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Cleaning up consumerism

By Rebecca SpenceStaff Contributor

Haligonians better get on their green, organic cotton, party pants. The first annual Atlantic Eco-Expo will make its debut this weekend – Nov. 21 and Nov. 22 – at Exhibition Park.
Organized by two Dalhousie students, Casey Binkley and Jordan Ekers, the event promises to be an exciting ride. Over 90 companies have signed on to showcase everything from solar panels, to hybrid vehicles, to reusable diapers at the expo.
A major attraction will be an exhibit called “Ocean’s Wild,” which takes kids through a 60-foot-long inflatable whale to teach them about wildlife marine conservation.
There will also be an eco-fashion show featuring local designers and fair trade materials, guest speakers including Peter Corbyn – a chief architect of the One Million Acts of Green challenge – and a cooking demonstration using local produce, presented by The Wooden Monkey.
“The whole green spectrum will be out there,” says Ekers, 22.
There will even be an electric Segway scooter featured at the event for people to try out.
“They’re sweet,” says Binkley. “It’s one of my favourites.”
Ekers is currently finishing up his commerce degree while Binkley, 23, is set to graduate with a degree in management. The pair met back in their first year and became roommates the year after that. Last year, Binkley approached Ekers about helping him organizing an expo for his special events planning class.
“We had to both realize that we were serious about it because it’s been a massive undertaking,” says Ekers. “We’ve literally poured the last 10 to 11 months of our lives and 40-plus hours a week into this.”
Binkley and Ekers sat down and spent “three weeks to a month” writing out a business plan, and then presented it to Binkley’s professor for approval. After speaking to mentors, including each of their fathers, who have backgrounds in business, the two determined the exhibition was something they wanted to pursue on a long-term basis.
“We each got credit for it, but it’s become much larger than that,” says Ekers.
According to Binkley, there have been successful sustainable business exhibitions in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and all across the U.S. He says an expo was organized in Halifax about three years ago, but since then the green movement has become much more widespread.
“Consumers are becoming more attracted to organizations that are providing green products and services,” he says. “There was a gap in the market and good timing for us to come in.”
Binkley and Ekers started their company in January 2009. By May they had worked out enough logistics to be in a position to sell booths.
“It took a little while to get the ball rolling,” says Ekers. “Especially in terms of our website. We built one and then we wanted to redevelop it and we just wanted to make our image perfect before getting it out there.”
By fall, Binkley and Ekers got used to waking up at 7:30 a.m. every day to answer the mass of business e-mails that had accumulated overnight, spending six to seven hours soliciting on the phone and having up to three meetings a day.
“It’s all about staying on top of everything,” says Binkley. “New stuff comes up every day.”
He admits that juggling everything has “been a bit wild.”
“Some weeks your calendar is just so booked with meetings you don’t know what to do,” he says.
Despite the challenges and demands, both Binkley and Ekers believe that their efforts have paid off. Their initial goal was to attract 100 exhibitors, and they’ve managed to organize just a few shy of that number.
“I think that’s amazing,” says Ekers. “The Toronto show had about 130 for their first year and has a market 20 times the size. So I’m pretty happy with where we’re at right now.”
Ultimately, though, both Binkley and Ekers are proud to be able to spread awareness about the environment and sustainability.
“It’s all about education,” says Binkley. “It’s one thing to talk about sustainability and want to get in there and do your part, but how do you actually do it? Being able to show people the organizations that are working towards sustainable products and services is kind of our whole goal.”
Binkley and Ekers will be giving tickets away to students across the HRM in exchange for used cell phones, rechargeable batteries and printer cartridges.
“We’re gonna have to be the ones who have to deal with the consequenes caused by older generations,” says Ekers. “We have to engage the youth in this and make them interested in it.”

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