In Vancouver’s Inner-City, B.O.B. (Building Opportunities through Business) is  regenerating businesses, restoring historical architecture and rebuilding individual lives. Unlike traditional charities, B.O.B. shares tools and resources that allow people to help themselves.

FROGBOX recently employed an awesome employee from B.O.B.’s Supported Employment Program. Ty is now a member of the FROGBOX team, who is a hard worker with a great sense of humour. He cleans our moving boxes in the warehouse, which is an essential contribution. Rather than relying on services to support him, Ty has been given the opportunity to work and thrive. We highly recommend this program to other businesses. It is a wonderful way to support the regeneration of Vancouver’s Inner-City.  We wish that we had programs like this in Seattle and Toronto, the other cities where we offer eco friendly moving boxes!

Building Opportunities with Business (BOB) was created in 2005 as a comprehensive community economic development organization to deliver a variety of employment and business development programs. One of its biggest roles was in overseeing the city’s first major community benefits agreement, which facilitated nearly $50 million dollars in purchases from inner-city businesses and saw 120 residents from the inner-city receive training and work both related to the construction of the Winter Olympic Athletes Village.

B.O.B's office on East Pender

“By working with local training and employment organizations, government and the communities at work here…B.O.B. has always strived to be a connector, resource, and facilitator for businesses and individuals in the inner-city” says CEO Dr. Shirley Chan. In the past five years BOB has established itself as just that, but not without some bumps and bruises along the way. Now that the five year pilot program agreed to in 2005 is over, BOB has received a funding extension which gives it another year or so of capacity at its current operational level, but the future of the organization remains in question.

Since the turn of the century, the attractive buzz word in the realm of business and living is green. There has been a decisive shift in product development and marketing towards this greener lifestyle and more sustainable practices to decrease the ecological footprint of every consumer.

The city of Vancouver is no stranger to this movement, seeing a multitude of local businesses embrace this movement and take initiative to lead the movement. Now we will see this movement advance into the city of Surrey with the event, Sustainability: A Green Affair [SAGA]. This student-run sustainability fair will take place on July 20^th, 2010 from 11 to 4 PM, in the SFU Surrey Mezzanine within the Surrey Central complex.

The event features local forward-thinking companies, such as FROGBOX (www.frogbox.com) a Vancouver based start-up that rents re-usable moving boxes and moving supplies in Vancouver, Seattle and Toronto.  FROGBOX and other will showcase their eco-products and the sustainable practices they’ve undertaken in their company and in the community. They will help educate visitors on environmentally-friendly options for every-day activities and on how to collectively impact the environment.

Hoping to inspire greener and healthier choices, the fair is free to all and is easily accessible with the Surrey Central Skytrain Station only moments away. In addition, each participant has a chance to win a fantastic raffle prize, which includes a BBQ set from Terasen Gas, Gift baskets and coupons from many others.

For more information regarding the event, please visit our website www.agreenaffair.ca.

The fair will be held on
July 20, 2010, 11am – 4pm
Simon Fraser University, Surrey Campus (Google Map)
Main Mezzanine
250 – 13450 – 102nd Avenue
Surrey, British Columbia
V3T 0A3

What have we ever done for Google? Before last week, nothing… it was all take. We’ve used Google over and over and all because their sites and apps are free and easy to use. Finally we were able to give back. Google ordered FROGBOX moving boxes for some office renovations they were undergoing and we had the pleasure of visiting their downtown Toronto offices for delivery.

For a giant company everyone in the building, even the loading dock master, were very friendly and approachable. Pretty amazing offices; they have an across Canada theme with St. John’s Newfoundland represented by a lighthouse built into the offices in the east, and a true British Columbian log cabin built in the west side of the office.

We didn’t realize that Google is so passionate about environmental responsibility!  Their office is an amazing example of how a company can combine low environmental impact design with a relaxed working environment.  From their use of low impact lighting systems to the use of recycled and reclaimed materials every aspect of the office was carefully designed.  We’re glad to see that Google knows cardboard moving boxes are a waste of time, money and paper when they are moving. Thanks for using FROGBOX Google!

www.frogbox.com

FROGBOX attended UBC’s Buying Into The Future Fair. The event was a launch for their Sustainable Purchasing Guide. It is a resource to aid campus purchasing managers to make better choices with their dollars. The guide itself walks its talk by being condensed and available primarily in PDF, printing optional. The content is high quality too. Aside from FROGBOX, there were representatives from Offsetters, Oceanwise, Starworks, Digitech and several on-campus services such as the bookstore and the media department that facilitates free video-conferencing to pretty much anyone on campus. That saves a lot of physical travel! The event was held in a nice multipurpose room nestled among the trees and provided a tasty lunch. FROGBOX is glad to be a part of UBC’s sustainability initiative and looks forward to supplying the campus with moving boxes. Thank you to Vicki, Kara and Dennis who hosted an excellent event. Cheers.

Vancouver-based company wins $250,000 in services from Creative Leader Leo Burnett USA

CHICAGO, April 19 /PRNewswire/ — As the first-ever winner of The Leos award, FROGBOX, a provider of eco-friendly plastic moving boxes, hopes to leap to the next level of business success by changing the way people move their household belongings.  The Leos award is sponsored jointly by Leo Burnett USA and the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, a global network of small business owners and was created to provide strategic and creative services to a deserving up-and-coming company.

“Young, dynamic companies like FROGBOX have been, and will be, an important part of the world’s economic recovery,” says Rich Stoddart, president of Leo Burnett USA.  ”We can help a new company like FROGBOX, with a great idea, to grow by changing consumer behavior just as we have done for other innovative brands like McDonald’s, Kellogg, Allstate, and Nintendo.”

Chosen as the winner from among more than 80 small companies across the United States and Canada, FROGBOX will work closely with a specially chosen team of planners and creatives from Leo Burnett USA to bring the company’s vision to life.  Jeff Hill, FROGBOX partner and chief operating officer, hopes to begin his work with Team Leo to expand his company’s online presence.  ”Most people first turn to the Internet when planning a move and many people simply don’t know that there are environmentally favorable alternatives to traditional cardboard moving boxes,” Hill says. “I was thrilled to have won The Leos award and look forward to developing a strategy to get our message out and literally change the way people move their household goods.”

Serving Seattle, Vancouver, Toronto and their surrounding areas, FROGBOX was founded in 2008 to rent out reusable eco-friendly plastic moving boxes that can be used up to 400 times each, saving people the time and effort of collecting and disposing of cardboard boxes while lessening the impact of those boxes on the environment at the same time.

“We know that creativity has the power to transform human behavior,” says Susan Credle, chief creative officer of Leo Burnett USA. “The combination of FROBOX’s simple and powerful business idea and our Humankind approach to marketing will help make FROGBOX a household name in the moving category.”

About Leo Burnett Company Inc.

Leo Burnett Company Inc. is one of the world’s largest agency networks and the parent company of Leo Burnett and its marketing services arm, Arc. Leo Burnett is a HumanKind communications company. Our approach is simple and singular: we put a brand’s purpose at the center of our communications in order to truly connect with people. Then, we activate this human purpose to create what we refer to as “Acts, not just Ads.” In doing so, we make a life-long meaningful relationship between people and brands.

We believe when you create value, you create value for your clients. That’s why an impressive number of the world’s most valuable brands, including The Coca-Cola Company, Kellogg, McDonald’s, Hallmark, Allstate, Walgreens, Procter & Gamble and Nintendo work with Leo Burnett. Clients share our purpose-centered approach and, like us, they know that agencies don’t create great brands. People do.

About FROGBOX

FROGBOX Inc. (http://www.frogbox.com) is a North American leader in low environmental impact moving supplies.  FROGBOX delivers a convenient, affordable and eco-friendly alternative to traditional moving boxes and moving supplies.  Our mission is simple: we want to minimize the stress of moving on our customers and the Earth.  FROGBOX currently operates in Vancouver, Seattle and Toronto but we are expanding across North America.  Call 1-877-FROGBOX for more information.

FROGBOX <http://www.frogbox.com/>  and Starworks Packaging & Assembly <http://www.starworks.ca/>  were able to help Visa meet the VANOC 2010 mandate of being the most sustainable Olympics yet, both socially and environmentally. Starworks, a social enterprise operated by the Developmental Disabilities Association <http://www.develop.bc.ca/>  (DDA), employs 48 people with various disabilities for custom manual labour and assembly tasks.

As part of the DDA’s sustainability initiatives <http://www.develop.bc.ca/about/sustainability.html> , Starworks used FROGBOX as an environmentally friendly solution for assembling kits for distribution around Metro Vancouver. With the help of FROGBOX’s sturdy, stackable and reusable boxes, Starworks was able to save customer’s money on purchasing expensive boxes for temporary use.
For more information on Starworks Packaging & Assembly, please visit http://www.starworks.ca <http://www.starworks.ca/> . To read about other social enterprises, iniatitives and programs of the DDA, you can read the DDA blog <http://dda604.com/> , follow @DDA604 Twitter <http://twitter.com/dda604> , or visit their website <http://www.develop.bc.ca/> .

April is not only Earth Month it is also the Canadian Cancer Society’s Cancer Awareness month so we’re taking this opportunity to honour Vancouver resident Todd Sankey.  Vancouverites have probably seen Todd around town on his unicycle.  He rides it to work everyday from Kitsilano to North Vancouver (13KM each way).  Todd’s not only a role model for Earth Month he’s also a champion in the funding of cancer research.

For the second year in a row Todd is riding his unicycle in the 200KM Ride to Conquer Cancer!  FROGBOX is proud to help sponsor Todd’s goal to raise $3,200 for the race.  2 out of 5 North American’s will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime but research has helped the survival rate tremendously.  However there is much more research to be done so if you’d like to help Todd reach his goal and also help conquer cancer please go to Todd’s site and donate -every little bit helps.  http://is.gd/bxBMH

Choosing a mover can be a stressful event. Overall movers do not have a great reputation for customer service. While this is accurate with some movers there are many great moving companies out there. FROGBOX rents moving boxes and moving supplies in Vancouver (BC), Seattle (Washington) and Toronto (Ontario) and we have worked with almost every mover in these towns. Here are some tips on finding a good mover:

1. Think about what’s most important to you price or service –while there are some companies that offer a good mix you do need to choose.
2. Get a referral from friends –ask more than one and make sure they were moving similar goods as you.
3. Check Internet sites but review with caution –some movers spend a lot of time creating fake reviews of their service or even creating bogus mover review sites.

If you’re moving in a city that we operate in and would like a recommendation you can email info@frogbox.com!

FROGBOX provides low environmental impact moving boxes and moving supplies for residential and commercial moves. While we always do what we can to minimize our footprint we know that we still emit carbon in the delivery of our moving box service. In order to further lower these emissions

FROGBOX set out to become a Climatesmart Business (http://www.climatesmartbusiness.com/home/climatesmart). Climatesmart is a BC based social enterprise that assists companies to measure and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

We can’t say enough about the program or their instructors. They present material in an easy to understand yet in depth way and have lots of real world experience and examples to drive their lessons home. Another benefit of becoming a Climatesmart business is the opportunity to network with other businesses that are making the commitment to lower their emissions. FROGBOX is now renting moving boxes in Seattle, Vancouver and most recently Toronto. As we continue our expansion across North America we will continue to use the lessons we learned to minimize our carbon footprint.

If you run a business that is interested in lowering your footprint check out Climatesmart, it’s a great program!