Each day you invent the future with the choices you make about food, transportation, and energy use.

A Quick Chat with Dr. David Suzuki

Last November I had the good fortune of meeting David Suzuki, Canada’s foremost environmentalist. He was in Toronto at a fundraiser for his Foundation. Prior to giving his speech David walked through the crowd talking with everyone. Conversations in the room ranged from global climate change to the epidemic level of childhood asthma. It was a well-informed crowd that had come to hear David speak. The topics being discussed that night however left me feeling like there was little any of us could do to reverse the environmental destruction going on all around us.

I asked David how he stays optimistic. His answer surprised me. He told me that he'll be dead and gone long before the world faces the worst of the results of our actions. He said that his grandchildren are the reason he keeps doing what he does, not wishing to leave them with a hopeless mess. This really got me thinking about my own reasons for continuing to promote environmentally responsible products (I’ve been doing it since 1985).

It has at times seemed like an extreme uphill battle. Our drinking water is foul and we must now buy it in bottles, 90% of the ocean’s large predatory fish are gone, and all of us know someone close to us who is either living with or dying from cancer. So it's easy to ask yourself, why bother at all? Is anything I do going to make a difference anyway??? That’s the question I was left with after talking with David Suzuki.

While contemplating my own personal reasons for continuing on, I recalled a story I’d read a few years back. It resonated with me then and reminded again now why I continue to do what I do. It goes something like this:

One day there was a young woman walking along the beach after a large storm had passed through the area. The huge waves of the storm had washed ashore hundreds and hundreds of beautiful Star Fish. Once the woman saw this she began tossing these stranded creatures carefully back into the sea. After an hour or so of this delicate work, an old man that was also out for a walk came toward her. As he came closer she could see he was laughing at her. He stopped and said to her " Why are you doing that? There must be almost a thousand Star Fish stranded on this beach, and there's only one of you. How could possibly make a difference"? The woman listened carefully to the man as she picked up yet another Star Fish, gently placing it back in the ocean. Just as she finished she looked straight at the weary old man and replied, "Well, I guess I made a difference to that one"!

Let’s face it, not all of us can be like David Suzuki and influence the behavior of thousands of people through books, TV, and radio. But if we look around our lives we might find we can have a large impact by leading by example and influencing those around us to make better choices.
Proof of this theory may even be right here... if you took the time to read all this, well then maybe, just maybe I ‘ve made a difference to "that one".

Make it a great day!

Bernie Ross
CEO