I had the pleasure of speaking to Laurie Simmonds, the president and CEO of Green Living Enterprises (aka the Boss of Green Business), for our upcoming issue Playbook for Progress. Laurie shared her experiences and wisdom from her successful career in green business and marketing, and gave some valuable advice for new grads. Here’s a sneak peek into our conversation!

“It’s been 20 years and it’s been incredible to watch the innovation explode. Not just big corporations but small entrepreneurs in every sector,” Laurie shared about the surge of green business. “It’s been very rewarding to see publicly-traded companies commit to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, to a significant ESG performance metric, finally understanding that they can run a company that benefits people, planet and profits. It’s undeniable that things are changing. We can see corporations and entrepreneurs really working hard to keep up with that, and seeing the rewards of it, which is really the most important thing – that they actually now understand that they can still make a lot of money, be very profitable, but do good and do well.” 

Green Living Enterprises’ Office // Credit: Kourosh Keshiri

To hear that both big corporations and small and medium businesses are on the right track and committing to sustainability goals is very encouraging for two reasons. 1) Businesses have an obligation to advance the environmental movement, so they need to do their part for consumers to follow suit, and 2) more and more businesses are taking part in this positive shift because it pays to be sustainable. 

When asked about the obligation of businesses in advancing sustainability, Laurie said, “It’s introducing consumers to a much more healthy and sustainable lifestyle, showing them the way with these products and services. That’s how we’re going to affect change – consumers choosing a healthy and sustainable lifestyle, voting with their dollar by supporting those companies. Businesses’ obligation to their stakeholders is to make money in a sustainable and socially responsible way. The other obligation is to, of course, continually increase their ESG commitments – reduce their footprint, become more inclusive, watch the social impacts of their corporation, commit to good governance, and communicate transparently to their stakeholders and their customers about their commitment to ESG. We’re starting to see rankings really significantly demonstrate that those corporations that commit to this are increasing in value, in profitability, have strong brand value, and strong consumer loyalty … It’s incredibly hopeful for the future. I think the technological advancements are happening so quickly now and the commitments by big corporations are so enormous that we are galloping forward. It’s like someone has just pulled out all the stops and it’s moving very fast now.”

Laurie and Green Living Enterprises’ management team, 2018 // Credit: Kourosh Keshiri

For more from Laurie Simmonds be sure to check out our next issue, Playbook for Progress, in which she shares her story of turning her vision of Green Living Enterprises into reality, the key practices that put her on the path to success, her golden rules to using business as a tool for environmental change, and more. Stay tuned!!!

Laurie Simmonds is the president and CEO of Green Living Enterprises – an impact agency that markets solutions to social and environmental issues. In her 20+ year career as an environmental entrepreneur and marketing expert, she has built Green Living Enterprises from the ground up while leading an award-winning team in the world of green business. Her work focuses on the intersections between health, social justice, and the environment.

The post GREEN MEANS GO… FASTER! appeared first on A\J.

Buying second-hand clothing is a common, sustainable alternative to buying fast fashion, and has rapidly gained popularity in recent years. When I made the switch to buying second-hand, I was unknowingly contributing to a much larger movement – a sustainability trend. And more recently, this trend has spread and accelerated online.

Source: PRETEND

Why Should We Avoid Fast Fashion?

Before I talk about online thrifting, here’s a quick background on fast fashion. Fast fashion refers to clothing that is produced and marketed to consumers as fast and as cheap as possible in response to recent trends. Generally, a company falls into the fast fashion category if the following are true:

– they produce new, mass-produced clothing items

– they are not transparent about where their clothing is coming from

– it is not obvious that they are fair trade and/or genuinely sustainable

Clothing production is very environmentally demanding and uses a lot of resources. Manufacturing one pair of jeans can produce up to 75 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions – and one t-shirt uses 700 gallons of water. But it’s not only the production of clothes that is a problem, it is also problematic at the consumer level. On average, 1 in 2 people throw away unwanted clothing in the garbage instead of donating, selling, or repairing the items. There are clearly some consumeristic bad habits at play here, but the fast fashion industry is driving the problem and unsustainably producing huge amounts of clothing.

In a linear economy model, clothing is made, purchased, and discarded, which results in a lot of waste. But in a circular economy model, the most sustainable system, clothing is not thrown away – it is bought and used with care, repaired if possible, resold to be reused by others, or upcycled for different purposes. The loop keeps going around as clothing items are repurposed, reloved, and diverted from landfills.

Source: AforeAfter

What Is Online Thrifting?

There has been a rise of second-hand online shopping and selling on various platforms, including Etsy, Instagram, Poshmark, thredUP, Depop, and Facebook marketplace, to just name a few. The people behind the online thrift “shops” vary. These “shops” aren’t actual thrift stores, like Value Village or Goodwill; they are exclusively online. Platforms, like Depop and Poshmark, aren’t even actual shops per se, but rather a collection of shops on a website. For example, you could make an account on Depop and create your very own second-hand shop. You would post your items on your page, set your own prices, other people would purchase those items online, and you would ship the items to them. You would likely make some money and the company, Depop, would take a percentage of the profit.

Stormee James, a woman from Ohio, made US$1700 from selling her clothes during the pandemic as a kind of side gig on top of her regular job as a school cleaner. Stormee is one of many people who have decided to sell their own used clothes to make a small profit during the pandemic.

On top of people selling their own clothes, there are also online thrift shops that are more like genuine small businesses, with an established brand and aesthetic. These online shops are usually run by individuals who have a passion for collecting vintage clothes and reselling them. The shop owners would likely go hunting for good quality, vintage thrift finds that fit their brand’s aesthetic at local second-hand stores or flea markets, and then buy the items to resell on their shops. All these types of online buying and selling can be grouped under the same umbrella as the resale clothing industry.

Source: The Knight Crier

The resale industry on the whole is seeing resounding, steady growth and this trend is only expected to continue increasing. In the U.S., the second-hand clothing market is estimated to grow 5 times in 5 years, from 2019 to 2024, and the retail market is expected to shrink. According to thredUP’s 2020 Resale Report and statistics from GlobalData, the entire second-hand market will be almost twice the size of the fast fashion market in the U.S. by 2029. And the coronavirus pandemic will only act as a catalyst to these upward trends.

Source: thredUP

I am a curious person, always formulating questions in my head, and as a writer, I find myself looking for stories even when I don’t intend to. So, as I’ve observed the online resale market flourishing and gaining popularity, I started to wonder…

• What are the main drivers behind this rise of online thrifting?

• These online second-hand shops are a sustainability trend, but are they all truly sustainable?

• How might the rise of online second-hand shopping impact local thrift stores?

• What are the social and economic implications of online thrifting for people who rely on thrift stores for lower priced clothing?

And boom. There’s a story.

The Drivers 

Why are we seeing an increase in online thrifting in the first place? There are several factors behind the trend, but the following four are what I’ve gathered as the main drivers.

1. Sustainability

The truth behind fast fashion is spreading and environmental awareness is ever-growing. More and more people are understanding that taking small actions and making shifts in our own lives towards sustainability are important. Buying and selling second-hand are key ways we can make those sustainable shifts towards establishing and sustaining circular fashion.

2. The pandemic

Following the start of the pandemic, more people than ever have been cleaning out their closets and getting around to selling those unwanted items that they’ve always been meaning to. I’m sure this behaviour is a result of either boredom, new motivation to declutter, looking for new ways to make a bit of cash, or a mixture of all. In terms of buying second-hand, there are plenty of cheap, online options, which are an important source for those whose finances have taken a toll from pandemic life. Perhaps staying at home is even inspiring people to redesign their lives – why not redecorate your living room or adopt a new style if you have to stay home all day anyway?

3. Generational change

Young people – millennials and Gen Z’s – are normalizing second-hand buying and driving this shift. Life as a young adult today is very financially different than it was for preceding generations. Millennials and Gen Z’s have collectively strived to remove the stigma that used to be associated with thrifting – the belief that the only people who thrifted were grandmas and people who could not afford to buy new clothes. Now, buying second-hand is normalized and encouraged by younger people, which has suited their need to spend less and save more in our current economy.

4. Influencers

Online influencers and celebrities are following the sustainability trend by supporting second-hand stores, re-wearing outfits to big events, and further contributing to removing the stigma with thrifting. For example, celebrities like Cardi B and Meaghan Markle are starting to sport vintage clothes, and Kate Middleton, Jane Fonda, and Tiffany Haddish have all made fashion statements in 2020 by rewearing dresses to important events.

The Benefits 

When looking to buy clothes, online second-hand shops and websites can be great places to find unique, quality items for a decent price. Browsing through online second-hand shops is easy and quick. On apps and websites like Depop or Poshmark, you can search for items and apply filters to help focus your results – totally hassle free. For individual online shops, you can follow them on Instagram or Facebook and have their items show up right on your feed without even searching. It truly is effortless thrifting.

And of course, second-hand shopping also diverts purchases away from fast fashion, which is supportive of social and environmental sustainability. Some online thrift shops are genuine local businesses as well. Re-selling clothes can be a kind of “side hustle” for some, but for others who are passionate about slow fashion have made this business their full-time careers. So online thrifting can also be supportive to small-business owners and individuals who have worked hard to establish their own online brand.

The rise of online thrifting has also created an aesthetic, trendy, and appealing way to buy second-hand items. Not everyone enjoys the experience of shopping at a thrift store: the smell of other people’s clothes, sifting through rows of clothing racks to discover maybe one quality piece in your size, finding extremely quirky and cringey items in the process, and buying clothes you have to wash before wearing. So, with online thrifting, more people are being steered away from fast fashion and enjoying thrifting in a new way.

I am someone who enjoys the full experience of going to a thrift store, but I’ve also enjoyed online thrifting. I have found some really nice, affordable clothing online from other people’s shops. On the app Depop, I discovered a shop that sells vintage sweaters that have different logos on them, like sports teams and universities. I was on a mission to find a used University of Waterloo hoodie, since I go to UW and don’t want to buy a new sweater, and I found a vintage one on their shop. It’s great quality and it’s an item I’ll enjoy for a really long time!

Credit: Siobhan Mullally

The Concerns

Not all that glitters is gold… Despite the positive, sustainable shift to online thrift shopping, there are still concerns that come along with it.

First, I’ve noticed on some apps, like Depop, that although people might be reselling their clothes, it is clear they still buy new clothes regularly. Some people likely support fast fashion and just resell those items online once they’re done with them. After buying fast fashion clothes, they may use those items for a year, a month, a day, or may never wear them at all before reselling. So, just because someone is reselling on a thrifting site does not mean they’re contributing to slow fashion or circularity.

Also, as thrifting has become a popular activity labelled as “sustainable”, it seems as though people might be buying clothes a lot more often since the media and culture have classified it as a guilt-free method of shopping. I do agree that thrifting is a more sustainable alternative to buying new items, but I still think people need to rethink their consumerist tendencies to buy new items all the time, even if the items they buy are used. Online thrifting may just be enhancing consumerism by giving people a “sustainable” way of consuming the same amount of, if not more, materials that they would be buying new. Buying second-hand is an important shift for a circular economy, but the rise of online thrifting may just be perpetuating consumer culture, which is the root of what needs to be shifted.

I also wondered how local thrift stores and the people who depend on them would be impacted. As online thrift shops are on the rise, thrift store business would likely follow since thrift stores are the source of the clothes that many online shops resell. If thrift stores get more demand, their prices are likely to increase as well, and this could turn into a harmful form of gentrification.

Gentrification is the process of a neighbourhood or area becoming higher in economic value, when a low-income area transforms into a higher-income area driven by wealthier people moving in, attracting new businesses, and often displacing the people who already live there. In terms of thrift stores, gentrification might look like prices of clothing going up and excluding the shoppers who depend on thrift stores for lower priced items. One of the top reasons people thrift is to be able to shop on a budget, but if the thrifting market starts skyrocketing after its massive popularity jump online, will thrift stores no longer be affordable for those people? Where will low-income individuals shop if the thrift store is no longer a feasible option for them? Maybe department stores are the next cheapest, like Walmart or Giant Tiger. The clothing at those stores is fast fashion and likely lower quality, which will cause wear-and-tear more easily and induce more buying. An unsustainable fate in the long run.

Going forward

So, what’s the takeaway – what’s the best, sustainable option? Buying second-hand is definitely better than fast fashion, right? And I should also be aware of what online thrift shops I contribute to so I can choose to support the genuine small businesses? And I have to avoid the people who resell and still support fast fashion? And I should try not to contribute to gentrification? So, how can I be a responsible, sustainable shopper?

If you are asking yourself any of those questions and are feeling overwhelmed, conflicted, frustrated, hopeless, or confused – don’t worry. I’m with you on that. It can be difficult to sift through all the information and decipher the best way to move forward. It is important to understand that we will all make sustainable shifts in different ways and at different paces, so there’s no “one solution fits all”.

Personally, what works for me right now is buying things second hand to avoid fast fashion, but also trying to buy things less – only when I need something. Of course I occasionally impulse purchase because it can be hard not to participate in buying new clothes for fun, but I’m working on it. My next goal to continue improving the sustainability of my clothing lifestyle is to learn how to sew, so that I can mend my clothes instead of needing to replace them. We will all be at different points and have different capacities for change, but learning about the options is a great way to start thinking about what you can do next.

Source: Alisa Koz

When I am considering a second-hand purchase or have a genuine need for an item, I like to visualize the “buyerarchy of needs” pictured above. The bottom of the pyramid is the largest section because that action is what we should be doing the most of. Similarly, the top is what we should be doing the least. But the key to remember is that we have options. We should all be working on taking that next step towards sustainable fashion, whatever it may look like, online or otherwise.

The post Slow Fashion at the Speed of Light appeared first on A\J.

Like many things, the truth usually lies somewhere down the middle. Yes, we have made progress this year, but we still have a long way to go. We must take the time to celebrate our wins but remain aware of the hills and mountains left to climb. 

As many of you know, the team at A\J have been writing a weekly column called WTF (the Week this Friday) where we take the time to reflect and report on the environmental stories from the week passed. As one of the most pivotal years of this century comes to a close, we think it is only fitting to highlight the environmental wins and losses of the year…WTF 2020!

1. Air pollution levels lowered from the coronavirus

Source: Pixabay

One silver lining from lockdowns this year was the eco benefit it seemed to have on the natural world. Less people moving around translated to less greenhouse gas emissions. According to the Guardian, back in March, at the height of China’s lockdown “NO2 levels were down by 38% from 2019 and levels of PM 2.5 were down by 34%”.

Unfortunately, as lockdowns eased up, people began moving around again and the highest polluting industries wasted no time in recovering. According to scientists from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, once lockdowns eased up again in spring/summer, NO2 levels in China quickly recovered.

According to scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, emissions would have to drop by approximately 20-30% for 6 to 12 months to actually make a difference. However, global emissions this year likely only dropped by about 7% compared to 2019. 

One of the few good things that came out of the coronavirus pandemic was the realization that we could live in a much less mobile world. During lockdown, we witnessed massive reductions of global CO2 and other GHG emissions which contribute to climate change (even if this was just temporarily). Experts and citizens alike encouraged decisions makers that this is the time to rebuild in a more sustainable way. Unfortunately, unless governments get serious about rebuilding into a more green recovery, it looks like we are just going to go back to our old ways.

2. New Delhi drops down to second place in the most polluted city in the world

Source: Pixabay 

This year, Lahore, Pakistan was named the most polluted city in the world with a particulate matter (PM) rating of 423with an AQI (air quality index) of 301. In previous years, New Delhi was ranked the most polluted city. This year, they dropped down to second place with a PM rating of 229.

For reference, the US Environmental Protection Agency has previously stated air that is “satisfactory” falls under an AQI of 50. 

Years of smog, dust from construction, and crop burning have all likely contributed to such high PM and AQI levels. Air quality in Lahore worsens from October to February when farmers are most likely to burn their crops, which contributes to the overall smog problem. To protect themselves from the pollution, Lahore’s residents are advised to wear a mask, run air purifiers and close windows in their homes, and avoid outdoor exercise. 

3. The Amazon forest fires

Source: Pixabay 

Back in August, 2020 was on course to be the worst year in over a decade for deforestation in the Amazon. Illegal tree loss was accelerating. In May, after facing immense global pressure, Brazil’s President, Jair Bolsonaro, had sent in the army to fight illegal logging – this plan was dubbed ‘Operation Green Brazil 2’. Although this was likely all just for show (deforestation has accelerated ever since Bolsonaro took office in 2019, growing by 209%). 

One area of the forest that had fared worse than the others in tree loss was Rondônia, an area that has seen growing deforestation since the mid-80’s. Rondônia is almost the same size as the UK has been burned and cut down to make way for crops and logging businesses. In the summer, NBC Forensics focused on Rondônia as the military was sent in – meant to track the ‘successes’ and accomplishments of Bolsonaro’s mission.

Bolsonaro falsely claimed the mission a success. However, the figures supplied by the government’s own space research agency demonstrated deforestation rates in May of 2020 and higher than in May 2019. In fact, the government’s own data showed that deforestation is increasing every single month since the previous year for 13 months in a row. 

What is happening in Rondônia is a reflection of what is happening throughout the Amazon. Eventually, the Amazon will reach a tipping point, where the tree loss will result in a rainforest that cannot produce enough rain to sustain itself. 

4. Trump withdrew from the Paris Agreement 

Source: Pixabay

This year, the United States officially withdrew from the Paris climate agreement. 

It was first announced back in 2017 that Donald Trump would back out of the Paris agreement. However, the Paris agreement requires nations to wait a minimum of three years before giving notice to leave (partly to prevent future presidents from withdrawing from the deal in the name of short term interests). This is why the US did not formally leave until the end of 2020. 

The Paris agreement was established in 2015 in order to collectively battle the threat of climate change and keep the global temperature rise below 2C above pre-industrial measures. 

The United States is ranked the second top polluting country, accounting for over 15% of global emissions. Pulling out of the agreement poorly reflects the values of American in regards to climate change.

However, this news isn’t all bad. Joe Biden, new president elect recently announced that his administration will rejoin the Paris agreement once he takes office. Phew! 

5. Canada’s proposal to ban single use plastics and a new Net zero plan 

Source: Pixabay 

My favorite story of the year! 

This year, Ottawa announced single-use plastic straws and plastic shopping bans are among the six items that the federal government plans to ban in 2021. The six items include: stir sticks, six-pack rings, plastic cutlery and plastic food take-out containers. This decision is part of a broader initiative to divert plastics from landfills and classify them as a “toxic substance”. 

This ban is one of elements of a broader plan on their list to reach zero plastic waste by 2030. The government will consult on it’s plans this December because they are sure to experience pushback from industry groups and the Albertan government which have already voiced concerns – especially about the toxic classification on plastics. Alberta is worried that this federal plan will undermine the provinces’ petrochemical sector and its goal of becoming a plastics-recycling hub. Instead, Alberta states that Ottawa should focus on creating a circular economy whereby plastics from manufacturing go through recycling. 

Environment and Climate Change Minister, Jonathan Wilkinson, pressed on that the ban is necessary because of the significant harm plastics are causing to Canada’s wildlife and coastlines. A daunting statistic was mentioned: In Canada, only 9% of the plastic that is thrown out is recycled. The government also plans to set recycled-content requirements on products and packaging and will further consult with all provinces and territories to set up these targets. Additionally, earlier this year the federal government released a draft state-of-the-science assessment on plastic pollution – effectively arming Ottawa with the scientific basis to regulate plastics. Basically, the assessment discussed the dangers of macro and microplastics causing harm to the environment and on wildlife. 

Members of Greenpeace have criticized the ban, saying that this is simply not enough of a response for the severity of the global plastics problem. I would have to disagree; I think this is a great first step.

Moreover, other governments have tried to implement a ban on single use plastics in some form or another in the past (read about Laredo’s plastic bag ban), and have lost because big oil won’t go down without a fight and is eager send their reps into the courtroom or lean on old legislation to prevent a plastic ban from going through. With these past failures in mind, I would rather take small victories over a huge loss. 

6. Coral reefs: The Great Barrier Reef moved to critical conservation outlook  

Source: Pixabay

According to the International Union for Conservation for Nature (IUCN), the health of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the world’s most extensive and once spectacular coral reef ecosystem, is in a critical state and deteriorating as climate change warms up the waters in which it lies. The Reef has lost more than half its coral in the past three decades. Coral-bleaching in 2016, 2017 and now 2020 has further damaged its health and affected its animal, bird and marine population.  

Coral bleaching occurs when hotter water temperatures destroy the algae which corals feed on, causing them to turn completely stark white. Because of mass bleaching events, the IUCN moved the reef’s status to critical and deteriorating on its watchlist. Some activities which threaten it, like fishing and coastal development, can be tackled by the management authorities. 

“Other pressures cannot be addressed at the site level, such as climate change, which is recognized as the greatest threat,” the IUCN explained. Although efforts to safeguard the reef are rising, the process has been slow under a long-term sustainability plan through 2050. HSBC and the Queensland government said back in October that they would buy “Reef Credits”, a tradable unit that quantifies and values the work undertaken to improve water quality flowing onto the reef. 

According to Optimist Daily, “Buying one credit is the equivalent of removing one kilogram of nitrogen from the water, or preventing 538 kilograms of sediment from entering the ocean.”

Cool!

7. The rise of jobs in the sustainability sector (Netflix, Microsoft… did big hirings this year) 

Source: Pixabay

As a sustainability grad, one of the most promising changes (stories) of the year was witnessing the rise of jobs in the sustainability sector. Companies that would have never before considered hiring a team “to make them more green” now have huge departments all focussed on reducing company emissions and leaving behind a better legacy. To name just a few examples, this year Netflix, Microsoft and Tesla have all been making major hiring moves in sustainability. 

According to ECO Canada, “In the next 3 – 5 years, 84% of sustainability consulting firms expect to hire, creating about 400 new positions. A further 3,800 new jobs will be added to this number as 46% of other sustainability employers increase their staff…The top employers of sustainability professionals are governments (employing 27% of sustainability professionals), research institutions and not-for-profits (24%), large companies in manufacturing, oil & gas, mining, forestry and utilities (10%) and businesses in retail, finance and insurance (10%).”

Good news for sustainability! 

8. The Earthshot Prize 

Source: Flood Control Asia 

Move over Nobel Peace Prize, the Nobel Prize for environmentalism is coming through!

Back in October, Sir David Attenborough joined forces with Prince William to launch “The Earthshot Prize”. According to BBC, this is the biggest environmental prize to date. They are searching for 50 solutions to the world’s biggest environmental problems, allocating five one million-pound prizes (valuing at $1,704,300 CAD each) to be awarded over the next decade. 

Prince William believes this prize could be the positivity that the environmentalism movement is missing, “The Earthshot prize is really about harnessing that optimism and that urgency to find some of the world’s solutions to some of the greatest environmental problems,” he told the BBC.

According to the Earthshot website, the prize was inspired by President John F. Kennedy’s Moonshot, “which united millions of people around an organising goal to put man on the moon and catalysed the development of new technology in the 1960s.” Attenborough believes it’s this same spirit that can guide the next generation of thinkers and dreamers to solve some of earth’s problems.

The announcement came just after Sir David Attenborough released his latest documentary, “A Life on Our Planet”. 

I am looking forward to seeing where this goes.

9. Tree’s ability to socialize and “speak” to each other. 

Source: Unsplash

This December, the New York Times shared that forests are social and communicate with one another through dense fungi networks in the soil below the canopy.

More specifically, “trees and fungi form partnerships known as mycorrhizas: Threadlike fungi envelop and fuse with tree roots, helping them extract water and nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen in exchange for some of the carbon-rich sugars the trees make through photosynthesis.”

Suzanne Simard, a professor of forest ecology at the University of British Columbia, has been studying these relationships in the wild, coastal forests of North America. Through her research, Sinard discovered that these fungal threads link EVERY tree together in the forest- even ones of different species!

These linkages allow vital molecules including carbon, water, and other nutrients to pass through the network circuits. Wait, it gets better. Simard also stated that chemical signals are also passed through this network, allowing trees to signal to others nearby when there is danger.

“If a tree is on the brink of death, it sometimes bequeaths a substantial share of its carbon to its neighbors.”

Is anyone cutting onions in here?

10. Doug Ford’s conservation authority changes

Source: NationalPost

In December, the Ontario government passed its new budget bill. One major change to this bill was the new constraints on the conservation authorities in the province to regulate development and “introduced new channels through which developers can obtain permits.”

According to the Globe and Mail, there are 36 conservation authorities in Ontario (with most of them in the southern end) all tasked with protecting the various watersheds that make up the province. This might include operating dams, defending against flooding or erosion, regulating development on wetlands, protecting water sources, and managing natural parks. Ultimately, conservation authorities are nature’s defender against poor land use policies. 

Unfortunately, their ability to defend will be threatened with the upcoming changes as a result of the new bill. And this isn’t the first time the government has tried to sidestep these authorities. Past budget cuts and using ministerial zoning orders (MZO) has allowed the government to circumvent the rules and bypass conservation authorities. 

Schedule 6 of the new bill will only add to this momentum. Changes include:

• The conservation authorities must now issue a permit once an MZO has been issued
• Developers can more easily appeal a conservation authorities decision

The decisions ultimately allow developers to take the path of least resistance if they want to build on a naturally significant area, while making it harder for conservation authorities to fight back and stand up for what they are meant to do.

11. Buzzworthy – Honeybee venom shown to kill cancer cells

Source: Unsplash

Now here is some news to buzz about, scientists in Australia have found that Honeybee venom has been linked to killing some aggressive breast cancer cells. This exciting news shows signs of hope for treatment of breast cancer – which is the leading cancer in women across the globe, representing 25% of all cancers in women.

Melittin – the compound within the venom were used to destroy two cancer types: triple-negative and HER2-enriched. Bee venom has been discussed to have anti-cancer properties before but there is still a long way to go from watching cancer cells be destroyed in petri dishes to being applied in medicinal practice.

It does provide us with hope and has proven to be yet another prime example of how nature is really the best doctor we have. Dr. Ciara Duffy a 25-year-old PhD researcher led the study and found the venom killed the cancer cells within an hour! We hope to see more development with this great news, and hopefully it increases acceptance towards incorporating more holistic approaches to cancer and medicinal treatments. Now that is buzzworthy.

12. Stay away poachers: rare white giraffe is now being tracked 

Source: Unsplash

Being the only white giraffe left is causing a stir up around the world to protect the remarkable creature, the extremely rare giraffe now has a tracker attached to it in order to trace its whereabouts hourly – this allows rangers in Kenya to monitor the giraffe and keep it out of danger from poachers. The device was planted on one of the horns on the animal on November 8th.. 

The white colour of the giraffe is from the absence of pigmentation in its skin – also called leucism, which is a rare genetic condition that can affect a variety of animals. Due to its rarity – the  animal is in a critical position to stay alive as the rest of its family has been killed off by poachers and making this one especially lucrative in the poaching and wildlife trafficking underground market.

The conservation status of the species as a whole is vulnerable, with over 68,000 giraffes in the world. Two white giraffes of the same family were killed in march and there was discussion that there was one found in Tanzania in 2015. With the tracking device, this hopes to protect the vulnerable giraffe and keep it out of harm’s way.

13. Shell Canada going carbon neutral

Source: Unsplash

Shell will become the first gas retailer in Canada to offer a program that offsets emissions from customer fuel purchases with an optional buy-in at the pump. The Drive Carbon Neutral program will be available to 1,400 stations Canada wide. The program allows customers to offset their carbon emissions from fossil fuels for two cents a litre. Shell states that many of their carbon conscious customers were demanding them to do more. They also stated that many individuals cannot afford to buy an electric car but still want to offset their carbon footprint – this will allow this to happen. This is a model that was taken from a program in Europe, which saw positive feedback and adoption levels with nearly 20 percent of people in the Netherlands using it.

Shell also announced their plan to reforest British Columbia in a partnership with Central Chilcotin Rehabilitation. They aim to plant 840,000 native trees in effort to resort much of what was lost in the 2017 wildfires. They plan to do this over a two-year planting period, with the cost being unreleased. Meanwhile Environmental Defence is arguing that this is “pure greenwashing”, as it directs the cost onto the consumer rather than the giant who is profiting from the world using fossil fuels.

14. A galaxy of microfibers in California – literally

Source: Unsplash 

Invisible but plentiful is a good way to describe the unfortunate situation of the plastic microfiber problem. A whooping 13.3 quadrillion (yes, quadrillion) plastic fibers are found in California alone – that is more than 130,000 times more fibers as there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy. In 2019, an estimated 4,000 metric tons were released into California’s natural environment. With these fibers ending up in our water systems, a study found that 73% of fish caught at mid-ocean depth in the Atlantic had microplastics in their stomachs. 

The fibers are under 5mm in length and most often come from washing materials in our laundry. Mostly from synthetic fibers that make up our clothing, they go from our washing machines all the way to our water streams. Just one load alone can pass out more than 700,000 fibers alone. The amount of microfibers shed also depends on the material, wash temperature, detergent, etc. 

15. Hottest Temperatures EVER recorded 

Source: Unsplash

We hit a record again! There is no surprise of temperatures reaching soaring highs with the rising records of fossil fuels emissions, every year seems to hit a new heat record. But Death Valley held the flaming torch of the highest temperature ever recorded on Earth, sitting at 54.4C (130F).

Death Valley is a desert valley in the Mojave Desert that lies 86 meters below sea level. It is one of the hottest places on Earth but these soaring temperatures this high have never been accurately recorded before. There were extreme heat advisories, urging people to not walk in the desert past 10AM. 

It serves as the hottest air temperature ever recorded, this begs the question of what is to come in the future. It is so hot, that the sweat evaporates so fast off your skin that you actually don’t feel wet. Talk about a hot – n – not sweaty?

16. Zero carbon flights by 2035? 

Source: Unsplash

By 2020, we may have already expected flying cars – while our expectations may have been sold short, we do have something as exciting in the talks. Transportation giant Airbus has revealed their plans for the first commercial emission-free flight by 2035. Airbus has three ZEROe concepts in store, all to use hydrogen to power the planes.

In order to truly make this a feasible carbon-free option, it relies on finding large quantities of renewable or low-emitting sources of hydrogen. As this process currently relies mostly on methane and fossil fuels – it is not exactly a low-carbon option but more innovative solutions to hopefully come in future announcements.

One of the concept designs could carry up to 200 passengers for more than 2,000 miles. This is a milestone waiting to happen in the aviation industry and would mark a remarkable moment in history – with hopes that all travel and transportation can one day be emission free.

17. Google now has a carbon footprint of zero.

Source: Shutterstock

The tech giant has set the bar again. Although already being carbon neutral since 2007, Google now has offset their entire carbon footprint to ever exist. While many in the technology industry are right behind Google – such as Microsoft and Apple. Microsoft has released a statement to become “carbon negative” by 2030, and Apple is announcing to be carbon neutral for their business and the supply chain for their products by 2030. 

Google is also moving into using carbon-free energy by 2030 by using renewable energy such as solar and wind to power their operations. They also plan to increase their use of battery storage. Artificial intelligence will also come into play by allowing AI to forecast the demand of electricity. This shift would create over 12,000 jobs in the span of five years. Not only will it be good for the environment to turn away from oil and gas but it will also contribute to the economy, as they vowed to no longer create AI for oil and gas exploration. Nice one Google!

18. Thailand will shut national parks regularly to protect nature 

Source: Unsplash 

Footsteps are not the only things left on the beach. Many tourists flock to Thailand to enjoy their sandy beaches, crystal clear water, and a beautiful culture. Being a travel and tourism hotspot for many years, this has left a lasting impact on the natural environment. 

However, thanks to COVID-19, the closure of parks has allowed nature to recover by seeing the return of whales and turtles. This is a lesson that speaks volumes as the Natural Resources & Environment authorities now want to close the national parks yearly for two to four months to ensure the ecosystem and wildlife health remains stable and is not overexerted. 

Thailand has more than a 100 national parks and attracts between 10 – 20 million visitors, with this year expecting to drop below 7 million visitors. While tourism is one of the main economic pillars for Thailand’s economy, amounting to one-fifth to their gross domestic product, it could not keep up with the unsustainable degradation the heavy tourism brought. In order to sustain future tourism and a healthy ecosystem, Thailand conservation authorities saw first hand through the pandemic how with time, nature can begin to restore itself.

19. We can see penguin colonies from space

Source: Unsplash

Want the good news or the bad news first? We’ll start with the good. Emperor penguins are very difficult to study due to their extremely remote nature, making them often inaccessible with Arctic temperature conditions dropping below -50 degrees celsius. But good news, a new study using satellite mapping tech reveals that there are 20% more emperor penguin colonies in Antarctica than was previously thought. The scientists from British Arctic Survey (BAS) explain that they used images from European Commission’s Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite mission to locate birds. They were able to find 11 new emperor penguin colonies, three of which were previously identified, but not confirmed. These findings take the global census to 61 colonies around the continent. 

BAS scientists have been searching for new colonies for the past 10 years using land-based research methods. Dr. Peter Fretwell, a BAS geographer, says that satellite images have enabled scientists to discover colonies that would have been extremely difficult to find otherwise.  

Now here comes the bad news as promised, the colonies are so few and far between that this discovery takes the overall population count up by 5-10% to just over half a million penguins in total. Emperor penguins are known to be vulnerable to loss of sea ice (their breeding habitat). Given current climate change projections, this habitat is likely to further decline. Most of the new colonies are on the edge of the breeding ground meaning that they are likely to be lost as the climate warms. 

20. Water is now trading on wall street

Source: Unsplash

Water, a necessity to all life on our planet, is now being traded on Wall street. We should have seen this one coming, another natural resource commodified and brought onto Wall street. CME Group – the company in charge of managing the contracts states that water will be traded on Wall Street due to the fear of rising scarcity in the future. As with other traded commodities like oil and gold, the price will fluctuate due to supply and demand.

According to the Nasdaq Velez California Water Index, the price of water has doubled in the last year, and the market price of it is at 1.1 billion dollars. On December 7th the trading price started at $486.53 per acre-foot equating to 1,233 cubic meters.

Water contracts are a first of their kind, incubated by the heat and wildfires in California, this change hopes to protect the resource for California’s consumers to indicate the scarcity and the value it holds. Over 2 billion people live amongst water scarcity around the world…This foreshadows the grim future of millions of people getting displaced by this factor. Not only will water limit industries, but it will trickle down to limited supply for human consumption too.

—

Well 2020 being crazy and turbulent are just a few words we can agree on describing this year in a nutshell (basically this year was one big WTF, right?) With the ever so dynamic natural world and constantly shifting state of politics, it can often make it hard to keep up with what is going on in the ‘green’ world. That is why our team has had the pleasure of picking our top six weekly environmental stories in our weekly column, The WTF (The Weekly This Friday). 

We hope to have even more environmental wins for 2021 for us to document every Friday – yes we are extending the series into the next year (woo!) We are hoping to hear less about the pandemic and leave it in the rearview mirror of 2020, and make more strides and reach even more environmental triumphs. We hope you had the pleasure coming along this ride with us of reading these stories as much as we had writing them.

The post WTF 2020 appeared first on A\J.

Lithium, a silver-white alkali metal, is a key component in electric vehicles (EV) rechargeable batteries. And while EV’s have been named “the eco-alternatives to cars” some are claiming that the quest to find and extract lithium ultimately causes just as much environmental damage as their gas-guzzling opponent.

This week, the Guardian (Oliver Balch) posted an article in which they explored white oil: “the dirty secret of electric vehicles”.

With carbon emissions needing to drop by more than a third by 2030 to reach our Paris climate agreements, EV’s with lithium batteries seemed like a promising solution. According to the article, Lithium, which is usually found within rock and clay deposits, has become the popular option for EV batteries because of its high density and ability to store a great amount of energy for its weight. In addition to powering EV’s, lithium batteries can be used to store grid-scale energy, and even power smartphones and laptops!

More than half of lithium deposits are currently found in Australia. Portugal is also a major competitor in lithium production, as the Portuguese government is preparing to offer licenses for lithium mining and exploitation. If this became reality, this would allow Europe to source lithium close to home and improve the security of their supply.  

While this all sounds like good news, it’s not really. According to Thea Riofrancos, a political economist,  “Everyone having an electric vehicle means an enormous amount of mining, refining and all the polluting activities that come with it.” The article delves further to identify more impacts from an increase in lithium mining including “potential industrial-scale habitat destruction, chemical contamination and noise pollution, as well as high levels of water consumption.”

If the mining licences are granted in Portugal, a small group of protesters are ready to fight in court. Supporters on the other hand, have argued that the mining is a small price to pay in tackling long term emissions.

The giving trees

Suzanne Simard // SOURCE: The New York Times

This week, the New York Times shared that forests are social and communicate with one another through dense fungi networks in the soil below the canopy.

More specifically, “trees and fungi form partnerships known as mycorrhizas: Threadlike fungi envelop and fuse with tree roots, helping them extract water and nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen in exchange for some of the carbon-rich sugars the trees make through photosynthesis.”

Suzanne Simard, a professor of forest ecology at the University of British Columbia, has been studying these relationships in the wild, coastal forests of North America. Through her research, Sinard discovered that these fungal threads link EVERY tree together in the forest- even ones of different species!

These linkages allow vital molecules including carbon, water, and other nutrients to pass through the network circuits. Wait, it gets better. Simard also stated that chemical signals are also passed through this network, allowing trees to signal to others nearby when there is danger.

“If a tree is on the brink of death, it sometimes bequeaths a substantial share of its carbon to its neighbors.”

Is anyone cutting onions in here?

I have to say, ever since I was a child, I have had a strong belief that everything in the natural world had feelings – even plants (call me kooky). I also felt horrible when a tree was cut down- I remember as a child yelling to my father as he cut down a Christmas tree, “stop, you’re hurting it!” This research just reaffirms my childhood suspicions. Thank you, Suzanne Simard!

New Report: Coca-Cola, Pepsico & Nestle – The Most Polluting Companies Worldwide 

Greenpeace diver holds a Coke bottle found adrift near the Great Pacfic Garbage Patch // Source: Greenpeace 

On December 2nd, 2020, Break Free From Plastic (BFFP) released its third annual report,

“Branded Vol III: Demanding Corporate Accountability for Plastic Pollution”, revealing that Coca Cola, Pepsico and Nestle are the most polluting companies in the world, for the third time in a row. BFFP is a global movement that was launched in 2016 and has been releasing reports since 2018, identifying the most polluting organizations around the world. They work with thousands of volunteers and non-governmental organizations on a global scale to count and document the brands on plastic waste found in different countries around the world. This year they found that the amount of plastic waste generated by Coca Cola was 13,834 pieces across 51 countries, more than the waste collected by Pepsico and Nestle combined. The annual survey is conducted by 15,000 volunteers in 55 different countries, where they collected 346,494 pieces of plastic from their surrounding environment. BFFP states that these multinational organizations are pumping out so much single-use plastic that plastic production could be “doubled by 2030 and tripled by 2050”. These staggering numbers will have an impact on human health, ecological systems, and of course, climate change. 

BFFP Report Highlights:

– Coca Cola showed an increase in plastic waste as BFFP recorded 2,102 more items from the company, in 14 more countries, this year than last year’s survey.

– Coca-Cola, Nestle, and PepsiCo have remained our Top Three Global Polluters every year since our first global brand audit in 2018.

– PepsiCo contributed 5,155 pieces of plastics across 43 countries and 8,633 pieces of Nestlé plastics items were found in 37 countries.

– If plastic use were a country, it would be the 5th largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world.

-Single-use personal protective equipment is on the rise. 419 surgical gloves and 770 single-use masks were recorded and while it may be unique to this year, it is “not unique to our disposable culture.”

– Top plastic polluters have made little progress in reducing total plastic use or switching to some form of reusable packaging.

Solutions? 

If you’re familiar with the topic of waste pollution, you’re familiar with the Ellen Macarthur Foundation. 7 of the top 10 worst polluters – including Coca-Cola Company, Pepsico and Nestle, signed the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy Global Commitment in October 2018, which requires them to “eliminate all unnecessary plastic” while reusing or recycling plastics in a circular system as well as create more sustainable substitutes for their packaging. However, the foundation reported that its signatories have only reduced use of virgin plastic by 0.1 percent from 2018 to 2019. Meanwhile, Coca-Cola increased the amount of plastic it uses. 2020 is looking like more of the same. The only way to stop this is to eliminate plastic production, phase out single-use and implement robust, standardized reuse systems. 

Masks Are Adding to The Ocean Pollution Crisis 

Masks collect at Soko Islands Nov 27th 2020 // Source: OceansAsia

Hong Kong based marine conservation group, OceansAsia, reported that more than estimated 1.56 billion face masks used in 2020 will make their way into our planet’s oceans, joining literal tonnes of other plastic pollution. OceansAsia hypothesized that the face masks would add up to around 4,860 to 6,240 tons of extra plastic waste in the oceans. Dr. Teale Phelps Bondaroff, Director of Research for OceansAsia, and lead author of the report said in a press release that the masks are just the tip of the iceberg, “a small fraction of the estimated 8 to 12 million metric tonnes of plastic that enter our oceans each year.” 

The research started when OceansAsia visited an isolated beach in the Soko Islands in late February 2020. As the beach had boat-access only, anything found on the shore would have been washed up from the ocean, not left there by people. They expected to see a couple masks washed up with other plastic pollution. What they weren’t expecting was to come across 70 masks strewn across a 100-meter stretch of the beach. The team continued to visit the beach and the mask numbers they found increased as the months went on. Our oceans were already filled full of plastic long before COVID-19 drove up the production and use of PPE, ever heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to be mindful of our pollution output. 

The reality is that face masks have become the norm in many parts of Canada, and the rest of the world. Where single-use masks are necessary, researchers urge consumers to discard their masks correctly, and check with local authorities for guidance on how to do so. Some companies are also working on producing masks made with sustainable or biodegradable materials, in order to cut down on pollution. Where single-use masks are not necessary, i.e. for the general public, buy a reusable mask for day-to-day. 

Water is now trading on Wall Street

Source: Unsplash

We should have seen this one coming, another natural resource commodified and brought onto Wall street – yes, it’s confirmed, water will be traded in the near future. CME Group – the company in charge of managing the contracts states that water will be traded on Wall Street due to its future due to the fear of rising scarcity. As with other traded commodities like oil and gold, the price will fluctuate due to supply and demand.

According to the Nasdaq Velez California Water Index, the price of water has doubled in the last year, and the market price of it is at 1.1 billion dollars. On December 7th the trading price started at $486.53 per acre-foot equating to 1,233 cubic meters.

Water contracts are a first of their kind, incubated by the heat and wildfires in California, this hopes to protect the resource for California’s consumers to indicate the scarcity and the value it holds. Over 2 billion people live amongst water scarcity in their countries, this foreshadows the grim future of millions of people getting displaced by this factor. Not only will water limit industries, but it will trickle down to limited supply for human consumption too.

More pandemics on route due to Climate Change?

Source: Unsplash

Mosquitos riddled with diseases? A new virus transmitted through insects? Although it is already a reality, this is just the beginning. While it may sound like a scene out of a dystopian movie, COVID-19 once seemed like it was not a possible scenario for us to live in either.

Climate change is the prime agent for accelerating possibilities of future pandemics and outbreaks to happen. While one tiny microbe caused irreparable damage to the economy and left many families with one less family member, “It could have been much worse” states Scott Weaver – the director of the Galveston National Laboratory in Texas.

With the world changing so rapidly, the algorithm of this planet is being rewritten. More contractible diseases between animals and humans are on the rise and thawing permafrost is releasing mystery pathogens which have never been daylight for over tens of thousands of years. Many diseases and insects thrive in record breaking warmer, moister, and longer seasons of such conditions. With the worst that may be ahead of us with the emergence of new pathogens which have evolved and mutated into stronger, more resilient and lethal to humans. We are on the path of a new pandemic around the corner with the conditions that have been created as a result of climate change. We must remember that we too are endangered.

The post The WTF: The Week This Friday Vol. 28 appeared first on A\J.

Every year around the holidays, we go into this “EVERYTHING IN EXCESS” mode where our brain wants to consume, consume, and consume. And with all that consumption comes a whole lot of trash and waste. In fact, we produce 25–30% more waste around Christmas time than we do the rest of the year.

However, there are many ways we can still celebrate the holidays without the environmental guilt….

1. Purchase eco-friendly gifts

“Studies have shown that a single wash of polyester clothing can release as many as 700,000 microplastics into the water supply…Consider plastic-free gifts like tote bags, sponge cloths, produce bags and plastic-free toiletry kits, as well as clothing made of merino wool and cotton over polyester and nylon clothing over the holidays,” says Dmytriy Pereklita, the founder of OnePieceADay.  Pereklita says that many brands like Patagonia are still stylish yet sourced from more sustainable materials.

OnePieceADay has recently launched an e-commerce marketplace where you can find environmentally-conscious gifts for your friends and family (I like the reusable produce and bulk food bags- pictured above).

Pereklita also emphasized consumers should be thinking about where their gifts are coming from. “Are they from local shops which you can pick up and deliver with minimal carbon footprint?” he asked, “Or are they being flown in from overseas, driven by a truck across the country? Try to support local businesses as much as possible especially during the pandemic.”

2. Switch to reusable gift wrapping

In Canada, we send 540,000 tonnes of gift wrapping and gift bangs to the landfill every holiday season.

“Avoid the usual fancy paper gift wrapping since most of it cannot be recycled. Consider using burlap, old newspapers, dish cloths etc.… For deliveries, you can ask vendors how they package their products prior to making a decision to purchase” says Pereklita. “Reuse as much as you can…or go naked – i.e. no wrapping! Try hiding unwrapped gifts in the house for a fun gift hunt!”

My Green Closet has a useful YouTube video which shows you how you can make your own reusable gift bags here (pictured above).

I would also suggest that if you do decide to go down the gift bag route, skip on the tissue paper and keep the bags you get this year to reuse for someone else’s gift next year.

3. Avoid plastic and single-use housing decorations

Christmas decorations tend to be a plastic heavy, glitter ball mess that usually ends up in a landfill after a few years. Instead of going this route, why not try making your own holiday decorations using sustainable materials? It could be a fun activity for your friends and family.

I like the recycled card wreath from Good Housekeeping (pictured above).

4. Buy a real tree

I know what you are thinking – cutting down a tree? No way! But hear me out. When you look at the lifecycle or the plastic tree alternative, it is actually much worse for the environment. According to Environmental Defense, most plastic trees are not recyclable. After a few seasons, they sit in landfills for the next THOUSAND years! So Instead of purchasing a plastic tree, opt for a real one. If you are still feeling bad about it, plant a new tree in its place afterwards!

When the holidays are over, there are many eco friendly ways to dispose of your real-live tree and bring it back to compost. Cities all over Canada, like Calgary, run Christmas tree composting programs after the holidays so you can be sure your tree is going back to the earth.

5. Go plastic free during holiday gatherings

SOURCE: HUFFPOST

While it may be nice to not have to do the dishes, Environmental Defense says plastic waste from (COVID-19 friendly) holiday gatherings like cups, plates and cutlery often do not end up recycled and go straight to the garbage. So, if you can, use reusable plates, cutlery, and cups.

Single use cups often get thrown out more as people mix up their cups at gatherings, stay with reusable glassware and to avoid the mix up, you can use a wine glass writer to mark your cup!

After the gathering, you can label different bins for recycling, compost, and trash so your guests can also properly dispose of their waste.

6. Avoid wasting food

SOURCE: Fork in the Road

The best part about Christmas, the food! Unfortunately, food waste accounts for a massive portion of holiday waste. If there is leftover food after dinner, send your guest home with food goodie bags! Another option is to save leftovers and scraps for soup stocks instead of throwing them out.

Find a good recipe on how to make vegetable broth from food scraps here.

7. DIY gifts

A DIY gift is a gift from the heart! I am on the east coast for the holidays this year and our beaches are often littered with broken bottles and sea glass. So instead of buying gifts, I am going to gift my family sea glass art pieces (link here). But shhhh… don’t tell them!

8. Offer vegetarian/low meat meals  

According to Random Acts of Green, “At Christmas in 2019, 2.7 million whole turkeys were purchased in Canada!” And yes, the Christmas ham and turkey are holiday staples, I know. But are they really needed? If you answer yes, opt for purchasing ham and turkey (and any other ingredients that end up on the table) from more ethically sourced options. Try buying local or organic instead this year!

Or even better, go meatless this Christmas! Make a new family tradition to use Christmas as the one time a year the entire family goes meatless. Also, you can cut down on the size of the turkeys and or switch to a smaller chicken instead to ensure less food is leftover.

9. Use LED lights

I love going for late night walks around the holidays and looking at all the Christmas lights in my neighbourhood. Christmas lights just put people in a good mood. This year, inside or outside, try and use LED lights instead of regular incandescent ones (LED lights actually use up to 80% less energy).

10. Gift an experience

Instead of buying something that will be donated or tossed in a landfill a few years down the road, why not gift someone a fun experience and happy memories? Environmental Defense has a ton of great gift ideas like Spanish lessons, paint night, salsa dancing, going to the theatre… There are tons of options. I am just saying but if someone gifted a young version of myself hip hop dance lessons for Christmas, I wouldn’t have been mad.

11. Donate to a worthy cause/ upcycle

“Instead of gifts, consider giving the gift of giving,” says Dmytriy Pereklita. “There are groups around the world in need of financial support for eco-friendly causes. Honour someone special by donating on their behalf to one of the following groups committed to helping the planet.”

A few worthy ones Pereklita mentioned:

Save the Whales https://savethewhales.org/donate/

Plastic Pollution Coalition https://connect.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/donate

WWF https://shop.wwf.ca/collections/virtual-gifts

OnePieceADay https://ca.gofundme.com/f/td4eg-one-piece-a-day

12. Create a new sustainable family tradition

Random Acts of Green says starting a new sustainable family tradition can give you much needed time to reflect on how we can help the earth, while still spending time with your loved ones. A few ideas they suggested included, bird watching, going on a nature walk, collecting garbage, or planting a tree to symbolize the value of nature.

The post 12 Eco Tips for Christmas appeared first on A\J.

Municipal transit systems have been heavily criticized in the past for failing to connect people in growing suburban developments, lacking efficiency in dense urban areas, or simply not having enough ridership to make a difference. Rachel Brown, a recent graduate working in the sustainable transportation sector, had some of these feelings growing up; “As soon as I had access to a car, transit wasn’t my main mode of transportation,” she said, “it took way longer, it was inconvenient for me to walk to a bus stop from my house. For me to get on a bus and go to my friend’s house took almost an hour, where I could get in a car and drive to my friend’s house in fifteen minutes.”

This is coupled with the fact that learning to use the bus can be intimidating for many people. There are still many mental and physical barriers that prevent people choosing transit- think of a young student who may not understand how to use the bus, or a newcomer to Canada not yet confident in their English. Without a simple, stress free transit system, many people may be deterred from giving transit a chance.

“Transportation can be crucial for linking communities to vital resources.” -Rachel Brown

Brown highlighted the positive effects a functional, appealing transit system can have on communities, “Transportation can be crucial for linking communities to vital resources, so as an example you could live in Scarborough or a community hub that you’re connected to culturally, spiritually, religiously- maybe you’re just going to school downtown- but having that ability to get to those resources is really important.” Brown added it’s about breaking down common behaviours and norms in society; “My first option should be taking the bus, or the train, or bicycle…It shouldn’t be automatically just driving in a car.”

So how do we move from a single car culture to a transit culture? For public transit to be more competitive with other modes of transportation, things need to change. Municipalities across Canada have acknowledged some of these problems and found solutions to improve transit within their communities.

Kingston’s Transit Orientation Project

Back in 2012, many high school students in the city of Kingston, Ontario opted out of riding public transit. While the buses were free, many students admitting the idea of going on the bus gave them fear and anxiety because they did not know how to use it.

Dan Hendry, with the Limestone District School Board, saw an opportunity to increase transit ridership in Kingston, while simultaneously providing students with the confidence and tools to use transit and gain the freedom of mobility. He developed the Transit Orientation Project, an education program designed to encourage teenagers to ride the city buses and provide them with independent mobility. At the time, 30% of greenhouse gas emissions from Kingston came from transportation³, and if more individuals took the bus, it would have a significant impact on city emissions.

“It’s this idea of normalizing the usage and understanding of how to use it,” Hendry explained. Hendry took students on the bus and taught them about anything from bus etiquette, to the social, economic, and environmental benefits that come with riding the bus. The students were taken to get their bus pass the same day.  Hendry said students asked “about anything from stopping the bus, as funny as that sounds, but how do you get on the bus? Off the bus? When do you pull the trigger? Do you get off the front or the back? Can you put your bike on the rack? What about getting a transfer?”

The program was all about highlighting the freedom students would have using transit. With a bus pass, students were able to get to work, volunteer, and participate in after school activities. The bus passes were also used for field trips, experiential learning opportunities, and other activities which opened community resources to students.

The first program in 2012 began with grade nines. By 2015, students from grade nine to twelve had a transit pass. Hundreds of bus lessons later, and the program helped transit ridership in Kingston increase by 87%.

In Charlottetown, PEI, they had experienced a similar problem. The city noticed that newcomers and seniors were the primary demographic using transit. Inspired by the work in Kingston, they embarked on a similar teen transit ridership program.

As the Manager of Environment and Sustainability in Charlottetown, Ramona Doyle was involved in the project. Doyle mentioned educating the public on sustainability solutions like bus ridership serves two purposes; “One is trying to create a population that buys into the concept of sustainability and sees it as a community value because that will then come back to elected officials in terms of priority in the community….And two, just to create a population that really cares and understands the space we have is limited and precious and worthwhile preserving.”

Doyle and Hendry both noticed the positive impact the programs had on families in their community. They mentioned that in the months following the program, they saw students encouraging their parents and family members to use transit, teaching them what they had learned from the program.

“It’s all about ‘normalizing transit at a young age, for families as well, and making it more accessible…focussing not just on a bus but on freedom, [students] have just one more tool in their kit.” -Dan Hendry 

While the pass may not be profitable while students are in high school, the teen transit program fosters future paying customers, and encourages these individuals to use the bus into adulthood and reduce the possibility of becoming automobile dependent in the future. “It’s all about ‘normalizing transit at a young age, for families as well, and making it more accessible, focussing not just on a bus but on freedom, [students] have just one more tool in their kit,” Hendry said, adding, “Transit has been stigmatized for a long time. And it’s not just underfunded but seen to be important… so I think if people see how to use it and understand it at a young age, they will have it as a tool for life”.

Word of the program success has spread beyond Charlottetown and Kingston. Cities across Canada including St. John’s Burlington, North Bay, Peterborough, and Belleville are currently hoping to, or in the process of, running similar programs.  

Belleville ‘On-Demand’ Transit System

Every night, a handful of city buses in Belleville, Ontario would lap the same routes over and over, often driving around an empty bus. At night, demand was low, and the number of passengers dropped significantly. Hoping to maximize the ridership fares per revenue hour, the city moved to a fixed nighttime route which used less than a third of their normal fleet. It didn’t take long for residents to complain these buses were slow, and many individuals ended up having to travel far distances to reach a bus stop.

This was not sustainable.

In 2018, the city partnered with Pantonium Inc, a Toronto based company which uses algorithms and cloud-based technology to optimize transit fleets.  They created a pilot project with Belleville which offered on-demand transit to the community during nighttime routes. Using the EverRun software platform created by Pantonium, passengers could use an app on their phone, call in, or even email to signal a city bus to pick them up at any bus stop of their choosing, then drop them off at any other stop in town. As more passengers used the system, drivers would receive updated routes in real-time which could cater to multiple passengers at once, maximizing efficiency.

Luke Mellor, the Marketing Director at Pantonium Inc, explained why the project was needed in Belleville; “The service has to cover the whole city and there is not a lot of demand, so they can’t afford to put a lot of vehicles out there. So, what you have is a very sparse network that takes forever to get around. We saw this nighttime, low-density bus service as a niche where on-demand bus service would work very well.”

“If you can get those people that don’t have cars and provide them a service that’s good for their mobility needs, then they won’t get cars. That’s at least the hope, you can prevent the mode-ship from going in reverse.” – Luke Mellor

Belleville was able to increase efficiency using far fewer buses to cover the same distances while providing the same level of service during low demand periods while avoiding wasted emissions and eliminating the need for bus transfers. The service was very adaptable, “It’s a little more flexible I think than a fixed route in managing demand,” Mellor said, “if you can get those people that don’t have cars and provide them a service that’s good for their mobility needs, then they won’t get cars. That’s at least the hope, you can prevent the mode-shift from going in reverse.” The program was so successful, Mellor mentioned when the program first started, they saw nighttime ridership increase by over 300%.

This program was unique as it opened the door for this technology to be replicated in suburban developments or sparse, low-density communities which may not have a solid transportation system in place. Mellor admitted that in terms of using cloud technology to optimize transit fleets, we are still behind the curve and there is a long way to go. Regardless, he is hopeful in how the EverRun software will grow, “Imagine if every city in Canada had 2-10 buses, 24 hours a day that could pick you up and drop you off at any bus stop in the city. That would be a service that would actually get people out of their cars. Especially for equity and justice, not everyone can afford a car, but everyone needs to get around a city.”

Read more Pantonium and the EverRun software at this Link. 

More Than Transit

This is not just about transit, this is about fostering connected, healthy, sustainable communities.

Sustainability has become increasingly integrated into our decision making. Each community is different, and sustainable solutions that work for some may not work for all. But moving toward a more sustainable transit culture and away from a single-car culture has shown to better communities’ time and time again. This is not just about transit, this is about fostering connected, healthy, sustainable communities.

As Dan Hendry put it, “It’s not just about the bus, it’s about moving from point A to point B, this is jobs, volunteering, first dates, meeting friends…Transit can positively affect your life even if you don’t use it. Whether that be the grocery store clerk getting to work on time, whether that be reduced flows in traffic and congestion, whether that be the environmental benefit if people care about that, and with 7.8 billion people I think we should.”

Want more stories like this? This article is featured in our next issue, Getting There: The Ecosystem of Human Movement. Check out the next issue for more!

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We have. 10C, a shared workspace and community hub for social enterprise, has built a placemaking project and social finance investment opportunity capable of answering these questions. And through the recent purchase of a 15,000-square-foot building in Guelph, Ontario, our community has turned a dilapidated furniture store into a significant community asset. 

10C’s mission is to “create space for change”, and this approach allows us to offer coworking, private office and community event space for over 150 members working to improve community.

In 2008, we launched at 10 Carden Street in a small, leased space, and gradually almost quadrupled the 800-square-foot location at which we started. Hundreds of events and thousands of people graced the space in our first years, as staff balanced the need for inclusivity with the accessibility constraints of an old building and the financial anxieties of running a start-up, not-for-profit social enterprise. 

Between 2012 and 2015, 10C began actively exploring options to expand its model and deepen its impact. By this time, Downtown Guelph was seeing strong interest in real estate development, with new commercial and residential projects underway. Many not-for-profits felt squeezed by the increased pressure for space and left downtown for more affordable rent outside the core. With a business model only beginning to find balance and no money in reserve, it became clear that 10C needed to shake up its model.

10C is a part of a global coworking movement taking root in downtowns large and small. Coworking, or shared workspaces, first emerged in the early 2000s in San Francisco as a means for workers to organize to collaborate, share resources and work beyond the confines of traditional office spaces.

It was not until the 2008 economic downturn that coworking became a truly global phenomena.Deskmag, an international coworking publication, estimates that in 2019 there will be 2.2 million coworkers in over 22,000 locations around the world. 

Researchers have attributed the growth of coworking to three distinct but interconnected factors. The first relates to the decline of manufacturing and the rise of creative and knowledge-intensive economies. This phenomenon is occurring spatially as creative industries reclaim spaces once occupied by urban manufacturers.

The simultaneous rise of the sharing economy is the second factor. Coworking spaces came about as a means to not only share space but also curate the needs of like-minded, often socially conscious workers.

Finally, and perhaps most concerningly, coworking spaces became the only office locations many precariously employed workers could afford. With more individuals working part-time or living contract-to-contract, coworking spaces began providing stable, amenity-rich workplaces that helped take the sting out of the gig economy’s nastier tendencies, while providing valuable social and professional networks to entrepreneurs and freelancers. 

These interconnected trends illustrate how labour market changes have impacted cities. As economies shift from traditional manufacturing to knowledge industries, and as the cost of living in urban centres rises, cities have been grappling with how to provide services and support to a new generation of workers.

As these urban inequities continue to grow, cities and coworking spaces can collaborate to address challenges in their communities. In Kitchener, for example, the municipality has identified support for coworking spaces in their 2012 Downtown Action Plan. The plan created a new incentive, the Startup’s Landing Pad Program, that aims to foster downtown renewal and local economic development by connecting new businesses incubated in coworking spaces with renovated second storey offices. Not only does this program fill vacant office space in the core, but it also serves to retain newly created businesses within the city.

And in Guelph, 10C’s mission is to address the same community need for connectivity and affordable space. But buying and maintaining a commercial property isn’t cheap. Coming out of its commitment to work with local partners, it was natural for us at 10C to try and leverage an innovative approach to financing the purchase and renovation of a declining downtown building, so we pursued collaboration and social finance. 

Social finance is a way to achieve positive community outcomes via private capital. The concept also prioritizes stakeholder engagement, a common good and sharing any benefits resulting from an initial investment. Innovative approaches to financing, what is sometimes called “finnovations,” initially meant reconceptualizing traditional finance to include social impact. 

At 10C, with very little cash capital, our vision for creating the coworking space we envisioned was to develop a community investment opportunity to build the equity required to purchase and redevelop the property. We had social capital from seven years of operating in Guelph, and at that point, we imagined we could leverage that social goodwill to ultimately put financial returns back into our supporters’ hands.

We looked to community bonds. In southern Ontario, the idea had been pioneered by the Toronto-based Centre for Social Innovation on properties it purchased in 2010 and 2014. Our goal was to match the first mortgage financing with community bond investment, leaving us able to repay the first mortgage and community bonds with operational proceeds over a 25-30-year timeframe. We hoped the project would steward the property as a strong continued change in the years ahead. We planned to finance the project with the help of the community and fill it with fantastic organizations working for the greater benefit of the community. 

As a lead partner in the project, 10C engaged Chalmers Community Service Centre, a local charitable organization, as a collaborator. Since 1997, Chalmers has assisted people in need with food, clothing, and connection. Some 500 guests currently experiencing poverty seek assistance through Chalmers each month. We were both in the same situation of needing long term accessible space to fulfill our social missions and felt the external pressures of changing access to commercial real estate. From an early conversation through to formalizing structures, this has been a valuable collaboration. Chalmers is now the building’s co-owner and is a key stakeholder in the project.

Between 2016 and 2019, through the engagement of 136 individual and organizational investors, we raised nearly $2.2 million in community bonds through investments ranging from $1,000 to $150,000. And the returns are solid. Investors are earning fixed rates from 2.5 to 5 percent on bonds backed by a physical asset – the redeveloped property itself.

Kerry Daly, a Founder Series Investor in 10C, believes committing to a better future requires taking risks. “10C’s leadership inspires,” he says, “and I am happy to support the initiative and carry a little piece of that risk as an expression of my support.” In 2018, Daly joined the 10C board of directors.

This steadfast support helped 10C engage Vancity Community Investment Bank, a values-based bank dedicated to building the social finance market in Canada, to hold our first mortgage. It was no sure thing, as, in the renovation stages, 10C’s building project was extremely risky. The property had outdated plumbing, electrical and accessibility services and required a great deal of structural work. It was essentially rebuilt from the inside out.

Our new location fully opened in January 2018, less than two years from the date of purchase. We now provide space for upwards of 50 employees working in a variety of social and environmental sectors while accommodating hundreds of visitors who use the event spaces every week. They come to take part in the community programming of 10C and its numerous collaborators, including the University of Guelph, Guelph Arts Council, Wellington Water Watchers and Wildlife Preservation Canada, groups that now use the space to amplify their community engagement and organizational work. 

But we’re not content to act locally without thinking globally. Our changemaking members are the essence of 10C and currently, we are curating this membership based on how their missions and work supports

Canada in meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. For example, eMERGE Guelph is working on goal number 13, Climate Action to move Guelph to 100% renewable energy by 2050. Other members are working on wellness and inclusivity and specifically goal number 5, Gender Equality, with workshops to empower all women. Changemaking work is often intersectional and difficult to measure. Collecting data and measuring the impact of 10C and our members is one of the program areas 10C will be focusing on moving forward. 

A recent survey of 10C members showed that the combined forces of Chalmers, 10C and its 200 members are working towards all 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. And it’s not just the SDGs – as part of our accountability to our investors, 10C has reaffirmed its commitment to measure its impact using the IRIS indicators, an initiative of the Global Impact Investing Network, which are designed to measure the social, environmental and financial performance of an investment.

This commitment means that social returns, alongside a solid financial return, will be shared with our investors. To date, 10C’s largest global sustainability impact has been in SDG number 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities. We have successfully increased the occupant density at our redeveloped location by almost 2,000 percent above what existed before, while boosting the physical accessibility of downtown Guelph by adding 15,000-square-feet of accessible space for community event programming.

Our experience with community bonds has been a powerful example of changemaking projects capable of taking root anywhere across Canada.

Social finance in communities large and small offers like-minded groups a chance to invest in a shared vision for local projects. As the world becomes an increasingly complex space to work in, those creating space for change can only make it easier to navigate. 

This article is featured in our latest issue: Invest in Change. For a limited time, Alternatives Journal is releasing FREE digital downloads, valuing at $250,000 for the first 50,000 interested Canadians! Check out this link to qualify!

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Dear 2014 Greta,

Nice to meet you, this is future 2020 Greta. You are about a year away from graduating high school, probably started looking at universities and colleges, what an exciting and pivotal time that was! Would you believe me if I told you 2020 Greta is writing this from her house, working from home for Alternatives Journal (a super cool magazine started by a bunch of hippies), and just wrapping up her master’s degree amid a global pandemic? Yeah, I still have a hard time believing it myself too. I also can’t believe is how electronic waste is still a problem, it’s been 6 years after Control-Act-Delete by Christian Beaudrie was published, outlining the growing problem of e-waste, and how it turned Africa into the dumping ground from our insatiable desire to keep up with the latest models of technology.

Source: Pintrest

Now I know you may be feeling a little guilty as you’re holding your latest iPhone, but just imagine how many more phones Greta went through in the past 6 years (I’d say about 3, maybe 4). Now this may not seem like much, but imagine this on a grand scale of a world filled with billions of people thinking the same. I’m not saying to retire the phone and start living life in the stone ages by writing feather and ink letters to friends, but I just hope that you take the time to slow down on upgrading models of your electronics, just wait till they actually break (a little secret from me to you, they’re all realistically the same thing!). If you do need to purchase new, either recycle your electronic waste at the right facility, or downcycle your electronics (maybe mom, or grandma needs some tech so skip buying new and give your older models to others).

Six years later, this is still a problem and will continue to be a problem due to the world being driven by consumerism. Many components of electronic waste can be successfully recycled, and there is no excuse why it should not be. Now, to reflect on some positive changes from this, many electronic retailers (Ex/ Apple) are offering incentives and money off new models by bringing in your old ones, this provides a value to recycling and has mutual benefits for both parties. I see it as a step in the right direction, we shall reflect another six years from now and see the situation about e-waste, hopefully there is a magic solution somewhere out there to eradicate e-waste, until then we can only wait and try to do better. 

P.S – Don’t worry too much, yes you will get into university, yes life has a peculiar way of working itself out, and please rip the band-aid and break up with him already. No, you will not get married to your high school sweetheart. OH, and you will be studying environment and climate change…so toughen up as it won’t be all sunshine and rainbows.

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I was introduced to this community on Instagram when I first graduated from college. Overwhelmed by the reality of post-grad, I spent my time panic researching whenever I wasn’t applying for jobs. I developed what has been labeled as “eco-anxiety” – feeling like the planet is going to soon become inhabitable because of climate change, plastic pollution, and greenhouse gasses.

As a business owner in the Zero Waste community, I am surrounded by people that look like me. White, female, and probably toting a canvas bag with empty mason jars in it. I have never felt out of place.

I was introduced to this community on Instagram when I first graduated from college. Overwhelmed by the reality of post-grad, I spent my time panic researching whenever I wasn’t applying for jobs. I developed what has been labeled as “eco-anxiety” – feeling like the planet is going to soon become inhabitable because of climate change, plastic pollution, and greenhouse gasses.

It is a privilege to even feel eco-anxiety because I didn’t actually have much else to worry about. I became obsessive over finding a solution to our climate crisis as a solution to end my stress and landed on a personal resolution to cut plastic from my consumption.

When I joined this large group of white women online, I was inspired to see videos of a girl in New York filling merely a mason jar with a year’s worth of trash. I read blogs that told me to immediately return the plastic basket whenever I bought strawberries at the farmers market, because the baskets would not be accepted back once I took them home.

I learned every detail of every plastic-free alternative, from the different sizes of menstrual cups to what conditioner bar would actually work on my hair.

The details I didn’t seek out?

That minority and low-income communities will be affected most by climate change. That the clean air I get to breathe at my local farmers market is systematically denied to communities of color. That stating, “Not in My Back Yard” means “Put It In Someone Else’s.”

Being a white environmentalist means prioritizing one’s own access to county regulated composting while neighborhoods of color struggle to fight against corporate waste management facilities.

It means getting upset that the bulk bin sections are closed during COVID-19, something that I personally whined about on Instagram multiple times. While I had some lengthy discussions with my fellow white bulk bin lovers, those living in food deserts were excluded from the conversation. I did not seek out information on how they were surviving in the pandemic. A study in 2009 found that low-income Black communities in Detroit still lived on average 1.1 miles further from a grocery store than the poorest white communities.

Being a white environmentalist means prioritizing one’s own access to county regulated composting while neighborhoods of color struggle to fight against corporate waste management facilities.

Writing this article, it was pointed out to me that I used the phrase “lack of access” to describe how Black people often struggle to receive basic human rights such as clean water, fresh food, and healthy air quality. In reality, Black people are consistently denied these rights. To describe a denial of rights as simply a “lack of access” is not only passive, but racist. To be a white environmentalist is to be passive to the denial of these rights and claim they are simply a “lack of” – this not only lets us as environmentalists off the hook, but it lets those who put the system in place off the hook as well.

Flint, Michigan is the easiest example of environmental racism for ‘woke’ white people to bring up as it was a clear failure of government and deliberate poisoning of drinking water (anything that is not immediately fixed is deliberate). However, we don’t discuss how fracking disproportionally occurs nearest communities of color. We don’t ask the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America why on their website, they blame minority children for not being able to control their asthma with regular care rather than dive into why more minority children have asthma in the first place.

This essay isn’t meant to point out all that I didn’t know. My point is that I didn’t think I needed to know, because I was safe living under my white privilege. My fight for the planet was focused on creating a better world for my children in 20 years, not for the children east of the freeway.

I thought plastic pollution was the starting and ending point of saving the environment. That if we tackled plastic, we’d tackle oil, and it’d be a domino effect that would lead to some type of environmental utopia. My skin color had always protected me from the truth, allowed me to turn away from the activism of environmental justice. I was not putting in the real work.

I am calling myself out today to encourage my fellow white Zero Waste environmentalists to call themselves and others around them out as well. Our community is built on the principle of creating a better planet for all, yet our actions are self-serving and actively racist. We preach about fast fashion and then print our business logos on canvas bags.

I love being part of a community of people dedicated to reducing their waste, buying locally and repurposing items to fit their needs. But I can’t be part of a community that prioritizes an Instagram aesthetic over the health and future of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color). We must be anti-racist activists first.

Continue to refuse plastic but know that there are communities that do not have the choice to refuse. It is not a coincidence that most zero waste stores are in white neighborhoods. Communities of color have been stripped of their right to advocate for their neighborhood against corporate polluters (if they even received the right in the first place) – the fight against plastic just does not compare to the struggle to breathe. What is more impactful – cutting out one person’s lifetime usage of plastic straws, or securing clean air for an entire city?

To my fellow white Zero Waste-ers, if your environmentalism is not intersectional, you’re not an environmentalist.

We have always preached that every small action adds up, but what about the big actions that need to be taken for big problems? Who is taking the big actions?

If you didn’t know the answer, it’s the Black community. The Black community has been forced to constantly advocate for their lives, while we have stood by and argued about whether or not it’s eco-friendly to use silicone products. To my fellow white Zero Waste-ers, if your environmentalism is not intersectional, you’re not an environmentalist.

If you’re looking for a place to start, there are plenty of anti-racist resources that are readily available. I recommend starting with the following resources: Brown Girl Green, Teanna Empowers’s “Sustainability and Zero Waste Videos are Elitest” video on YouTube, and Rachel Ricketts’s Spiritual Activism 101, but there are hundreds of other resources by people of color that can offer you an education as well.

If we can commit ourselves to the work of switching to Toilet Unpaper and finding the best supermarket bulk bin, we can commit ourselves to the work of active anti-racism.

SOURCES

https://www.cpp.edu/class/political-science/participate/undergraduatejournal/vol1/Ramirez.pdf
https://www.forbes.com/sites/marshallshepherd/2019/06/12/not-in-my-backyard-environmental-justice-101/#509169d1886d
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/the-trump-administration-finds-that-environmental-racism-is-real/554315/
https://browngirlgreen.org/blog/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20462784/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eF0Yqslj9Y0
https://www.colorlines.com/articles/study-pennsylvanias-communities-color-more-danger-health-consequences-fracking

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Yearly, Canadians produce 3.3.million tonnes of plastic waste while 2.8 million tonnes (the weight of 24 CN towers) of it ends up in the landfill, according to statistics from Oceana Canada. Approximately only 9% of this waste is recycled. Environment and Climate Change Canada shows that 47% (one-third) of Canada’s plastic waste comes from single-use sources such as packaging. Therefore, focusing on cutting down the production and use of single-use plastics should be prioritized amongst other areas of concern with plastic. The Government aims to ban the use of plastics by 2021 by implementing the Canada-wide Strategy on Zero Plastic Waste (more on this in volume 4 of the Plastic Free July series). For the month of July, I will help raise awareness of the plastic problem we face, contribute to and suggest ways that individuals and governments can help through a five-part Plastic Free July series.

Ideas for going plastic-free at work

Source: Road Runner

The Plastic Free July campaign originally started in 2011 in Western Australia by founder of the Plastic Free Foundation, Rebecca Prince-Ruiz. This has had a global rippling effect of raising environmental awareness and bringing about changes in the reduction of plastic waste not only in the month of July. Join us in raising awareness and doing your part. This campaign has been ongoing but how can we make greater strides to eliminate plastic use? As of 2020, 86% of Canadians would like to see single-use plastics be banned by 2021, according to Oceana. This 5% increase in support from the 2019 statistics of 81% shows that individuals are becoming more mindful, alarmed and interested in making changes.

Plastics broken down into microplastics, eaten by our food sources and then consumed by us

Source: 4Ocean

Our oceans and land are impacted by the anthropogenic-induced plastic crisis. Harming flora, fauna and resulting in the environmental karma humans face when plastics affect us in the water we drink, the food we eat and the air that we breathe. While we may say, what’s one plastic straw going to do? Unknowingly, too many say that without thinking about the collective impact. We need to wake up and recognize that plastic waste from one country is also another country’s concern as wind and ocean currents (e.g. Great Pacific Garbage Patch) help transport plastic waste with ease. We are all in this together and the onus is on every person on this planet.

Plastic straws are sucking the life out of the planet

Source: iBanPlastic

Plastics are found in polyester fibres in our clothing, helium balloons that land in oceans, disposable coffee cups and cutlery, tea bags, produce stickers, glitter (cosmetic and craft)- they’re everywhere! However, we must do our best to use plastic-free alternatives (more on this in volume 2 of the Plastic Free July series).

Ashley Wallis, Plastics Program Manager at Environmental Defence Canada raises concerns that the plastic waste statistics will only increase with time as plastics are constantly being produced and used as a foundational material in different industries. For this reason, they are also pushing for the government to ensure that the ban on single-use plastics moves forward and for them to make manufacturers more responsible for their plastic products and resultant waste. Wallis believes that manufacturers have unfairly shifted the burden onto consumers to properly sort and dispose of plastic materials. Taxpayers are paying for recycling systems in Canada and therefore paying for the infrastructure to handle all of the manufacturer’s complicated material that the recycling process wasn’t originally designed to handle. Thus, it should be the manufacturer’s responsibility to make products and packaging out of simpler plastic alternatives or products with a circular economy approach where items can be easily broken down and used to create other goods rather than being sent straight to the landfill.

COVID-19 seemed to have allowed some people to reverse their plastic-free and reusable product lifestyles. From the onset of the pandemic, there has been an increase in the use of single-use plastics by 250-300%, according to the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA). That alarming increase would lead to even further environmental disruption that is being caused by plastics in the air, water and terrestrial ecosystems if proper recycling measures are not put into place. While Wallis states the banning of single-use plastics in personal protective equipment (e.g. masks) for medical and pharmaceutical use is not on their agenda as it is justified and understood for medical purposes, she encourages the public to have reusable options.

Washed up on shore in 2016, plastics from our past are haunting our present and future

Source: Anything

However, Wallis notes that this increase in single-use plastic since the onset of COVID-19 was also due to an increase in plastic bag use and disposable cups as places have temporarily stopped taking reusable cups and containers. She believes that the plastic industry also seems to be pushing a narrative that plastic is more sterile or hygienic during the pandemic misleading the understandably nervous and fearful public, due to the pandemic, to, unfortunately, overlook plastic alternatives under this false assumption.

While single-use plastic is the most dominant type of plastic that is focused on in the Plastic Free July initiative, Environmental Defense places emphasis on promoting the elimination of all plastic as much as possible in your daily lives. Governmental action through policies and individual action will create a holistic approach in dealing with the plastic crisis we’ve created and indulged in.

So what can we do? Take a look at the items you use daily and ask yourself, where can I find an environmentally sustainable alternative?

 Ideas to make your July plastic-free

Source: Medium

Stay tuned for volume two of our Plastic Free July series to learn more on how we can reduce our impact of plastic waste on our oceans, land and air.

COVID or not, we should attempt to reduce the amount of plastics we purchase and use plastic alternatives in the best and safest way we can for both our health and that of the environment, presently and in the future.

***

In the meantime, read about the impact of microplastics in the ocean as 1.9 million pieces of microplastics can settle in just 1m² of the ocean’s seafloor, while unsettling sea life. That’s about two million too many, if you ask me.

Similarly, see Plastic Free July in a nutshell how it’s in our food. 

For more on the Plastic Free July Series see:

• Volume 1: Strong and Plastic-Free
• Volume 2: Breaking Up With Plastics
• Volume 3: A Guide to a Plastic Free Beach Day
• Volume 4: Revolve, Reduce, Reuse
• Volume 5: We ACT Upon It For Our Children

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