation?is a not-for-profit initiative aimed at using the power of brands to do good. We’re a network of people and brands who care, working to tackle pressing environmental and social issues in our local community in a meaningful, measurable way. We develop and host inclusive events that inspire positive social impact.