Sustainable wellbeing and green living

Have you ever been surprised by the amount of money you spend on your energy bills? Despite changing some of your habits, such as remembering to turn off the lights and unplug appliances, you may find that your energy bills only decrease slightly, if at all! Sometimes energy usage has less to do with your behaviour and more to do with the energy efficiency of your home. If this is the case, it is highly beneficial to conduct a home energy audit.

What are home energy audits?

A home energy audit, also known as a home energy assessment, is a way of determining how your home performs in terms of its energy efficiency. Home energy audits are typically conducted by an auditor from a company that specializes in energy audits. The auditor will assess various factors of your home in order to determine the level of energy efficiency as well as identify any opportunities for upgrades you may wish to make. Some of the things an auditor may look at include what kind of insulation you have in...

Have you ever found yourself nodding off at your desk or falling asleep on the job? While this can be embarrassing if caught, some workplaces are actually encouraging their employees to take naps during the day! Napping at work might sound unproductive, but in reality, the negative effects you may be experiencing due to lack of sleep might be causing your performance to decrease.

Some symptoms of not getting enough sleep include lack of concentration, headaches, irritability, and reduced ability to remember and keep track of things. In the long term, sleep deprivation can cause serious health issues such as hypertension, heart attacks, and a weakened immune system. While making sleep a priority and getting a full 7- 8 hours is one way to reduce these negative effects, taking a nap during the day is another option!

Companies with nap rooms/pods

People’s lives are often fast-paced, resulting in seemingly not enough hours in the day. With so many errands to run and tasks to...

If you’ve eaten locally grown produce, you’ll know that it tastes much more flavourful and fresher than anything that has been imported to the grocery store. This is due to the fact that local produce is not picked before it is ripe, it travels short distances, and many local farms forgo the use of harmful pesticides and herbicides. How can you go about obtaining local produce? While farmer’s markets and growing your own fruits and vegetables are always an option, you may want to look into local farms that offer Community Supported Agriculture programs!

What is Community Supported Agriculture?

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a process that involves farms growing and distributing their healthy and nutritious produce, which is often organic, to members of the community. Community members are able to select a CSA farm of their choice and pay for a “share” at the beginning of the growing season. These funds go towards the equipment, materials, and...

Carpooling is a great way to get around, as long as you can do it in a manner that is safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. Carpooling allows you to reduce your environmental footprint while still getting exactly where you need to be in a time-efficient manner! This combination of characteristics can be difficult to find with other methods of transportation.

The trouble with transportation

There are many different ways to get from place to place. Some people may drive private vehicles, take public transportation, ride a bicycle, or walk in order to get where they need to be. While choosing public transportation, walking, or cycling can be a great way to save money and reduce your environmental impact by reducing your carbon emissions, there are bound to be times when it does not suit your needs. You may find that these methods of transportation can be somewhat unreliable when you need to travel to a destination that is out of the way, stick to a rigid timeline, or travel with another...

Do you know that feeling of losing time when you are immersed in technology? Or perhaps feeling a little groggy after too much time with screens? Sure, we all can fall into this trap. Many of us are using electronic devices and looking at various screens for large portions of our day. This may have increased due to working remotely, or just a habit that has crept into our modern lives.

Whether you find yourself scrolling through social media throughout the day, binge watching television, or sending off dozens of emails and texts, there is a good chance that you are letting electronics take up time that you could be spending on other things that you value more. While some forms of electronic use can be vital to your day for work or communications, it can be beneficial to take some time away from the digital world and regroup.

This can be done through a digital detox which entails setting boundaries regarding your electronic device usage or physically separating yourself from your...

What is so great about Green Buildings?

Green Buildings are rapidly increasing in popularity not only because of the imperative to reduce our ecological footprint and carbon emissions, but also because of the low-cost of maintaining these buildings and the extremely high satisfaction among occupants. Not to mention the often highly appealing aesthetics of these high performance buildings.

“Green” is a term that is applied to buildings which have been built and designed in a way that is resource-efficient and environmentally friendly. Green buildings have a reduced impact on the environment, a positive impact on occupant health, and cost less to maintain. As climate change is considered one of the biggest issues of our time, there is an urgent need to alter the way we are currently living. According to the United Nations Environment Program, commercial and residential buildings are responsible for 36% of global energy use and 39% of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions...

Sidewalks for social justice and environmental change

While sidewalks may seem like a mundane part of everyday life, they play an important role in our cities and suburbs and daily life. Whether you are walking to work, or to the bus, going to the mailbox, or going for a jog, a sidewalk provides you with a safe way to get where you need to go. Unfortunately, lack of sidewalks or poorly maintained sidewalks disproportionately impacts seniors, low-income and Black and Indigenous communities. The lack of a safe alternative to get around on foot has real consequences not just in our attempts to take action against climate change, but it is also a source of social inequity.

The history of sidewalks

Although sidewalks seem to be a staple part of the built environment, they haven’t been around forever! Before sidewalks were invented in the 19^th century, pedestrians had to share the road with animals, carriages, wagons, and cars. As you can imagine, pedestrians were at risk of danger...

The secret of great cities

It is a simple secret to most of the world’s greatest, most livable cities. They all have fast, efficient and affordable public transportation systems. Why is public transportation so key to making a city great for living? It means that getting to where you need to go with public transportation is smooth, stress-free and far better than in an individual vehicle. This makes the road less clogged, even as populations grow, it reduces carbon emissions, and traffic accidents and promotes better air quality. It really can be a dream come true, but why are we still not sold on it in many countries?

The great equalizer

Getting around from place to place in an affordable manner is vital to everyone, and when transportation cost or availability is a barrier to low-income families taking preferred employment or getting to school, we have another form of social injustice at play. When a trip that takes just 20 minutes by car takes 2 hours by public transit and...

How to be an eco-friendly fashionista

I love fashion and accessorizing with great jewelry is a part of that - but I try hard to reduce my environmental footprint, so the use of metals and rare gems in jewelry and the plastics, metals and resins used in fashion jewelry just doesn’t fit the bill. But, I have found some great alternatives that you might like to consider when you want to accessorize. In addition to relying on what you already own, or dipping into vintage finds there are cool recycled jewelry on the market that also supports local makers.

Whether it is rings, earrings, body jewelry, necklaces, or bracelets, is often worn to express yourself, complete an outfit, or add some interest to your appearance. Your jewelry may even feel like an extension of yourself – something that you don’t leave the house without! This desire to decorate our bodies has been around for thousands of years. Jewelry, whether it is made from animal bones, shells, precious jewels,...

Photo credit: Until There's a Cure

Little Travellers are small hand-made dolls which have been crafted by women in Africa. These dolls are sold through Woza Moya, an income generation project of the Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust. The Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust was founded in South Africa in 1991 and is dedicated to saving lives and making a significant impact on the lives of those who are impacted by the HIV/AIDS crisis. There are many different approaches that are taken by the Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust in order to meet their objectives and fulfil their purpose. Woza Moya, which means “come winds of change” is an economic empowerment project that is just one of their initiatives.

Woza Moya

Woza Moya provides training and support to local artists and crafters, 95% of which are women who happen to be the breadwinners of their families. Woza Moya markets the goods that are made by the crafters on an online platform as well as in traditional brick and mortar stores. Each...