Tour of unique Living Building in York Region with Audrey's Local Living Centre

Audrey's Local Living Centre

Did you know that Whitchurch Stouffville has one of only 8 Living Buildings in the world? What is a living building you ask? Join us on Saturday, May 28 from noon to 3pm to learn about Living Building construction and tour the York Region Bill Fisch Forest Stewardship and Education Centre north of Stouffville. The Centre opened in October 2015 and I have been diligently working toward an opportunity for us to see inside. They don't open the doors to the public often and so this public tour, as part of the York Region Spring Forest Festival, is our only opportunity. Before the tour I would like to share the guiding principles of the Living Building Institute. I have been involved since 2013 with the Toronto Collaborative who are working toward education and awareness about this architecture. I was considering having a potluck lunch and info session at the Lemonville Farm, then head off to the Centre for the tour by 2pm. I am sure you will also be excited to talk to Jason and Tarsilla, who have launched "Way to Grow" organic market vegetable operation here. Jason also grown mushrooms! The Living Building is located at York Regional Forest, Hollidge Tract, 16389 Hwy 48, Whitchurch Stouffville. Let me know if you are interested in joining us :)

The big cash in counterfeit food: why you might not be eating what you think you're eating

Food is medicine when you take the time to consider what you eat. If you blindly eat due to attractive pricing you might just be doing the opposite... poisoning yourself! Counterfeit food is big business. All the more reason to work with your CSA farmers in a relationship of trust around the food you eat. Check out Bass Lake Market Garden in Orillia for you CSA needs!

Renee Nadeau - Garden Steward for TELUS House Toronto

Happy Earth Day! I would like to celebrate this Earth Day by sharing an article with you about Renee Nadeau, our master gardener, at the TELUS Corporate Community Garden. She stood by me these past 4 years as we chased a vision of a rooftop garden that would educate, inspire and awake a connection to local, organic food for the employees of TELUS. It has not been an easy journey with 2 out of the 4 years spent doing presentations to convince both the landlord of 25 York Street and TELUS that the benefits of this vision would far out weighed the adjustments that would have to be made to business as usual. Not to mention all the beautiful, nutritious soil we hauled up the elevator in Nov. 2013 with a small team of passionate TELUS employees! We are now starting our 3rd summer season with triple the membership at workshops and co-workers excited about about being able to buy produce during their lunch hour at our Market. It is a good feeling to know where your food comes from and know the proceeds are going to Green Thumbs for Growing Kids in Toronto. Renee always has some exciting heritage vegetables in the mix to stir up excitement. A big thank you to TELUS who I am proud to work for as they embrace sustainability in the corporate world. They have now started a community garden for employees at their new award winning LEED building in Vancouver, the TELUS Garden. If you want to learn more about their achievements explore their sustainability report after reading this feature article on the beautiful garden that Renee created! Happy Earth Day to all. Embrace change and seek ways to educate about sustainability in your workplace :)

Watly: the next BIG THING

Another amazing innovation! Wow... people are on fire to inspire different ways to live that bring health to our world :) On UN’s World Water Day, clean tech company Watly opened an Indiegogo campaign to fund their award-winning solar technology. The Watly 3.0 thermodynamic computer uses solar energy to sanitise over 5000 litres of water a day, as well as generating electricity and connectivity. The development of Watly 3.0 follows the successful trial of a smaller machine, Watly 2.0, in Abenta Village, Ghana. Watly claims the machine combines three key functionalities (water, power and connectivity) to make each one more efficient, delivering a level of service that would be impossible without them working in unison. Watly combines two major technologies: photovoltaic and thermal solar. Feeding contaminated water (including ocean water) into the machine, Watly uses solar heat collected by efficient vacuum-tubes to vaporise and therefore sanitise the water. This process includes the use of graphene technology. The photovoltaic panels located on the roof, generate instead off-grid electricity to power the internal electronics of the machine as well as being used for recharging external devices such as mobiles phones or portable computers. During its 15 years of service, one Watly can save as much as 2500 tons of greenhouse gas emissions (CO2), equivalent to 5250 barrels of oil, purify millions of litres of water and generate 1GWh of free electricity. Stories like this give us hope for the health of Mother Earth and the people who love her :)

Knowledge of Today

Innovation by people like this will save our world! Very cool. An automated rubbish bin that catches floating rubbish, oil, fuel and detergents. It designed for floating docks in the water of marinas, private pontoons, inland waterways, residential lakes, harbours, water ways, ports and yacht clubs. The Seabin is situated at the waters surface and is plumbed into a shore based water pump on the dock. The water gets sucked into the Seabin bringing all floating debris and floating liquids into the Seabin. We catch all the floating debris inside the Seabin and the water then flows out through the bottom of the bin and up into the pump on the dock. The water then flows through the pump where we have the option of installing an oil/water separator and clean water then flows back into the ocean. This process is constant, operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Inside the Seabin we have a natural fiber “catch bag” which collects all the floating debris. When this is full or near to full, the marina worker simply changes the catch bag with another one. The collected debris is then disposed of responsibly, the catch bag cleaned and now it is ready to swap again for the full one in the still operating Seabin. http://www.seabinproject.com/

The Big Waste: Why Do We Throw Away So Much Food?

"If the food wasted in North America and Europe alone were to be collected, it would be enough to feed the world’s hungry people three times over," according to a 2011 McKinsey Institute study. But what is behind this gargantuan global food waste problem? Like many complex issues, there are many reasons, and all stakeholders in the food system play a role. The Pulitzer Center commissioned film producer Karim Chrobog to look closely at the question, "Will food become the breaking point for us as it was for so many civilizations in the past? Are more food riots, political instability, and mass migration around the corner?" Chrobog produced two short films that look at two developed countries that are on opposite ends of the spectrum: South Korea, now the world’s largest food recycler in response to tough new legislation implemented over the last years, and the United States, the largest food waster in the world. Enjoy seeing how the world is addressing this very important issue! Part 1: The Big Waste: Why Do We Throw Away So Much Food? Part 2: In South Korea, An Innovative Push to Cut Back on Food Waste http://e360.yale.edu/feature/in_south_korea_an_innovative_push_to_cut_back_on_food_waste/2875/

Audrey's Local Living Centre

Wouldn't you like to pay half the current hydro rate? Exactly that is happening, right here in Ontario In 1998, when Ontario deregulated its electricity market, ending the nearly century-long monopoly of Ontario Hydro, the community of Embrun, southeast of Ottawa, wrote a polite letter to then finance minister Ernie Eves requesting co-operative ownership of its grid. Since then, 2,000 electricity customers in Embrun have enjoyed distribution rates that are half what the Hydro One customers across the street are paying. This tidbit was gleaned from a Corporate Knights article I read called Bürger power. It is an inspiring article that will get you thinking about how we might become more involved in co-operative models. As of 2015, a third of all electricity generated in Germany comes from renewable sources (mainly wind and solar) and half of that capacity is in citizens’ hands. The number of energy co-operatives in Germany increased sixfold between 2008 and 2013. Read on to see how 29-year-old Luise Neumann-Cosel has been the lead in BürgerEnergie Berlin (Citizen Energy Berlin), a student-run initiative to buy the city’s power grid back from the private sector. The group wants to both green the grid and democratize it – returning the power, quite literally, to the people.

Vancouver, Soon You'll Be Able To Buy Groceries Without Packaging

We are working together in Orillia planning ways to bring food security awareness to life. Valerie suggested a zero packaging market. This week I saw an announcement about two packageless markets in the works. Our goal will be to have Orillia join the crowd one day soon!

ARTivism

A powerful message about how we can choose to live our lives....

World Water Day 2016: 40 photos to make you think twice about wasting this precious resource

World Water Day 2016: 40 photos to make you think twice about wasting this precious resource. Access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation services is vital to human health. However, about 650 million people, or 10% of the world's population, do not have access to safe water, putting them at risk of infectious diseases and premature death. As you turn on your tap this morning be grateful for the safety, ease and convenience you have in your life with regard to precious water.

Earth Hour: Canadians join others around the world in turning off the lights

Ted and I sat down to a candle light dinner last night and toasted to Earth Hour. It was a time to celebrate all the accomplishments for Canada recently toward Climate Change measures. What did you do for earth hour? CBC reported that while Earth Hour grew to include 7,000 cities in 172 countries last year, some say the event has been losing steam in recent years, at least in Canada. Here are some stats to see what Toronto's response was. Toronto Hydro tweeted Saturday night that the city's electricity use dipped by 3.2 per cent, which the utility said was the equivalent of taking 36,000 homes off the grid. PowerStream, which serves nine municipalities north of Toronto, reported a 4.3 per cent drop in electricity consumption during Earth Hour. That was down slightly from the six per cent reduction achieved last year. Last night Trudeau tweeted, "Tweeting about Earth Hour is one thing. Tuesday, we'll put words into action with a budget that builds a clean economy for Canada." hinting the upcoming federal budget would contain measures to deal with climate change. Maybe next year we will be motivated to show the world we can do even better at demonstrating our collective celebration of Earth hour :) Audrey and Ted