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Shift Your Habit: Easy Ways to Save Money, Simplify Your Life, and Save the Planet by Elizabeth Rogers. Three Rivers Press, 2010.
When persuading reluctant family members and friends to a “green” lifestyle, we usually encounter two big objections: money and time. The evidence in the store is that the green option is more expensive and that acting conscientiously, by either making your own, recycling or making a lifestyle change, is a big hassle.
Elizabeth Rogers, the author of Shift Your Habit, disagrees and she has found the evidence to prove it. Shift Your Habit suggests hundreds of simple changes, from opening your blinds and using sunlight to get work done during the day, to bigger changes, such as holding swap parties for clothing and entertainment items like video games. Each of the suggestions is environmentally-friendly and frugal, which overcomes the “it’s too expensive” objection to making a green lifestyle change and some of the tips include a “Good For You” section, meaning that it improves your health or saves time.
WHEN: Friday, February 23 – Friday, February 25
WHERE: Red Deer College, Red Deer
COST: $350 regular registration, $175 students/non-profit
DESCRIPTION: Pathways began as a community sustainability conference in Cochrane Alberta in May of 2009. P2S 2009 explored the five phases of the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA) sustainable community planning. Participants attended from across Alberta to learn about how to participate in creating sustainability plans for our communities.
Pathways 2011 is moving forward from planning to community-based action. With the involvement of the Alberta Rural Development Network and Growing Food Security in Alberta, Pathways 2011 will encompass a dialogue about the components of resilient communities: FOOD, FUEL, and FINANCE!
FOR MORE INFO:
To register please visit http://www.pathways2sustainability.ca/
Send your kids back to class this year with eco sense! With the guidance of this instructable, you and your youngster can create a one of a kind lunchbag. Be creative and incorporate other durable and unique materials like fair trade foil coffee bags and other packaging from your recycling bin! While you’re at it, bone up on money and Earth-saving tips and tricks for packing garbage-free lunches!
This past April I spent a week in the woods at MacPhail Woods taking a university course, Environmental Studies 209 – Ecological Forestry, learning about forest ecology, sustainable forestry practices, forest restoration and the Acadien Forests.
It was an amazing experiential learning course and everything we learned has stayed with me and I think it will stay with me and will be built on by my own experiences as I work in our family woodlots and observe nature throughout the seasons. We learned about plant identification techniques, assessing forest health, ecological diversity, pruning and harvesting techniques and so much more. We also got to take a piece of the woods at MacPhail’s and design a restoration plan and then actually implement it. Continue Reading →
Insulation isn’t just for walls, attics and beer coolers. It can actually look mighty fine on your next pot of tea or coffee. The tea cozy is by no means a new invention, but rather one that deserves renewed praise and rediscovery. This set was a birthday gift to me from my dear Mother a couple of years back, and is in fact made from a reclaimed sweater!
If you have your own sewing machine and some wooly inspiration, give this project a try!
Good news for apartment-dwelling gardener wannabes: You can build your own window gardens and grow veggies in your bachelor pad! Hydroponic gardening has always been around for those comfortable tinkering with the components. But with Window Farms’ handy DIY instructions, you can assemble this simple system called the ‘air lift’ in an hour with less than $30!
Treehugger.com post – Window Farms:Vertical Gardens Behind Urban Glass
by Deborah Merriam, of ecoDomestica reDesign
School’s out, and summer vacation is upon us. If you’re like me, you’re trying to think of good ways to keep your kids entertained. How about these summer eco-activities?
1. Enrol your kids in summer camps and classes for budding naturalists, like those offered at Edmonton’s Devonian Botanic Garden or John Janzen Nature Centre. My daughter was at camp at the DBG in the rain this week and LOVED it.
2. Plant a fruit tree or vegetable garden together: you’ll be growing memories and your own food. Yes, many garden centres and some farmers’ markets still have transplants available if you didn’t get it together to start from seed. This year, we’ve planted corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, and a pumpkin plant in the sunny back corner of our yard. Continue Reading →
Think insulation is just for walls and attics? Behold the trusty old tea cozy! Only this one’s not old. Ok, so it sort of is.
Crafted by my brilliantly thoughtful Mother out of a charming pre-loved winter sweater, this coordinating coffee and tea cozy set keeps my warm bevies warmer longer.
Following the random explosion of our insulated glass Krupps carafe last fall, I selected this high-end stainless steel insulated coffee press for my wish list. But, in our family, $100 for a designer coffee pot verges on frivolous.
Possessed by the thriftiness and creativity of the Jones clan, my Mom whipped up these gorgeous cozies. Continue Reading →
Next Tour: This Sunday May 3rd from 10am to 12:30 pm . Please contact us to reserve your spot. ann@eco-sense.ca or 250-478-2680
The Update… a little late
Every month leads to a dilemma, we usually burst into the month with vigor, spewing thoughts, experiences and new found knowledge, feverishly writing our updates early so as the month draws to a close the update will just need a little tinkering. Then the dilemma, we enter the second, third and fourth weeks of the month…and at month end we open up the saved file…. This month has turned into three months without an update.
So what are the topics for this month? Local food…Ann’s rant on Sustainability in the Highlands …Public tours…Workshops…swine flu…and finally…Eco-Sense T-Shirts! Continue Reading →
