In The News

As reported by ClickGreen UK, Toronto has joined New York and London in signing up to a unique carbon reporting scheme. The initiative, organized by global non-for-profit "The Carbon Disclosure Project" (CDP), provides a system for cities worldwide to report on their greenhouse gas emissions and climate-related strategies.

"CDP Cities, in partnership with the C40 and the Clinton Climate initiative (CCI), has asked the largest cities in the world committed to tackling climate change � the 40 member cities and 19 affiliate member cities of the C40 � to voluntarily measure and report to CDP so the cities can proactively manage risks, reduce carbon and further adopt strategies that safeguard the future of cities."

"London, Toronto and New York have already agreed to report their carbon emissions data to CDP."

"Cities play an essential and leading role in accelerating solutions to climate change and C40 cities are already making a massive impact," said David Miller, Mayor of Toronto and chair of C40."

"CDP will provide a reporting platform that allows C40 cities to track their progress on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and share that critical data with each other and around the globe."

read full story here
original source ClickGreen UK

Blog TO writes about Toronto startup, WineAlign, a website that allows users to discuss and review wines on the LCBO shelf. Founded by Toronto entrepreneur Bryan McCaw, WineAlign has accumulated over 11,000 members since its launch in late-2008.

"Bryan is one of those entrepreneurs who had an Oprah "Aha!" moment that led to building a business. He's a serial entrepreneur and after selling his second business he went to the LCBO to find a bottle of wine to celebrate. "I paid $100 for it, there was no interaction, I brought it home and it tasted bad," he says. "So that was the real inspiration for WineAlign." He says the site answers the question "What wine do I buy today?" whether someone is looking for the best Cabernet Sauvignon or something to pair with salmon."

"WineAlignThe site is integrated with LCBO inventory, so users enter search parameters including how much they want to spend, the type of wine they're looking for and where they're located. The site returns a list of wines in-stock at the closest store that match that criteria. Users can also read reviews from top wine critics and submit their own reviews - something McCaw says sets his site apart. "We differentiate by allowing users to vary the influence of wine critics and other users on their wine results; this is the "Align" part of WineAlign. Users can review their own wines and those reviews form a part of the aggregate wine score."

read full story here
original source Blog TO

The Toronto Star features Leigh & Harlow, a west Queen West clothing boutique begun by Torontonians Gus Papaioannou and Tony Vlachos. Open less than two years Leigh & Harlow has been so successful the owner's recently opened a second location, at the Shops at Don Mills.

"When Gus Papaioannou and Tony Vlachos decided to open up a clothing store in Toronto, the focus of their energies came down to one little truth � location is everything."

"Their shop, Leigh & Harlow, carries men's and ladies' fashion brands from Europe, the U.S. and Canada, which Papaioannou describes as young, contemporary fashion, not too edgy.

"Our demographic is young professional, single or married, anywhere between 23 to 45," he said. "This is the fashion-conscious individual who wants quality, and to look good without being generic."

"So what better location for a shop than Queen Street West, which they opened a year and a half ago."

read full story here
original source Toronto Star

The Globe & Mail lauds Harbord tattoo parlour Speakeasy for their innovative use of both online and traditional PR. Owner Lizzie Renaud uses almost every available social media tool -- Twitter, WordPress, Tumblr, Facebook, MySpace, and Flickr -- to showcase artwork, stories and even to fill last minute cancellations. But Renaud is also known for her use of more traditional communications, in the summer of 2010 she worked with a designer to create postcard-shaped handbills to advertise Speakeasy's "guest artists" program.

"When a colleague told me about Toronto-based Speakeasy Tattoo, I was intrigued. She said Lizzie Renaud, the shop's owner, was doing some really cool things online � Ms. Renaud and her team fill last-minute cancellations through Twitter and share their stories and artwork on WordPress, Tumblr, Facebook, MySpace, Flickr and other tattooing websites. You name the social network, Speakeasy is there."

"But marketing is a particular challenge for Ms. Renaud: she runs a very small business in a specialized market, and it is important to her to always respect the tightly knit group of tattoo artists and shops in her community."

"You can't ever come out and say 'we are the best shop in Toronto' because you would be stepping on the toes of the people who made you who you are," Ms. Renaud explains. "The people who taught me to tattoo are in this city, so it is a huge challenge to stay modest and respect everyone."

"So Ms. Renaud and her team did something innovative to set Speakeasy apart: they reached out to five well-known tattoo artists and asked them to work as guests in the summer of 2010. Despite her commitment to blogging and social media, when it came time to promote the roster of guests, she deployed a completely integrated campaign that used a combination of online and offline tactics."

"We decided to go old school," says Ms. Renaud, speaking about her offline strategy. She worked with a designer to produce glossy, postcard-shaped handbills, which included art by the guest artists, the dates they were coming, and the shop contact information."

read full story here
original source Globe & Mail

The Toronto Star writes on Bendale Business and Technical Institute, the Scarborough high school that is home Canada's first school-based market garden. Since the installation of garden beds on the high school's campus students have harvested over 1,800 pounds of food, all put to good use in the school's cafeterias and pay-what-you-can community markets.

"This is the cutting edge of edible education. What Bendale has is one step beyond a simple school garden but not quite an urban farm. It's believed to be Canada's first school-based market garden. It proves the educational value of food and all the ways it can be worked into the curriculum. And, if all goes as planned, Bendale will serve as a model for schools across the country."

"There are so many schools that could be turning their lawns into fields of food," says garden co-ordinator Ian Hepburn-Aley, a community food facilitator with FoodShare."

"FoodShare is a non-profit organization that tackles food and hunger issues through grassroots projects. It has helped 26 Toronto schools create food gardens and is working with five more on indoor/outdoor growing projects. Most are modest affairs, cared for by staff, students and parent volunteers. Many languish over the summer."

"What sets Bendale apart is its funding and its scale. The high school, on Midland Avenue north of Lawrence, experimented with two of FoodShare's small "Footprint Gardens." Then it was chosen to pilot a large-scale garden through an 11-month, $65,000 Ontario Community Go Green Fund grant, awarded to projects that reduce greenhouse gas omissions."

read full story here
original source Toronto Star

The Toronto Star features Homestars, a website launched by Torontonian Nancy Peterson that allows homeowners to post reviews of renovation-related service providers. With over 250,000 Canadian companies listed (including 50,000 in Toronto), Homestars has become an invaluable resource for Canadians needing renovations and repairs.
 
"Prior to launching the website, Peterson held senior marketing positions at major corporations, including Kraft Foods and Procter & Gamble."

"It was hard to leave a good paying job and start a company where you are not going to make a salary for a long time," she says. But Peterson believed in her idea � a sort of TripAdvisor site for home renovations."

"To fund HomeStars, she used her own savings, took out a loan and then fundraised among friends, family and angel investors.The site broke even in 2008. Since then, profits have been reinvested in the company to fund growth � building new markets and adding new staff. There are now 13 employees, compared to four at the beginning."

read full story here
original source Toronto Star

Infonaut, a Toronto-based IT company that specializes in innovative ways of organizing healthcare data, was recently featured in the November Edition of Popular Science. The magazine looks at Infonaut's "Hospital Watch Live"--a system that tracks the movements of people and devices in hospitals "to record the location of anything that could possibly transport microbes, including the doctors and nurses themselves."

"The fastest way to spread disease is to pack a lot of sick people in one place. That's why hospitals are such a health hazard� equipment and personnel move from patient to patient and carry infectious agents in the process. One solution is to keep better track of every patient, wheelchair and IV stand to locate what's spreading disease and what needs to be sterilized, and one Cana- dian company is the first to deploy a system to do just that. Infonaut's Hospital Watch Live system uses a combination of tracking software and inexpensive radio-frequency ID tags to record the location of anything that could possibly transport microbes, including the doctors and nurses themselves. Wireless receivers throughout the building transmit the position of each tag to a central computer about every three seconds"

read full story here (pg 40)
original source Popular Science

Telegraph travel journalist Sarah Barrell raves about a recent trip to Toronto, praising everything from its skyscrapers, to its international arts scene to its diverse ethnic cuisine.
 
"Everywhere you look in downtown Toronto skyscrapers are rising. This new landscape of chrome and glass, unrecognisable from a couple of years ago, disorientates me as I try to find the ferry terminal. When I eventually make it across to leafy Toronto Island, I'm rewarded with a view back to the mainland of the perfect North American pop-up city, seemingly growing before my eyes."

"Briefly in the Sixties it had a tantalising brush with Bohemia as a hub for draft dodgers, but it's only in the past few years that the place has let its creative communities lead the way. This new confidence can be seen everywhere: in a crop of new luxury hotels, an innovative dining scene, and pioneering art galleries and design studios."

read full story here
original source Telegraph UK

Toronto's International Festival of Authors (IFOA), an 11-day festival of readings, interviews, lectures, and book signings, celebrated its 31st anniversary this October. According to a review by the Guardian UK, this year's IFOA was an unqualified success, showcasing the best of Canadian and International literature.

"The IFOA is both fiercely Canadian, aggressively international, and dedicated to getting the best writers and editors together for a kind of rolling symposium. Where else could you find David Mitchell, Claudio Magris and Andrea Levy under one roof? And it's not just about big names, there's an interest in diversity, too. In the registration office at the Festival HQ there's the UK crime writer Peter James, a Dutch publisher Lidewijde Paris of Ailantus, a new imprint, and Alissa York, an up-and-coming Canadian novelist."

read full story here
original source Guardian UK

As reported by the Business Standard, researchers from the University of Toronto have teamed-up with scientists from across India to work on new approaches to fighting malaria. The research, funded by the International Science and Technology Partnerships Canada and the Indian government's Department of Biotechnology, will focus on "slow-release therapies and drug and delivery combination approaches that specifically target a form of malaria that can lay dormant in the liver."

"In addition to developing new therapeutics, we are also bringing together existing technologies developed by the partners and combining them in new ways such that one will have the potential to boost the effectiveness of another," said Lakshmi P Kotra, director at the Centre for Molecular Design and Preformulations at the University Health Network and University of Toronto."

"It was a fascinating process to see different organisations with deep knowledge in their individual fields coming together and combining this knowledge to create innovative and new approaches to the treatment of this disease," said Virander Chauhan, Director, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in New Delhi."

read full story here
original source Business Standard

The National Post writes on Toronto-based company Star Navigation Systems Group and their attempt to revolutionize aircraft Black Box technology. Rather than traditional black boxes which store data in a physical box, the company's "Terrastar" onboard monitoring system would produce satellite signals to send data to a ground-based monitoring station in real-time.
 
"Part of the tragedy of Air France flight 447 is the plane's Black Box flight recorders, along with the definitive cause of the crash contained therein, might be lost forever miles beneath the surface of the mid-Atlantic."

"Viraf Kapadia, founder and chief executive of Star Navigation Systems Group Inc., is hoping his company's technology will ensure that is never again happens."

"Billed as "the new Black Box," the Toronto-based firm's Terrastar onboard monitoring system records flight data in much the same way the traditional Black Box does. But instead of storing the data in a physical box on the aircraft where it could be damaged, lost or destroyed, Terrastar encrypts the information and transmits it via satellite to a ground-based monitoring station, where it is decrypted and stored in real time."

"Say you're the vice-president of engineering for Air Canada and you're at an aviation show or conference. Something goes wrong with one of your aircraft of high priority then you will receive an email on your computer with WiFi or your BlackBerry telling you exactly what is wrong in plain English," Mr. Kapadia said."

read full story here
original source National Post

The Globe & Mail has singled-out Toronto's Porter Airline's as an exemplar of great customer service. The successful airline is lauded for its "refined" look, comfortable lounges and friendly staff.

"The company to watch for new thinking about customer experience, Porter Airlines just four years out of the gate is all about service and style. As Canada's third-largest scheduled carrier, maintaining its "refined" look and feel and providing a special level of service and experience to passengers have been key to its success."

"People now expect this," says Brad Cicero, the manager of communications and public affairs for Porter. "It's about delivering a consistent experience."

read full story here
original source Globe & Mail

BlogTO reviews Shelter Furniture, the newest design store to open in the Eglinton-Lawrence area. Located in a remodeled warehouse at Caledonia Road and Glencairn Avenue, the store is described as "beautiful, brightly lit, and well organized...".

"What I most liked was the large collection of dining room tables and chairs. Too many times, furniture stores overlook these pieces because they can start to all look the same, but Shelter Furniture has enough variety to making choosing the perfect piece enjoyably difficult. Among my favourite pieces are the extendable frosted white glass dining table with brushed metal base ($999) and the Dakota dining table with clear glass top and wooden "swoosh" base ($1599). My must-have table is the strikingly cool Opio bleached pine table at 110' for $1999. It's big enough to fit a family for holiday dinners but cute enough for even the most intimate of breakfasts."

read full story here
original source BlogTO

As reported by the CBC Toronto's bike-sharing program, known as Bixi, has officially signed up its 1,000th member. The City of Toronto had earlier pledged to support the program if Bixi could collect 1,000 membership pledges before this November. Now that the membership goal has been met the City will commit a $4.8-million startup loan for the bike-share program.

"When the program launches in May 2011, bikes will be available from 80 locations south of Bloor Street between Spadina Avenue and Jarvis Street. A resident or visitor will be able to use one of the bikes for a fee of $78 a year, $28 per month or $5 per day."

"Toronto will guarantee a $4.8-million startup loan for Bixi and has to dig up $600,000 in sponsorship deals. But the city is not directly funding the program. But the city is not directly funding the program. Public Bike System Company runs a similar Bixi program in Montreal, which has about 5,000 bikes parked at about 400 stations across the city."

read full story here
original source CBC

The Sydney Morning Herald hails Toronto as a foodie travel destination describing the city as "a smorgasbord of global cuisines, from Albanian to Indian and everything in between". Dundas West's Black Hoof and Gerrard Street East's Lahore Tikka House are among the many culinary recommendations.

"...Two of Toronto's trends - homemade charcuterie and no-reservation restaurants - collide at Black Hoof, which has, perhaps predictably, become one of the hottest tables in town. If you're not fussy about which animal parts you're willing to wrap your mouth around, you'll love superbly prepared offerings such as horse tartare, bone marrow and tongue in brioche. If you're a bit more squeamish, stick with cured meats such as duck prosciutto and blueberry bison salami."

read full story here
original source Sydney Morning Herald