It's All About the Little Things

During the holiday season, which for me is stressful more often than not, I find it useful to change my perspective and look at the big picture. Most years, this means reminding myself that no matter how much my family members irritate me (after too much time spent in close quarters), I still love them, and even though I have to travel pretty far to be with them, I'm still glad to be in good company over the holidays. This year however, I switched my mindset in a new way: I muted the voice inside my head that rants and raves about the poor decisions made by the government (you know, the usual, policies that will cause harm to human and environmental health). What did I pay attention to instead? The little things!

Over the past week I experienced small moments of delight whenever I noticed a simple action taken by my family members to reduce their environmental footprint and protect their health. Take for instance my mom, who saves water every time she takes a shower. As you can see in the photo above, she keeps large juice bottles in the bathroom so that she can fill them with the cold water that runs out of the tap before the hot water makes its way from the heater in the basement to the shower on the second floor. Later, she uses the juice bottles to fill a watering can which she uses on her indoor plants. Brilliant!

There were little things of a green nature in my brother and sister-in-law's home, too, like organic milk. Keeping pesticide-laden feed, copious amounts of antibiotics, and unnecessary synthetic growth hormones away from dairy farms means healthier cows, healthier humans, fewer superbugs, and a safer environment. My brother also attached his indoor Christmas lights to a timer so that they wouldn't run all night, and my sister-in-law told me the car sits unused for one or two weeks at a time. In the kitchen I found dish soap containing only natural fragrances and no phthalates. The list goes on!

I received some great eco-friendly gifts, too, like a bottle opener made from post-consumer materials that is completely recyclable, an energy-efficient electric blanket that will let me turn my thermostat even lower than I already do overnight, and a teflon-free rice cooker made of stainless steel in a double-boiler configuration. At a time of year marked by unnecessary consumption, excessive gift-wrapping, food waste, and high carbon emissions from extensive travelling, it was an absolute pleasure to delight in these lovely things.

What green actions does your family engage in? What green products did you receive as gifts?

In the News Today

Hold on to your hats, folks, I've got a great WTF!? post for you today. This week Coca-Cola announced a redesign of their cans to advertise their newest environmental campaign: $2 million will be donated to a project that seeks to protect polar bear habitat in arctic regions. So it comes as no surprise that the new cans will feature the iconic bear on a white background:

It saddens me that Coca-Cola has partnered with the World Wildlife Fund on this project; poor WWF must be pretty cash-strapped to choose to team up with a soft drink company for money. But that's not what's shocking about this story. Rather, it's the motivation behind the campaign, and how incongruous it is with Coke's modus operandi. Let me explain.

The polar bear is the focus of this project in part because the animal has been featured in Coke ads since 1922 and also because its population has been declining due primarily to warming arctic waters, i.e. climate change. Briefly, rising temperatures in the north cause sea ice to melt earlier in the summer. Without this ice, polar bears have a really hard time hunting seals, and they end up on dry land with less food and not enough fat to see them through the season. Many lose even more energy just trying to make it to the coast, now that there are greater distances to swim between ice floes. Tragically, pregnant female bears can't always build effective dens in thawing permafrost. There are many more threats to polar bears' survival that are related to climate change, and you can read about them here.

Red areas show the projected loss of optimal polar bear habitat over the next 40 years.

I have no issue at all with the efforts being made to protect these majestic bears. My beef is with Coca-Cola. How can they expect us to see this as anything besides greenwashing? They want to save the bears that are harmed by climate change... while contributing to climate change by making soft drinks... WTF!? I may not be a climate scientist, but if the company is responsible for over 1.6 billion servings of its various beverages every day, then I'm willing to bet that the carbon footprint of this worldwide production is not exactly negligible.

The syrup/concentrate alone accounts for much of this, since Coke is made with high fructose corn syrup. HFCS is really complicated to produce, starting with the monoculture farming of a variety of corn that is rich in starch and utterly devoid of nutrients. Vast amounts of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides (which, in and of themselves, require plenty of energy to produce) are applied to the corn, which must subsequently be milled into corn starch, processed into corn syrup, mixed with enzymes, purified, enriched, and evaporated to yield HFCS. Imagine just how much energy is required to make this happen... and how many greenhouse gases are emitted by the coal-fired power plants that feed the processing plants! All in the name of profit...

There are other issues related to the production of soft drinks, not the least of which is the depletion of groundwater in the areas surrounding Coca-Cola's bottling plants, notably in India. I don't need to tell you that messing with the water cycle has a serious impact on global climate. Another big factor is packaging: the production of single-use plastic bottles and aluminum cans only adds to the already enormous carbon footprint associated with making Coke. I don't need to go on. It's clear that making this beverage is as bad for the planet as consuming it is hazardous for human health. Spending $2 million on protecting polar bear habitat just doesn't make up for the damage that has already been done. Where is the accountability?


Photo of new Coca Cola can used under Creative Commons from José Roitberg (flickr).
Image of changes in polar bear habitat sourced from Wikimedia Commons.
Image of Coca Cola's impact in India sourced from Wikimedia Commons.

Constructive Criticism

Two weeks ago I told you about the 12th annual Planet in Focus environmental film festival taking place this week in Toronto. On Wednesday I had the honour of chaperoning Chris Paine, Director of Revenge of the Electric Car, at the Opening Night Gala (to make sure he knew where and when to meet with interviewers, walk the green carpet, and watch the Canadian premiere of his film). Since then I've also lent a hand to Industry Series programming and taken in my share of screenings. What I truly love about helping at the festival is meeting other volunteers, especially those who open my eyes to issues that I hadn't previously considered.

Which brings me to Roberto: he's a student from Chile currently on exchange taking courses in Ryerson's Film Studies program. He and his friend are trying to put together an environmental film festival of their own back home, which is no small feat for two kids in their early 20s. What I wasn't expecting to hear from him is that in addition to featuring films that cover green topics, he hopes to make the festival itself as eco-friendly as possible - and not just greenwash it.

Don't get me wrong, Planet in Focus is getting some things right. VIP Directors, including Mr. Paine and his two guests, were brought to the festival from the airport by green taxi (in other words, in a hybrid Prius). Also, anyone attending the Opening Night Gala and coming on two wheels was treated to a complimentary bike valet. And the two venues at which the screenings are being held are walking distance apart. But sometimes it's the little things that betray either a lack of planning or a disinterest in going the extra mile.

Take the Green Networking Lounge, for example. This event reminds me of speed-dating, where filmmakers get fifteen minutes to chat one-on-one with funders, commissioning editors, and other film and television executives. The festival provided coffee, water, and an assortment of muffins for this event. What was missing? Unlike last year, there were no real plates, real mugs, or real cutlery (instead: countless paper cups, napkins, and stir-sticks). The only concern seemed to be to avoid handing out plastic water bottles. Not that I disagree with that guideline, but it's only a starting point. This is an environmental film festival, after all.

Roberto, bless his young and ambitious heart, wants to see if it's possible to screen films at his festival using stationary bike power. Perhaps we don't need to go quite so far. I'm being a little nit-picky about the finer details and ought to point out that Planet in Focus bought carbon and green energy offsets, which is actually a pretty big deal. And the foodie in me was really happy to see organic milk in glass bottles alongside the coffee! To be completely honest, what motivated this post was the difficulty I'm experiencing in reconciling the fact that in order to bring awareness to the public of issues afflicting the world, film crews have to fly around the globe a few times and then take even more plane trips to tour with their documentaries, and then we sit and watch these films under less than ideal circumstances. I guess for now I have to suck it up and hope that spreading the word about the kinds of issues covered this week is more important than the carbon footprint of filmmaking - and the greenness of the festival itself.


Photo of box office used under Creative Commons from Rae Allen (flickr).
Photo of live music powered by bike used under Creative Commons from Earthnwork (flickr).

When environmentalism meets slow living... and they don't get along...

I am a letter-writer, hear me roar! Or hear the scrape of my fountain pen against paper, as it were...

This week I received a letter in the mail, one I had written and sent to Australia and which was subsequently returned to me because the recipient had moved and informed me of her new address only after the mail was already on its way to the other side of the world. And so a few pieces of paper and an envelope found themselves travelling 16,000 km (10,000 miles) only to be labelled with a "return to sender" scribble and sent back that same distance to my door. Let me tell you, a lot of guilt was delivered by mail that day!

Except... I'm not so sure. On the one hand, paper stationery kills trees, ink is made of petroleum and other toxic chemicals, and planes emit a great deal of emissions. On the other hand, even if I could stop using paper altogether for the rest of my life, forests would still die at the hands of big corporations and their printers' endless appetite for reams of paper, not to mention the pulp and lumber industries. Even if I gave up ball-point and fountain pens, every last drop of petroleum will eventually be extracted for fuel and military uses. And let's face it, there won't be fewer planes in the skies just because I stop mailing letters. The sad truth is that even if every last proud letter-writer like me gave up their hobby, not much would change on the global scale.

Unfortunately such rationalization doesn't make the guilt disappear. I still hold sustainability ideals close to my heart and feel the need to do as much as I can, within reason, to lessen my carbon footprint. The strange thing is that my desire to live simply and slowly occasionally gets in the way of my environmental goals, like in this case. Usually my attempts at taking breaks from the fast pace of life - cooking seasonal meals with locally grown ingredients at home, unplugging from the internet over the weekend, getting up early to walk all the way to work, etc. - conveniently satisfy my urge to live green. Writing letters, it seems, helps with the former and impedes the latter. Sitting down with a cup of tea in my left hand and a fountain pen in my right hand to share my recent life experiences with a far-away friend is a lovely experience, and not something easily accomplished using an electronic, environmentally friendly method. And so I sacrifice the planet ever so slightly for the sake of my well-being, which I hope is the right trade-off.

What do you do that lets you live slowly but isn't as green as you'd like?


Photo of fountain pen used under Creative Commons from Adrian Clark (a.drian/flickr).
Photo of air mail stickers used under Creative Commons from Katey Nicosia (flickr).

Days 7 and 8 - Giving Back and Eco-Sabbath

Last week I experimented with No Impact Week, exploring some of my past successes at decreasing my carbon footprint and generating even better ideas for the future. My goal is to challenge myself to redo the week later this year when it will have the greatest impact on my day-to-day life. Click here for a review of Day 1 - Consumption, Day 2 - Trash, Day 3 - Transportation, Day 4 - Food, Day 5 - Energy, and Day 6 - Water.

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Days 7 and 8 - Giving Back and Eco-Sabbath

If you believe that getting sick with the flu, while unpleasant, is an opportunity for body and mind to rest, heal, and recuperate, then I guess you could say I spent the last two days celebrating the Eco-Sabbath - taking time back for myself. The only plug-in device I used was the kettle, to brew cup after cup of tea. When not sleeping or coughing up a lung, I was reading and working on logic puzzles in my sun-filled bedroom. I even had some time to just sit around contemplating how the No Impact Week challenge has changed me, even though I was participating more in spirit than in practice. I would say my commitment has gone up a level or two: commitment to consume less, produce less waste, eat more locally and seasonally while avoiding more meat, and conserve more energy and water. I've always known how; now I'm ready to actually do it.

As for Giving Back Day, instead of stepping up and doing more, I've actually had to practice reigning myself in because there are more ways to get involved than I have the time or energy for! I have found that once you begin to volunteer, the people you meet, connections you make, and community you tap into provide even more opportunities to give, help, build, and support. All that is required is flipping that switch in your head. Instead of listing barriers to participating and then stopping there, why not discover ways to overcome these obstacles? If you are legitimately too busy with activities to have a four-hour block of time to volunteer, why not make donations to a cause you support? Or if you have some time, but it's randomly dispersed throughout the week such that you can't commit to volunteering at your favourite organization's head office, ask if they have tasks you can complete at home and work around your schedule. There are solutions if you look hard enough.

To start you off, check out Volunteer Canada for resources and links to regional volunteer centres and their current listings. If you have lots of initiative and feel passionate about a specific cause but can't find any related opportunities listed, research an organization you'd like to support and tell them how you can help. I'm sure you will find a welcoming community.

Thanks for sharing this week with me!

Photo credit.

No Impact Week: Day 6 - Water

This week I'm experimenting with No Impact Week, exploring some of my past successes at decreasing my carbon footprint and generating even better ideas for the future. My goal is to challenge myself to redo the week later this year when it will have the greatest impact on my day-to-day life. Click here for a review of Day 1 - Consumption, Day 2 - Trash, Day 3 - Transportation, Day 4 - Food, and Day 5 - Energy.

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Day 6 - Water

We're six days into No Impact Week, and you're probably expecting this post to be filled with tips about soaking dishes in the sink, taking shorter showers, and turning off the tap while brushing your teeth. Wrong!

On second thought, maybe it's best if I start by pointing out some of the things I'm doing that help conserve water:

•  Forget, for the time being, the landlord-bashing I was doing in yesterday's post about energy, because he partially redeemed himself by installing a low-flow toilet. Goodbye, 13-litre flushes! Ready to get one for your home? If you live in Toronto, the City will give you money for chucking out... I mean properly disposing of... your water-guzzling model for an efficient one.

• My landlord's second good deed was to install a high-efficiency shower head, which is actually a double whammy of savings in water and energy. The City sells indoor water efficiency retrofit kits for $10 that include a high-efficiency shower head, a kitchen tap aerator, two bathroom sink aerators, a package of leak detection tablets, teflon tape (to wrap around the shower arm to prevent leaks), and, of course, a set of instructions. A great deal!

• As I mentioned yesterday, I'm only running the dishwasher and clothes washer when they are full, and I reuse the same glass for water and mug for tea all day. At the kitchen sink, I don't wait for the water to become hot to wash my hands or non-dishwasher safe items. Soap and detergent cut grease all on their own; high water temperature only serves to remove stuck-on food - a problem I don't have because I leave dishes to soak before I wash them!

I could go on and mention that I never go to a car wash, have no lawn to water, swore off bottled water years ago, and try to remember to turn the shower off while I'm soaping up and massaging shampoo into my hair. But that would be placing too much focus on household water use, which only accounts for 11% of Canada's overall consumption of H20 (why is there no subscript button in Blogger, and what's the HTML code for it?). That's right, people like you and me aren't the bad guys - at least not directly. Water intensive industries such as agriculture, nuclear and coal fired power plants, and manufacturing cooling systems are the big problem.

But don't use that as an excuse - if you'll pardon the pun - to wash your hands of this issue! While you may not be the type to devote a lot of time and energy to lobbying politicians to introduce stricter (or any) regulations on industry, there are still a lot of options available to you:

• Local Food Plus (LFP), an organization I've told you about before, works to certify farmers and producers who use sustainable methods (including water efficient ones) so that we, the public, can make informed decisions at the grocery store. LFP has been running a really successful Buy to Vote campaign that I encourage you to support.

• Avoid factory farms, because generally more industrialized = more wasteful, and big business tends to care about profit margins at the expense of the environment. Do I really need to cite examples? I didn't think so. Don't forget that the use of pesticides and fertilizers goes hand in hand with water consumption, even if you're only looking at the chemical plants that manufacture the toxins!

• There are a lot of numbers out there about the resource intensity of livestock operations, but the stat I love to pass on is that producing 8 ounces of beef can require up to 25,000 litres of water (I had to memorize that for an exam in December). Keep in mind that cows no longer graze in pastures, instead we feed them soy grown in heavily irrigated fields. To make a difference, simply cut down on your meat consumption or find a butcher who sells products from sustainably-raised animals.

• Support the development of clean and renewable power generation. This can include becoming a Bullfrog Power member to have electricity from wind and hydro facilities injected into the local grid, matched to the amount of power your home uses.

• Buy less stuff. Refuse, reduce, reuse, and recycle. The fewer products you consume, the less water is wasted.

But in the meantime, definitely install a low-flow toilet and high-efficiency shower head! I'll try to get an indoor water efficiency retrofit kit by the time I try No Impact Week again later this year. This weekend covers the Giving Back Day as well as the Eco-Sabbath, which I will review next week.

Photo credits: water droplet; sprinkler.

No Impact Week: Day 5 - Energy

This week I'm experimenting with No Impact Week, exploring some of my past successes at decreasing my carbon footprint and generating even better ideas for the future. My goal is to challenge myself to redo the week later this year when it will have the greatest impact on my day-to-day life. Click here for a review of Day 1 - Consumption, Day 2 - Trash, Day 3 - Transportation, and Day 4 - Food.

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Day 5 - Energy

It's cold and snowy outside, the perfect context in which to discuss energy use for those of us who live in climates with chilly winters.

Five years ago, I was sharing a basement apartment with a friend in a two-storey house. Our landlord indicated that we were in control of the heat for the whole house and should make attempts at keeping the six students above us relatively comfortable. This was no small feat, as the same amount of heat was being pumped into all three floors. While the main floor tenants were happy with this arrangement, the top floor tenants' bedrooms had walls exposed to the windy outdoors, and subsequently the kids always complained of the cold. As a result, my friend and I walked around barefoot and in shorts all winter long, having turned the heat up to keep our neighbours quiet.

Three years ago I no longer had any control over the temperature in my apartment, having moved into a 20-storey, 500-unit high rise with furnaces that ran full-blast for the duration of the colder months. My windows remained open to prevent me from baking to death. Along with the excessively hot air, my cold tolerance also disappeared, and worst of all, my mother's house didn't seem so cozy anymore. Fast forward to the present day in a new place, where an extra sweater is all I need to get by in 18C, and other people's homes are uncomfortably warm. And to think, I used to worry about how I would make do with the thermostat turned down! Thankfully, my mother's house has once again become a cozy place to be.

Let's talk about appliances. My new home came well-equipped with a stacked washer/dryer set, the standard fridge and electric stove duo, as well as a dishwasher. They're all relatively new, which is great, but possibly also the most energy inefficient machines on the market today, which is not so great - I believe my landlord was trying to save as much money as possible, and I can't blame him... but I will! Being way more cash-strapped than he is, I can't afford to replace these appliances with my own high-efficiency ones, and I'm stuck with a nasty electricity bill at the end of the month. So here's what I do:

• Loads of laundry are washed in cold water, and only when I can fill the machine to capacity.
• The drier is used half as often, and preferably only for items I don't have enough space to hang up, such as bed linens. This is where a clothesline in a basement would come in handy!
• The fridge is tricky to deal with. I don't keep it stuffed full or place excessively hot items into it, and I never just stand there staring into it with the door open, daydreaming. What else can I do?
• I try to cook things in sequence, where possible, using the same stove top element twice in a row rather than two simultaneously, and the oven stays off when I can easily use the toaster oven instead.
• The dishwasher is not my friend (please refer to three. previous. posts.). I only run it when it's completely full, I keep using the same drinking glass for water and mug for tea all day long, and leave the buttons that boost the temperature, extend the wash cycle, and heat the air during the drying cycle firmly in the off position.

The only energy used here is for lighting.

Let's not forget the devices we use more for entertainment than chores! Having declined to subscribe to a cable package in my new home, the TV tends to stay off most of the time. It's used for video gaming and the viewing of DVDs, activities which have declined in popularity now that I've freed myself from my idiot box addiction (quit one, quit them all?). Best of all, I plug the tangled mess of home theatre system cables into a power bar that I shut down when not needed, avoiding the dreaded phantom power affliction, which can account for 10% of household electricity consumption. Unfortunately, my web use has gone up, and I try to compensate by going cold turkey on weekends and keeping myself entertained outdoors, with friends, or with a good book... under the glow of my CFL bulbs, of course, which replaced every last incandescent light I could find about a week after I moved in!

When I challenge myself to participate in No Impact Week again later this year, it may be summertime, in which case I will try to go A/C free, avoid the drier completely, and spend time outside every evening to avoid the lure of my computer!

Stay tuned tomorrow for my thoughts on Day 6 - Water.

Photo credits: snowy landscape; tropical beach; 1940s living room.

Day 4 - Food

This week I'm experimenting with No Impact Week, exploring some of my past successes at decreasing my carbon footprint and generating even better ideas for the future. My goal is to challenge myself to redo the week later this year when it will have the greatest impact on my day-to-day life. Click here for a review of Day 1 - Consumption, Day 2 - Trash, and Day 3 - Transportation.

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Day 4 - Food

This could be a very long post. When it comes to environmental issues, problems with the way we grow, process, market, consume, and waste food pretty much top the list for me. So instead of writing until 2012, I'll keep things brief by giving you a bullet-point list of the things I do to lower my food-related carbon footprint. Get comfy, this will still be long.

A selection of produce from my CSA share, late July 2010.

• I'm a big fan of eating locally and seasonally, and I held true to my values over the summer by participating in Young Urban Farmers CSA. In the fall, I went to my local farmers' market as often as I could, but since it's open on Saturdays and the past two fell on holidays... let's say my fridge doesn't have a lot of Ontario-grown produce in it right now.

• I'm happy to state that I've made big strides in the direction of vegetarianism! My general rules are to avoid meat altogether when I'm dining out, unless the restaurant uses a local, hormone- and antibiotic-free, non-factory farm source for their meat. I try to keep to the same criteria when I find myself in front of a butcher counter, and when I can afford it, I cross town to visit butchers who sell organic meat from farmers they actually know. Raising cows is one of the most resource-intensive and polluting agricultural activities, so I have almost completely cut beef out of my diet - and between you and me (and the entire internet, haha) I find Betsy kinda boring, with the exception of using slices of flank steak for a stir-fry. Will I eventually become a vegetarian? It's quite likely.

• I carry a pocket guide that indicates which fish have been caught/raised in environmentally sustainable ways and have a low mercury content (three cheers for Toronto Public Health) to make smart decisions. Goodbye salmon, shrimp, red snapper, and tuna. Those are the losses I feel most acutely. Sea urchin, on the other hand - my brother can attest to this - I am not sad to see in the "bad choice" column.

• The bad news? Off the top of my head, these are some of the foods from outside of Ontario that I currently can't bring myself to give up: avocados, bananas, citrus (lemons, oranges, and clementines), mangoes, olives and olive oil, pineapples, rice, salt, and wheat (bread). The good news? I don't have to feel too guilty about my consumption of chocolate if I switch from a fancy Swiss brand to Chocosol, purveyors of artisanal chocolate made from cacao beans that have been fairly traded for in a socially just way, plus other ingredients that are grown locally. And the real kicker is that the final product is delivered to your door by bike! Be still my beating heart...

• The big dilemma: what to do about coffee and tea. I mostly quit coffee in 2006 for health reasons (consuming either too much or too little caffeine in coffee format was causing migraines as a withdrawal/overdose symptom) and I continue to avoid it most days of the week - not an easy feat considering I'm tempted every day, living in a neighbourhood with some of the best espresso outside of Italy. But what about tea, that warming, soothing, nourishing beverage that I can't go without for more than a few hours at a time? Does it help that half of what I own is organic? Does it matter that I sometimes drink a tisane made entirely from Ontario-grown herbs (thank you for cluing me in on this blend, Karen at Stratford Tea Leaves)? Am I making a noticeable difference by drinking loose leaf teas rather than using tea bags, which require extra resources and much more processing? What about the fact that unlike coffee, I don't add any milk or sugar to tea? Or, consider this: isn't tea responsible for lower transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions than coffee (on a cup for cup basis, due to how much less tea you need, and how much less it weighs than coffee)? I'll need some time to better research this topic!

• Let's not forget alcoholic beverages. I buy local wines from Niagara and über-local beer from downtown (Steam Whistle, Mill St., and Amsterdam). Enough said.

• For the most part, I don't buy a lot of processed foods; I ate my last McMeal over ten years ago and will never go back; I cook at home rather than order in; I brown-bag my lunch instead of heading to the food court; I occasionally bake my own bread and pizza dough (like today!); and when I dine out, I prefer restaurants that respect the slow food approach and I'm always on lookout for restaurants that serve Local Food Plus certified food.

I couldn't write this post without talking about the importance of developing local food systems. In fact, besides trying to cut out more meat, dairy, and non-local, unseasonal produce from my diet, working to change our food system can have a big impact on my carbon footprint, and yours, too. To that effect, check out these eleven great ideas for contributing to the good food movement, brought to you by Food Forward. You don't have to make eleven changes; just choose the ones that are practical and achievable for you, and pass on the list to your family, friends, and colleagues. We're all in this together.

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When it comes to our impact on the planet, despite the bad news and warnings that we've passed the point where we can fix this mess we're in, I remain inspired, heartened, motivated, grateful for, and deeply happy that we live in an age where it is possible to make the kinds of choices I've been talking about all week. Thank you, humanity.

Photo credits: Tsukiji tuna market; coffee/tea/sugar containers.

No Impact Week: Day 3 - Transportation

This week I'm experimenting with No Impact Week, exploring some of my past successes at decreasing my carbon footprint and generating even better ideas for the future. My goal is to challenge myself to redo the week later this year when it will have the greatest impact on my day-to-day life. Click here for a review of Day 1 - Consumption and Day 2 - Trash.

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Day 3 - Transportation

If ever I need a reminder of how different my day-to-day life is compared to the average North American, I need look no further than my transportation habits. What for many is the toughest part of the No Impact Week challenge is for me possibly the easiest. My home is situated in a very "livable" neighbourhood: I'm steps away from the streetcar (in a designated right-of-way lane, separate from vehicle traffic) and two buses that deliver me to the subway in less than ten minutes. Around the corner is a bakery and two mom-and-pop grocery stores. On Monday I walked to the library, yesterday I walked to the post office. There are plenty of restaurants and cafés, a small hardware store, a printing/photocopy shop, banks, a community centre (including an outdoor pool and two ice rinks), a big park, and lots of office and storefront space for rent, should I decide to start my own business. For everything else, there's a large commercial area and mall about 15 minutes away by bus. I don't really have any excuses for driving my car anywhere within city limits.

The sticking point for me are trips just beyond city limits. Take Monday evenings, for example, when I spend an hour and a half venting a week's worth of stress on a traditional Japanese drum during my taiko class. The studio is located 23 km from my home in Markham, one of Toronto's suburbs. I just checked the TTC's trip planner, and the three suggested routes range between 75 and 90 minutes in duration. In other words, getting there and back takes double the amount of time I spend drumming! So I drive. As for occasional trips that take me even farther, like a housewarming party in Burlington, a family dinner in Richmond Hill, or a summer BBQ in Brampton, again I drive, ideally carpooling with others, and take consolation in the fact that my car is fuel efficient, that I keep it tuned up, and that I don't drive aggressively. I'm also thankful for the tire pressure gauge my brother gifted me a few years ago - it helps me save even more gas because it reminds me to keep my tires at their optimal pressure.

Considering my day-to-day commuting needs don't involve my car, I can live with the fact that I drive occasionally, especially because I almost never drive alone or for only one purpose, and frequently give people rides, either to their home if it's on the way, or to a public transit stop. For the foreseeable future, I won't be selling my car and resorting to a car sharing program for these occasional trips - though this is my goal for the long term! The question remains: how can I reduce my carbon footprint when it comes to transportation if I keep the car, even though I use it infrequently? The answer: commit to biking instead of taking transit. Even hybrid buses pollute, and the electricity used to power streetcars is still partially derived from coal plants (until the end of 2014, when coal-fired power generation will be completely eliminated in Ontario). I already own a bike and just need to outfit it with a pannier or two to carry groceries. Will this be the year I become a "left-wing pinko that rides a bike"?

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Take Action

Right after the section on transportation in No Impact Week's How-To Guide comes a page about participating in national (American) campaigns in support of safe food, clean water, and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. I'm proud to be very involved in creating a healthy community through volunteer work with Live Green Toronto, Food Forward, Young Urban Farmers CSA, Evergreen, The Sierra Club, and Planet in Focus, among others. You don't have to look hard to find a way to contribute!

Photo credits: no parking; bike lane.

No Impact Week: Day 2 - Trash

This week I'm experimenting with No Impact Week, exploring some of my past successes at decreasing my carbon footprint and generating even better ideas for the future. My goal is to challenge myself to redo the week later this year when it will have the greatest impact on my day-to-day life. Click here for a review of Day 1 - Consumption.

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Day 2 - Trash

It's funny how I unconsciously renamed the second day of this experiment; I called it "Waste" instead of "Trash" at the end of yesterday's post and almost did the same again today. While it's true that throwing so much stuff in the garbage is a big problem that we're ignoring (when was the last time you visited a landfill?), it's important to scrutinize what goes in your blue and green bins, too. Of course any waste diversion is better than none, but minimizing our overall waste generation, whether blue, green, or black, is better. In other words, it's time for a waste audit!

Day 2 of No Impact Week called for examining the contents of a bag that I was supposed to fill with my "trash" from Day 1. Once again I should remind you that I'm not really participating this week, as it's too abnormal compared to my usual routine. Case in point: I stayed home on Day 1. Not bringing anything new to my place meant not opening any packages, not using any bags, and not accumulating receipts. My breakfast was toast, cut from a loaf of bread purchased on December 31st and brought home in a reusable shopping bag, and spread with peanuts-only peanut butter from a glass jar. Since I don't cut away the crust (who does that?!) and ate both slices of toast completely, no waste was generated. Lunch and dinner were leftovers from lots of big meals over the holidays, resulting in dishes and utensils that needed to be washed, but not much else. Between the meals? I read books, watched DVDs I had previously borrowed from a friend, had conversations on the phone and in person, and played games. Keep in mind that Day 1 of No Impact Week fell on January 2nd, a Sunday firmly wedged between two vacation days. Definitely not a normal waste generating day for me.

If I had to highlight areas I can - and will - improve on, then these are my top 5:

• Start carrying a reusable food container and utensils with me wherever I go, to complement my water bottle and insulated thermos. If I can't finish my meal at a restaurant, I won't need a styrofoam clamshell. If I can't avoid a quick lunch at a food court, I will at least be able to decline taking a plastic fork, knife, and/or spoon. I can even cut up an old shirt into many pieces and always carry one with me to use as a napkin, then wash them all at the end of the week.

• Invest in organic cotton produce bags for grocery trips. Often, I'll place certain fruits and veggies directly into my reusable shopping bag, then once at home, I'll reuse old plastic produce bags to store these items in the fridge. But purchasing a dozen apples at a time doesn't lend itself well to this procedure. So, instead of loading them into new plastic produce bags, I will start bringing my own to the store!

• Reduce the number of garbage bins in my home to two: one in the kitchen, and one in the bathroom. Then, increase the number of bins for compostable facial tissues such that there is one in each room! Most non-reusable, non-recyclable, non-compostable items are found in the kitchen and bathroom (if any of you come up with a reuse for floss, I'm all ears), while every other room generates virtually only facial tissue trash - which is green bin friendly where I live. By keeping these two streams as separate as possible, I can maximize my landfill diversion.

• Plan meals around what's in the fridge to avoid having to compost food that has gone bad. I'm actually really ashamed that this happens. Sometimes I cook a big meal too soon before leaving town for the weekend, and it's inedible when I get home. Other times I excitedly pick up some interesting groceries, then forget them at the back of the fridge until I notice them again for "that smell". I'd like to design some sort of a spreadsheet (laminated, to be used with dry-erase markers) that keeps track of the inventory of the fridge, including the dates on which certain items were purchased and cooked. That would make it a lot easier to use up food before it goes to waste.

• Buy groceries at my local farmers' market more often to avoid excessive packaging. This goes hand in hand with my second point about reusable produce bags! There are some veggies that automatically come with packaging in some stores. For instance, my local grocer carries imported spinach that has been pre-washed in a facility that subsequently places the greens in clear plastic containers. Why not instead purchase locally-grown spinach from a nearby farm with my shiny new cotton produce bags?

I'm glad to have discovered a few more simple actions, which, taken together, can noticeably lower my carbon footprint. Although it's comforting to know that I can recycle and compost most of the things I throw out, the best strategy of all is not to bring so much stuff home to begin with!

Stay tuned tomorrow for my thoughts on Day 3 - Transportation.

Photo credits: landfill compactor and cat with tissues.

No Impact Week: Day 1 - Consumption

It's only the third day of the year, and No Impact Week is already in full swing. You remember this experiment, right? I wrote about it about a month ago, encouraging you to experiment with a greener lifestyle to kick off 2011. Even if this is the first you've heard of the project, it's never too late to make small changes to your day-to-day routine that can lower your carbon footprint.

Before we go on, I have to be honest with you: I'm breaking the rules. No Impact Week started yesterday, but I didn't step outside for so much as a brisk walk around the block. Then today I dropped off some books at the library and came right back home afterwards (round trip on foot: ten minutes). As for the forecast for the remaining five days of the experiment? It's not looking so good. You see, I'm worried that I don't fit the target audience, since I'm not commuting to work everyday and therefore automatically avoiding things like shopping, cafeteria food, paper coffee cups, overheated office buildings, and public toilets that use 13 litres per flush. Not to brag, but I live a pretty eco-friendly life already, and many of the tips in the official No Impact Week How-To Guide were checked off my to-do list years ago.

So here's what I propose: I'll challenge myself twice! Once, this week, more in spirit than in practice. I'll highlight some of the ways I am already reducing my footprint and discover new strategies for waste reduction, pollution prevention, and water and energy conservation. Then, later this year a second time, I'll try the project again at a time when I feel it will really hit home. Perhaps I'll choose a week when I am commuting to work every day, engaged in social activities on multiple evenings, and out running errands and hosting dinner parties on the weekend. Then I can really put my new footprint-reducing strategies to the test!

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Day 1: Consumption

How can we do more with less? Do we really need all this stuff? What happens to the connections we have with each other when we spend so much time shopping?

The main step outlined by the How-To Guide involves choosing not to buy anything you can live without for the week and finding alternatives for all the other stuff. This is particularly relevant around the holidays! This year I received some great gifts that fit this category well, including second-hand books and home-baked cookies. I, too, was able to avoid the mall and hand-make some gifts instead of buying them. For some of my friends, the gift exchange was replaced by a celebratory dinner - a much more memorable experience than unwrapping a present. In favour of reusable gift bags I save up, no single-use wrapping paper was bought, and I was happy to ignore all of the ads promoting whichever colours were "in" for decorating new year's celebrations. I even squeezed in a trip downtown to drop off a stack of used paper so that a non-profit organization I support could avoid buying new printer paper!

What did I do with the time and money I saved by avoiding unnecessary purchases? Besides savouring many cups of tea while reading books, I spent a lot of time with loved ones! Not having to make long trips to the mall freed up my schedule to an incredible degree. My online calendar shows four relaxing tea dates with friends, an interview for a great volunteer position with YUF CSA (which I got), one housewarming party, and five meals (one breakfast, one lunch, and three dinners) in addition to the ones with family... all within a span of two weeks! Incredible!

Before this post gets too long, I'd like to come up with a few strategies to keep this un-consumptive lifestyle going in the new year:

• clothing - I can really get by with less if I pay more attention to what I buy, and it can all be second-hand if I look hard enough! Maybe I'll try organizing a clothing swap with my friends.
• household items - I have no difficulty buying used furniture but need to put more effort into sourcing smaller goods from better places, like the dust pan and bread basket I've been wanting for months!
• personal care products - I've made some headway in terms of avoiding nasty chemicals in my soap, toothpaste, shampoo, and moisturizer, but haven't found a way around buying new containers over and over; will this be the year I start making my own products?

Stay tuned tomorrow for my thoughts on Day 2 - Waste.

Photo credits: store lineup and book with tea.

No Impact Week

Tired of the same old, same old when making new year's resolutions? Disillusioned by previous attempts to adopt a new exercise routine, cut certain foods out of your diet, and stick to a monthly budget? I've got just the thing for you: No Impact Week.

You can think of No Impact Week as a seven-day cleanse... of carbon! That's right, this is a week for experimenting with greener lifestyle choices and challenging yourself to live without certain luxuries you probably take for granted but don't necessarily need. You'll get a chance to take a hard look at your carbon footprint and use those fine-tuned problem solving skills I know you have to reduce or eliminate some of its sources - especially the ones that eat away at your pocketbook without actually contributing to your quality of life!

Once you sign up, you will receive a how-to guide, a short survey about your current lifestyle, and daily challenges, ideas, and resources. There will be many opportunities to share your experiences over the course of the week with blogs, pictures, and discussion forums. Most importantly, you will be connected with other participants to share tips and support.

After the week is up, you'll get a chance to complete the lifestyle survey again and measure the change you've made, and if you're really keen, you can register to become a No Impact Ambassador in your community. Feel free to make a cape and send me pictures!

No Impact Week is the brainchild of Yes! Magazine and Colin Beavan, who lived as No Impact Man for one year in New York City. Watch the video to find out what he accomplished and to get an idea of what the week will be like for you:



The countdown is on... the week kicks off on January 2nd!