Archive for the ‘Green Living’ Category

I have a confession to make: Just back in the office from visiting the Green Living Show in Toronto, and I'm embarrassed to say I expected a lot of granola and bad upcycled sweaters. Thankfully, I was I wrong - so very wrong.

Toronto's Green Living Show is loads and loads of fun and there is honestly something there for everyone.

If you live near Toronto, here are 4 reasons to visit the show this weekend:

1. Green Beauty Bar.  Swing by and say hi to the professional makeup artists at the Green Beauty Bar. You can book a mini makeover, a makeup touch up or even a mini manicure, done with eco makeup and nail polishes. The friendly team is also on-hand to tell you all about their favourite beauty products.

Cheeky Monkey nail polish. Photo by Tasia Rivero.

2. Next up, be sure to visit to the food section of the show. Here I snacked on delicious, preservative-free pesto sauce, tapenades and locally-grown tofu. Be sure to stop by the Cookstown Greens table for a look (and maybe a taste!) of their gorgeous edible flowers, seen in the photo I snapped, below.

Related link: Edible flowers: Take time to eat the roses

Edible flowers. Photo by Tasia Rivero.

3. Wander to the clothes/accessories. Gone are the days of old bandannas and sandals, looking for a mountain to climb. This stuff was nice. Here I found the gorgeous bamboo/organic cotton-blend sunflower dress pictured below. Other favourites: adorable ballet flats from Africa, with soles made of recycled tires and killer iPad and laptop sleeves and computer bags -- each made of reused banners or tarps (sounds strange, but check out the wonderful examples, also below).

Bamboo/organic cotton-blend dress. Photo by Tasia Rivero.

Totem laptop bags. Photo by Tasia Rivero.

4. Save the best for last. Visit Eco stems, an earth-friendly flower shop situated right inside the main doors. The table is covered in gorgeous flowers - but for me, the main attraction was the selection of air plants. These plants are native to the rainforest and thrive in darker, humid rooms - think a windowless bathroom. The sky's the limit when it comes to displaying an air plant - I'm told you can leave one to sit on a countertop, put one in a bowl or jar, or even hot-glue a magnet to one for a unique addition to your fridge. To care for an air plant, a quick rinse under the tap twice a week is all that's required. My plant (pictured below) should bloom with pinky-purple flowers.

My new air plant. Photo by Tasia Rivero.

Other feature include a partially solar-powered Fisker luxury car, an array of eco-friendly products to buy in the Marketplace, daily live bird presentations, Sweat Equity yoga pavilion, and a look at Canada's oceans hosted by the WWF and Royal Ontario Museum.

Toronto's Green Living Show is on this weekend only, April 13 to 15, at the Direct Energy Centre at Exhibition Place. Tickets at $12, or get in for free by bringing along a piece of electronic waste (old phones, TVs, computers, printers and A/V equipment). For more info visit greenlivingshow.ca or follow #gls12 on Twitter.

Reminder: Earth Day is coming up this April 22. What will you do in the spirit of eco-friendliness? Let me know by leaving a comment, below.

Ever wondered about the size of your ecological footprint? It's something definitely worth pondering as we make an effort to go more 'green' and work on healing our planet. I've always been curious about my ecological impact, but never quite knew how to figure it out. That is, until I learned about the Ecoaction Calculator from our friends over at Earth Day Canada.

The Ecoaction Calculator helps you reduce your environmental impact by figuring out ways to cut down on electricity and water, while learning tips to help you recycle and build composts.

As you use the calculator to answer various questions pertaining to your habits, you're encouraged to commit to a greener lifestyle by challenging yourself to save.* Suggestions include taking the train instead of driving in to work, eating more vegetarian meals, and even cutting down on the amount of water you use each week.

One of the best perks of using this calculator, however, is that you can share in your commitments as a team. Once you log in and create a profile, you can encourage your friends, family and coworkers to join your team, where you'll be able to encourage each other to commit to a greener lifestyle.

Think you're up for the challenge? Visit the Ecoaction Calculator and commit to reducing your ecological footprint starting now.

You can also check out more tips from Earth Day Canada in their special blog series.

Good luck!

* Savings are calculated in energy, waste, water, greenhouse gas emissions, and dollar savings.

This is the final post in our special four-part series from Earth Day Canada. Be sure to check out all their earlier blog posts leading up to Earth Day 2012.

Earth Day is April 22. What steps are you taking to make our world a better place?

With less than a month to go before Earth Day, it’s time to commit to making simple changes that are healthy for you and the environment.

With the Take It Up For Earth Day challenge, finding ideas, tips, and tools to achieve these changes is easy.

Unfortunately, between 1990 and 2007, per capita vehicle emissions increased at almost twice the growth rate of the population. Roughly 82 per cent of commuters travelled to work by car in 2010, while 12 per cent took public transit and six per cent walked or bicycled (considering six largest census metropolitan areas).

You can be part of the six per cent and do yourself and the planet some good!

One option is to get moving! Canada’s Physical Activity Guide recommends 2 ½ hours of moderate to vigorous activity per week. Moderate activities include brisk walking or biking. So unplug from your electronic (or vehicle) dependencies and take up outdoor leisure activities to reconnect with your environment.

Having trouble figuring out where you can cut back and become more active? Want to encourage others to unplug as well? There are plenty of ideas at Take It Up no matter what your lifestyle is.

The added bonus to unplugging is that you can let your creativity loose. The kid-friendly campaign Act for the Planet has all kinds of ideas for kids to go beyond recycling and start UPcycling!

What can you make out of an old cereal box? How about some old luggage? Check out the cool UPcycling projects at Act for the Planet, or come up with your own and share what you’ve made with others.

So before you throw it out, think about how it can be used in a different, better way.

Little changes in your life can make big changes in the environment.

Commit to making a change. Commit to making a difference. Commit at earthday.ca.

Earth Day is April 22, and the Take It Up For Earth Day and Act for the Planet campaigns are in full swing! Sometimes, showing you care isn’t just about your actions, it’s about what you know.

Commit to Care: detox your personal care routine.

Do you know about the carcinogens in your shampoo? The lead in your lipstick? Care about your exposure to toxic chemicals and take a closer look at the ingredients in your personal care products. You may not like what you find, but you can certainly do something about it. Each morning, an average person uses around 15 personal care items that contain roughly 100 toxic ingredients!

Try out alternatives to toxic products.

In Canada, companies are not required to provide a complete list of ingredients in cosmetic products, and many harmful substances can be found within them, in our bodies and in the environment. Choose products that are healthier and make better environmentally sound purchasing decisions.

While kids don’t have control over a lot of purchases, they can still show they care by helping out birds. The kid-friendly Act for the Planet campaign has lots of activities for kids to help prevent bird crashes at their houses or classrooms; and they can make great art projects as well.

Check out the step-by-step guides to identifying trouble spots for birds and how to fix them by making whirligigs and fake stained glass windows.

Don't forget to recognize Earth Day on April 22.

Visit earthday.ca to learn more about the environmental hazards around our homes, and show how much you care by committing to make a change.

Today is the start of Earth Day Canada’s campaigns!

Keeping the environment healthy doesn’t have to be hard, and the campaigns are filled with simple actions for you, your colleagues and kids to do just that.

A simple but important action that everyone can do is to drink more tap water and get water-wise. Reducing the waste created by paying for and drinking bottled water (with less safety regulations) can be achieved by refilling a reusable bottle.

It takes the equivalent of around 17 million barrels of oil to produce all the plastic for plastic water bottles each year. And did you know that municipal water is tested every day while bottled-water plants are only inspected on average once every three years?

Our tap water quality and safety ranks among the best in the world but there are still issues with our water consumption and access to clean drinking water even here in Canada. This is why it's important to get water-wise.

And don’t forget the kids. The kid-friendly Act for the Planet campaign offers all sorts of ideas and tips for kids and their classmates to help them remember to bring their own bottle.

Visit earthday.ca to learn and participate in fun and interesting ways for the month of April.

In the weeks leading up to Earth Day on April 22, we will be sharing a four-part series of blog posts, courtesy of our friends at Earth Day Canada. Each post will highlight simple things that we can do to better appreciate our beautiful and giving planet.

So without further ado, here's the first post: Eat and Plant

Earth Day is April 22, and there are all sorts of actions you can take that help ease the burden on mother nature while keeping you healthy and saving you some cash.

Need a little inspiration? No problem! Earth Day Canada is kicking off two action-based campaigns for the month of April; kid-friendly Act for the Planet and for adults, groups, businesses—Take It Up For Earth Day.

Both campaigns have ideas for you, your colleagues (and kids) to practise new healthy actions or habits for both people and the environment.

This year, take up one of the actions or think about your own action and share it with Earth Day Canada!

Celebrate Earth Day on April 22, 2012

One of the actions Earth Day Canada suggests is to eat and prepare plant-based foods at home. Why? Livestock production is responsible for 18 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions even more than the transport sector. But not only that, a meat-based diet requires seven times more land than a plant-based diet and it takes about 1500 litres of water to produce one kilogram of wheat, but it takes 10 times more to produce one kilogram of beef.

So eating plant-based meals more often is an easy way to make a big difference. Plus cooking at home and bringing your own meals to work will help you cut back on take-out packaging.

Kids (as well as classrooms) can help out, too. There’s a step-by-step guide to creating a living wall (a plant installation) which are great for the environment and us because plants:

• Clean the air
• Make people feel more relaxed
• Can produce food.

And if you’ve got your own ideas about what you’d like to take up for Earth Day, write it down and share your action with your friends and family. Making your commitment public can make it a lot easier to keep.

Beginning March 12, visit earthday.ca, register your commitment(s), get tips and tools to be successful and join in this spring to make change a habit!

Renowned philanthropist and entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson was in Toronto yesterday to to call for the protection of polar bears in Canada.

The majestic polar bear is at risk of extinction. Photo from Dreamstime

I bet you didn't think that was an issue, hmm? Polar bears going extinct?

It turns out that Ontario hosts the southernmost population of polar bears in the world, with at least a 1,000 calling the province home. And not a lot of Canadians are aware of this fact.

Branson, along with his foundation Virgin Unite, has partnered with the Canadian chapter of WildAid, a wildlife conservation organization, to promote legislation that will protect polar bears. He was also joined by Dr. William Rapley, the Toronto Zoo's executive director of conservation and wildlife; actress and WildAid board member Bo Derek; Rob Sinclair, executive director of WildAid Canada; and Peter Knights, executive director of WildAid.

Bo Derek and Sir Richard Branson at a press conference in Toronto, calling for the protection of polar bears. Photo by Simone Castello

Why should we be paying attention?

For starters, loss of ice in the Arctic means the polar bears are losing their natural habitat. This, in turn, is forcing a large population of bears to migrate ashore earlier on in the year.

All of this results in:

- a decrease in body mass;

- a decrease in litter sizes, and

- a decrease in the total number of polar bears on our planet.

Research also indicates that if we don't act quickly, polar bears will be extinct within the next 20 to 30 years.

"As an American, I've always had the impression that Canada cares deeply about its wildlife," actress and activist Bo Derek said at the press conference yesterday.

This is a fact that's not lost on younger Canadians. In fact, a group of young Earth Rangers were on hand to hear Sir Richard speak. And they came armed with questions of their own.

A young Earth Ranger quizzes the panel on what Canadians should be doing to protect the polar bears. Photo by Simone Castello

What can we do to help the polar bears?

Awareness is key. As a starting point, we must educate ourselves on factors that are adding to the extinction of polar bears. You can visit WildAid Canada's website and check out their literature on this topic. Furthermore, you can also sign their Polar Bear Pledge, petitioning the Canadian government to do more to protect this iconic national symbol.

How aware are you of the dangers to our ecosystems, and do you support any nature/wildlife organizations in Canada?

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Welcome to the future!

I tried this for the first time today and was blown away! How did it work for you?

Congrats to Jordon! You've won a copy of David Suzuki's One Ocean. Here's what Jordon had to say about Canadian icon David Suzuki:

"David Suzuki has always been an inspiration. A man with simple thoughts to help us understand that it's not that hard to all do our part in helping the world be a better place."

Yay Jordon!

I have a secret to tell you: There will be some NEW and EXCITING changes happening on Canadian Living's blog. Come back next week to check it out and let us know what you think.

Suzuki's takes an in-depth look at our oceans in his documentary series One Ocean.

If you're a David Suzuki fan, you already know how much he loves the ocean. And if you've seen his documentary series from The Nature of Things called One Ocean, you probably have taken The Pledge to do everything in your power to protect the ocean, because you love it too!

One Ocean is an eye-opening four-part documentary that looks at our complex ocean and the devastating impacts humans have had on it. The documentary addresses such harrowing issues as: acidification, coral depletion, deadzones, overfishing and pollution. Suzuki also looks at the success of some sustainable practices implemented to protect oceans and the life within.

Guess what? I'm giving away one copy of One Ocean. All you have to do is leave a comment here telling me if you are a David Suzuki fan. I will announce a winner Thursday November 18. You have to be a subscriber to be eligible to win. Good luck!