October 24, 2007
Canadian company, Parade Organic makes colourful and modern baby clothes out of 100% organic cotton. They have two lines, one line focussed on nice solid blocky colours, and the other line sporting pictures and words. An extensive selection from both design lines is now available in Ottawa at Heavens to Betsy, a fun store with an eclectic mix of just about anything–including organic clothing for babies.
Heavens to Betsy, 1243 Wellington Street, Ottawa, 613 722 1946
September 4, 2007
Friends of ours were in town from Winnipeg this weekend and we met them for dinner in the Byward Market. They’re expecting a baby in November so we arrived at the restaurant bearing our standard baby gift–standard not because we’re lacking in creative gift-buying talents, but because everyone we’ve given it to has loved it and used it on a daily basis.
The gift we’ve given to almost all our expectant-parent friends is an organic cotton receiving blanket from Under the Nile. These fair trade blankets are made from 100% organically and biodynamically grown hand-picked Egyptian cotton, dyed with metal-free vegetable dyes. The story of Sekem Farm, where the cotton is grown, is actually quite an inspiring read.
In Ottawa these receiving blankets can be purchased at Arbour: Arbour Environmental Shoppe, 800 Bank Street, Ottawa, K1S 3V8, 613-567-3168
On-line in Canada, they can be bought from Rawganique.com. (Rawganique also sells to the U.S).
June 16, 2007
We’re so used to thinking photovoltaics and high tech when we think of solar power we forget those humbler low tech appliances that also draw on the sun’s power. The clothes line, for example, is a super-low cost technology that makes it easy to use solar energy in your own backyard.
I grew up without a dryer. In fact, my parents still do not have a dryer. In the summer they hang their clothes outside. In the winter they hang them in the basement. When my partner and I bought the house we’re in now, it came with a dryer. Our compromise has been to use the dryer for sheets and pillowcases–to ensure any dust mites that have taken up residence in them are well cooked before they are returned to our bed. The rest of our laundry we hang to dry.
In the winter we hang our clean clothes on a folding rack in the spare bedroom. They dry in about 24 hours and provide a source of humidity to our forced-air heated house. In the summer we hang our clothes outside, and in weather like we’ve been having lately, the laundry dries in under 2 hours. Sometimes the first load is dry by the time I come outside to hang up the second one.
Harnessing solar power to dry your laundry is an easy, inexpensive way to reduce your greenhouse gas emissions. For the sake of simplification let’s say you could hang out your laundry for 6 months of the year (some years this is the case, other years the outdoor laundry season is a little shorter). If you had a dryer like ours that is rated by the energuide at 866 kWh/year, just by hanging out your laundry for half a year you would save 433 kWh. If you’re drawing from Ontario’s electricity grid, which most people in Ottawa are doing, then using Bullfrog Power’s algorithm your annual greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced by approximately 0.3 tonnes. That’s one third of the way towards meeting the one tonne challenge just by hanging your clothes out on a $50 clothesline–a clothesline that will probably last at least 10 years, if not longer. Really this is a solution that is too easy and too inexpensive to pass on.
P.S. the lovely woven laundry basket is fair-trade and completely compostable. It comes from Ten Thousand Villages.
May 29, 2007
Since January 1st, 2007, Bayshore Shopping Centre (along with 12 other shopping centres in Ontario) has been purchasing 30% of the electricity used in its “common areas” from Bullfrog Power, Ontario’s green electricity retailer. Bullfrog Power sources all of its electricity from wind power and low-impact hydro-electric power. Both of these sources are renewable and clean (ie. do not produce greenhouse gases, smog, or particulate air pollution). Bullfrog Power calculates that over one year these 13 malls will reduce their CO2 emissions by 8,000 tonnes.
Other Ottawa area businesses that have switched to Bullfrog include Arbour Enviromental Shoppe, Domus Café, Rainbow Foods, Carleton Place Nursery, Open Concept, The Otesha Project, and The Royal Bank of Canada Innes and Lanthier (Orleans) branch. Cotton Ginny has signed up three of its Ontario stores to Bullfrog Power, but I was unable to find out which ones.
Incidentally, we switched our household over to green power last August so the computer on which this blog is typed is also Bullfrog Powered ; )
May 27, 2007
I picked up a copy of Adria Vasil’s Ecoholic at my neighbourhood bookstore, Singing Pebble Books, a couple of weeks ago and the more times I’ve consulted it, the more impressed I’ve been with it. Adria certainly did her homework.
The book is subtitled “Your guide to the most environmentally friendly information, products and services in Canada,” and for the most part it delivers on this promise. The information she provides goes far beyond other guides to eco-friendly living both in terms of the environmental and health impacts of our choices, and in terms of the specifics of how to practice a greener lifestyle.
I admit that I was leery of buying something that purported to be national in scope while proudly bearing its Toronto “NOW column” origins on its cover. But for the most part it doesn’t appear to be biased towards Toronto, covering companies across the nation. However, the city specific appendix for Ottawa was disappointing, barely scratches the surface of what is available here. Fortunately there are other resources on green living in Ottawa ; )
Ecoholic is strongest on those services and products that are available nation-wide, and through the internet. The one purchase I’ve made so far that was a direct result of reading Ecoholic was a Preserve razor made out of recycled yogurt containers in Massachusetts–so not even made in Canada–which I ordered on the web.
The lists of companies and web-addresses that Adria provides will go out of date soon. This is simply the result of the rapid changes in this sector of our society. Beau’s beer, for example, was not included in Adria’s list of organic beers, and I’m being generous in assuming the oversight had to do with the newness of the brewery (it just celebrated its one-year anniversary) and not the distance of the Eastern Ontario company from Toronto. However, even though eco-companies may come and go, because Adria outlines exactly what to look for in a product or service and why, Ecoholic will continue to be a useful reference for anyone interested in making more sustainable choices in their day-to-day living for many years to come.
The book is available at most book stores and at the Ottawa Public Library. While the library has 20 in circulation, be forewarned that there are currently 85 people on the waiting list to borrow a copy. Ecoholic retails at $24.95, which is a bargain for its 340 pages of information printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper.
