should going green be a resolution?

For some people, it's that time again. The end of the year, nay, decade, when resolutions get made and bad habits get swallowed. But on top of the usual - losing weight, kicking the cigarettes, helping the homeless - more people are putting environmental actions on their New Year's lists.

Stop using Styrofoam, plant more (or, a) trees, install CFL bulbs. But do these actions belong on resolution lists just waiting to be tossed aside because, you know, it's easier not to, or I'll wait until I can afford it?

A recent survey by Tiller LLC says women feel more guilty than men about not living a greener life and are more determined to take specific eco-measures next year.

Of the small sample (1,000 adults) surveyed, 41% of the women say they have "green guilt" compared with 27% of men.

52% of women said they are "very likely" to recycle more, compared with 33% of men; 51% plan to carry their own bag to the supermarket, compared with 30% of men; 48% intend to reduce their household's energy usage, compared with 32% of men.

I suppose if guilt's what gets you going, then so be it! But if it's a lofty resolution, just be sure to recycle that list, ok?

make your voice heard

Tomorrow is the International Day of Climate Action, marking six weeks before governments convene in Copenhagen, Denmark, for the UN Climate Change Conference to create a new climate treaty.

Tomorrow is the day to come together to urge world leaders to take bold and immediate steps to address climate change and reduce carbon emissions, by agreeing to an ambitious, fair, and binding global climate deal.

Over 4,000 events are being organized in more than 170 countries, so join an event near you and make your voice heard!

what ARE they searching for?

One of most popular search phrases people who visit our site use is "all recycled stuff."

Which got us to thinking, when someone types that into a search engine, what exactly are they hoping to find? Well, we tried it, and here's what we found:

Where does all the recycled stuff go? from WikiAnswers

Space Baby Beebo sculpture – recycled stuff from Earth Stream

Jewellery made from recycled stuff from How Can I Recycle This?

holiday crafts: Halloween (recycled stuff) from Fun In The Making

Awesome Things to Make with Recycled Stuff from Amazon.com

Recycled "stuff" this year from Flickr

And, of course, our very own footprint: all natural green eco recycled stuff. Aha...we used it right there in the title ;)

Note: the image at top was the first to come up when we searched "all recycled stuff" in Bing. Now that is strange.

going green? give up your dog, not your car

In their book "Time to Eat the Dog: The Real Guide to Sustainable Living," New Zealanders Robert and Brenda Vale claim keeping a medium-sized dog has the same ecological impact as driving 10,000 km a year in a 4.6 liter Land Cruiser.

The Vales estimated the ecological footprint of cats and dogs based on the amount of land needed to grow common brands of pet food.

Constructing and driving the Land Cruiser for a year requires 0.41 hectares of land, while growing and manufacturing a dog's food takes about 0.84 ha -- or 1.1 ha in the case of a large dog such as a German shepherd.

On top of that, meat-eating swells the eco-footprint of canines, and felines are not that much better, according to the Vales.

The average cat's eco-footprint - 0.15 ha - weighs in slightly less than a Volkswagen Golf, but is still 10 times a hamster's 0.014 ha -- which is itself half the eco cost of running a plasma television.

Brenda Vale says the title of the book is meant to shock, but the couple - who do not have a cat or dog - believe the reintroduction of non-carnivorous pets into urban areas would help slow down global warming.

"The title of the book is a little bit of a shock tactic, I think, but though we are not advocating eating anyone's pet cat or dog there is certainly some truth in the fact that if we have edible pets like chickens for their eggs and meat, and rabbits and pigs, we will be compensating for the impact of other things on our environment."

Over 200 comments have been posted on stuff.co.nz - worth reading, if just for entertainment value. (Our favourite: "I wouldn't eat dog. Dogs have got personality. Personality goes a long way.")

trashless tuesday

Great list from ecosalon of The Top 20 Things We Throw Away (That We Shouldn’t). Here's a hint - a lot of them start with the word "disposable"...

Razor Blades
Buy a razor sharpener to make dull blades like new again. (Whoever invented the idea of throwaway shaving razors has a special place in a melting ice cap.)

Plastic Hand Soap Dispensers
Invest in a reusable hand soap dispenser. In addition to giving your bathroom a decorative touch, it’s less expensive to refill them with bulk quantities of liquid hand soap.

Read them all at ecosalon, then find out more about Trashless Tuesday.

nellie's sets laundry straight

Fans of Nellie's will jump with joy (well, about as much as one can muster about laundry) over their new metal tin packaging, replacing a combination of paper and plastic.

According to Nellie's, 'iron and steel are the world's most recycled materials and among the easiest materials to reprocess.' They look pretty cool on the shelf too.

On the burning question of liquid vs. powder, here is their response:

Liquid detergents are made up from at least 50% water. At Nellie's we don't think selling you water and moving water around the planet is a very good idea. The fact is, more cleaning power can be packed into a smaller space using powder.

Not exactly well put - but they have a point.

i search, therefore i'm green

"A single Google query consumes as much energy as an 11-watt light bulb does in one hour."

This according to the home page for Znout, an free Google-based search site. Znout says their search engine turns your "web searches into green web searches," by measuring the energy consumption of their servers, plus emissions from the network infrastructure, plus the energy consumption of your own computer.

Then they purchase renewable energy certificates (similar to carbon credits) to balance out the environmental footprint caused by searching. Apparently, this in itself makes your searches "eco-friendly."

Forestle - another "green search engine" based with Yahoo - donates all profits to the "Adopt an Acre" program of The Nature Conservancy, which uses this money for the sustainable protection of rainforests.

Sounds simple. But, like the debate over carbon offsetting (why are we not trying to reduce emissions instead?), it's not.

Both sites bear the logo "Green Certified Site" - a product of C02 stats, which charges between $10-100 a month in exchange for a logo that says your site is "carbon neutral and energy-efficient."

But hey, what's Google doing about the environment anyway? Search away! Ecocho | Blackle | EcoSeek

way better than sunday school

TerraChoice Environmental Marketing, brainchild behind the Sins of Greenwashing reports, has launched an online game to encourage consumers to make smarter, greener purchasing choices - and avoid the Seven Sins of Greenwashing.

“Name that Sin” is a custom-built Flash application that challenges players with a variety of multiple choice questions, such as identifying a legitimate eco-label from a fake one.

Other questions ask players to select the correct “Greenwashing Sin” that a product claim is committing. The game is designed to play more than once, with new questions added each time.

So go on! Play it now at sinsofgreenwashing.org or on Facebook.

4 ounces of fun in the sun

Congrats go out to C. Matthews of Ottawa, ON, who won the random drawing today for sunscreen from Kiss My Face.

Thanks go out to all of those who entered with their fabulous summer green tips!

a rose by any other name

Everyone needs some time off in the summer, and the team here at footprint is no exception. After some much needed sunshine (avec sunscreen of course!) we're back and eager to bring you more light steps.

Speaking of vacations, one of us had a nasty dining surprise when she found out that her beloved pan-seared Chilean sea bass is actually the Antarctic toothfish - over-fished, and endangered.

Mainly caught in the Ross Sea, Antarctica, industrial fishing for this key predatory fish started in 1996 with New Zealand and now includes a dozen nations.

Though the industry maintains that the fishing pressure has not yet caused irreparable harm to the ecosystem, reports indicate that the fishing already has already had a dramatic impact.

The Ross Sea ecosystem, the last healthy open-ocean ecosystem left on earth, is in immanent danger.

So what's a girl to do?

Stop eating Chilean sea bass for one (try this seafood selector from the Environmental Defense Fund), and start supporting organizations like The Last Ocean Project, who is giving the Ross Sea a voice.

boreal forests 1: kleenex 0

Yesterday, the Kimberly-Clark Corporation - maker of Kleenex, Scott and Cottonelle tissues - announced it will change production standards to increase forest conservation due to pressure from a five year Greenpeace campaign called Kleercut.

At a news conference in Washington DC, Greenpeace and Kimberly-Clark announced this historic agreement that will ensure greater protection and sustainable management of Canada's Boreal Forest. The agreement also will stand as a model for forest-products companies worldwide.

Kimberly-Clark is the largest global tissue producer, manufacturing more than 4 million tons of tissues annually. They had formerly used virgin fibers to produce the single-use tissue materials.

By the end of 2011, Kimberly-Clark will stop using any forest products derived from the Canadian boreal unless that wood is Forest Stewardship Council certified, and the company will ensure that 40% of its North American tissue fiber is either recycled or Forest Stewardship Council-certified, an increase of more than 70% over 2007 levels.

From Richard Brooks, Greenpeace Canada’s forest campaign coordinator:

Today’s announcement shows that perseverance and dedication can achieve great environmental victories even after many years of campaigning.

I expect to a large ripple effect from this policy and its implementation for years to come. We have moved a mountain and that is going to have impacts around the world.

they're young, they're urban, and they're farmers

Too busy to tend to veggies in your backyard garden? Young Urban Farmers is your answer to fresh eggplant from your own backyard, according to an article in Toronto Life's DIY Gourmet section.

Three recent Queen's business grads started the company, recognizing the need for a service that could give busy urbanites produce from their own backyards. For $155, YUF plants a vegetable garden (beans, cabbage, pumpkins, tomatoes, even strawberries), then builds a shelter to keep out raccoons. For $495, they’ll weed, water and harvest the bounty.

A smart idea, with the explosion of the local food movement, not to mention the various urban agriculture initiatives popping up in cities across North America, such as these outlaw chickens.

P.S. Live in Toronto and looking for work? YUF is hiring young farmers to help out. Send your resume and a short paragraph about your favourite food to jobs@youngurbanfarmers.com

no, not a pink slip

We're talking downsizing of the dwelling kind. Whether for economic or situational reasons, moving to a smaller space will almost always mean a smaller environmental footprint. Not to mention less cleaning, less rent/mortgage, cheaper utilities, and less stuff to keep track of, store, clean and insure.

Though having a large home is still a bizarre ego thing for many, the rest of us ask, do we really need all this space? Do we really want to buy things just to fill it? How much time could we save on cleaning if we had less to clean?

Less responsibility, less work, more money and more flexibility? Together, we're talking less stress! Space restrictions offer opportunities to be creative, and hey, if there's no room for guests that might be okay with you too.

If you're thinking of downsizing, or thinking you might think about it, here are some good resources to get you going:

1) Trading Down in Home Size from About.com

2) Time to Downsize that Home from Practical Eco

3) Top 10 Tips for Downsizing from Style at Home

4) Downsizing Your Home from My Green Home Project

congrats...and a new contest

Congratulations to K. Trapp of Milwaukee, WI, winner of a copy of Sleeping Naked is Green. Enjoy!

Summer is here and to celebrate, we're giving away eco-friendly oat protein sunscreen from Kiss My Face. To enter, just post your tip below for keeping summer green.

Maybe you've switched to a natural charcoal for your BBQ, or pack a stylish bamboo towel for the beach. We'll draw one tip at random and award the prize at noon EST on August 31st, 2009.

who will be sleeping naked?

Our book giveaway is now closed. Thank you to all who entered!

Stay tuned for the announcement of the winner - and our next contest!

give dad what he really wants

The gift of beer! Treat him to a fabulous Father's Day with a day trip to a craft brewery, preferably organic ;)

From our friends over at greenliving, here's a short list:

NOVA SCOTIA

Propeller is a Halifax-based micro-brewery offering four craft ales and two seasonal ales. They don’t use artificial preservatives to prolong the beer's shelf life or additives, the beer is unpasteurized, meaning it’s always served fresh (and terrifically tasty).

ALBERTA
At the Wild Rose micro-brewery in Calgary all beers are unpasteurized and preservative-free. The brewery also gives all “spent grains” (empty husks left over after the mashing process and malted grains are added to the brew) to a local farmer for livestock feed. The four beers on offer include a raspberry ale, brown ale, an India Pale Ale and the ever-mysterious flavour Velvet Fog.

ONTARIO
The Steam Whistle Brewery in Toronto uses only four, GMO-free ingredients in their brews: pure spring water, malted barley, hops and yeast. Its painted logo eliminates label paper, glues and dyes and the ‘spent grain’ from the brewhouse is shipped to farmers to be used for animal feed. The distinctive Steam Whistle green glass bottles are made a little sturdier for easy reuse; the same bottle can be washed, inspected and refilled up to 35 times! And it gets greener: The brewery uses clean, renewable energy, sourcing electricity from wind and low-impact hydro generators.

Mill Street produces Ontario’s first certified organic lager, and occupies a beautiful historic location in Toronto’s hip Distillery District. Winning the Canadian Brewery of the Year award for 2007 and 2008, this commercial brewery uses pesticide- and herbicide-free ingredients and employs a natural, preservative-free brewing process.

BC
Established in 1957 in Prince George, BC, next to a fresh water spring, Pacific Western Brewing is Western Canada’s largest independent Canadian-owned brewery and offers an organic lager and ale. Brewed with 100 percent organic malt, 100 percent organic Hallertau hops and pure spring water from Caribou Spring, all ingredients are certified organic and assured to be delicious.

Nelson Brewing Company is a craft brewery located in Nelson, BC, offering seven organic beers all with gloriously rich names like Black Heart, Faceplant Winter Ale, Liplock Summer Wheat Ale, Old Brewery Pale Ale, Paddywhack Indian Pale Ale and Wild Honey Authentic Ale. The organic dark-style ale is made in the image of the perfect pint: lightly hopped and brewed with imported organic dark roasted malted barley.

Located on a 10-acre farm in Sorrento, BC, Crannog Ales is Canada’s only certified organic farmhouse microbrewery. Crannog brews unfiltered, unpasteurized ales using only organic ingredients, some harvested straight from their fully sustainable farm. Their brewery provides food for the livestock, and the farm provides hops for the brewery. As Crannog only ships within BC, it’s just one more reason to be out West.

good-looking advice

During these uncertain times, we will probably all have to work harder than ever. Many of us too hard! I know for me, when my days are longer than I want them to be, I take deep breaths, try to remember what really matters and draw on some age-old wisdom— the kind of stuff my grandmother used to tell me. Here are a few tips for wellness in 2009.

~George Butterfield

fake it sunshine

Yeah, we know. The sun's rays are evil, and sunless tanners have a host of ingredients one cannot pronounce, let alone rub into their most absorbent organ (nevermind that smell).

But still, you want to at least look like you don't sit under florescent lighting and type the days away, so here are some ideas for a getting that golden glow:

1. Create a bronzing cream from cocoa! from eHow.

2. Mix up a batch of your own dihydroxyacetone from sugar beets.

3. Or buy it in a sunless tanning lotion from Green People.

4. Try tanning with tea bags, courtesy of much-loved Daily Candy.

And speaking of tea, Penny Pinching Grandma has plenty of uses for it, from protecting your teeth to dyeing gray hair!

your handmade moment could win cash

While not necessarily 'green,' handmade goods are better than those made by cheap labourers and shipped hundreds of miles to Walstore. In this spirit, Etsy, THE place for all things handmade, has announced a contest for creative/artsy types.

Basically, Etsy needs promo videos, and they've got a clever way to get 'em. They are accepting submissions for short videos promoting Etsy and the handmade movement.

The guidelines are simple: your theme must be "A Handmade Moment" and must legibly display the text "Etsy.com". The winning submissions will receive a total of $10,000! (and Etsy will use the video).

There are runner-up cash prizes as well. Check it out at Etsy.com.

one million acts of green, one act a time.

One Million Acts of Green is going International. Before it does, they're asking Canadians to give one last push for the environment.

Tomorrow - June 9th - join the movement and see how many Acts of Green we can do in one day. Every act counts! If you're already involved, you can keep adding your favourite acts or try some of the new summer acts.

Brainchild of the CBC, in partnership with Cisco, it's a pretty cool campaign that has spurned over 1.6 millions 'acts of green' and 'saved' 95,433,020 kg of greenhouse gases.

So pledge to install a programmable thermostat or clean your refrigerator coils once per year, and prove that one small act can make a big difference. Now, if we can just get those office buildings to shut off the freakin' lights...

ontario's call to action

On Wednesday, Woodstock Mayor Michael Harding challenged municipal leaders across Ontario to compete in the Count Me In! Community Challenge Day at a news conference in Toronto.

Harding’s challenge has already been accepted by 19 municipalities who have each committed to reduce their overall energy consumption between 8am and 8pm on August 14, 2009, the 6th anniversary of the North American blackout.

Ontarians can pledge their commitment and to create a personalized conservation plan (and win prizes, including energy-efficient appliances and electronics). Visit countmeinontario.ca.

fill your shopping cart with trees

Green Any Site promises to make your online shopping a little better for the environment. How does it work? Web retailers (think Amazon) pay other sites a percentage of each purchase for referrals. When you use GAS, all of that money goes to supporting green causes.

You bookmark their special link, then click it before you add something to your shopping cart. It won't cost you anything, and they’ll automatically donate a portion of your purchase to the Green cause their users chose that month. Easy peasy lemon squeesy.

Each month, they donate 100% of their income. The creator is a web developer from Israel named Tal Ater, who says this is his little contribution to the planet. Good on you, we say.

down the drain

Canadians use the second largest amount of household water in the world.

Visit goblue.org and use the One Minute Calculator to measure your personal use for year. We guarantee the shower and toilet sections will surprise you!

tim hortons...recycles?

It's true. We think. After months of finger pointing in Ontario(you'd think they were the only coffee shop on the planet handing out cups destined for landfill) Tim Hortons - purveyors of chicory-laced coffee and Canadian pride - is advertising that they're accepting coffee cups and lids at certain locations for recycling.

Well, they say so here on their site:

Q: Is the Tim Hortons cup recyclable?

A: Yes. Tim Hortons paper cup is recyclable where facilities exist. We currently have recycling & composting programs in a number of participating stores across Canada that capture our paper cup and other paper fibre materials. This number grows each day we work with cities and local waste management facilities to expand similar programs to our stores whenever possible.

Something seems amiss here though. Two months ago recycling facilities were claiming they couldn't do anything with the wax-lined cups. Now, apparently, it's all easy peasy. We're keeping our eye on this one...

win a copy of this book!

We waxed poetic yesterday about Vanessa Farquharson and her new book, Sleeping Naked is Green.

Now we're giving away a copy to one lucky reader!

To enter, simply leave a comment below. Use a real email address so we contact you if you win. Anyone is eligible, and entries will be accepted until June 30, 2009 at 12:00 EST. Good luck!

sleeping naked is green

Our fave green girl this week is National Post journalist Vanessa Farquharson, author of the new book Sleeping Naked is Green: How an Eco-Cynic Unplugged Her Fridge, Sold Her Car, and Found Love in 366 Days.

For one year, Farquharson took the challenge of making one green change to her lifestyle every single day to figure out what's doable -- and what's too hardcore.

The idea was that everything she did, she kept doing (so if she switched brands, it was a permanent switch; if she turned down her thermostat, she kept it down).

All the while, she reflects on what it truly means to be green, written with self-deprecating and humorous insight.

She's funny, she's smart, and she has some great ideas (love those butter balls). Check out her latest blog post, where she explores some asinine attempts at green branding.

tell big business it's lights out

If there's one thing that really gets our goat, it's lights left on at night, mocking us from the windows of high rise office towers. You can almost hear them sneering, Sure, go ahead and replace your household bulbs! We'll just suck up all the electricity you're saving. And the stars? Who cares about seeing stars!

Look around any urban center and you'll see other light jokes too - flood lights illuminating museums (most of the light goes into the sky), neon signs standing guard above closed retail stores (visual pollution, if nothing else), and billboards, flashing their clever ads inside nearly homes (remember Kramer being tortured by a Kenny Rogers Roasters sign?).

Enough is enough. Turn off the lights, save the power (not to mention the birds), and let the rest of us see the sky.

Image of Earth at night in 2000

Composite satellite image of the Earth at night in 2007

what are you doing june 8th?

Did you know that more plants and animals live in water than on land? Did you know that there are three different forms of water on our planet? Did you know that Canada is home to almost 25% of the world’s wetlands?*

World Oceans Day is less than a month away, and this year it's official - the United Nations finally recognized World Ocean Day as an international observance, and there are celebrations happening at aquariums, schools and zoos all over the world.

Get involved in your community with a list of events from thegreenpages.ca.

*From the Canadian Wildlife Federation's Rivers to Oceans Week site.

you eat the chips, the earth eats the bag

SunChips is taking steps to reduce the amount of non–renewable materials they use for packaging. Right now, 33% of their 10 1/2 oz. bags are made with renewable, plant based materials.

Even better, they've announced that in 2010 they plan to introduce the first fully compostable chip bag of its kind. The bags will be designed to fully decompose in 14 weeks when placed in a hot, active compost bin or pile.

Watch the bag decompose on their kewl time-lapse video. And hey, they use solar power to make the chips. Now about those free samples...?

holter says, use your friggin head!

Holter Graham, co-host of WA$TED on Discovery's Planet Green, posts about our throw-away habits - and how to change them. Simple, he says, use your friggin' head before throwing things out!

His tale of woe begins with a seemingly broken cordless phone, covers the Gaia theory, and ends with a happy moral.

Read Holter's Journal: Being green just means thinking a little harder, a little longer.

scottish festival cancelled

The organizers of the Outsider Festival have blamed the recession for forcing the cancellation of June's event.

The festival was first held in 2007 and organizers had promoted it as an environmentally-friendly event with an emphasis on outdoor pursuits.

The message on the site says "The Outsider programme was ambitious and ground breaking, combining live music and DJs with activities - including mountain biking and running - with debate and discussion, film, comedy and food in a uniquely beautiful and environmentally important setting; Rothiemurchus in the Cairngorm National Park.

"Clearly a recession is not the time to realise this bold new concept but we still believe the Outsider was right for its time and perfect for its place and are hugely disappointed that it is not going ahead."

charles. prince of wales. friend of frogs.

His Royal Highness, William and Harry, and a smattering of celebs connect with frogs on a message of rainforest conservation. Great piece.

buh bye ugly rain barrels

Rain barrels are really the best thing since sliced bread, but I always wondered, do so many of them have to be so...hideous? So when I saw this concept design from Moss Sund, I couldn't help but smile. Isn't it gorgeous?

CISTA is set to hit stores in 2010.

The vertical barrel fits onto to your home's eaves and can hold 100 gallons of water. It's design creates pressure, allowing a hose to be connected. And the best part is that the cover can be camouflaged with vines or other greenery.

Check out their site for more >

water bottles' evil twins

With all the hype about reusable, non-plastic water bottles, you'd think everyone would be up in arms about juice, sport drink, and other beverages in disposable bottles.

Oddly, it's pretty quiet out there. Is it because you can't get Gatorade from a tap?

eco trendy at hot docs

Topping the list of North America's largest documentary festival - the 2009 Hot Docs Film Festival in Toronto - is "The Cove," spotlighting the annual slaughter of more than 2,500 dolphins in Japan.

171 films from 39 countries will be screened at the 16th annual festival, 9 of which are environmentally-charged. "Waterlife" profiles the beauty and toxicity of the Great Lakes, while "End of The Line" delivers a disturbing wakeup call about humanity's overconsumption of fish.

"H2Oil" is an eye-popping exploration into the impact of the Alberta's Athabasca oil sands.

More from Constance Droganes, entertainment writer at CTV.ca>

pets count too

Fido and Fluffy may not care about stepping lighter on the earth, but you do, so are 6 simple ways to 'green' your pet:

1) biodegradable poop bags - we like Scoopies the best

2) natural cat litter - try World's Best Cat litter, made from whole-kernel corn

3) already destined for the bin 'toys' - tinfoil balls, old rope and tennis balls, milk cap rings, torn socks, wine corks

4) natural foods, made from real ingredients, not fillers - pets say Innova is yummy

5) spay or neuter - pet overpopulation is a serious environmental and economic problem, not to mention sad as hell when pups and kittens end up paying the price

6) grow organic catnip or cat grass - easy, and she'll love you more than ever!

For more tips, check out Eco Dog by Corbett Marshall
and Jim Deskevich!

all natural green eco recycled stuff

Greenwashing is the new price chopping. Underhanded, unethical practices meant to increase sales. Walmart has been there, done that when they cut prices so low in the 90s that smaller businesses simply could not keep up. They closed, and Walmart raised its prices.

Now, every company and their brother is determined to get on the green bandwagon. Things they didn't care about 5 years ago (recycling), things people were laughed out of boardrooms for even mentioning (less packaging), these are now things entire departments are dedicated to promoting.

Green product packaging - and I mean the color green, not the make-up of the packaging itself - is a proven way to convince us that whatever is inside is good for the planet. Slap an "all-natural" or "eco-friendly" tag on that and you'll have us salivating for more.

To illustrate:

The Amazing Dryer Ball of infomercial fame

becomes Nellie's Dryer Balls. Same product, same plastic, still made in China.



The fact is, there are no regulatory bodies to approve these claims (such as the ones that monitor and enforce nutritional labels on packaging). Anyone can claim their product is somehow "green," and the worst part is, it takes away from businesses that are actually offering honest eco-friendly products and packaging.

So be careful out there.

Thanks to Andrew Kinnear and his post Green, Leafy, Eco, Enviro, logo design for the great compilation of logos.

fly and buy carbon passes, suzuki tells ed

Ed Begley Jr. that is, star of Living with Ed. Catherine Porter reports back from the Green Toronto Awards last night, kick-off to the Green Living Show here in Toronto:

Green living isn't just a hobby for Begley. It's an informed passion. Just ask him about water quality, and he will spout off words like trichloroethylene, an industrial solvent used as a degreaser found today in groundwater. He agrees that the science on climate change is daunting, and the planet's prognosis is bleak without an all-out commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions (by something like 90 per cent in Canada).

He doesn't expect everyone to get solar panels. Start small, he says. With an energy audit. Maybe some more insulation in your home, so you don't leak carbon-fuelled energy. It will save you money, he says. And get you hooked – so soon, you'll be like him, buying an electric car and brewing up your own all-natural household cleaners.

But what about all that flying? Airplane travel is for carbon junkies. Each round-trip flight Begley takes spews out carbon equivalent to the emissions he saves with two months' worth of solar power generated on his roof. And he takes dozens of flights a year now.

"I didn't fly throughout the 1990s," he said. "But then my friend David Suzuki said, `I think you should start flying and buy Terrapasses (carbon offsets). It's more important that you get the message out there.'"

Read article >

beyond the shopping bag

Finally! reusable options for things we toss every day.

Sandwich Bags
snackTAXIs are a great alternative to plastic bags and wraps, especially when just one reusable bag has the potential to eliminate an average of 1000 plastic bags over its lifetime! snackTAXIs are lined with coated nylon, and can be machine washed and dried, or simply wiped clean with a damp sponge.

Chopsticks
bambu's snapstix are made from organic bamboo and they're chopsticks and a chopstick rest all in one snap. Both the snapstix and the rest pop back into the cheerfully designed sleeve for easy storage.

Tampons
Jade & Pearl's 'Sea Pearls' are sea sponge tampons containing no dioxin or synthetic fibers. Sustainably harvested and reusable for three to six months or more, Sea Pearls are economical, easy to use, and earth friendly. We were surprised to learn they've been selling them since 1974!

Cloth Produce Bags
There's nothing funny about a cloth grocery bag filled with plastic bags of produce :> Happily, Blue Skies Yoga carries cloth produce bags made of a unbleached, lightweight cotton that barely weighs on the produce scale.

Plantable Paper
Botanical Paperworks creates beautiful stationary and cards made from 100% post-consumer waste collected from local businesses. The paper is embedded with wildflower seeds, that bloom when planted. Eco and easy!

9 things people do...

...to feel less-guilty on Earth Day:

1. take public transit (and ask the driver how much it costs)

2. use a travel coffee mug (and ask if there's a discount)

3. plant a tree (with the help of local kids who know what to do)

4. buy organic produce (and balk at the cost and vibrant colors)

5. pick up litter (as long as it's not too dirty)

6. put batteries aside for disposal (instead of in the garbage)

7. wear green (st. paddy's day was last month?)

8. whip out the credit card and donate to an eco-charity online

9. drive the fam to an earth-day event (if the irony is lost...)

bank the rest

Thanks Ecoki for this great post on reducing paper consumption in one easy step: internet banking. Get and pay your bills online to save paper, stamps, and envelopes, not to mention time.

Never miss a deadline with automatic payments, and stash away savings without doing anything with an automatic withdrawal program (hello compound interest)!

Ecoki also points us to PayItGreen's “financial paper footprint” calculator, which can tell you how many trees you'll save, and the equivalent savings of miles driven in your car.

Bank away!

damn you sticky note papers

Whilst tearing off a small canary yellow piece of paper from it's sticky home to apply to a document (with a thrilling "Please Approve" message for a colleague), I got to wondering just how many of these little sticky notes I waste per year.

So I did some calculating and concluded about 2080 pieces (100 sheets per pad x 1 pad every 2.5 weeks). I felt guilty, then found this reusable post-it idea at Halfbakery (with some pretty colorful comments); I started feeling really guilty, until this colossal waste of thousands of post-its made me feel better.

resisting the squeeze

Lays off, cut backs, bail outs. The list goes on, but business is still hanging on to green ... but for how long?

Trend-watcher eMarketer reports that polls from the American Marketing Association and Fleishman-Hillard show that companies are still investing in green projects and products—and they want their customers to know it. Yet, when asked if consumers would pay more for green products now, only 40% agreed.

As for them, over half surveyed said that sustainability is an essential element of their company’s reputation. What's worse, the survey showed that even popular sustainability programs, such as recycling and electric energy efficiency, were embraced by only a minority of businesses, 36% and 20%, respectively.

eMarketer's round up? Green marketing is good, but no one can be certain whether—under continuing pressure from the economy—it will wilt.

but where would the magnets go?

Could you live without a fridge? Torontonian Andrea Peloso turned hers into a storage cupboard two years ago.

And apparently she's not the only one. Do some searching online, and you'll find hundreds of blog posts and articles on the subject. Aside from the obvious energy savings, many fridge-free-ers report better eating habits (fresh produce, less processed junk), although some admitted that they ate out a lot more.

Eco-blogger Vanessa Farquharson talks about some unique solutions in this article from Eye Weekly, like storing wine bottles in the toilet tank, and switching to almond milk, which lasts unrefrigerated for 3 days.

"Greenpa" fancies himself as having lived "ultra"-green for the past 31 years. He uses solar electricity, a composting toilet, and hunts, gathers and gardens for food, and covers it all on his Little Blog In The Big Woods.

Greenpa points out that, while a lot of people are anti-anti-fridge, it's actually quite simple to live without one, particularly if you live in the city where it's easy to pop out for some meat or cold beer.

He raises a good point about the luxury foods we all keep around too, like ice cream and pop: "Would you be better off if they weren't so handy? If you're like me, if the ice cream is there- I'll eat it. Then buy more. How much of our obesity epidemic is due to having a handy supply of treats in the fridge- all the time?"

Why not unchain yourself from the thought that you have to have a full-size fridge, and downsize to a bar fridge, or unplug altogether. If you need more inspiration, check out the iGreen concept kitchen over at Apartment Therapy's re-nest. Awesome!

recycled denim insulation

Square One Shopping Centre will be collecting used denim during its Project Denim drive which runs from April 22nd til 25th in the Centre Court of the mall. The collected denim will then be recycled into home insulation for Mississauga's first Habitat for Humanity home, scheduled to begin construction later this month.

Those who donate denim will receive a $5 Square One gift certificate and receive a sample for an environmentally-friendly liquid laundry product.

More info here

a greener easter

Why is it that whenever a holiday comes around, we go into extreme buy / trash mode (I'm looking at you Christmas). This Easter, give Mother Nature a break with these alternatives.

*Tiffany over at NatureMomsBlog has some great tips, like making your own baskets (with real grass!) and dyeing your (free-range) eggs with food you already have around the house (blueberries, spinach).

*As for the hunt, who wants a yard - or house - full of cheap, sugary eggs? The kids do! If you don't want to give this tradition up, look for eggs that have the least amount of packaging. Try to find fair trade and/or organic if they're chocolate. Or get reusable eggs that open (I've seen ones made from bamboo!) and fill them with almonds, raisins, or coins.

*If you fancy yourself a crafty type, hop on over to our new favourite site This Recycled Life for some 'upcycled' decorating ideas.

*When family comes calling, serve local farmers' fare if possible. Easter is also a perfect time to start new traditions, like planting a tree or volunteering together.

*Last but not least, send a smile with Easter e-cards - green AND free!