Monthly Archives: March 2009

Hey, I’m a GonzoBanker.

GonzoBanker of the Month: William Azaroff, VancityWhen I started working at Vancity in September of 2005 I was brand new to the financial services industry. My previous job was working at a telecom, and in my time there I never really learned much about that industry. From the beginning at Vancity I wanted to learn about credit unions and FIs so I could be more useful to the company and craft a more relevant business plan for what the web could do for the company.

So I began looking for good websites and online publications to teach me a thing or two about banking. One of those was the enewsletter, GonzoBanker, which gave me great insights into the industry, full of humour and street smarts. Their writers get to the heart of the issue, and certain posts have become classics – like Steve Williams’ brilliant Y Bank With Us? and Tripp Johnson’s Web 2.0: It’s Not Just for Customers Anymore (which mentions my blog). I have always appreciated that they don’t take themselves too seriously, but have good, informed opinions about the industry.

So I was incredibly honoured when they named me GonzoBanker of the Month for March. As someone who is new to this industry, recognition like this is both inspiring and humbling.

Thanks a ton to the entire GonzoBanker team, and especially Diana Ferguson!

Local Event: Sustainable Marketing by Design.

One of my very good friends, Ruben Anderson is giving a talk on Sustainable Marketing by Design. Ruben is an amazing guy, and has been a friend since we first met in our early days at UVic in 1989.

Here’s his bio according to the event site:

Ruben Anderson currently works for Metro Vancouver, helping integrate sustainable behaviour into multifamily buildings. Ruben consulted on future-proofed locally resilient systems for the City of Vancouver’s Sustainability Group and Planning Department, as well as for BC Housing and Industry Canada. He recently co-taught Ecological Perspectives on Design at the Emily Carr University. Ruben won the Cascadia Green Building Council’s Closing the Loop Energy Award in 2006, for a passive shading system designed for local manufacture and the use of Cradle to Cradle materials.

It is being put on by New Media BC, and should prove to be a great event.

Here are the details:
Date: Tuesday, April 7th, 2009
Time: 5:30 – 7:30 pm
Place: Cossette West Building: 1085 Homer street – 5th Floor

Register here.

Bullfrog Power brings renewable energy to BC.

Bullfrog Power in British ColumbiaWhen I lived in LA, the utility company there had an option where I could pay a slight amount more for my power and as a result all my power would come from renewable sources. I jumped on board. It is important to me that I pay a little more to help fund initiatives providing green power to our grid.

When I moved to BC, I found no such option available to me. I wasn’t too worried, as so much of the power we generate comes from hydroelectric and is renewable. But we sell a lot of our clean energy at peak hours to the US and buy back their mostly coal fired electricity at night when the cost per kilowatt hour is a lot less.

So recently my friend Peter ter Weeme sent me a sign up for Bullfrog Power, an Eastern Canadian renewable energy company that was moving into BC. Basically, you tell them how much you use in residential energy usage, and pay 2 cents per kilowatt hour and they will ensure that that amount of green energy is added to the BC grid, basically offsetting your usage.

You can see more info here on Bullfrog Power in BC. I think this is a very smart initiative, as it gets some competition around cleaner energy solutions in BC, and will speed up BC Hydro’s good efforts in this space.

One other thing for the bankers in the room. TD Canada Trust, one of Canada’s biggest banks, ran a campaign saying their Green Machine network, which is what they’ve always called their ATMs, is now run on Bullfrog green energy, reinforcing their position in the environment, and putting a nice spin on the branding. Read more about TD’s effort here.