thirteen cent pinball

Scents and sensitivity: go fragrance-free

2012-05-12T21:36:12Z

May 12 is Environmental Sensitivities Day.

First my nose stings, then it runs, then my eyes get itchy. The skin of my nose feels tight, swollen, even pink. My breath becomes shallow — at worst I have difficulty breathing at all. I probably start coughing. I feel stressed and anxious.

This is what happens when I'm exposed to synthetic fragrance. I'm not alone, and I'm lucky: for some people it can trigger asthma, headaches, and allergic reactions that are worse than mine. But it's still not fun, and I feel like I'm the only one in the vicinity suffering. Sometimes, I'm the only one that can smell it.

I never had this problem until I did a detoxifying cleanse three years ago, which is why I don't believe it when I read claims that people with my affliction are simply overburdened with toxins. I think it's the other way around — that most people, generally unbeknownst to them, are full of toxins that are preventing reactions to toxic chemicals.

]]> Products, like cosmetics and cleaning products, that are a toxic cocktail tend to contain fragrance — an umbrella term for a mix of dozens of toxic chemicals — to mask their unpleasant odors. Unfortunately, the mixtures are considered trade secrets so manufacturers are not required to disclose the list of ingredients in fragrance. Health hazards of fragrance are wide-ranging, and can even be toxic to wildlife and the environment.

So I'm sensitive to perfume, to the fragrance in deodorant, shampoo, laundry detergent, and hand cream. But I use very few products for personal care and cleaning, and what I do use is fragrance-free (not just "unscented"). It's not difficult to find alternatives. When you go fragrance-free, you'll also rid your life of a lot of other yucky toxics.

And if you're wanting to smell good for your love interest? If you're trying to attract a mate, your natural pheromones won't get to work their magic if you mask them with an artificial scent. So ditch the Axe and buy them some lilacs instead. His or her nose will thank you.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying biking to work, and avoiding fragrances on the bus.

Does your workplace or home have a scent-free office policy?

Are you in a toxic relationship with your household cleaners?

2012-04-27T21:52:16Z

I'm not! I switched to vinegar and baking soda for most tasks years ago. I'm even considering making my own laundry detergent after I move out.

I have a confession to make, though: I used to like the smell of Mr. Clean. I'm sure a whiff of it now would send me into an allergic frenzy, but I broke up with Mr. Clean a long time ago. You can too, by going to SpringBreakup.ca, a campaign site my team at the David Suzuki Foundation recently launched with our Queen of Green.

]]> You'll be eligible for sweet prizes just by signing up, including green cleaning recipe stickers I designed for the Queen of Green. On Tuesday May 2nd, we launch the fourth and final challenge: break up with your cleaners. You can send a breakup letter to Mr. Clean, and two other cleaners, and then tell your friends about your change of heart. We hope they'll follow suit!

This website was a collaborative effort with interns Laura Lefurgey-Smith (design concept, design, illustration, programming), Dylan McCall (programming), Ian Knauer (email campaigns, mobile site design and programming), Lara Hughes (wallet card design), and myself (art direction, design, programming). Along with a group of talented colleagues at the David Suzuki Foundation, we worked with Public Inc. for overall concept, strategy and content.

Take the Spring Breakup challenge and end your toxic relationship with household cleaners.

2011 year in review: A journey

2012-01-20T23:17:38Z

Captivated by the forest at Helliwell on Hornby Island

Last year was full of journeys, both in terms of travel and emotions, and of firsts. Recovering from a rocky end to 2010, I found emotional balance as my body took its time to heal. I also began a new romantic relationship in the spring that has helped me better understand myself and discover what a loving partnership really ought to feel like (answer: fantastic). That discovery induced some much-needed catharsis and put my past into perspective. I travelled overseas for the first time in almost a decade — and boarded the plane unaccompanied for the first time ever — and made two trips within BC with my sweetheart.

]]> England

My nieces and sheep on a farm in southern England

In April I left for England by myself for a two-week stay near London with my sister and her family. Between sparkling London and the vast, gorgeous countryside dotted with newborn lambs, I enjoyed nature, food, art and time with family. A day trip to Brighton (a worn city coated in stickers) gave me my first chance to dip my feet in the Atlantic ocean. Unfortunately the merry-go-round was closed for repairs. On my own in London and compelled to find anything ridiculously ancient produced by humans, I located stone tools about 100,000 years old that rendered their mummified roommates at the British Museum somehow less mindboggling.

My sister and her kids came home in the summer and went wild over the salmonberries and huckleberries. The latter were staggeringly more abundant at my next destination.

Click an image to enlarge and view group

Hornby Island

Every summer for 12 years, I'd been dreaming about a return to Hornby Island (it would be my sixth visit). Merely a month into my relationship with Robbie, I said, "I want to go to Hornby Island," and looked at him. It was a bit of a crazy proposal: let's go to Hornby Island, by bike, three weeks from now. How many kilometres is that?

Round-trip, it was nearly three hundred. Fuelled by fresh fruit, eggs, cheese and a mutual chocolate addiction, we pedalled the 100 or so kilometres that took us from Nanaimo up to Fanny Bay, up and across Denman Island (at a feverish pace after stopping to buy Denman Island Chocolate), and up the steep hill on Hornby to our campsite where I was all too happy to sprawl out on the grass for a rest. Then a few days later, we did the reverse. It was exhilarating. Granted, the late-night home stretch thanks to a tardy bus, when we thought our ride was over, I could have done without! It's another piece of the epic journey.

We kept bumping into a fellow who was telling everybody about the evening's meteor shower. (Turns out it was the July Aquarids, which I'd forgotten about.) I didn't get out of the tent that night but if the Milky Way in that untainted sky was any indication, it must have been pretty spectactular.

I was fourteen the last time I'd been to Hornby. In some ways I feel like time has changed the place little, while it's changed me a lot. I sought out the locations I'd been to growing up — sandy beaches and sandstone shoreline, mainly — partly for nostalgia's sake. My attempt to relive how I had felt there became, rather, an experience of it anew in a way that fit my deepened relationship with nature. Some of the places we didn't find but they'll be there next time. We both have a desire to go back. For Robbie, it had been a year; for me it had been long enough to etch memories like the hieroglyphs in sandstone.

Ironically, I recalled a brief childhood memory in which I saw a couple on a bicycle road trip, somewhere on the highway, and possibly with a kid in tow. At the time I thought, "I want to do that someday!" Years later I remembered that, thinking, "I would never do that!" And then I did — minus a kid of course — and can't wait to do it again.

Cycling, swimming and blackberry pie

Cherry trees on the 10th Ave bike route in Vancouver

In 2011 I started commuting the full 4-day week to work and the entire 20 km, including the bridge over which I used to bus-bike. When I came back from England halfway through April, I had no bus pass for the first time in years. I was too ambitious (or wimpy) and couldn't do the whole two weeks by bike, but at least it had me conquer the brutal uphill direction of the bridge for the first time. Over the summer I realised that even if I have to drag myself out of bed in the morning, once I'm on the saddle I'm alert and raring to go. In June, I was so angry at TransLink for taking away my evening express bus that I booked it home on my bike in one hour — faster than bussing. I managed to have two minor bike mishaps that included a graceful "North Shore dismount."

Swimming in the ocean in Vancouver wasn't nearly as exciting as the quick, rolling waves of Tribune Bay as the tide came in on the island, but perhaps I made up for it with my first two outings on a stand-up paddle board. I took two shriek-inducing plunges in the frigid water of a river in the canyon, which others cannonballed into as if it were the same temperature as their skin. I drank from that river, a unique taste.

Robbie and I attempted to pick 300 lbs of blackberries — my grandparents' alleged record in a season — and fell quite short at about twenty. Strangely, a patch that in my opinion was the "jackpot," draping over clambering-sized rocks hot from the sun, became a parched wasteland a week later. Blackberries aren't the same when frozen and I think we ought to eat them fresh, baked or canned from now on. Robbie and I picked some expressly for his roommate's incredible blueberry-blackberry pie, which a few of us in the kitchen schemed to eat in secret at the party. "What pie?"

Victoria & year's end

Robbie hadn't been to Victoria for 21 years. I wanted to go because of how I anticipated it would feel at Christmastime. We both needed a vacation.

Between the book stores, wool shop, eco shops and restaurants, we got our fill of the tourist-consumer aspect but we both agreed our favourite part of the trip was our long walk through Beacon Hill Park.

It began humbly with craggy rocks over which I insisted on prancing. The hill didn't let on what lay on the other side of another hill, however, which surprised me the most. In between was a pond, busy with ducks, which had in the middle an island that reminded me of the Berenstein Bears book No Girls Allowed in which there was a clubhouse on an island in a pond (I think). Anyway, the park is much more vast than I expected, and we ended up taking the long way home around the shoreline, til our feet wanted any bench in sight. But it was beautiful.

On the first day of winter — still no snow in sight — I whizzed around the hills of North Vancouver doing errands on my bike. I laughed at the traffic clogged up on Main St while I began a cycling-related parody of Jingle Bells I didn't have time to finish. "What fun it is to ride and sing a cycling song tonight! Oh, jingle bells, driving smells, go and get a bike!" Hum...

I wrapped up the year in the company of friends and family I didn't know a year earlier, and with a new man to share the joy.

Happy 2012, everyone!

Nature and night: Moving from the woods to the city

2011-10-28T22:00:02Z

Swishing through a bed of leaves in Kitsilano reminds me there's nature in the city, but it's still difficult letting go of the dense, unique nature around the home in which I grew up.

It's dark when I get home from work now. I get to my street, and it's like I'm at the edge of the wilderness. There's only one street below mine on the hill as it slopes down into the water. From street level you can't see the lights across the inlet. Those lights are what make the darkness borderline between oppressive and refreshing. There's just enough of them, and at Christmas everyone lights up their docks and boats.

Moving was easy the first time. I don't know why — I should have been more emotional about it since I didn't intend to move home again. I did two years later; I've been here again for over three. I'm glad of it though: being in my mid-twenties — a mature adult, one might say — I'm aware of my surroundings in a more intimate, celebratory, pensive way, where I revere and require the nature around me. I would have missed out on this if I hadn't moved back.

I know it will be harder the second time. I remind myself that I will be excited about the prospect of having my own place. It's more complicated now, and yet easier: I plan to buy an apartment not solo but with my sweetheart, once his current place is ready for the market and we've had more time to know each other. The only disadvantage of this co-purchase is timing, since we're in agreement about having a bright place near a farmer's market and a bike route, close to nature. (Too bad Trout Lake is a lofty dream.)

But as we've been talking about it more, I've been thinking more seriously about the prospects. Oh, not regretfully. I want to. But I'm nostalgic and I've spent all but two years of my life living in this house, surrounded by trees and looking out onto a scene so beautiful that people always remark about that aspect when I tell them where I live.

]]>

My heart lives in the woods

I had just as many months to mull it over last time, yet this time I've become aware of just what I'm losing. What I'll move to will certainly be infinitely better than that suburban concrete jungle where nature appeared to struggle to survive, and the best sense of community existed at a single bus stop with no shelter and once-a-half-hour service. I know that much. And I'm not concerned about the added responsibility — I've been there before and no doubt the next space will be smaller than my last place, thank goodness. I'm losing something intimately, uniquely tangible. I'm moving away from the forest, the ocean, quiet bus routes, my favourite park, and a quiet back yard. The suburbs. I won't be far, but I will be immersed in something different and urban, which is new. I don't even know if it'll work for me, but the idealist in my heart says I'll love it. And I'll love escaping the suburbs' raucous teenagers on the bus in favour of a bike route (or a packed but short bus ride, depending on the weather). And I'll love coming home to loving arms every night. And not worrying about bears and skunks on a dark path. But the driving rain will be falling on pavement more often than grass, trees and skylights.

I also know the best thing I can, financially, do for my retired parents is to stop being a drain on their resources. I worry about them, but I've never reciprocated in chores like they want me to. I've spent my three-plus years here smartly saving up for that elusive Vancouver apartment that I secretly knew I needed another person in order to live in, let alone buy. The dream of having one all to myself faded when I started imagining what I could have by buying with my man — not just adequate space in a nice neighbourhood, but moreover companionship and somebody with whom to spend every Sunday morning sleeping in and making pumpkin bread French toast.

After all that reverie I come back to thinking about how it may be my last Halloween, Christmas, winter and spring living in this place. I'll visit, but I know from experience that the sensation is different. Yet, perhaps I'll appreciate even more the way the air smells at night in August, how it's so very dark (there's more rain and less daylight here, I learned not long ago), or how I can hear so many types of birds in the morning when I creak open the window.

Perhaps my heart will seek out the first summer, autumn and Christmas in a new place in a different community. My ears will find different birds, my eyes a new definition of night (it's surprising what you can see in the city sometimes), and my other senses a lust for something quietly beautiful just down the street. This time it will be a final moving-out — my parents will probably be relieved — which makes me as sad as it does proud.

My nature, in some changeable form, will still be here, nestled in the lap of the mountain.

Death to the supermarket

2011-10-17T00:25:00Z

Uniform, flawless produce requires a heartbreaking amount of food waste. (Photo by rick via Flickr)

This post is part of Blog Action Day's discussion on food.

If we're to feed the world delicious, nutritious food and halt climate change, we have to kill the supermarket.

There are many reasons why I suggest this enormous beast be culled. It thrives on the unsustainable industrial agriculture model of large-scale, monocrop food production, where food is not grown for taste or nutrition. It's then shipped long distances, so you can eat lettuce in Vancouver in January. Even if garlic is grown in your region, you're served up the garlic from China instead.

The produce section is a sterile place devoid of scent (the first sense to get us salivating), where the fruits and vegetables are uniform, barely ripe (if at all) and virtually flawless. It's no wonder children don't know their food grows in the ground or on a vine: the produce is so unnatural, it hardly seems a product of nature. Its sprawling, dizzying vastness is a maze that encourages overconsumption and takes up excess land to, among other things, allow for extra-wide shopping carts. It makes buying junk food more appealing than buying produce through a combination of store positioning, packaging and price, and this leads to disease.

I could go on; the reason I'm going to focus on here, however, is its massive — and one could suggest criminal — contribution to food waste.

]]> Last week, I watched Valentin Thurn's excellent documentary Taste the Waste at the Vancouver International Film Festival.

The film interviews interesting people in Europe, Japan and the US who are playing a positive role in creating change. They show and tell us the miserable truth about what happens to the food we grow that doesn't land on our plates. Here's some food for thought to start with — some staggering statistics courtesy of the David Suzuki Foundation:

Close to half of all food produced worldwide is wasted — discarded in processing, transport, supermarkets and kitchens.
As much as 30 per cent of food, worth about $48 billion, is thrown away in the US each year. (The average household there throws out about 215 kilograms of food each year — around $600 dollars worth.)
In Toronto, single-family households discard about 275 kilos of food waste each year (although that city's expanding composting program captures about 75 per cent of that). That means one in four food purchases still ends up in the garbage. (Toronto taxpayers spend nearly $10 million a year getting rid of food waste that's not composted.)
Over 30 percent of fruits and vegetables in North America don't even make it onto store shelves because they're not pretty enough for picky consumers.
About 20 per cent of Canada's methane emissions (a greenhouse gas that traps more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide) come from landfills.
When people toss food, all the resources to grow, ship and produce it get chucked, too, including massive volumes of water. In the US alone, the amount of water loss from food waste is like leaving the tap running and pouring 40 trillion litres of water down the drain.

Considering methane is 25 times stronger than carbon dioxide, diverting half of the food we throw out away from landfills would have the same impact on greenhouse gas reduction as taking every second car off the road. Industrial agriculture is so energy-intensive, requiring machinery and petroleum-based fertilizers, that it's responsible for over one third of the greenhouses gases emitted worldwide.

Along with these losses is all the packaging that goes with the discarded food. Yogurt cups, mesh bags, bottles... Does any of that get retrieved for recycling?

Wasteful business practices

The supermarket can't predict what will be bought in a day and has to offer variety – oranges, cucumbers, yogurt, bread. (Variety is good, yet they stock very few varieties of fruits and vegetables.) With the need for well-stocked shelves and a constant influx of supply, inevitably what can't be sold will be tossed, even before its expiry date or before it actually expires. Consumers don't want to buy products that are about to expire (understandably), and by renewing products quickly on the shelves, the business makes more sales. It's utterly shocking how much edible food is thrown out from stores because it cannot be sold — and this is after the 30% that never makes it to the shelf.

Rejection

The industrial agriculture-fed supermarket system has to handle large volumes. By design, it requires uniformity, therefore anything too big or too small, or bendy as it is with cucumbers, gets rejected. (Fast food chains require uniformity as well. Thank McDonald's for starting it.) It's all handled, processed and judged by computers, machinery and conveyor belts. (The conveyors are very creepy in the film.)

I like buying fruit that others might pass up because it's too ripe or a little bruised. I'll happily eat it — chances are, for the quick shop I'm usually making, I'm going to eat it the same day so I want that ripeness. But we've been conditioned to want an unnaturally perfect pear, uniform in shape with its fellow pears, uniform in ripeness. I guess we can afford to be picky, and apparently can't afford not to. Sure, I don't want to buy a completely mushy peach with a patch of mould on it, but what's wrong with slight blemishes? It still tastes good — or it should, but that's a whole other story.

We undervalue our food

Some food waste comes from buying more than is necessary. Supermarkets entice shoppers with deals, like 2-for-1 or large volumes, that encourage us to buy more than we need, and if it doesn't keep, it goes to waste. Inexpensive food to which most of us have access — because it's in bulk, poor quality, or highly subsidized like corn or fast food — offers little incentive to prevent food waste, versus expensive food. My 60-something parents recall growing up in working class in the 50s and 60s, pinching pennies and appreciating every meal. As post-war immigrants, they experienced malnutrition first-hand and still to this day are very careful not to waste food. Canadians discard one in four food items they purchase. I feel so disconnected from this fact because I've grown up in a home where wasting food is unacceptable.

Just as there's a general consensus that wasting food is shameful, I think few people would disgree that ending world hunger is a priority. What I didn't realise is that our food consumption affects prices not just in Canada (or wherever you live) but globally as well. So when we waste food, we have to buy more, and this consumption drives up prices to the point where the impoverished in Africa — a continent that provides food to Europe — can't afford to eat. It's not fair that we waste food in our kitchens and supermarkets with hardly a bat of an eyelash, yet there are plenty of hungry people on the streets of Vancouver who would appreciate every edible morcel. I was saddened to learn that the amount of edible food discarded in North America and Europe would feed the hungry — three times over.

Holy carp! How can I prevent food waste?

Shop at the farmer's market instead of the supermarket as much as possible. You'll get fresher food with more variety than supermarkets offer, and you'll support your local farmer's business. Find small produce vendors, too. (There are lots in Vancouver.)
Buy local as much as possible. (This is easier if you also follow the above tip!)
Only buy what you need. Plan your meals ahead so you know what you need to acquire. Don't be tempted by deals that will waste your money along with your food.
When at restaurants, order on the smaller scale. If you're still hungry, you can order more food. Inquire about the type of container the restaurant uses when you ask to take leftovers home. If it's not recyclable, make a friendly suggestion to your server or, as I did once, ask for another kind of container that is. If you're really awesome, you'll have your own along for those times!
Save leftovers for lunch or freeze what can't be eaten within a couple of days. You can also toss leftovers into a soup or frying pan. This goes for grains and sauces, too.
Don't be too picky, but be realistic: know how fast you're going to consume fresh produce so you can buy it as ripe as possible without it going bad. Freeze it if you can't eat it in time. (Banana muffins, anyone?)
Be conscious of what's in your fridge. Eat it, cook it, freeze it, share it, give it away. Read these tips on keeping produce fresh and edible at home. Lovefoodhatewaste.com has tips and cheeky photos.
When all else fails, compost wasted food with the rest of your trimmings. Find out if your municipality collects food scraps.
Also make sure you buy seafood that comes from well-managed fisheries that avoid overfishing. Half of all fish caught in the North Sea is thrown back overboard dead.

I personally never enjoy shopping at a supermarket. I can't easily find what I'm looking for; I'm distracted by items I don't need; the layout, wayfinding and labelling are infuriating; and the atmosphere of the store is sterile and uninviting. Store staff can be hard to track down and checkout clerks are sometimes as impersonal as checkout machines. I'll gladly pay a little more to shop for good, wholesome food at a small place like Choices or the 4th Avenue Whole Foods (formerly Capers) where I feel welcome instead of overwhelmed; where I'll have a conversation with a clerk or fellow shopper every so often; where I'll wander around slowly because I'm enjoying myself. And where I don't feel so disconnected from nature. I'll pay a little more, but I won't waste 1 in 4 items.

Take note of how much food you waste — at home, at work and dining out — and see if you can cut it in half. And as much as possible, avoid the supermarket, for until we see systematic changes, it will continue to waste enough food to break your heart.

Compelling environmental films bloom at VIFF

2011-10-04T06:05:00Z

The environmental film series at the annual Vancouver International Film Festival appears to have blossomed this year with over a dozen films dealing with issues ranging from food waste and sustainable seafood to climate change and the tar sands.

Some of them are surprising for their genre: Burning Ice brings artists, musicians and poets to the Arctic, and People of a Feather takes us intimately into the lives of Inuit whose very existence depends on the down of eider ducks.

Premiering on Tuesday is a film about Canada's energy use by local filmmaker Charles Wilkinson and produced by his partner, artist Tina Schliessler. I'm particularly excited to see this one as I've known the family since my childhood. Peace Out features interviews with both opponents and proponents of our current destructive energy systems, and aerial footage of the tar sands in Alberta, a project so massive it can be seen from space. Seen from a plane, it's utterly heartbreaking. Ultimately, we all need to use less energy.

]]> While action against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline is drawing attention, the filmmakers of On the Line hike, cycle, raft and kayak the 1,170 km route of another proposed pipeline, the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline from the tar sands to the port in Kitimat, BC. The project is set to plow a destructive and risky path through Alberta and BC, uprooting communities and potentially damaging the beautiful ecosystems upon which we all rely and which are integral to First Nations cultures. (Enbridge's pipeline spill last July dumped 3.8 million litres of crude oil into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan.) What excites me about this documentary is how it's filmed: local director Frank Wolf's prior adventure films are evident in the way the shots are framed and the lighthearted moments evident in the trailer. Psst! Pledge to speak at Enbridge's public hearings in 2012 to let them know we won't stand for this.

I expect to better understand what's happening in other parts of the world that are seriously affected by climate change by watching There Once Was an Island: Te Henua E Nnoho. A unique culture on Morlock Island (Taku'u), part of Papua New Guinea, is threatened by rising oceans and has little hope of getting aid from the government, which prefers to move them to the main island. I sense I'll be leaving the theatre in tears and hopefully reenergized to do something about it, as far away as I am. In the West, we're more financially capable of mitigating the effects of climate change, a phenomenon we've largely caused, but the people of the world most deeply affected don't have these resources. They can only try to adapt; we have the power to prevent catastrophic climate change.

The trailer for Taste the Waste hit me so hard emotionally that it was instantly on my shortlist. Food waste affects us in myriad ways: rotting food (as opposed to composting) is a major contributor to greenhouse gases; in our kitchens, food wasted is money wasted; and sending uneaten food to the landfill adds to disposal costs. Ordering too much food in a restaurant means choosing between wasting food, overeating, or getting takeout containers — and the container itself is likely garbage. Taste the Waste is a heavy-hitting wake-up call to change our ways on both personal and systematic levels. Read these tips on preventing food waste and check out the Food Scraps Drop Spot.

Out of the five films I'm attending, four are eco-docs. I would still really love to see Surviving Progress and People of a Feather. Rainforest looks both serene and sad.

Tickets for VIFF sell out quickly, so check out the film listings. Keep an eye out for future screenings in mainstream theatres of films you missed (including Sushi: The Global Catch).

David Suzuki's Queen of Green gets a facelift -- the brand, that is

2011-08-30T18:14:47Z

Queen of Green emails

While I'm mainly devoted to the web in my design practice as well as at my job, I do wear many hats in my work at the David Suzuki Foundation. I recently took on a rebrand of David Suzuki's Queen of Green, the Foundation's expert on green living and one of our most public faces. The Queen of Green, Lindsay Coulter, writes a weekly blog, offers tips and recipes, and has regular media appearances. Her recipes and other public materials lacked cohesive, formally executed branding, so when it was time to have a fresh go at the content of her resources, we gave her work a proper identity.

]]> Branding extended to social media like Twitter

Green cleaning recipes, available in PDF

Lindsay's green cleaning recipes were the first of her resources to undergo a needed makeover — a transition to her new brand and more consistent copywriting. We introduced a new, more compact format that reduced paper and offered users more flexibility in terms of where they use and how they access the recipes. We also included a chart to help people make their own recipes by understanding what different ingredients do. (Vinegar really does cut grease, I tried it!) This project was incredibly fun and the response has been positive. In its first two weeks, it achieved nearly 400 downloads, making it the second most popular downloadable resource on our website.

Green cleaning recipes in sticker format

I introduced a branded email header so her monthly digest subscribers will get a Queen of Green experience instead of straight-up DSF, offering a visual separation from our regular newsletter. If you sign up for her digest, you may have a chance at receiving a sheet of nine custom-sized labels I designed, with eight green cleaning recipes and one blank make-your-own. A tidy combination of ingredients list and recipe, the labels are intended to be affixed to your cleaner's container, making it easier to make some more when you run out. It also says what it's intended for and how much to use, so when your significant other who may be clueless to your green god(dess) ways goes to use it (or make some more), they'll know what to do. The labels are similarly helpful if the home-made product is a gift.

I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of her old resources, like the recently updated seed paper recipe, undergo the same branding process.

This was my first formal (re)branding experience, and the first time I've produced stickers, which have their own unique considerations like a custom die, spot colours and label stock. For you non-designers: that means a ton of learning! I couldn't have asked for a more exciting project or workplace in which to do it. Stay tuned for more Queen of Green content on the David Suzuki Foundation website.

Talking trash: Projecting Change Film Fest opens May 26, and plastic is a Texas-sized problem

2011-05-22T05:18:30Z

You might expect a film about a Vancouver couple who spend a year almost zero-waste and without buying any stuff to be a tale of unimaginable hardship and sacrifice. Indeed, the prospects of using the same toothbrush for 365 days, not replacing worn-out clothing, or making crackers from scratch are daunting but The Clean Bin Project's Jen and Grant take a delighted, energetic approach akin to Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon's The 100-Mile Diet, but on the screen. The project was for them a competition for who could produce the least amount of garbage by year's end (I won't tell you who won), and involved learning about plastics, asking for their cheese unwrapped in their reusable container, and making the most of an old razor. Their enthusiasm was infectious. The 76-minute film is merely a glimpse at an entire year, but if it suggests anything about the 525,600 minutes they spent saving the planet, I think they enjoyed most of them.

Their artistically delicious film intersperses their own narrative of discovery — and occasional humourous disappointment — with the broader view of our consumption-based lifestyle and its consequences: successful community recycling initiatives; the Pacific Garbage Patch (which is twice the size of Texas); albatross death by plastic; landfills; and incomprehensibly large volumes of disposable stuff as depicted by Seattle artist Chris Jordan.

]]> I loved this film so much, I attended both of its Vancouver screenings last year (and I wasn't the only repeat viewer). If you missed it last May or last fall, you have two opportunities (to see it twice, even!), next weekend at the Projecting Change Film Festival. There's a great lineup of films on social and environmental change, so go check it out. Also, look for the festival coupon in your Green Zebra coupon book.

Now here's your round-up from around the web

Jamaican students figured out how to make a biodegradable plastic from fish scales, a natural source that is thrown out on a daily basis without second thought. With so much garbage in the ocean and not enough fish, what if we paid fishermen to catch plastic trash?

Water woes for land lubbers
Climate change will make water shortages worse — and probably give Vancouver more rain in our wetter season. (If you didn't notice how much it rained from November to May here, you live under a rock. Unusually wet May, third coldest April on record, etc.) We'll witness desert communities become unlivable when they can no longer water their people let alone their lawns and golf courses. Unfortunately, I'm not too fond of this idea for producing more drinking water via desalination of ocean water.

Big oil = big payouts
Texas thinks economic stimulus in the form of wealthy peoples' car racing is more important than educating its citizens. Teachers disagree. Speaking of taxpayer dollars going disproportionately into deeper pockets, Canadian and American governments are subsidizing Big Oil with billions per year. That's just not right. On September 24th, join supporters of 350.org and stand up for solutions to climate change and alternatives to fossil fuels. Think the October 24, 2009 Day of Action but bigger.

Maybe we should think about driving less?
Writes Michael J. Graetz in the L.A. Times, "The United States has 4% of the world's population, but we consume 25% of the world's oil. ... automobile fuel efficiency standards have reduced somewhat U.S. oil consumption, but in an unnecessarily costly manner, and they do nothing to reduce the miles we drive. Economists have estimated that a gasoline tax of just 25 cents a gallon would have saved as much oil as these fuel efficiency standards at one-third the cost to the economy." According to Environics research, the majority of Canadians polled about their support for a carbon tax in their province supported the idea, with British Columbians also supporting in the majority the carbon tax the province instituted a few years ago. This support is maintained despite rising costs at the pump.

Echoing James Howard Kunstler a few years ago, a top economist says the world passed peak oil in 2006.

BC Busines asks: is it time to start paying user tolls for road usage?

Cheers for Vancouver
Vancouver's Olympic Village demonstrates technology that allows buildings to "eat smog". And The Vancouver Observer makes observations about new uses for unused/underused parking lots. Hear, hear! Hello, 60 W Cordova.

Data crunching, energy munching
Greenpeace ranked the energy demands of data centres, so next time you're thinking about with whom you should cloud compute, or whether you ought to at all, consider this list, and badger your poor-performing favourites to get better. (Sorry, Apple. You're doing well in other ways.)

This $*&% is bananas and its footprint is...
Speaking of fruit, I eat bananas and cocoa with a certain amount of guilt. But if I'm grocery shopping on my own, I won't buy anything that can be grown here when it's out of season. A new book, How Bad Are Bananas measures the carbon footprint of everything. Might I point out that according to a booklet I acquired from Coast Paper, air freight is the worst offender, and trains are pretty much your best bet for bulk. I hope my raw milk cheese from Quebec arrives here on a train. It makes me envy my sister who only has a short drive to get fresh raw cheddar from a biodynamic farm. It's too bad the roads there aren't safe for cyclists — or pheasants, for that matter!

Upcoming events... okay, they're all for cyclists

VACC's Bike to Work Week is May 30 – June 5
MEC Bikefest (Canada-wide through June)
Velopalooza in Vancouver, June 3 – 19

Found one for not just cyclists: De-Growth Vancouver conference, June 3 – 4

Stand up for democracy. Vote on May 2nd!

2011-05-01T04:38:33Z

"More than 60 percent of Canadians do not support Harper and his government's contempt for democracy. Yet, he could win a majority with as little as 35 percent of the popular vote." — Project Democracy

I think it's telling of our citizens that we have three left-wing or centre-left national parties and only one right-wing since the merger of the PC and Reform parties back in 1990-something. (Quebecers of course have an extra choice.) It appears to make sense, then, that 62.4% of voters voted for these parties in the last election. Unfortunately, as we're all aware, this doesn't translate to 62% of the House of Commons, and a candidate can be elected with under 30% support in their riding. Our abysmal voter turnout (58.8% in 2008) should be a clear signal that our system needs to change.

]]> It's not changing for this election, so the best option Canadians have to turn the tables in Parliament is to vote strategically. We have a resource to help us find out which ridings could avoid a potential Conservative win by uniting the left-leaning voters toward the candidate best positioned to win. Project Democracy offers recommendations and has up-to-date polling data and historical results, including voter turnout. It includes Ekos polling which, unlike Nanos, includes the Green Party in their question. Project Democracy is recommended by Avaaz.

Also check out CBC's Vote Compass, OpenMedia.ca's campaign for an open internet, ShitHarperDid.com and ShitMayDid.com. (Don't worry, the one about May is positive and as entertaining as it is informative!)

On Monday, May 2nd, exercise your right to vote. I've been asking my friends whether they're voting (like me, some are part of the 2 million that voted in advance polls last weekend, a record number). You should do the same. If they say no, gently ask them why. If they say it's because they don't know our parties' platforms, point them to the Vote Compass. If it's because they don't feel their vote counts, remind them that democracy depends on all of us voting, and point them to Project Democracy. We won't see a change in our democratic system until we see leadership that respects democracy.

Fingers crossed that we get a better voter turnout on Monday and finally hear from more Canadians. After all, most of us feel the same way.

Joining 80% of BC residents, three North Vancouver candidates support oil tanker ban on BC's north coast

2011-04-26T04:38:50Z

(Photo by Gord McKenna via Flickr)

Every summer I swim in the waters of Burrard Inlet and English Bay. My favourite spot is Cates Park (Whey-ah-Wichen, Faces the Wind), which is nearly opposite a Chevron oil refinery that is responsible for a slow leak discovered a year ago. This refinery is east of the Second Narrows bridge which, as the name suggests, spans a narrow crossing — and it's a shallow one as well. The number, size and capacity of oil tankers passing through here is growing, with no decline in sight as our thirst for oil continues to increase. This worries me because it leaves us ever more vulnerable to a spill that would ruin a coastline inhabited by the Tsleil-Waututh Nation long before this place had a name, and enjoyed by Metro Vancouver residents and tourists alike. The beaches and waters are home to starfish, crabs, jellyfish, geoducks and many varieties of birds. If you're lucky, you'll spot some other fish, a seal or even a whale. Eagles are frequent visitors.

We can't afford an oil spill in Burrard Inlet, nor can we afford one anywhere along our beautiful coast. The consequences of the Exxon Valdez spill off Alaska are still felt there. A spill of that magnitude hasn't yet happened to us — neither in BC nor in the Saint Lawrence — and on Monday, May 2 we have the opportunity to uphold the decision the Liberals made in 1972 by voting for candidates who support this ban.

]]> Eighty per cent of British Columbians support a federal ban on oil tankers off the northern BC coast. North Vancouver candidates* Taleeb Noormohamed (Liberal), Michael Charrois (NDP), and Greg Dowman (Green) all support the ban, as do their parties and the Bloc. The ones left out of touch are the Conservatives: siding with his party, our current MP Andrew Saxton voted against an oil tanker ban in December.

I want to keep swimming in Burrard Inlet. I want BC's coastline to be protected from oil spills. All the federal parties except the Conservative party feel the same way.

The Dogwood Initiative also encourages us to sign the petition after voting for a candidate who cares about BC's coast.

* Our Independent candidate's position is not mentioned by Dogwood.

Join the Earth Day Parade and then get your vote on

2011-04-22T05:37:33Z

Friday, April 22nd isn't just Good Friday. It's also Earth Day, and in celebration, Vancouver's youth have organized a parade and festival! I'll be there with my bicycle and as many dorky treehugging pins as I can dig up. (Find me if you'd like a Vote Environment button with Suzuki's retro face on it!)

Coincidentally, this is the 41st Earth Day and, on May 2nd, Canada has its 41st federal election. Before you head to the polls as early as this weekend — because you ARE voting (or if you're a minor, telling your parents to vote), right? — think about how important it is to you to have clean air, clean water and healthy food to eat. Think about what kind of world today's youth will be facing in the future if climate change isn't mitigated today, if oil spills continue, and if our precious salmon fail to thrive. If you're a youth yourself, what do you want the world to look like? We can take many actions ourselves, but Canadians understand the government wields the biggest power to make sweeping changes in the areas where consumers have little influence. And the Canadian government needs to know that we care about our environment.

]]> My colleague Ryan Kadowaki, Program Coordinator, Climate Change at the David Suzuki Foundation, writes: "During the 2008 federal election, young adults had the lowest voter turnout of any age group: 18 to 24 year-olds only cast 7% of the total votes. When you see that stat, it's no wonder politicians don't bother talking about issues young people care about. The message they're getting is that young people don't have an opinion about their future." That's incredibly depressing. In that election, I was in that age group. I voted. My candidate lost in the end, but that's not the point. I exercised my right to vote, and I'm going to do it again, and again. You can't win if you don't try.

If you care about the environment, arts, an open Internet, health, democracy and transparent government, vote on or before May 2nd. Let's see some real change, Canada. I know you can do it!

If you're not of voting age, ask your family and older friends to speak for you. Write to your candidates on key issues. This is your time to have your say. You count, and together we can change a nation.

Old buildings, new buds in England

2011-04-05T23:15:16Z

I arrived in England on Friday morning. The British woman who had sat next to me on the plane lamented as we exited that it was cloudy. No problem, I said. "Nothing could be worse than the Vancouver weather the other day." Anyway, I find the clouds settled over the hills kind of intriguing.

It's greener here than Vancouver right now, but the hills in the country are still brown from a distance between the patches of grass and pasture. I'm trying to imagine what it looks like when it's all lush. The place is covered in daffodils, some tulips have sprung, magnolias and the odd cherry bloom, and the birds are gloriously loud. On a forest walk, I spotted salmonberry bushes in early bloom, and learned one can suck on the nectar for a treat, which will be sweet if the petals are easy plucked.

]]> Speaking of edibles, we visited a farm shop where I was reminded I wasn't in North America anymore by the produce that comes from other interesting places. They have raw milk, cream and cheese. From this, my sister made her own yogurt and cream cheese, which was quickly devoured. I think I didn't get a chance to try it with Sussex honey.

Next to the old inn and restaurant where my family had a delicious dinner is this church and its massive cemetery. Some of those who died back in the 1800s lived into their 80s and 90s. Many of the stones were so weathered, their dates were difficult to read.

Down the street from there is the early 15th century Priest House which is maintained as a museum. Shown here is just part of their garden. The roof is stone.

Yesterday, I ventured into London and wandered for about seven hours, including a good stroll through the British Museum, where I saw 100,000-year-old stone tools tucked in the corner of Ancient Egypt's second floor. Somehow the 5,000-year-old artefacts were less interesting after that.

I mentioned the bike share in London in a recent post, and it wasn't hard to find. Across from the shop I'll talk about in a moment, all but one of the bikes had been rented. I saw tons of cyclists on their own bikes, but if you came empty-handed and needed one, the Bixi bike locations are abundant.

I insisted on visiting Unpackaged, a shop that exists to provide foodstuffs and even Ecover dish detergent without the packaging. Bring your own container, refill with nuts, flour, vinegar, what have you, and be merry. Ironically I showed up unprepared, but my lunch had come in something reusable/recyclable (yay!) so I put the hazelnuts in that, and got a branded paper bag for the rest, which I'll keep. And yes, I did get a blueberry bar. (In Victoria Station, you can find individually-wrapped sushi rolls, and I got home to witness my sister's fury at bubble-wrapped socks in the mail. Quite the contrast.)

On the way there, I came across this tiny garden outside a flat. It just goes to show what you can do with a small space. I think of all the lawns five times that area in Vancouver that go completely unused. Although, if you own one of those, you can fix that now with Sharing Backyards. Anyway.

I got lost after I left the shop, so I hopped a bus that dropped me off near Covent Garden. I found myself in a shoe district, I think. That's where I found out that Camper uses recycled materials in (some of) their shoes, and discovered the Natural Shoe Store (please come to Canada). They of course had El Naturalista and Simple, but also some Dutch shoes that were very tempting. Their prices looked good, but the exchange rate makes it a little steep for a Canadian. Besides, I don't need more… consumption is still consumption even if I'm choosing ethical, more eco-friendly stuff. But I am a little jealous of their selection, being so close to Europe.

I'll return to London a couple more times this week, with plans to visit the Tate and some parks and gardens. When I'm back in Canada, I'll have more photos to post from my proper camera, and certainly more stories to share.

Time to tuck under wool blankets in an antique bed in a house much older than the city I live in. (Happy 125th, Vancouver!)

What are you doing for Earth Hour?

2011-03-26T06:58:30Z

Saturday night, people around the world will be participating in Earth Hour (8:30 pm local time) and taking a stand against climate change. We participants — over 1 billion last year in 128 countries — recognize that energy conservation and sustainable, clean energy solutions are crucial in making sure we have clean air and clean water now and long into the future. But WWF encourages us to go beyond energy and make everyday positive changes in our lives that, in myriad ways, help the planet just as much as they help us.

The Earth has limits just as our bodies do, and those of us paying close enough attention have noticed over the last few decades the changes that have made our natural systems unhealthy, and us along with it. We don't have to look far to see it. That also means we don't have to look far to see solutions. You, your neighbours, and your friends can all have a positive contribution that together adds up big time. Look at what powering off for just an hour can do:

In 2010, energy consumption for that hour dropped 1.4 percent province wide, with Burns Lake, BC, reducing its consumption by a whopping 7 percent. According to BC Hydro's Team Power Smart, “If British Columbians implemented the same conservation measures (as they did in 2010) for just one hour every evening, the combined savings would be enough to power close to 2,200 homes for an entire year." — Granville

]]> The more we already consume of something — paper coffee cups, plastic water bottles, electricity — the bigger the positive impact when we decide to change our habits together. If this is new to you, start with something easy like turning out your lights and shutting down your computer for an hour on Saturday. Then look at what else you can do, like choosing local produce and goods, refusing to buy things with excess packaging, joining a community garden, and biking or taking transit to work. It's not all easy or convenient but you'll find that once you make it a habit and lifestyle, it'll become second nature (no pun intended).

Earth Hour is also, in my mind, a great excuse to unplug for awhile. I've spent a considerable amount of time in nature and socialising with friends this week, and haven't missed the computer. I think I'll take the opportunity to see if I can rescue the hat I started knitting (I know, it's almost April!), or make sure I want to keep reading Trauma Farm ahead of my upcoming flight (cringe). Perhaps it would be a good occasion to flip through my energy issue of GOOD Magazine, although I was going to save that for the plane ride. In any case, I'll be enjoying my beeswax candles. What about you? If you're stumped, check out these ideas.

On a slight tangent, I think that a move to sustainable energy sources that are not based on fossil fuels and, especially, are implemented locally, allows cities to be more self-reliant; lets prices be more consistent and respond to local rather than global fluctuations; and creates safe, local jobs in highly skilled sectors. Coping with extreme weather due to climate change will be easier if we're relying on robust regional systems, whether it's wind farms or blueberry farms, instead of importing much of our energy (e.g. oil) and food across provincial borders or oceans. Inter-regional systems can help us deal with impacts of extreme weather here at home.

Psst — send a letter! Stop Stephen Harper from giving money to oil companies.

Spring announces itself

2011-03-21T04:58:41Z

The flicker's call can last even longer than in this video, taken yesterday in the back yard.

The past two days, the flickers have been singing and drilling on metal street objects — their loudest instrument. Today, I can hear four or five different species of birds. In a nearby wood, a proper sort of woodpecker made quick work of an old stump. The trees here provide many resting places for migratory and resident birds.

It's warm enough in the sun for a t-shirt. My neighbour two doors down, Pat, is gardening in short sleeves. He rakes the life into his garden, stands tall to examine his work, and leans to tend by hand. People pass quietly by on the street, on foot and bicycle. It's a pleasant contrast against the cars that roar by and mask the bird calls.

]]> Croci in the garden have opened wide like purple and white bows on presents. Yellowed bamboo squeaks against the metal railing of my observation deck. Sailboats leisurely drift on the water amid the sun's sparkles. The wind is too gentle to disturb those branches ripe for spring with their tell-tale fuzziness, reaching to the sky, cheerful. You can see the red and yellow signs of life in some of them, regardless of distance. Even the mountains — the tops still glazed with snow — seem to have a warmer glow. This long winter of monotonous weather will soon be forgotten.

The flickers will prance about with the robins and other birds for whom our lawns are their buffet table. The birds that sang long into the evening tonight will keep up their song for the next several months, if my memory of last year's musical summer gets an encore.

Hello spring! Welcome back!

Homepage photo by doviende via Flickr

With my fundraising goal reached, some reflection on daily blogging

2011-03-17T06:54:50Z

When I decided to do a "green" blog challenge as my fundraising pledge, I figured a daily commitment would be easier to stick to than a weekly one because I can't procrastinate. It has its downsides from a content perspective — lack of time to fully develop arguments with good sources, or to edit properly (I also don't use spellcheck). But generating a daily post means I get it done without getting caught up in perfectionism or letting ideas become stale. I hope ultimately that, among unexpected duds, my content is better.

It might seem at first like writing about the environment is a constrained topic. I discovered as I branched out, however, that I can write about the environment in the context of design, art, health, technology and film. It goes to show that there are multiple ways of relating to environmental issues, and that the environment really does touch, affect and inspire all aspects of our life, especially culture. When you look at it that way, you can begin to understand how when natural systems are unhealthy and disrupted, we are affected, even if the effects are subtle or appear slowly over the long term. As David Suzuki puts it, "What we do to the environment, we do to ourselves."

]]> This is the 48th post since I started January 28th, and I didn't expect it to take so long to reach my $300 fundraising goal, achieved today. I have definitely lost sleep (am currently losing sleep to write this), ignored flossing a few times, cut social engagements short (bloggers' meetup, case in point) and I've put up the odd lazy post without photos or proper excerpts. Was it worth it? Definitely. I knew I would get something personal out of blogging regularly again, after my terrible performance last year. The three biggest things I discovered are that I do in fact have ideas that I can produce into something longer than a Facebook status update; when I'm tired I somehow find the energy to write without being conscious of my exhaustion; and when I'm creative time can slow down, feeling fuller and appreciated.

While my main goal was fundraising, I also aimed to educate my readers, start conversations, hear your ideas and challenge perspectives. Ultimately, change comes out of dialogue, a two-way engagement.

Thank you for your words of encouragement and special thank yous to the dozen or so people who donated to support my most important cause.

Sustainability issues are my greatest passion aside from my creative ones, and I love writing about it, but moving forward I'd like to continue writing about other topics that are more distinctly cultural, like music and food, and health issues from cultural and political perspectives. That said, if you see me not keeping up once a week or so from now on, give me a poke. Better yet, give me an idea you'd like to see me write about, and I'll do my best to reply. I should start soon with Mark's question of the ten best things the average person can do for the planet which, if you've been reading closely, is ten great things you can do for yourself. I'm also planning an interview with the Greenest City folks.

More to come. Stay with me...

This daily green blog challenge is in celebration of David Suzuki's 75th birthday on March 24, supporting the David Suzuki Foundation. Please support our work to ensure a healthy environment by donating online now. Afterward, don't forget to write a birthday message for David!