Sustainable wellbeing and green living

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of composting?

Do you picture a spacious backyard with an outdoor composting bin situated far from the house? If so, I’m here to let you know that the “traditional” method of backyard composting isn’t the only way to compost!

What if someone else – or more precisely something else- could do most of the composting work for you?

Vermicomposting is a method of composting that involves worms! We know that earthworms are important components of soil health, so why not bring them indoors to work some of their magic on your food scraps? Soon enough, you’ll be left with an amazing fertilizer that can be used in your garden or on your houseplants.

Why composting matters

Before we get into the specifics on vermicomposting, here is a quick review of the benefits of composting.

Your food scraps are organic material that should readily decompose in the landfill, right? Wrong! In order for organic material to properly decompose, it...

Sometimes the effects of global warming can seem far away or unrelated to your personal life. However, this couldn’t be further than the truth! It is highly likely that wherever you live, you have already been affected by climate change – perhaps without even realizing it.

That unseasonably warm winter you’ve been enjoying? The frequent forest and bush fires? The prehistoric animals being discovered in the melting permafrost? These occurrences aren’t coincidences. They are a result of our changing climate.

Climate change is no longer a distant threat, and people are starting to take notice.

Saving Pond Hockey

Svante, a father of two who lives in Helsinki, Finland, is one of those people who have begun to see the impact that climate change has on his family’s everyday life. In his case, increasing temperatures have started to impact his ability to play ice hockey.

Ice hockey is the number one sport in Finland, and a beloved pastime for Svante and his Canadian friend, Steve Baynes. ...

Urbanization has been around for thousands of years. While the earliest cities developed in Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley, Northern China, and Mesoamerica, we now see that approximately 85 percent of the world’s population lives in urban areas.

Naturally, as cities grow in size, they take up more space. As we have seen with the rise of suburbia in the 1950s, if left unchecked urban areas can end up sprawling endlessly!

Who wants to live in a city made up of endless concrete, buildings, and houses? Not many! That is one of the reasons why it’s important to have adequate green spaces within and surrounding cities. Contact with nature has shown to have a positive impact on human physical and mental health.

It is also important to ensure the survival and health of our wildlife by preserving their natural habitats and preventing cities from sprawling outwards and using land inefficiently.

One of the ways this can be achieved is through the use of greenbelts!

What is a greenbelt?...

As we seek to find ways to live greener lives, it is time to look at the flip flop sandal. They are incredibly prevalent and as a result have a significant impact on the planet, especially when it comes to plastic pollution! But, there is some progress being made.

While sandals have been around for thousands of years and are thought to have originated as early as 1,500 B.C. in ancient Egypt, the popular flip flop sandal became widely recognized in the United States after World War II. American soldiers brought home the Japanese zori, a type of sandal which inspired the plastic flip flops we are familiar with today.

It is easy to understand why flip flops have become so widespread and beloved by women, men and kids. They are lightweight, inexpensive, often waterproof, and come in a variety of fun colours and designs. This makes them the perfect footwear for warm weather or a day at the beach! Most people have a pair or two in their closets.

These sandals may be a convenient and pract...

There are some organizations that are particularly close to my heart because they creatively tackle issues of Sustainable Wellbeing on multiple fronts. BUILD Inc. is one of these examples. They work towards long-term poverty reduction through skill development and employment while also working on green housing initiatives. It is beautiful and brilliant!

BUILD Inc. is a social enterprise non-profit contractor and training program that is based in Manitoba. BUILD, which is an acronym for Building Urban Industries for Local Development, aims to improve the sustainability of Manitoba public housing units through water and insulation retrofits.

Some of the services provided by BUILD include:

• Water saving retrofits
• Drain water heat recovery (which consists of using the heat from your shower water to heat your hot water tank)
• General plumbing work
• Maintenance (including simple repairs such as patching up holes and repainting, as well as deep refreshes of units)
• Cabinetry
• Insulation
...

I admit it. I like fashion, well I did before COVID lockdowns meant that I wear the same darn outfit for an entire week - OK, season, because there is nowhere to go!

Sure, clothing is an essential part of our everyday lives, but it is also a way of expressing ourselves and our values. The clothing you wear impacts the way you are perceived by others, and it can be creative and fun. But, how do we reconcile fashion or even just the necessary clothes that we wear when it comes to the impacts of the fashion industry?

The issues with fast fashion

Purchasing clothing items that align with your sustainability goals can be difficult due to the fact that the fast fashion industry is responsible for a large percentage of today’s clothing production.

Fast fashion clothing items are often made with cheap, synthetic materials, and poor construction. These types of clothing have a very limited lifespan, as they tend to get worn out and fall apart with use. Once sent to the landfill, these synth...

When we think about the long-lasting impact of climate change, our concerns are often centred around future generations. This is because environmental issues such as climate change and ecological degradation have created uncertain futures for children around the globe.

While children are the least responsible for climate change, they will experience the greatest burden of its impact and will be saddled with the responsibility of finding a climate change solution. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals acknowledge that children are “critical agents of change and will find in the new goals a platform to channel their infinite capacities for activism into the creation of a better world.”

Kids for Saving Earth

Clinton Hill was a child who took environmental activism into his own hands. In the 1980s, Clinton started a club for kids which was dedicated to peaceful Earth-saving actions. This club was first started in his school, Sunny Hollow Elementary, located in New Hope, Minne...

Most of us want to make a positive impact in the world, but we are not always sure how to do so, and our lives tend to already be pretty full and busy. But there are some organizations that we can rely on. They are already on the ground, and doing the important work; all we need to do is support them in whatever way we can.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, medical aid and healthcare is a topic that has been at the forefront of everyone’s mind. It is clear just how important access to proper healthcare is. Unfortunately, not everyone is able to access medical aid. This is a truth that Médecins Sans Frontières is trying to change.

Médecins Sans Frontières, or MSF, also referred to in English as Doctors Without Borders, is an international humanitarian non-governmental organization that provides medical care and saves lives for those living in conflict zones, natural disasters, and epidemics.

This Nobel Prize-winning emergency humanitarian medical organization is made up of tens of t...

Have you heard of Sable Island? There is a good chance you haven’t, as Sable Island National Park Reserve is a small Canadian island that is located 300 kilometers southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Canada’s east coast. Despite its small size, Sable Island has an interesting history, unique vegetation, and exciting wildlife, including a population of wild horses!

The history of Sable Island

Since the 1500s, there have been numerous attempts to settle on Sable Island by various colonists and adventurers from Portugal, Basque, France, Spain, England, and New England. These attempts at settlement only lasted a few years or less, as the location of the island made settlement quite difficult.

Sable Island is known for the large number of shipwrecks that occurred as a result of the island’s sand bars. It has been estimated that 350 vessels have met their fate at this location as a result of its low visibility, treacherous currents, and the fact that it was located in the middle of a tr...

It is quite possible that throughout the course of your life you have accumulated at least one, if not multiple, musical instruments that you no longer have a use for. It might be an instrument that you played when you were younger, one that was passed down to you or one that needs some repair. Perhaps you’ve picked up an instrument as a hobby and lost interest, are a musician who has cycled through instruments over the years, or maybe you know someone else who no longer has a use for the instruments they have acquired.

Whatever the case, deciding what to do with an unused instrument can be difficult. While many may choose to simply throw away their instruments, especially if they are broken, there are other options that not only benefit the environment, but other people as well!

Embodied energy

When deciding on what to do with your old or broken musical instrument, it is important to think about its embodied energy. Embodied energy is the sum of all the energy that is required in o...