Pipelines and Skincare – A Lowen’s an opinion piece from the CEO Chad Zelensky

If you’ve been following us for a while, you may have formed an opinion about what we “stand for” as a business.  That’s good.  We are working hard to establish ourselves as something more than simply a purveyor of unique and kick-ass skincare products.

At Lowen’s, we are all about sustainability.  In our ingredient sourcing, packaging, how we operate as a business.  Following along this line, we also love alternate sources of energy and see a real positive movement in adoption and implementation of these “alternates,” with the hope that one day they won’t need the ‘alternate’ qualifier – they will be just other sources of energy.

This future is not utopian.  It is possible.  But it isn’t today…

Today we are dependent on the petroleum industry both directly (energy) and indirectly (clothing, packaging, medication, etc).  The world relies it.  Canada (Alberta) has it and we as Canadians are all blessed (not just BC, AB, SK & NL) with having ample supply of this non-sustainable resource – one derived from a country that doesn’t oppress its citizens nor actively destabilize other countries.

Like it or not, combustibles are our energy source for the present and foreseeable future and Canada as a largely commodity based economy can supply it.  I dream of the day where we (Canadians) more actively add the value to commodities 1st here at home, instead of shipping them off for others to capitalize upon.  But this is our legacy and we have some hard pushing ahead of us as we shift this paradigm – perhaps this is also part of my technicolor, unicorn governed future as well…

In any event, getting back on point – Can the petroleum industry as a whole be cleaner?  Yes (and this includes in the lines of transparency, although the “what not to do” pipeline example is playing itself out in North Dakota at the moment).

Are they working on it? Yes.

Can we hold the industry accountable? Yes –and holding them accountable is all of our responsibility.

Should we be vetoing, posturing, hate mongering, etc?

I’m sure you know the answer as who does it benefit?

The combustible energy and/or petroleum industry impacts your life every day.  In some really visible negative ways yes but in innumerable other beneficial ways that are forgotten, overlooked and neglected.  So let’s stop doing that.

Getting Canadian oil to tidewater safely is integral to Canada’s benefit.

I’m not saying to forget the catastrophes of the past (Exxon Valdez, BP’s Deepwater Horizon,  Lac-Mégantic, on and on). 

Never forget. 

But let’s move forward in solidarity as a country to safely and effectively benefit from this limited resource.

We can also take it a step forward.  Since we have all of this energy experience in Canada, perhaps now is a great time to apply this knowledge in a similar yet different direction in innovation of alternative energy creation, adding value to our existing resources instead of shipping the raw commodities away (i.e. refine oil at home).

Anyhow, I’m likely to take a lot of flak on this post.  No, I’m not an engineer, geologist, economist or roughneck but that doesn’t discount my value as a stakeholder and my interest in our prosperity as a province and country…

Let’s sensibly utilize this non-sustainable resource and plan for the future.

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