EARTH DAY: Former poet laureate creates revolutionary 'green' tax software

By Jenn Chic, WE Vancouver

Brad Cran’s name may seem familiar. He was Vancouver’s poet laureate for 2009-2011, he co-authored Hope In Shadows: Stories and Photographs from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, with his wife Gillian Jerome, and has a second book of poetry, Ink on Paper, released this month.

That’s the right side of his brain at work. The left side is responsible for being the founder of the world’s first green accounting firm, EcoTaxFile.

Although it may seem an unlikely career path, Cran says it unfolded quite organically. The exact moment he decided to become an accountant was during an interview for Hope In The Shadows. “I was talking to this woman living in the DTES — she wasn’t a drug addict or an alcoholic; she was just old and had never saved. Listening to her, I realized that she was living the life that all the writers I knew could be living in 40 years.”

Within months, Cran went back to school for accounting. He wanted to help people get a hold of their finances so they could look forward to a brighter future. Amidst all the numbers and calculations, he was often reassured that his education and experience working in the arts had prepared him well — he could communicate well, connect with people and think outside the box.

Once his accounting firm was opened, a personal interest in environmental sustainability led him to convert his office to a paperless firm. Then, when he went through the Climate Smart program, a program to assess his own carbon footprint, he realized that as an accountant he was already collecting all the information needed for an environmental assessment.

“There was an obvious redundancy — the information collected to complete a tax return and an environmental impact assessment were the same. By incorporating just a few tweaks and innovations, at the same time clients are taking an annual snapshot of their financial wellbeing at tax time, they could very easily get a picture of their environmental impact,” says Cran. “Sharing this information with our clients helps them to save money and make the transition to a greener lifestyle that much easier.”

Combined with a recent study that says accountants are now the most trusted profession out there, Cran knew he could encourage people to easily assess their environmental impact from year to year. Together with their partners, Climate Smart and Offsetters, opportunities for cost, energy and carbon reductions are found.

“It’s about making the process of taking stock of our environmental impact mainstream,” he says. “As an accountant, I can easily educate my clients on how their choices to have a smaller carbon footprint can save them money.”

The carbon calculator on the EcoTaxFile website, or its new Facebook app, can help potential clients see how green they are and how to get greener. After signing up as a client for EcoTaxFile, everyone is assigned their own customer service manager and professional accountant who is accessible with “the click of a mouse.” Because it’s all online, there is no driving anywhere for anyone and the carbon footprint of the transaction stays as small as possible. Once the tax return is complete, clients receive an eco report — important advice on how to live smarter with custom sustainability tips and an assortment of green perks.

“There is no where else in the world that this is happening,” he says. With Vancouver hot on the trail to becoming the world’s greenest city by 2020, EcoTaxFile could be an invaluable tool.