Stand tall

Select harvesting in 1910 │ Credit: John Boyd / Library and Archives Canada

Bowater Mersey’s parent company recently signed a marketing deal with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). In exchange for the panda-bear stamp of approval from the conservation group, the international paper and wood-products company AbitibiBowater Inc. — operating under the new name of Resolute Forest Products Inc. — must reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and have 80 per cent of its forests certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) by 2015.

Like the WWF panda, the FSC stamp will be used as a marketing tool to gain customer approval for the “greenness” of Resolute’s products and supply chain. In a tight market, this kind of labelling can help consumers distinguish between products that are essentially the same. But trace the Resolute-Bowater supply chain backwards and you’ll end up in the woods of western Nova Scotia, where private woodlot owners are being squeezed by the company. Is this a sustainable supply chain in any meaningful sense of the word? I don’t think so.

Not big, but small

Vintage shellac records are Michael Robertson’s thing.

“We may not be big, but we’re small.” That’s Dave’s business motto in the fictional account of a small, second-hand record store in Toronto called the Vinyl Cafe, made famous by Stuart McLean’s radio program.

The motto is apropos for this story about a real Toronto record dealer, Michael Robertson, who is preparing to pack up his collection of vintage 78 rpm records and move his online music business and young family to Bridgetown because, well, it’s not big, it’s small.