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.

Thanks to the wonder of technology, laundry isn't the chore it once was – but the tradeoff for these wonderful appliances is the amount of energy – and therefore money – they consume. Here are a few tips to make your laundry greener (metaphorically, of course!) and save cash at the same time: (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.

Remember how the computer age was supposed to save us from drowning under piles of paperwork? Well, it's true – it really can. There are two ways you can instantly cut back on paperwork:

1. Use online banking
Instead of paying bills by cheque or using the bank machine, use online banking for the greatest paper savings. (Phone banking works as well, but it's not nearly as easy to use.) (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.

Have you ever considered the environmental impact of owning pets? They consume food, water and accessories (toys, leashes, etc.), and then there's the cost of where they were born and raised before you got them.

This isn't to say you shouldn't have pets. But it's another area of your lifestyle that can be examined for the potential to make greener choices. Here are a few 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 senior editor Laurie Mackenzie.

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Fitting green choices into my everyday life has been more of a challenge this year because I'm planning a wedding. My groom-to-be and I really want our wedding day to represent our socially conscious values, from the post-consumer paper for our invitations to the eco caterer we've chosen for the reception. We didn't know the flowers could be green, too. I had no idea fair-trade and organic options existed, but what I found out really opened my eyes. (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.

Flashlights burn through batteries like nobody's business – and if you're like most of us, you don't have rechargable size D batteries to fill them with.

Want a better option? Check out this solar-powered flashlight from SunNight Solar, one of grist.org's top 10 green gadgets. For US$25, not only do you get a flashlight for yourself, but they'll provide one to someone in the world who needs one (you can even select a recipient organization on your own).

Reduce waste and help someone in need – sounds like a winning combination to me.

Today's code word: flashlight

Read more:
• Top 10 ways to save energy in your kitchen
• Ecotourism: How to make your vacations greener
• Why lights at night are harmful

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.

Last summer, I was given a beautiful big hot pink umbrella. It's not the type of umbrella I would normally buy (I'm partial to basic black), but I fell in love with it and looked forward to rainy days so I could use it. Then, a few months ago, the inevitable happened and it broke – not a major break, I think it's fixable, but something beyond my repair capabilities.

Since we weren't lucky enough to have above-zero temperatures from then until recently, it wasn't top of mind. But the other day I decided I should get my umbrella repaired instead of replacing it – after all, it's in perfectly good shape other than one minor thing, and I like it, and fixing rather than throwing out is the eco-friendly thing to do. (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've always sort of had a vague idea that hand dryers were better to use environmentally than paper towels, but the fact that this is actually written on some hand dryers has always made me suspicious. But considering how often I wash – and therefore dry – my hands at work (and generally choose the paper towel because it's faster), I finally decided to look it up.

One of my top go-to sources for questions like this is Umbra, the advice columnist at environmental news site grist.org. She agrees with the hand-dryer companies: they're the better choice when it comes to going green. So from now on, I'm going to try my best to use the dryer instead of the paper towel. (It's less drying on your hands, too.)

At home, of course, I assume you're all using proper towels to dry your hands, rather than paper towels. And for the odd occasion when you need to use a paper towel, don't forget to buy unbleached and recycled.

What are some of the little, everyday things you do to go greener? What are your thoughts on paper towels and hand dryers?

Today's code word: wash

Read more:
• Free 52-week green-living plan
• 10 ways to conserve water in your home
• Healthy home: How to improve indoor air quality

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.

Global food prices are rising dramatically, according to news sources such as cbc.ca and the New York Times, due to a number of factors including drought, high oil prices and the transfer of many crops to produce biofuels rather than food.

How big of a problem is it? Well, for most of us in Canada, the percentage increase in our food bills will likely be small – after all, we spend a very low percentage of our income on food, something around 10%. But in poorer countries, where people can spend half or more of their money on food, it's a real crisis. There have been protests and riots recently – even deaths – in countries as diverse as Egypt, the Philippines and Haiti.

It's a tough question whether anything we do in our daily lives can make a big impact. But there are definitely many things you can do to lessen your dependence on the global food chain, and to help others in need. (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.

The greenest lipstick is no lipstick. But if you're looking for the second-greenest lipstick, PlantLove by Canadian brand Cargo is a good one to choose. (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.

Local, seasonal eating has become hugely popular over the past year, partly due to (or perhaps simply coinciding with) the release of one of my favourite books, The 100-Mile Diet (I interviewed the authors last summer, too). But as we all know, it's one thing to eat local when you live in California; it's another when you're craving some fresh fruit in the middle of February. Plus, so many recipes don't take seasonal availability into consideration. I remember reading a comment in a book once – can't remember what it was, but I think it was a travel book set in Russia – in which the author noted what an odd combination peas and carrots really is, considering that their growing seasons don't coincide at all without the help of imports and freezers. (You can read more about the benefits of eating locally produced foods in a post I wrote for the book blog The Savvy Reader.)

The Canadian Living Test Kitchen does a great job of incorporating seasonal ingredients into every issue – in the May issue, for instance, there's a series of delicious-looking asparagus recipes (I'm planning to make the Asparagus, Mushroom and Red Pepper Strudel on page 130). But there are also a number of cookbooks being released that focus on cooking with seasonal ingredients. (more...)