What is Green Enterprise Toronto?

GET is a network to help local businesses and customers to "vote with your dollars" for people, planet, and profit. more

GET News (updated regularly)

Green Coalition Merges With Green Enterprise Toronto, plus new GET video, "Growing Deep" BALLE conference report, and more! more

What do you mean by green?

Green filters, certification, screening criteria, eye of the green needle—how do you know if you’re ‘green’ enough?

A new article by GET Network Director Chris Lowry aims to help us sort out this shady question. more

GET Mentors

GET Members can book a lunch meeting to learn from any of the people on this list! If you are not yet a member, this is one more reason to join.

To consult the complete list of GET Mentors and apply to invite a mentor to lunch, please contact coordinator Warren Coughlin at warrencoughlin@actioncoach.com more

VIA Rail Group Discount for GET Members! Take Advantage of Your GET Member Discount on VIA Rail for Business or Pleasure

Membership has its privileges. Provided that you book online, you will receive 7% off any fare - from the deepest discounted fares right up to VIA1. Members please contact the GET office if you have not got the discount code and instructions. more

Thomas Homer-Dixon September 9 at CSI
5:30 PM – 7:00 PM, $15 with pre-registration

The Climate-Energy Challenge: How it will change our economy and society

A consensus is emerging among climate scientists that the world needs to move to as quickly as possible to zero carbon emissions. The rate of ramp down to zero will depend, in large part, on the perceived urgency of the climate crisis. Steeper rates of decline will require more unconventional (and perhaps innovative) technologies and institutions and likely more state intervention in economies to mobilize human and financial capital. What has this got to do with business opportunities in local living economies? Come and find out. more

Local Green Business Leaders On Video, Free Online

Catch up with the GET Smart Speakers series. It’s quick, easy and free. Check them out at www.torontocorporatevideo.com/get

* "6 Steps to Business Success" with Warren Coughlin, May 8th, 2007
* "Mountain Equipment Co-Op - An Accidental Success Story" with Sean McSweeney
* "What We Mean By 'Green' And 'Local': The Story of GET and the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE)" with Chris Lowry
* "How To Profit From Greening Your Business" with Bob Willard
* "Values Based Retail - A Contradiction In Terms?" with Rob Grand, Grassroots
* "Public Cars, Private Transit" with Kevin McLaughlin, Autoshare
* "Bikes Without Borders" with Mike Brcic
* "Linking People to Places" with Rob MacIsaac, Metrolinx

Thanks to Adrian, Daniel and Paul at Toronto Corporate Video! more

The Brewers Plate, A Local Sustainable Feast
Don't miss the Second Annual Brewers Plate Friday, March 27, 2009!

Co-Sponsored by Local Food Plus and Slow Food Toronto

Take a moment to see a wonderful slide show of this event and check out the fascinating Ontario Brewer Podcast #17. This is an excellent audio documentary featuring Chris Lowry with Jamie Kennedy and Paul de Campo of Slow Food Toronto. Links below!

What does a great local spring feast look like in southern Ontario? It looks like the Brewers Plate! Thanks to the fabulous growers, food producers, brewers. chefs, food artisans and restauranteurs who made this first annual event such a great success.
"It's a beautiful way to the future!" (Jamie Kennedy) more

Mark Your Calendars!
The New GET Smart Seminar Series is All About Business

September 16: How to stretch your marketing dollars: Eco-smart advertising for maximum impact
October 14: What does being a values-based business mean and how can it make me money?
January 13/09: How to finance new ventures, growth and green capital expenditures
February 10/09: Grow your business while supporting your community
April 14/09: How to advertise without killing the planet
June 9/09: Starting an office-less office

Each Seminar is at 215 Spadina, Suite 120, 7 pm. Free for GET members, $75 for non-members. more

Great Movies

Planet in Focus Film & Video Festival Oct. 22-26

Planet in Focus: International Environmental Film & Video Festival promotes and showcases outstanding and compelling films and videos in all forms (documentary, drama, animation, experimental, new media), focusing on environmental themes and subjects by Canadian and international filmmakers. We use environmental artistic expression as a catalyst for public awareness, discussion, and appropriate action on the ecological and social health of the planet. more

Taste Slow, Local and Delicious...

all year-round.

more

Update from the Network Director

If you look on the right you'll see some new sustaining members. Our media sponsors help us to attract more people to our directory, where we connect mindful local customers with the values-based independent businesses in our network.

The website and directory have been enhanced. You can expect more new features soon.

Look for the GET Member window sticker in local independent shops and restaurants. Soon, with your help, this important symbol of local, sustainable commitment will be all over town and customers will come to know and trust it.

more

GET Testimonials

"GET is one of the premiere promoters of progressive economic development in North America. Grounded in the ideas of Jane Jacobs -- to create an economy that is locally owned, diversified, and community-friendly – GET is helping Toronto realize its full potential, and inoculating the city from the coming risks of energy insecurity and climate change. In less than 2 years, GET has established itself as a powerful, place-based alliance of independent businesses and customers that is impressively aligning the concepts of people, planet, and profits. Toronto residents, businesspeople, politicians, and civic leaders should feel blessed to have an organization like GET, and give it the support it needs to thrive and grow."
—Michael H. Shuman, Author of The Small-Mart Revolution

"Thank you so much for inviting me to your wonderful talk. I was so delighted to witness such an awesome project going on in my own backyard. Toronto is a place that I am passionate about. You grabbed my attention the minute you started to describe what you loved about Toronto, mainly the fact that you are fascinated by ALL the city has to offer."
— Annette Grewal, Universarium Project

"I would like to thank you for your excellent presentation. My business philosophy is based on the triple-bottom line, and we have worked to implement the three P's (Planet, People, Profit) as as much as we can. Passionate entrepreneurship works according to a spiral where one can constantly evolve upwards, by maybe spinning around one's axis a few times until one gets each thing right... and when one does get it right, one moves higher (in quality output, work satisfaction, enhanced creativity, sustainability, contribution to community, team spirit, and profits).... How exciting it is to create and help evolve a business, and how much more exciting it is to create and help evolve a business that works in alignment with one's values. I look forward to becoming a member of GET, and I look forward to participating in future events."
— Saeed Rouhani, Camros Organic Eatery more

The Story of Stuff

Why is the local living economy part of the solution? Here is a 20-minute animated story that looks at what makes the consumer society tick, and points in the direction of the values that we celebrate. more

You can GET Involved!
CHARTER MEMBERS AND VOLUNTEERS provide essential support for GET. Click here to find out more.

While we feature links to our Sustaining Members on the right of the page, we gratefully acknowledge the essential support of our Charter members. more