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April 14, 2008

Earth Day Season Events in Ottawa, 2008

Posted by greenlivingottawa under Ottawa, energy, food, household, organic, recycled, waste reduction
[3] Comments 

A few people have sent me press releases about Earth Day events in Ottawa and I promised to pass the information along, so here goes:

  • April 18 and 19 at 7:30 pm, Dancing the Earth for Earthday, the premiere of the Buddha and the Tree of Life, a dance performance by Anjali at Arts Court.
  • April 19, 10 am to 4 pm, The EcoStewardship Fair at the R.A. Centre. I’m a regular at these fairs, which provides a venue for eco-conscious consumers to find eco-conscious products and for eco-conscious citizens to find eco-conscious groups to support and join.
  • April 19, 10:30am Our Land Our Future, preschool Earth Day activities at Centennial Branch of the Library.
  • April 22, 7 pm, Global Warming, the Swedish Experience, a talk by the Ambassador of Sweden to Canada, Ingrid Iremark, at the Main Branch of the Public Library, 120 Metcalfe Street. Admission is free.
  • April 29, 11:45 am - 2:15 pm, The Six Sins of Greenwashing, The Hampton Inn, 11:45-2:15, presented by Scott McDougall, President and CEO of Terrachoice and the Canadian Marketing Association.
  • May 3, 8:30 to noon, the Sunoco Earth Day Tree Planting as part of the Riverside South Reforestation Project: the goal is to plant 2,000 trees that morning.
  • May 3, 8:30 am to noon, pancake breakfast followed by another tree planting at the Kilborn Greenspace in Alta Vista, between Featherstone and Prospect.
  • May 8, 11 am to 1 pm, EarthCARE Expo, on education and the environment, at Confederation High School.
  • Also, HGTV is having three days of Green television programming on April 19, 20 from 1 pm to 5 pm and on April 22 from 8 pm til midnight.

    If any of you know of any other Ottawa Earth Day events please post the information in a comment. (BTW, I have to manually approve comments because of all the spam this site gets, so please be patient if your comment does not show up right away).

     

    April 6, 2008

    The Quest for A Healthy Deodorant that Works

    Posted by greenlivingottawa under Ottawa, health, organic, personal care, waste reduction
    [3] Comments 

    miessence deodorant

    I’ve tried a great number of health food store deodorants, the ones that advertise being environmentally friendly and better for you than the run of the mill pharmacy ones.  I’ve tried a great many because they tend to work for a week or two and then fail miserably, usually on a high stress day when I really need them to work.  I was relieved to find that I’m not alone in this.  In her most excellent book, Ecoholic, Adria Vasil writes of experiencing the same problem.

    There are certain brands that in the past I found worked for longer: Nature’s Gate and Tom’s of Maine.  However, these brands have propylene glycol as their main ingredient,  which the Skin Deep Cosmetics Database lists as “moderately toxic,” 4 out of a possible 10.  BTW, I have recently discovered that Nature’s Gate Organics deodorants are propylene glycol free, but I have not tried them. I was disappointed to discover Tom’s of Maine uses propylene glycol since they were the first company to develop a “natural deodorant” back in the 1970s and Ellis Jones, in his “the better world shopping guide” rates them as #5 on his list of the 10 best companies in the world from an ethical, environmental and social justice perspective. But I was determined to make my armpits propylene glycol free zones, so I went back to trying out deodorants.

    Fortunately my environmentally-friendly hair dresser, Joy, recently introduced me to an Australian organic cosmetics company, miessence organics.  Their Aroma Free Deodorant is more expensive than your average health food store brand.  However, it has only four ingredients (water, aloe vera, sodium bicarbonate, xanthan gum, and grapefruit seed extract) all of which I am familiar with and comfortable using.  The deodorant works perfectly and has continued to work without fail for several months now.

    One last note about healthy deodorants.  I have also found that deodorant stones or crystals work extremely well, save on packaging, and are about the most cost-effective natural deodorants out there.  However, on doing a bit of research, I found that their active ingredient was an aluminum salt, potassium alum, which led me to stop using it, the deodorant aluminum scares of the 1980s being what had led me to change to health food store deodorants in the first place.  The Cosmetics Database lists potassium alum as having very low toxicity (a score of 1, with 0 being the lowest possible), however, it also lists data gaps for this ingredient, so I’m still undecided on the crystal deodorant issue.

    Incidentally, in preparing this post, I looked up grapefruit seed extract on the database and it gets a score of 3 on toxicity, mostly because of concerns that it might be contaminated with nasty chemicals.  So all I can do is conclude that being an informed consumer is hard work and the best path is never a clear one.

    Resources:

    Miessence deodorant available at Pure Joy Hair Studio in Westboro, Ottawa, open Wednesday to Saturday, phone ahead 613-728-4069

    Crystal Deodorant Stone available from the on-line Outouais store: Scentfree.ca

    Ottawa-based website on health and cosmetics: PureKnowHow

    International, comprehensive cosmetics database: Skin Deep

     

    December 16, 2007

    Day Five: Giving the Gift of Not Having to Cook

    Posted by greenlivingottawa under 100-mile, Ottawa, food, organic, recycled, reduce, waste reduction
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    This year my mother has put “a catering gift certificate” on her Christmas wish-list.  Good food speaks to the body and soul and having meals cooked for you can be a great treat. If you’ve got more time than money, a gift certificate for a simple wholesome meal cooked by you can be a great eco-friendly thingless gift to give. However, if you’ve got more money than time and you want to give the gift of a meal cooked by a professional chef, there are a couple of caterers in Ottawa that are particularly eco-friendly and worth mentioning here.

    First, if the person is lucky enough to live or work in the Kitchissippi Ward of Ottawa (basically the near west-end) you could buy him or her a week or two (or more) of eco-friendly catered lunches from Credible Edibles. Judy Varga-Toth of Credible Edibles cooks healthy nutritious weekday lunches using as many organic and locally-grown ingredients as possible and then delivers them to her customers in reusable lunch boxes. As she writes on her web-site: “No one should have to choose convenience at the expense of a healthy body and mind or a healthy planet.”

    Jennifer and Jo-Ann of The Red Apron run a “dinner club.” They cook and deliver healthy suppers to their customers on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Jennifer and Jo-Ann try to source their ingredients locally and buy organic when they can. Their meals are delivered in special cardboard containers that are 100% recyclable. They currently run their business out of Old Ottawa South, though they will soon be moving to a new location in Centre-town.  Recently, my husband and I decided to buy ourselves three weeks of the Red Apron Dinner Club as our wedding anniversary present to ourselves.  We were not disappointed.

    Judy, Jennifer and Jo-Ann are all members of Slow Food Ottawa-Gatineau, a non-profit group that seeks to promote good, clean and fair food in the Ottawa area.

     

    December 11, 2007

    On the Fourth Day of Christmas…Organic Cosmetics and Body-care Products

    Posted by greenlivingottawa under 100-mile, Ottawa, organic, personal care
    No Comments 

    lilou_logo.jpg

    If you are tempted to buy someone cosmetics or body-care products this holiday season make sure to buy them products that do not threaten their health (or the health of animals or the planet).

    After being diagnosed with breast cancer, Patti, a local Ottawa mom, began to research the toxic ingredients included in those everyday items we put on our bodies such as sunscreen, deodorant, nail polish, and mascara. Appalled at what she found, she and her friend and neighbour Tammey set up a web-site and newsletter to help inform women about the pitfalls of conventional cosmetics and the alternatives that are available. Before buying anyone cosmetics or body-care products take a look around their site: www.pureknowhow.com.

    Okay, once you know what not to buy and why, you’ll probably want to know where to buy alternatives. So let me point you in the direction of another local website, Lilou-organics, run by mom-preneur Lisa. Lilou-organics carries 16 lines of organic cosmetics and body-care products for women, men and babies. While Lilou-organics is primarily an on-line store, for those of us living in the Ottawa area it is possible to go out and visit the showroom in Richmond, but Lisa says that you should call first since she has babies!

    Lilou-organics carries many of my favourite products:

    Lilou-organics, 6018 Perth Street, box 608, Richmond (Ottawa), ON, K0A 2Z0, 613-601-5701

    P.S. for those readers not in Ottawa or without transportation, Lilou-organics offers free shipping on Canadian orders over $100 and on US orders over $150.

     

    November 4, 2007

    Local Eco-Shopping: Soul Matters

    Posted by greenlivingottawa under Ottawa, arts and culture, clothing, fair trade, food, organic
    [7] Comments 

    soul-matters.jpg

    A new store has opened up on Bank Street near Sunnyside in Old Ottawa South: Soul Matters. I had a few minutes to spare so I dropped in to see what they had to offer to the environmentally-conscious consumer.

    They have an eclectic mix of books, tapes, dvds, yoga clothes, tea and spiritual accessories (for lack of a better term). They carry a wide variety of caffeine-based and herbal Numi teas, one of my favourite organic and fairtrade tea companies. They also carry Respecterre bamboo yoga clothes, which are designed and made in Canada.

    Bamboo is not only easier on the earth to produce than most other clothing fibres but also is reputed to be anti-bacterial, which is always handy in workout wear. Soul Matters also carries gift bags made out of bamboo paper (in case you need anti-microbial gift-bags, just kidding).

    Soul Matters, 1093 Bank St. Ottawa 613-730-SOUL (7685)

     

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