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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!
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(NC)—Installing a new patio this year? A driveway or walkway? Now is the time to consider how this can be an upgrade and an environmentally sound improvement. One pavement that meets both requirements is permeable interlocking concrete pavements (PICPs). They look like popular concrete paving stones but work in a different manner. PICPs have a small space between the pavers. This space is filled with small stones that allow runoff to filter down between the pavers. The water filters down further to stone layers beneath that store the water. Finally the water will filter into the soil, reducing stormwater runoff and pollution.
Every Canadian homeowner can have a positive impact on the home environment through improvements that lower pollution. PICPs offer an environmentally-friendly solution and they are aesthetically pleasing. They are available in many shapes, sizes, textures and colours. Homeowners can even select a lighter more reflective colour and reduce the heat island effect created by existing asphalt pavements. Read the rest of this entry »
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(NC)—Kids are the eco-heroes of tomorrow. By supporting their efforts today we can help them inspire future change across Canada. Celebrate Earth day by learning about how you can protect the planet and do something to help. Here are five easy resolutions you can make to get started.
1. Recycle Materials for Art : Items like egg cartons, cereal boxes and old newspapers (for paper Mache) are great to keep for your craft projects at home or school. And ask your parents to buy earth-friendly craft glues and paints, too.
2. Start a Green Project: Come up with a fun green idea such as starting a garden or recycling program at school, planting trees or cleaning up your local park, and get your friends, teachers and family involved. If you are between the ages of 6–13 years old, submit your idea to the Sunlight Green Clean Kids: Green Grants Program by writing a short essay on your unique idea to make the environment a better place. Sunlight is offering up to $1,500 to get your project started. More information can be found online at www.sunlightgreencleankids.ca.
3. Organize a Swap: Recycle your old toys and clothes—while getting a bunch of cool new stuff—by organizing a swap at your home, school or community centre where everyone can trade their used items. Set simple rules for the swap such as how many toys each person should bring and how to deal with more than one person choosing the same item.
4. Bike to School: Ask your parents if you can bike or walk to school (as long as it’s safe) a few days a week instead of taking the bus or having them drive you.
5. Teach Your Parents to Recycle: Teach your parents how important it is to recycle by learning about the types of materials that can be put in the recycle box. Label small cans and tubs to collect glass, cardboard, paper and tin items, and ensure the right material goes in the right box. Also look for products that can be recycled on your weekly grocery shop with mom and dad.
www.newscanada.com
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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!
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(NC)—While it’s relatively new to us, cork flooring has been used in Europe for centuries because of its resilience, durability and surprisingly versatile, attractive designs. Today, cork is taking North America by storm due to all of those attributes, plus its unsurpassed eco-friendliness and sustainability.
Cork is hand-harvested, and no trees are harmed in this ancient practice. Century-old cork trees, harvested every nine years, still thrive in the forests of Portugal and Spain.
Eco-engineering of modern cork floors allows them to be installed over existing flooring including tiles. And, once installed, cork doesn’t merely beautify the home, it mutes and muffles sound with its natural acoustic properties, provides exceptional cushioning and warmth with its natural insulation properties, and is hypo-allergenic to safeguard your family’s health. Read the rest of this entry »
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Oh, how the little things can make such a big difference! As some of you may have noticed, our green kitchen reno slowed to a stop. There has been nothing to report for several months, which was really demoralizing, especially as I prepared newsletters with updates from other bloggers who were building entire green homes from scratch!
Meanwhile we were left with an assortment of glaring niggly finishing tasks that we had neither time nor energy to complete, not to mention a floor that turned out nothing like what I had imagined.
Enter Super Dad. Read the rest of this entry »
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Have someone in your life who brings hardcore to a new level by biking through the winter to save our climate? Reward his or her courage and tenacity this year with a handmade bike chain bracelet. Here’s a simple warm and fuzzy ‘how-to’ via ThreadBanger to get you started. Note: a quick trip to your local jewelry shop and you’ll have plenty of clasp and embellishment options!
View bike chain bracelet video here. See note below.
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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
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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. Read the rest of this entry »
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By Deborah Merriam of ecoDomestica reDesign
SCOOPED limited-edition pendant lamp, 1/20, colour: Spring, of discarded laundry detergent scoops, photographed without flash
SCOOPED 2/20, colour: Stripe, installed in its permanent home at Lucid Lifestyle
I’m excited to have recently added handmade pendant lamps created from upcycled materials to my portfolio. (Most materials are “downcycled”, degrading in quality and value, as they are recycled into new products – an oft-cited example of downcycling is the recycling of paper fibres from cardboard into office paper into toilet paper. “Upcycling” is the opposite of this, creating an object of beauty and increased value from a material that would otherwise be discarded.) Read the rest of this entry »
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