After reading this post, don't forget to enter our contest – you could win a new dishwasher. Plus, do you have your own story to tell? Send it to greenchallenge@canadianliving.com (no more than 300 words, please), and you could win one of 30 daily prizes.

For me, eating locally and with the seasons comes fairly easily – fruits and vegetables that are local and in season taste so much better than the imports that I'm willing to wait it out. The challenge comes when I consider giving up those imports that never come into season in this northern climate: tropical fruits are the big one for me. A life without mangoes, pineapple, bananas and kiwifruit seems a sad one indeed. But if you had to ask most Canadians what imported crop they'd be least likely to give up, it would have to be one of the world's favourite caffeinated treats: tea, coffee or chocolate.

So how can you make your consumption of these goods easier on the environment to balance out all those food miles? Here are some suggestions. (more...)

After reading this post, don't forget to enter our contest – you could win a new dishwasher. Plus, do you have your own story to tell? Send it to greenchallenge@canadianliving.com (no more than 300 words, please), and you could win one of 30 daily prizes.

Today's post is by web editor Colleen Tully.

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I hate being dependent on plastic, but especially those disposable plastic wraps and baggies designed for food storage and food waste. Every time I throw away some plastic wrap or a grocery bag I feel terrible. So this month I chose to exorcise the following demons from my life forever: plastic wrap, baggies, grocery bags, and garbage bags.My husband and I are apartment-dwellers. He tends to be wrap-happy with food, having grown up in the country, where mice or insects would otherwise raid their pantry. I copied his habits and developed an addiction to Ziploc. I expected this experiment to be grossly difficult for us both, but I couldn't have been more wrong! Here's what we did: (more...)

After reading this post, don't forget to enter our contest – you could win a new dishwasher. Plus, do you have your own story to tell? Send it to greenchallenge@canadianliving.com (no more than 300 words, please), and you could win one of 30 daily prizes.

Today's post is by executive editor Doug O'Neill.

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I had an epiphany not long ago, and it goes something like this: "It's a right pain in the back when you DON'T go green." Just as global warming weighs heavily upon my brow each morning as I read the newspapers on the subway ride to work, I've become equally aware of the burden of excess paper weighing heavily upon my lower back as I schlep extra kilograms of paper products and documents in my briefcase and crammed into my backpack as I traipse about the city.Take one recent Thursday, for instance. Not only did I have to bring back to work a pile of manuscripts that I had taken home the night before but I was also loaded up with mountains of handouts for the students in my journalism class at Ryerson. Ouch, my lower-back issues flared up something fierce. And that got me thinking: how do I lighten my load? The answer is simple: print on double-sides. Excellent. That actually (A) lightened my load but also, and more importantly on the global scale, (B) reduced my paper usage by half. A no-brainer. So that got me thinking: How else can I cut down on paper use at home and at work?

Here's what I've come up with: (more...)

After reading this post, don't forget to enter our contest – you could win a new dishwasher. Plus, do you have your own story to tell? Send it to greenchallenge@canadianliving.com (no more than 300 words, please), and you could win one of 30 daily prizes.

Looking for something fun to do this weekend? Consider taking time out from 8 to 9 pm on Saturday (local time) to celebrate Earth Hour by switching off your lights.

Earth Hour, if you haven't heard of it before, started last year as an initiative in Sydney, Australia, and this year has spread around the globe, with Canadians being among its primary supporters. The concept is simple: turn off your lights for an hour to protest climate change. To show your support for Earth Hour, visit earthhour.org and sign up as a participant. (Be patient: their site is really slow due to heavy traffic.)

In Toronto, Nelly Furtado will be giving a free concert in Nathan Phillips Square, and many Canadian cities and businesses have pledged to turn the lights off during Earth Hour. (Please share any events in your community in the comments.) But if you don't have an event to attend, here are a few suggestions on fun ways to celebrate. (more...)

After reading this post, don't forget to enter our contest – you could win a new dishwasher. Plus, do you have your own story to tell? Send it to greenchallenge@canadianliving.com (no more than 300 words, please), and you could win one of 30 daily prizes.

As I mentioned a couple of days ago in my post about toothbrushes, most of my actual garbage is plastic packaging, and quite a bit of it comes from the bathroom. Sadly, I often end up throwing out bottles from lotions, cleansers, shampoos and other beauty products because the packaging isn't recyclable. To be frank, a lot of the products we use in our bathrooms are an environmental disaster from start to finish. Here are some of the things I'm doing at home to clean up my act that you might want to try, too: (more...)

After reading this post, don't forget to enter our contest – you could win a new dishwasher. Plus, do you have your own story to tell? Send it to greenchallenge@canadianliving.com (no more than 300 words, please), and you could win one of 30 daily prizes.

Today's post is by senior editor Donna Paris.

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What I know:
Cars are bad.What I should do:
Park my car, smash the headlights, throw in some dirt and plant morning glory seeds so the vines and flowers will twist up and out and all around the hunk of metal and make it look pretty. (more...)

After reading this post, don't forget to enter our contest – you could win a new dishwasher. Plus, do you have your own story to tell? Send it to greenchallenge@canadianliving.com (no more than 300 words, please), and you could win one of 30 daily prizes.

Here in Toronto, we're lucky enough to have a pretty good curbside pickup program that takes a variety of recyclables (including many plastics) as well as food waste. What this means, effectively, is that just about everything that goes in my garbage can these days is some sort of non-recyclable plastic, usually packaging but sometimes other goods. One of the culprits: toothbrushes.

Assuming you follow your dentist's directions properly, you'll go through about four toothbrushes a year. That might not seem like much waste compared to how much garbage goes to the curb every week, but multiply it by 30 million Canadians and 120 million toothbrushes suddenly seems like a lot. Plus, think of all the plastic that's created just for those "disposable" toothbrushes. (more...)

After reading this post, don't forget to enter our contest – you could win a new dishwasher. Plus, do you have your own story to tell? Send it to greenchallenge@canadianliving.com (no more than 300 words, please), and you could win one of 30 daily prizes.

Today's story is courtesy of Christina Anson Mine, managing editor at Canadian Living.

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Incandescent bulbs, I wish I knew how to quit you!Just like Jack in Brokeback Mountain, I can't seem to tear myself away from my taboo love. There's something so warm, so comforting about the soft light of incandescents that I find myself drifting back to them every time I start flirting with more energy-efficient bulbs. I know I should be going greener, but I just can't help myself. (more...)

After reading this post, don't forget to enter our contest – you could win a new dishwasher. Plus, do you have your own story to tell? Send it to greenchallenge@canadianliving.com (no more than 300 words, please), and you could win one of 30 daily prizes.

I have a confession. While I consider myself pretty environmentally minded, I have a weakness for long, hot showers that I just can't give up, no matter how many times I hear – and acknowledge – that even 10 minutes is too much.

I know that many communities in Canada face water shortages every year. I know that here in Toronto, piping water up from the lake to my house is a drain on our already taxed electricity supplies. And in every other aspect of my life, I'm hyper conscious of wasting water – you could almost say I'm allergic to the sound of an unnecessarily running tap. But... well, for one thing, I'm often half asleep during my morning shower, so it takes me longer. I have long hair – it takes time to wash it. I exercise a lot, so skipping showers isn't generally an option (so long as I want to maintain my popularity at home, that is). Plus, showers are a little bit of easy luxury to start my day with. So what do I do to lessen the impact of my shower habit and alleviate my guilt? (more...)

Last year, in conjunction with Canadian Living Magazine's green issue, we invited you to sign up for 30 days of tips on greener living. The feedback was phenomenal and we couldn't help but come back with something bigger and better for 2008.

Our inspiration was this: instead of just offering tips on greener living, let's go one step further and share our stories of how we're trying to live more environmentally friendly lives. So for the next 30 days, that's what you'll be hearing about: our attempts and our failures, our eco successes and our eco sins. (more...)