The Green Room

Yes, times are tough financially, and likely going to get much worse before getting any better. But, that doesn’t mean we have to stop our efforts to live sustainably, afterall, for the most part, we can do this for free. Simple things like composting, carpooling or using transit more often, and recycling are small choices that make a big difference. Each one of us makes an impact.
We asked you to send us ideas and stories on how you are living sustainably today and how we can use this financial crisis as an opportunity to move towards creating a green economy for a sustainably future. Below are some of your ideas and comments.

Majken Connor writes:

“I live in Toronto and having moved from Orillia was really happy to see recycling containers everywhere, like on the TTC or at the food court at the mall. The problem I’ve realized with this, though is that when I’m out, the majority of waste I create is food related. Many of the containers my fast food comes in aren’t recyclable, or aren’t recyclable once they’ve had food in them.
I’d like to see a push for all restaurant/fast food containers to be biodegradable, not just recyclable, and to see more public composting efforts. This seems to me like it would be more efficient than recycling, and more effective at diverting waste from landfills.”

Dave Lewis writes:

“I’ve offered my name as the Green Enthusiast for our church, Central United in Moncton, NB. Our church is already well along the road to “living with respect in Creation” by converting to CFLs, having an energy audit completed, for a couple of examples, but where we can help the most, in my opinion, is through education of our congregation and the public on issues ranging from the bad theology that has allowed us to not live with respect in creation, to the problems with bottled water, and many others.”

Bob Nation writes:

“We are installing a solar collector on the roof of our Vancouver Island house. This will supplement our house heating, now mostly provided by oil furnace. This should cut down on the carbon we burn and save some annual costs. The collector is a SolarSheat model from Your Solar Home, Inc., an Ontario company; it rated well in a Buyer’s Guide in Mother Earth News in 2007.”

Diana van Eyk writes:

“Creating Businesses Closer to Home: I’m concerned about Canada’s exporting of raw materials and importing finished goods — all that transporting creates greenhouse gases while depleting our economy of green manufacturing jobs. I and some others are looking at creating goods that are environmentally friendly, high quality, beautiful and fairly traded. It makes so much economic sense to me. We are in the very beginning stages of this.”

Lisa Kretz writes:

“I think a widely publicized day of public transportation would do wonders for indicating to the government the importance of directing funding to much needed infrastructure for ecologically sustainable methods of public transportation.”

Julie Beddoes

“Energy ministries could run training courses for building managers in ways to improve buildings to achieve greater energy efficiency. Building codes must be radically reformed. A low-interest loan fund could be established by CMHC so that condos and rental buildings can repay loans for upgrading out of energy savings.
Food labelling should be a lot stricter. In lists of ingredients, those grown in Canada could be listed in a special print colour to distinguish them from imported ones; labelling should distinguish among “grown,” “prepared” or “manufactured” and “packaged” in Canada with province specified. All governments should take measures to enable Canadian growers to get their products to market. Meat and animal products should be de-emphasized; getting organic beef into expensive restaurants isn’t going to change the world.
The Ontario government could get serious about keeping the green belt green and municipalities should refuse building permits to developments that sprawl or that include surface parking.
This would be a start but untless all governments and more of the general population get serious, my grandchildren don’t have much of a future. Is it time to stop emphasizing the positive and start scaring people?”

Grace Mandarano writes:

“I thought I’d take a moment to email and let you know how my partner, Paul and I are hoping to be a part of the Green Economy. Just over a year ago we founded our company, 100km Foods Inc. Feel free to check out our website at www.100kmfoods.com.
While attending a number of different seminars in Toronto discussing food systems, we found that chefs in Toronto were voicing an increasing desire to procure food locally, and from farms employing sustainable farming methods, and farmers in Ontario were voicing a desire to have access to markets in the city but neither had the means to make the physical link to one another. We decided to form 100km Foods Inc. and be that much needed link.
So, we purchased a refrigerated truck in January 2008, and we are now entering into our second growing season in business. The reception from some of Toronto’s top chefs has been fantastic and we are currently supplying approximately 30 restaurants and small retailers. the number of growers we work with has also grown quite a bit, also increasing our product offering.
One of our main goals for this year is to purchase Biodiesel Production Equipment and convert the waste kitchen oil of our customers to fuel for our delivery truck. We are currently in discussions with a number of potential partners to get this project under way.
We believe that the current economic recession is no different than any other we have experienced in the past in one fundamental way: it points to a very broken and unsustainable system. It is time for change.
We hope to be a part of that change.

Kyle McIntyre writes:

“Tackling the green economy issue is indeed a great challange. There are so many things that can be done and unfortunately the Government has most of the playing cards. To try and engage my friends, family & our fellow humanity, I (among many others) have started a facebook page (2012 - Save Gaia - Save ourselves, http://www.facebook.com/groups.php?ref=sb#/group.php?gid=45805128010) to help collect documantaries and other videos (google / youtube) to help spread the truth about what is going on in our world.”

Zanie writes:

“At no other time in history will we have so much financial support available for rebuilding our country.
Before the money starts filtering it’s way to industry we must stop and be sure that it is being put to the wisest use and having the most impact.
We must stop and reset our path. If we can learn from history, which they say repeats itself, we must look back to a time when we were living in a sustainable fashion without harming our environment. If we can use that as a starting point and move forward using only those products and processes that add to the quality of our lives but do not create a harmful effect on the environment that we depend on for life.
Man was created to survive on the clean air he breathes, the clean water he drinks and the food he harvests from the earth and sea.
We have lived a few decades of consumption and indulgence. It is time to change our ways. It is time to ensure that our grandchildren will be able to live a productive and healthy life.”

Monique Richoux writes:

“I belong to an on-line simplicity group, mostly of other women in fairly close proximity - certainly all are in BC.
I still think that we need to link up people more, in person and on-line. We need places to talk about stuff - big stuff (like population growth, climate change, etc) or small stuff (CFL’s aren’t working for me - they keep burning out and I know that many are being put in the landfill). All our systems are so stressed right now. Every 4 days the earth gets 1 million new people on it. That has to change. There needs to be public discourse. Change is hard - we need more support.
….I am going to tackly my regional district (Columbia-Shuswap) to not spray herbicides along my road (and eventually the whole district and province). This may involve tackling the BC noxious weed laws. “

Donna Weldon writes:

“The thing that bothers me most is the whole issue of a sustainable economy. I don’t feel we hear enough about this. Is it viable that economies continue to be healthy if they do not have an increase in their measure of growth (I believe they can!) But more information about that should be getting out there. Especially during these economic times. Seems to me this would be a great time to get people to start re-thinking what constitutes a healthy and sustainable economy.
And about what I do….I have always been a conservationist since the ’70s. So I do my bit…reduce; re-use, re-cycle. I rent part of my house out to students at Mac and one of the criteria for living with me is to be environmentally conscious. They always agree!
My next car will be a hybrid; and one day I would like to get to a point that I walk to work….oh time will tell.
That’s me!
Maybe Suzuki could do a whole spot (Or many!) on the sustainable economy on his show.”

Mike MacKinnon writes:

“If it is not sustainable then we should not be doing it. It sounds so simple but people still think it is so far away. We need government to make tough legislation in many areas, look beyond the end of our nose and do what is right. I have changed many things in my way of doing things such as geothermal heat, cfc light bulbs, air source water heater, extra insulation, bought a more fuel efficient car, run and or bike to work everyday I can 20km’s per day, and buy more local.

Questions:
Why do I open food with packaging I cannot compost or recycle?
Why do we cut trees but do not plant more than we cut?
How come I can buy potatoes from Idaho when I live in Prince Edward Island?
Why do we fish more than the sea can sustain?
How come there are still coal plants being built when we know it contributes to our problem?
I get a kick out of watching the discovery channel yesterday and they are trying to wrap the ice with white sheets. Yeah band aids should work?
Let the people out of the trunk so we can start doing what is right.”

Golnoush writes:

“I think the most important and the first step is to educate kids and students (next generation should be aware of environmental problems).
- Plastic bags should not be free in supermarkets!
- Goverment have to educate people more for recycling their garbage.
- People should know that each single person can have great impacts on environment!”