A Greener Life

I previously blogged about ecoENERGY audits, but I failed to mention the incentive dollar$ available from the City of Toronto! You can save on your water bill and help the environment by switching out your old, water-guzzling toilet with a new low-flow model - and the city will reward you with a $60 or $75 in cash. With every flush you could be saving up to 14 litres. A typical toilet can use up to 20 litres of water in a single flush, but an ultra-low flush does the same thing with six litres. With a typical toilet you’re just flushing away your money.

The city will also give you $60 if you purchase a new front load washing machine - which uses less water and less energy so you’ll have double the money savings. A family of four can save up to $123/year on energy and water bills, plus front load machines use less detergent and are gentler on your clothes.

***ENVIRO BONUS: The sewage treatment plant in most municipalities is one of the biggest users of energy. It takes A LOT of power to process every drop of water we flush down the toilet or let escape down the sink (not to mention the chemicals used to treat the water to make sure it’s safe to be released into the lake). So for every litre of water you conserve, it’s one less litre that has to be treated. ***

Last year I learned of an unusual and exciting project happening right here in Toronto. Not From From The Tree seeks to make use of the fresh fruit growing right in our backyards that many people wouldn’t think to eat or that is just too big a bounty for one family to use it all. While it might be the norm to get in your car and drive to the closest big chain grocery store and buy apples or pears from thousands of miles away, many people wouldn’t think to walk into their own backyard and pick a pear from their tree. Food doesn’t get much fresher than that - plus it’s free and organic!

Volunteers in the residential fruit-picking program contact homeowners with fruit trees and offer to make use of the abundance of fruit by harvesting it for them. The homeowner gets one third of the fruit, the volunteers get a third in return for their hard work, and the last third is distributed (by bicycle or cart) to community organizations in the neighbourhood.

In 2008 - it’s first full season - the group picked a whooping 3,000 pounds of fruit from mostly Toronto’s Ward 21. There is probably fruit going to waste all over the city so take a look in your backyard and see if there’s anything edible waiting to be plucked.

Toronto’s Bike Month kicks off on Monday, May 25th with events such as Bike to Work Day, the Toronto Bike Summit, the Toronto Criterium, and more. Biking is a great mode of transportation - it burns calories, but not fossil fuel. For those who might be new to biking (like me. I’m back on a bike for the first time in a decade), here are a few rules to remember and tips courtesy of Yvonne with the Toronto Cyclists Union, which happens to be one year old today. (Happy Birthday!) .

• Bells are required
• Ditto for lights
• The sidewalk is for pedestrians unless you’re a child (technically the bylaw prohibits bikes with 24 inch tires or more from using sidewalks).
• Helmets are only mandatory for those under 18, but it’s a good idea to wear one no matter your age
• And a tip for drivers: treat cyclists with respect and watch out for them on the roads

With more kilometres of bike lanes being added each year, it’s getting easier to cycle around the city. So enjoy the ride (and don’t forget to buy a lock!).

With summer just around the corner, food fresh from the farm will be making its way to neighbourhoods around the city. It’s Farmers’ Markets time. You can buy fresh strawberries, peppers, plums and carrots directly from the person who plucked it from the vine or ground as early as the morning of the day you bought it. The markets are scattered around the city with most running from May or June to October. Here are just a few of Toronto’s markets.

East York Farmers’ Market
East York Civic Centre, 850 Coxwell Ave.
Tuesdays, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. (starts May 19)

Brick Works Farmers’ Market
Evergreen Brick Works, 550 Bayview Ave.
Saturdays, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. (starts May 24)

Nathan Phillips Square Market
Toronto City Hall
Wednesdays, 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. (starts June 3)

Guildwood Village Farmers’ Market
201 Guildwood Parkway
Thursdays, 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. (starts June 11)

I was shocked by a picture in my company newsletter this week that showed the staff of one department in another (not Toronto) office with a table full of coffee cups. There were stacks and stacks and stacks of disposable, paper cups on a table flanked by the smiling group. Out of curiousity they had collected their cups for a month to see how much coffee they drink. They collected 280 cups for an average of 2.1 per person per day. This tallied $406 a month. And that was the end of the information. What shocked me was the lack of mention of the amount of waste this crew had generated with their caffeine addiction.

I get that people might prefer a certain coffee chain’s brew over the stuff they could make at home. I get that sometimes it is just more convenient to grab a cup to go. But I also know at least one chain gives a discount if you bring your own mug. If someone with a weekday, two a day coffee habit brings a reuseable mug just half the time they’ll cut back on waste (say 250 cups a year) and save an average of $2.10 a month or $25.20 a year (enough to pay for a mug many times over). It’s a small change, that can make a HUGE difference.  (Like reducing 10,000 cups from going to landfill over the span of your 40-year career).

While flicking past ET Canada last week (cue eye roll), I was intrigued by a question about Canadian actress (and Toronto resident) Rachel McAdams with a green angle. (It was about which wood does she want you to wear as underwear. Answer: bamboo, which is actually a grass..). It turned out the Notebook star has gotten together with two friends to create Green is Sexy, a website full of tips and lots of information about green places and products. The trio are Girls Gone Green! (I knew I liked her for a reason). It’s nice to see a celeb taking an interest in the environment without attempting to secure publicity because of it. The site’s been up and running for about a year. It even includes Canadian content: with our very own Brick Works being selected as the July 2008 ‘Place of the Month’.

I once wrote a story about natural cleaners that included recipes for making your own, it was so popular I thought “why not blog it?” It’s getting easier to buy environmentally friendly cleaners - Nature Clean, Method, and even the makes of unfriendly Clorox have a green line - but the easiest way to know exactly what you’re using in your home (and what your family and pets are breathing in) is to make it yourself.

Here is a list of the products you’ll need - or might already have - to make the cleaning products:

Baking Soda, (cleans, polishes & deodorizes. Scours without scratching. A good drain cleaner if followed by vinegar); Cornstarch (Good for washing windows, freshening carpets & cleaning greasy spills on counter tops, driveways and garage floors); Pure Soap (Cleans everything from dishes to cars); Vinegar (Cleans and deodorizes. Removes mildew, stains, wax build-up & is a good fabric softener - add 60 ml to your rinse cycle. Vinegar, mixed with water & salt, is a good general purpose surface cleaner); Washing Soda (Cleans clothes & softens water, but is mildly toxic).

Recipes

All Purpose Cleaner

• Mix 120 ml (nearly ½ cup )white vinegar and 60 ml (¼ cup) baking soda in 2 litres of water.
• Mix equal amounts of vinegar and water.
• Mix 45 ml washing soda in 950 ml of warm water.

Sink Cleaner

• To clean and polish kitchen sinks use either baking soda or vinegar and wipe dry. To remove soap scum use baby oil.

Window Cleaner

• Use equal amounts water and vinegar. Apply with a soft cloth. Let dry and remove any smears with newspaper or a cloth.

Furniture polish

• Mix 2 parts olive oil and 1 part lemon juice.
• Mix 30 ml olive oil and 15 ml white vinegar in 1 litre of water.
• Mix 5 ml lemon oil and 500 ml mineral oil.