Being environmentally friendly is “in.” For years you’ve been told to switch the light off when you leave the room and turn off the faucet when brushing your teeth. These actions, though helpful, are just the tip of the iceberg.
Consumerism
Fair Trade: A Human Journey
With 350 riveting images, Québec-based photojournalist Éric St.-Pierre takes us into the lives of coffee growers drying beans on jute-covered tables in Ethiopia, flower workers wrapping roses in cardboard boxes in Ecuador, and rice farmers sowing seeds in paddy fields in Thailand. St.-Pierre doesn’t hide the harshness of their lives. […]
Something Old Becomes Something New…and Fabulous!
In our latest issue, we ran a feature on Canada’s king of upcycling, Junk Raiders star Gordie Wornoff. With some examples of smaller upcycling pieces to inspire your holiday shopping – or some DIY projects of your own – author and herbalist Irith McConnachie sent us profiles of nine artists she met […]
Would(n’t) You Like a Bag With That?
I wanted to pursue a master’s degree outside of Canada because I suspected there would be a different culture of environmentalism in every country I visited. I am testing my critical and observational mind because I believe that in order to be a good policy maker you must have a plentitude […]
Pink Greens
The first thing that I notice as I enter the 519 Community Centre on Church St. – unofficial headquarters of Toronto’s queer community – is the men. Tonight, on a frosty December evening, the recently formed group Ecoqueers is hosting its first major public event, a panel presentation called “Greening […]
Buyer Be Good
IT SEEMS THAT every time I open the newspaper, turn on the television or check for online news, some company is touting its environmental commitment. I am encouraged to use reusable shopping bags, purchase more concentrated detergent and wear organically grown, cotton T-shirts. Done in the name of saving the […]
6 Steps to Cut the Greenwash
WHETHER YOU WANT to purchase a green product or invest in an environmentally responsible company, deciding where to place your dollars is a multistep process. It includes visiting a variety of sources, appraising the available information, and then synthesizing it to make a balanced and thoughtful choice. The following guide […]
Urban Salvation
WE ARE SURROUNDED by a sea of discarded materials that can be reused in building construction. Think of all those political signboards that we see at election time outside private houses and in other prominent locations. Temporary signs are often made of corrugated plastic that could be used as siding […]
Carrot City: Creating Places for Urban Agriculture
Why is our food grown so far away from where we live? Why do we classify farms as rural and cities as urban? Carrot City dismantles the social constructs between these two halves of the same whole, and others: yards and gardens, industrial and agricultural practices, organic and conventional, producers […]
How to Walk the Talk
Interested in convincing yourself and those around you to live sustainably? Here are three books that can help you try. In The Power of Sustainable Thinking, Bob Doppelt emphasizes the change process that he believes will lead us to sustainability. Although he sees this book as a complement to his […]
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