Leaf Ninjas of YYC Metro Growers, in collaboration with the Ramsay Community Centre, are aiming to start a weekday Farmers Market in the Ramsay community in Calgary. What weekday would you prefer? They have narrowed it down to Tuesday or Thursday because they do not want to compete with the Hillhurst-Sunnyside market or all the other amazing weekend farmers markets in Calgary.
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All posts for the month June, 2012
One of Calgary’s most innovative social businesses, DIRTT Environmental Solutions, has been named by Fast Company’s Co.Exist as a rockstar of the new economy in the article below:
3 Rockstars Of The New Economy
WRITTEN BY: Jay Coen Gilbert and Katie Kerr
Companies are starting to prove that it’s possible to be the best in the world and also the best for the world. Here are three of the most exciting.
DIRTT ENVIRONMENTAL SOLUTIONS
Based in Calgary, Canada, with operations in Phoenix and Savannah, Georgia, DIRTT Environmental Solutions is modernizing the construction industry by replacing dated, stud and drywall construction with sustainable, pre-engineered modular walls, plug and play power and data, millwork, and more.
Fast Company’s Co.Exist reports on WORLD CHANGING IDEAS AND INNOVATION.
Read full article here.
SEA Change is proud to introduce YYC Metro Growers!
They are a strategic alliance of Urban/SPIN farmers and entrepreneurial food growers in Calgary sharing knowledge & working together to build an infrastructure so all can thrive.
Follow this link to get to know the members of the alliance: http://seachangecalgary.ca/tag/yycmetrogrowers/
LIKE them on Facebook: yyc.metro.growers
FOLLOW them on Twitter: @yycmetrogrowers
EMAIL them at: info@seachangecalgary.ca with yycmetrogrowers in the subject line and we will put you in touch 
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SEA Change is proud to support this “growing” form of social entrepreneurship because they are directly addressing two of our society’s most pressing challenges, food security and health.
SEA Change is proud to introduce the social entrepreneurs/urban farmers of Urban Sunflower!
Rita and Jerremie’s delicious honey and potatoes can be found at the Hillhurst-Sunnyside Farmer’s Market in Calgary on Wednesday’s.
As per: http://www.urbansunflower.ca/
Urban Sunflower Market Gardens is a Calgary area producer of chemical free and sustainably grown vegetables, flowers and bee products.
What We Do
Urban Sunflower is dedicated to growing vegetables – especially potatoes – and keeping bees in an environmentally friendly way.
This means we don’t use chemical inputs, we primarily use hand tools (muscle power is good for us), and only small engine power equipment when necessary (limits our fossil fuel consumption). We plant and use mulch to help retain moisture and limit watering.
And yes, we have bees. The little ladies both help with the gardening through pollination and share their excess honey with us. Now if only they could pitch in on the weeding.
Meet Aquaponics Collective!
As per Wikipedia, Aquaponics /ˈækwəˈpɒnɨks/ is a sustainable food production system that combines a traditional aquaculture (raising aquatic animals such as snails, fish, crayfish or prawns in tanks) with hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) in a symbiotic environment. In the aquaculture, effluents accumulate in the water, increasing toxicity for the fish. This water is led to a hydroponic system where the by-products from the aquaculture are filtered out by the plants as vital nutrients, after which the cleansed water is recirculated back to the animals. The term aquaponicsis a portmanteau of the terms aquaculture and hydroponic.
In other words, Kelsey will be raising fish
Learn more about this exciting budding social enterprise at: http://www.facebook.com/groups/464502770232778/
Meet Locavore Farms!
As per: http://locavorefarms.blogspot.ca/
We are a local father and son team, practicing SPIN (Small Plot Intensive) farming. While not certified organic, we practice all organic gardening methods and do not use chemicals of any kind. We call this shadow organic to differentiate!
Our farm is located on a quiet suburban street in Tuscany, on land donated by Carma development group (many thanks) and is dedicated to the local food movement. Our mission is to produce healthy, organic food within the city limits, with the lowest possible carbon-footprint.
Click here to learn more about this amazing social enterprise!
Meet Leaf Ninjas!
As per: http://leafninjasmission.wordpress.com/about-us/
Leaf Ninjas is a small family of entrepreneurs; lead by gardener and farmer Luke Kimmel, the Leaf Ninjas team has set out to design and cultivate highly productive urban farms and permaculture gardens in Calgary, AB.
The Leaf Ninjas main goal is to grow good food locally using organic methods, and to educate and empower other people to grow food in this way.
The “ninja approach” to farming and gardening is centered around the application of martial arts, permaculture, and business savvy, to the many aspects of growing food.
Click here to learn more about this amazing social enterprise!
As per: http://calgary.plusacumen.org/about/
CALGARY+acumen is a volunteer-run chapter that supports Acumen Fund’s mission to change the way the world addresses poverty. We seek to create awareness, raise funds, and be a community resource around the use of social finance and social enterprise.
Meet the socially responsible investment specialist from Raymond James,
Patti B. Dolan, CFP, CSWP, FCSI
Below is an excerpt from: https://www.raymondjames.ca/rjl_marketing/3%20patti%20b%20dolan/
Coming to Raymond James fits perfectly with my outlook on the investment industry. I feel that Raymond James is a firm which truly believes the most important person to our business is the client as stated in their motto “Life Well Planned”.
I specialize in Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) and have done so since 1995. SRI is a screening process that focuses on environment, sustainability and governance. Individuals, businesses and organizations are aligning their personal values with their investment values.
View full profile here.
An excerpt from: http://www.itincanada.ca/index.php?cid=311&id=17078&np=1
SIBs are no easy sell
By: David Zussman
May 29, 2012
On March 29th, the federal government brought down one of the most anticipated budgets in recent years.
The budget contains a number of different themes. The first includes new spending initiatives such as for aboriginal schools, the Pan Am Games, the Coast Guard and Via Rail. The second theme contains a number of policy initiatives that have been sitting in the Department of Finance’s in basket for years but could not find sufficient support from previous governments. These include the abolition of the penny and the raising of the OAC threshold from 65 to 67.
The third theme highlights reducing the size of the federal government by announcing some selective cuts and promising to become more efficient. In this category the government sliced the CBC budget by $100 million, eliminated Katimavik (a Trudeau era youth program), and did away with the Public Appointment Commission (part of the Federal Accountability Act).
In many ways, this budget is reminiscent of several mid-1990s budgets when the Liberal government sought to remedy the fiscal situation by encouraging the creation of alternative service delivery (ASD) mechanisms as a means of making government more cost effective. At the time, the government avoided getting on the New Public Management bandwagon by choosing instead to pursue a non-doctrinaire approach to ASDs by looking for ways to experiment with new governance and delivery models.
In the recent March budget, the Finance minister continues this approach to deficit fighting by declaring his intentions to look at a new ASD model in the most indirect way possible. In the finest example of bureaucratese, Jim Flaherty states that, “the government will continue to explore social finance instruments as a way to further encourage the development of government-community partnerships.”
Follow link to read full article: http://www.itincanada.ca/index.php?cid=311&id=17078&np=1
An excerpt from: http://www.montrealgazette.com/Business/piper/6717027/story.html
Ottawa Company proves CATA’s point
By Vito Pilieci, The Ottawa Citizen June 1, 2012
Ottawa firm Teknision Inc. has become the latest company to leverage American crowd funding service Kickstarter to raise investment. The Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance (CATA) has been trying to draw attention to the mass exodus of startups to U.S.-based crowd funding sources.
The technology lobby group believes the trend threatens to hollow out the country’s economy of promising young technology talent. To list on Kickstarter, Teknision had to set up a U.S. mailing address as well as U.S. banking accounts.
Teknision makes software that allows Android tablet users to customize their home screen. The company has raised more than $46,000 U.S. from just under 5,000 people by pre-selling its software.
Many Canadian companies have either set up U.S. mailing addresses and bank accounts or moved to the U.S. to take advantage of services like Kickstarter. Vancouver-born and University of Waterloo-educated Eric Migicovsky set up his company, Pebble Technology, as a business in Silicon Valley. The firm is making a watch that can “talk” to a person’s iPhone or Android phone wirelessly and send updates. He was looking to raise $100,000 U.S., but thanks to crowd-funding, Migicovsky ended up attracting $10.3 million U.S. by pre-selling his watches over the service.
The use of social media to raise money for businesses is accelerating. In April, U.S. President Barack Obama signed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act that contains new crowd-funding provisions. The changes allow small startups to bypass financial markets and traditional methods of attracting investment and sell up to $1 million worth of equity in their businesses to large pools of individual investors using social media.
Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/piper+twice/6717027/story.html#ixzz1wkd6Ba4B
As per: http://www.theseed.ca/social-enterprise.html
SeedWorks is the social enterprise arm of The Mustard Seed. SeedWorks provides quality work crews for residential and commercial construction: clean-up, seasonal maintenance and other labour-related projects. Qualified foremen are hired by SeedWorks to lead and mentor capable teams of current or former Mustard Seed guests as they work toward building confidence and skills with an end goal of sustainable employment.
The vision of SeedWorks is to empower guests of The Mustard Seed to achieve sustainable, independent employment as part of an overall strategy to challenge homelessness in Alberta.
