Caught in the Carousel

Murray Foster - Platypus

By Alex Green

Murray Foster

"To cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival."
—Wendell Berry

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better. It's not."
—Dr. Seuss, from The Lorax

Murray Foster cares a whole awful lot. Over the course of the last few years, the co-founder of the late, great Moxy Fruvous and current bass player for Great Big Sea, found that his thoughts had been dominated by climate change. Tired of merely thinking about it, Foster decided to do something. That something is Platypus, a non-profit company whose main goal is to directly involve consumers in the fight against climate change by furnishing them with a medium to "contribute directly to renewable green energy projects."

Murray Foster

Of his obsession with climate change, Foster says, "It had gotten to the point that I couldn't enjoy a hot summer day because I'd be thinking, 'climate change, climate change...' So Platypus sprang from that obsession. The current business model of Platypus is the third iteration and took about eighteen months of thinking and trial-and-error to figure out."

Platypus' plan is to "...turn green energy into a consumer product that can be given as a gift," and the company hopes to "raise significant amounts of money for green energy projects in Canada and around the world." A self-proclaimed not for profit company, Platypus boasts a list of firms like Warner Music Canada, Universal Music Canada and the Federation Of Rental Housing Providers Of Ontario using their holiday e-card service. Capturing the attention of corporations and private individuals, Platypus is truly a company to watch.

From his home in Toronto, Foster spoke to CITC about Platypus.

Caught In The Carousel: What's the idea behind Platypus?

Murray Foster: The idea behind Platypus was to provide people with a way to funnel some of their gift-buying money to green causes, specifically green energy. We went through a few versions—ecard subscriptions and things like that—but eventually the model we ended up with was 'greening' the power of someone's home as a gift, with that money going toward 100% renewable energy projects. Thus you can buy your parents a month of green energy for their home for Christmas or a birthday. It also works for corporations - they can buy each of their employees or their clients a month or more of green energy for Christmas. The corporate side of our business looks like it will ultimately be bigger than the consumer side.

Murray Foster

CITC: Where did the idea for the name come from?

MF: With the name "Platypus" my business partner Brenda and I just wanted something that was from the natural world but also catchy. I'd thought of the word Platypus very early, and when Brenda and I sat down to figure out a name, she said "What about an animal?" and I said "Platypus" and she said, "Done." There's a Canadian business called Bullfrog that sells green energy, and by sheer coincidence their logo is almost identical to ours, so I imagine they went through a similar thought process.

CITC: Are you surprised that the corporate side has had such a quick and positive reaction?

MF: The reactions, both consumer and corporate, have been universally positive. The difference I think is simply that in the corporate world, for Christmas at least, people aren't spending their own money. There's a person in each company whose job it is to buy every employee and client a Christmas gift, and they've been doing it for eight years and they're out of ideas. Platypus makes perfect sense for them—it's new and it's green. People receiving it are thrilled and the people giving it look like eco-heroes. There's also a difference of scale between consumer and corporate gift spending—consumers spend tens of dollars while corporations spend tens of thousands of dollars.

CITC: What's one of the most common misconceptions, in your opinion, about climate change?

MF: The worst aspect of people's reaction to climate change is the frog-in-boiling-water analogy, which I think most people are familiar with. Thirty years from now, people will be saying "Why didn't the world shift to a wartime paradigm and have government take over a bunch of industries and mandate Draconian changes, to stop climate change before it got this bad? It would have saved millions of lives and trillions of dollars." But telling people they are the frog in the slowly boiling water doesn't make them not the frog in slowly boiling water.

Murray Foster

CITC: Perhaps Green Energy would eliminate environmental disasters like the recent BP oil spill here in the states. What do you make of the seemingly unquenchable obsession with fossil fuels?

MF: Fossil fuels are the current option and they're cheaper and more available than everything else. It's all driven by economics - no amount of wishing or hoping or hand-wringing will change the system. While there's a single dollar to be made from oil, people will drill for oil. There's a wildly popular new program in Ontario where, if you install solar panels, the government will buy that energy for 80 cents a kilowatt hour (or something), and you can be making money in 7 years instead of 20. Before this, everyone wanted solar panels, but until it made economic sense no one was going to jump into it.

CITC: Proudest Playtups moment?

MF: Our proudest Platypus moment (aside from launching two years ago) was when Warner and Universal Canada both agreed to green the power of all their artists last Christmas. It was a huge affirmation of our business model - it was great to have the president of Universal say "Yes! We're into it" when I was forty seconds into my pitch, and then for everyone in the room to spend half an hour thinking of ways to promote it throughout the organization. We have big hopes for this coming holiday season now that our business model is in place and the kinks have been worked out.

CITC: What are Platypus' goals for the future?

MF: Our goal with Platypus is to be massive! Of course we're a non-profit, so for us, 'massive' means that green energy is a common and accepted gift, that instead of everyone at the office getting a mug with the company logo on it for Christmas, they get a month of green energy for their home. If we can tap into even a fraction of the consumer money spent on gifts, we can generate huge amounts for green energy. Maybe our plan should be to replace just the crappy gifts....

Murray Foster

CITC: You tour and play in Great Big Sea and sometimes you guys can be on the road for a long time. Is it hard to strike a balance between music and business?

MF: It's not too hard to strike a balance between music and business. Although music has me touring quite a bit, I have many free hours when I'm on the road. It actually provides a welcome relief on the tour bus from watching reruns of "Friends" (by which of course I mean porn).

CITC: What else is happening with you musically?

MF: Aside from Great Big Sea, I've been recording a side project called The Cocksure Lads (with Mike Ford from Moxy Fruvous, our old band). It's a fake early-60's Merseybeat band (Herman's Hermits, Jerry and the Pacemakers). We've written about twenty-five songs for this band over the past fifteen years just as a lark, and the time came to record it. We hope to make it available by the fall.

Murray Foster

CITC: I've heard a rumor that Russell Crowe contributed to the new GBS album...Maybe he can be a GP spokesman!!

MF: Russell C. co-wrote one of the songs on the new GBS album. He's a very good lyricist, and a decent singer and melody writer. He's a very funny and clever person, albeit it with a massive ego and a Shakespearian temper. I don't know if he would promote Platypus, but if he did decide to he would move heaven and earth to make the company a success.

Internet;:
www.greenplatypus.com
www.cleanyourkarma.blogspot.com