Free Coffee and a Free Ride

Dear Madonna,

I was pleasantly surprised when I went for my daily Short Bold today at Starbucks. As usual I had my "green" tumbler with me - something I started doing at the beginning of this year as my new year's resolution for the planet - and I was told that my coffee was free, in celebration of Earth Day, and as a reward for bringing my own cup. YAY!

I did something similar at my dance classes this month: offering a $5 discount for anyone who brought their own water bottle. I included the $5 drop-in fees as well and am able to make a donation of $350 to Markets Initiative.

My cousin NJ lives in Vancouver and works for the organization which lobbies publishers to use more eco-conscious paper sources. A couple of years ago Markets Initiative honoured JK Rowlings for demanding that 16 publishers around the world print her books using paper that was free of ancient or endangered forests. A more recent coup was the pubilication of a glossy magazine - Canadian Geographic - printed on paper made from wheat.

You can find out more about Markets Initiative at http://www.ancientforestfriendly.com/

Oh, and another fun thing happened today. I was on my way to a business lunch at the Design Exchange, waiting for the bus, when a couple of Citytv guys pulled up -a camera man and a talking head with microphone -stopped and asked if anyone wanted a free ride. Another woman and I hopped in and we were interviewed as we made our way down Bay Street. It was all in aid of some "random-act-of-kindness" stunt - I can't remember what they said they were doing. I just hope I didn't flash the camera when I was climbing out of the car.

What's this I hear about you falling off a horse and blaming it on a pizza delivery guy? Is someone having me on?

Ciao for now.

Julie