AZ Digitals Blog

On Nov.29 the Progressive Conservative government in Ontario unveiled a new plan to address the province’s environmental challenges
entitled Preserving and Protecting our Environment for Future Generations: A Made-in-Ontario Environment Plan. Below is a breakdown of
what foodservice operators need to know about the new Ontario environment plan.

A Shift Away from Cap-And-Trade

The new plan recommits the province toward meeting the emissions-reduction goals in the Paris Accord, but without the previous
cap-and-trade system. The cap-and-trade model put limits on the amount of pollution that companies in certain industries could emit but
permitted them to buy allowances at auction or from other organizations that came in under their limits.

Under the new Ontario environment plan. The province will spend $400 million over four years. The Ontario Carbon Trust is the name of the fund the investment will be made on. Hence, with the intention to incentivize the adoption of environmentally friendly practices and technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Supporting Businesses with Waste Reduction

A section in the new plan entitled “Reducing Litter and Waste in Our Communities & Keeping our Land and Soil Clean” talks about the need for
businesses, including restaurants, to contribute to waste reduction through largely voluntary diversion programs. Below are some of the actions
listed in the new Ontario environment plan that the government plans on undertaking to help businesses improve waste reduction practices.

Actions to assist businesses with reducing food waste:

1. Expand green bin or similar collection systems in large cities and to relevant businesses.
2. Develop a proposal to ban food waste from landfill. Further, consult with key partners such as municipalities, businesses and the waste industry.
3. Educate the public and business about reducing and diverting food and organic waste.
4. Develop best practices for safe food donation.

The restaurants generally don’t generate much food waste. Hence, the actions will be more welcomed by foodservice businesses. No food is such that it hasn’t been served. This means what’s prepared needs to be served. This is highly important is a tight-margin industry.

According to results from a recent quarterly Restaurant Outlook Survey. A huge 77 per cent of restaurateurs and other foodservice operators. This is all across the country already track, compost or donate leftover food.

Restaurants Canada is already working with organizations such as Second Harvest and FoodRescue.ca to assist restaurants with donating
safe, surplus food and looks forward to consulting with the Ontario government on best practices around food donation.

Actions to assist businesses with reducing waste from plastics and other packaging materials:

• Seek federal commitment to implement national standards that address recyclability and labelling for plastic products and packaging to
reduce the cost of recycling in Ontario.
• Work with municipalities and producers to provide more consistency across the province. Also, regarding what can and cannot be accepted in the Blue Box program.
• Explore additional opportunities to reduce and recycle waste in our businesses and institutions.
• The emerging green bin programs across the provinces introduced by the Govt. These are existing and emerging bin programs all submerged. These programs ensure the acceptability that ensures new compostable packaging materials in Ontario.

by working with municipalities and private composting facilities to build a consensus around requirements for emerging compostable materials.

These are actions that Restaurants Canada has long been advocating for from governments. The foodservice industry is facing increasing demand for delivery and take-out meals. This requires containers and other single-use items to ensure food quality, safety and accessibility needs are met. The rules set by the municipalities must be clear and set of common rules. This is for accepting products into their respective waste diversion programs. Instead of the waste end of in the landfills. The recycling and composition of the items beforehand is a huge responsibility.

Placing Responsibility on Waste Producers

The new Ontario environment plan states. “Making producers responsible for the full life-cycle of their products and the waste they produce. This will help companies to consider what materials they use in and to package their products. Also, find new and innovative cost-effective ways to recycle them and lower costs for consumers. It can also make recycling easier and more accessible.”

The plan lists the following actions that the Ontario government will take. This means more responsibility on businesses that produce waste:

• Move Ontario’s existing waste diversion programs to the producer responsibility model. This will provide relief for taxpayers. Also, make producers of packaging and products more efficient. The markets that recycle what they produce are better-off. Through sustainable connectivity, there must be an improve in the floating efficiency with similar markets.
• Consider making producers responsible for the end of life management of compostable products and packaging.

Sharing in funding i.e. 50% of the net for businesses known or considered as Blue Box Stewards. This is all according to the Ontario’s Waste Diversion Act.
cost of municipal recycling programs. Any increase to the level of responsibility that the industry must shoulder for costs of waste management
should come with a proportionate increase in control over the efficacy of those programs. Implementing a producer responsibility model for waste management programs. Heard globally in the form of discussions and seminars. Restaurants Canada wants to make sure that the voice becomes a common one. This voice is the voice of foodservice.

Michael Habib has been working in the convenience store sector for more than 30 years. His approach to business – and a key ingredient in his  sustained success – can be summed up in five words. Stand out from the crowd. That big, bold attitude is evident before customers even walk through the doors of Jubliee Junction Convenience, a c-store in central Halifax that Habib opened in 2006. An outside wall is emblazoned with street art created by a customer. A train is pulling a giant, one-of-a-kind ice-cream sandwich (for which the store is renowned), and an old-fashioned shake, complete with red and white twizzle straw, proudly proclaims, “Try the best milkshake in the city.”

“I offer things nobody else offers. I create things nobody else creates,” says Habib, who runs the store with his brother Al and his son Nick.

The ability to meet customers’ needs isn’t happenstance. Habib makes it a point to ask people what they are looking for and if they need a hand to find something. Nobody, he notes, knows the store as well as he does and customers – always greeted with a warm “hello” – are intrigued that he offers assistance.

The inquiry and the friendly greeting reflect the 54-year-old’s outgoing personality, but they are also good business. “I don’t want a customer to walk out if I can help them,” says Habib, whose family fled Lebanon in 1976 as civil war erupted.

Invariably, customers will walk out satisfied. Jammed into every corner of the 1,000 sq. ft. corner store (literally on a corner) are items as diverse as tennis balls, candy cigarettes, chili sauce and poker chips. “People aren’t here looking for deals,” stresses Habib. “They’re looking for convenience.”

It’s a regular occurrence, he adds, for customers, often harried and frustrated, to walk into his store looking for an item they have not been able to find at three or four or five other stores, including department and big box stores. Fortunately, their luck usually changes at Jubilee Junction.
The diversity of items in the store, known as J.J.s by the locals, echoes the diversity of customers who pop in to pick something up. The c-store is situated on the corner of Jubilee Rd. and Preston St., a neighborhood which represents a mix of single family residences in an older, established area of the city. Close by are Dalhousie University and the University of King’s College, and many students routinely make their way to Jubilee Junction for snacks, groceries, and special treats.

Getting people in through the doors is a critical first step, saysHabib. But once in, he realizes you also have to keep their interest. Recognizing the growing importance of food offerings, Habib opened a small snack bar in the back of the store two years ago where customers can grab a slice of pizza, a fresh-off-the-grill burger, poutine slathered in gravy, and more. The impetus for the expansion: the convenience store across the street started selling food. “People are creatures of habit,” says Habib. “Once you pick up one thing, you pick up another.”

Snapshot

Opened: In 2006, Michael Habib opened Jubilee Junction, but the location has been operating as a convenience store for more than 60 years.

Location: 6273 Jubilee Rd. in central Halifax where university students, seniors and young families live and shop.Size: 1,000 sq. ft., most of which is covered with items for sale.

Most popular items: pizza, Death by Chocolate milk shake, ice cream sandwiches.

Jubilee Junction’s tips for a successful store

Understand location. Every neighborhood is different, and you must know what people in your area need – then meet, and exceed, those needs.

Continue to grow. Keep an eye on trends – like Facebook and favorite snacks – then try to incorporate those into your daily operations.

Courtesy: Ensemble IQ

Circle K stores removed posters from windows, creating a sight-line from the street to the cash register

Robberies of Circle K convenience stores have decreased by 18 per cent after shop owners in Peel Region removed posters from certain
windows.

It’s called the Clear Zone program and Circle K tried it out back in 2013 when Peel Regional Police approached the company with the idea.

Peel police’s crime prevention constable, Amy Boudreau, says the concept is simple.
When you can see directly into a store and the front counter is visible from the street, you deter criminals because they know it’s more
likely they’ll get caught.

Program expanding to other cities

Clear Zone has done so well that Circle K put it to work in other cities, like Thunder Bay, Ottawa and Toronto, as part of a pilot program.

The company’s manager of security, Sean Sportun, says in some high-risk areas, crime incidents have decreased 100 per cent. But most
of all, he says, it’s an added sense of security for shop owners and their employees.
“When we go into a store and we remove the signage that’s in there … it’s an immediate sense of safety because you can see outside and
people can see you,” said Sportun.

Peel Regional Police work with Circle K to set everything up. They also provide the store with a warning sticker to put on the door that
says, “Robbery Prevention Program in effect.” There’s also a sticker to place by the phone, so that if a store is robbed, the employee
knows what to do.

“Sometimes [the employee is] upset and shaken and can’t think clearly,” said Boudreau. “So step one is to lock the doors to prevent the
criminal from entering the store again.”

This is the Clear Zone kit that’s given to shop owners and employees so they know what to do if they’re robbed. The red sticker on the right
is the one placed on the door to deter criminals. (Amy Boudreau/Peel Regional Police)
Step two is to call the police, not the store owner or a loved one, and the final step, is to leave everything as is.

“We’ve had instances where people started cleaning up and that can affect our investigation. It could remove finger- or shoe-prints,” said
Boudreau.

Sportun says Clear Zone’s overall success has led Circle K to make the program its own. In order to continue expanding throughout the
province, the company has partnered with Crime Stoppers.
According to Boudreau, other stores are beginning to use Clear Zone as well. There’s also talk of other police services adopting the
program in their jurisdictions.

According to Boudreau, other stores are beginning to use Clear Zone as well. There’s also talk of other police services adopting the
program in their jurisdictions.

Read the related blog: CIRCLE K RE-BRANDING EFFORTS, 5,000 STORES ACROSS NORTH