sasha on the street

This week is a big holiday week in North America, yesterday was Canada’s birthday and Saturday is the US’s birthday. It is a time for bbqs, getting together with friends and relaxing.

When you bring over your host/hostess gift why not bring them a card that gives back? This week I came across ’seed cards,’ a card that when planted will grow beautiful flowers in your garden.  So not only are they made from recycled paper and other earth friendly but they produce lovely flowers in someone’s garden (and if you don’t have a garden they work well in flower pots too!)

You can buy standard cards or create your own, definitely a great alternative to a traditional wedding, shower or holiday card. Try Botanical Paperworks, Symphony Seed Cards, Beau Coup or try to find one more local to avoid the footprint from shipping.

As I try to reduce my footprint on the environment I’m always looking for innovative ways to do my share. Not only are the seed cards one more way I can help but once in bloom bring a second smile to someone.

Thanks to RenewCanada I had the unique opportunity to attend the Strategy Institute’s conference on The Future of Canada’s Infrastructure. The two days started with a keynote address from the Assistant Chief planner of the Directorate for the Built Environment of the Scottish Government and the remainder was filled with presentations about the current practices of infrastructure across Canada.

The strategy institute set out the following mandate to achieve the following through the variety of presentations:

1. Capitalize on infrastructure spending
2. Stimulate economic recovery
3. Enhance environmental sustainability
4. Assure accountability and transparency
5. Manage your risk
6. Attain greener energy
7. Build strategic partnerships
8. Measure performance of suppliers and vendors

The conference was a good balance of case studies and the creative science behind projects including, the necessity of public engagement, how to make a project successful, what climate change is doing to our infrastructure and how to effectively manage existing infrastructure.

The Keynote Address: Setting Priorities for the Improvement of National Infrastructure

The keynote address by Graeme Purves was brilliant and highlighted how climate change was affecting global infrastructure and then delved into some Scottish and UK examples. To set the priorities the Scottish government began with a framework, combining public perceptions with government priorities. In the end the government produced the National Planning Framework that highlighted the 14 essential projects that would benefit all Scottish residents; but Purves did state that at the at the municipal level the federal government was willing to engage in discussion about improving the local infrastructure, but that there would need to be a cost-sharing agreement. I think globally that is true that nationally infrastructure projects should be selected that benefit the country and at the regional and municipal level there can be cost-sharing agreements but that the entire infrastructure cost will not be borne by the national governments.

The Necessity of Public Engagement

Read more »

Over the next two days I’ll be at the Holiday Inn Select by the Toronto International Airport. I’m hear to learn what the future holds for Canada’s Infrastructure from learning about what the experts have to say about sustainable communities, public-private partnerships through a wide variety of case studies.
I’ll be tweeting throughout the two days so stay tuned for updates.

That is the slogan for the 2009 Pollution Probe Clean Air Commute Week; contribute nothing to pollution. It is an attempt to get individuals to re-think how they travel to work everyday. Instead of driving, carpool, drive a hybrid, bike, walk, take transit or telecommute.

I started my week off by riding my bike to work. Tomorrow I think will be a transit day. And then hopefully alternate bike-transit until the end of the week (I play ultimate Frisbee on Tuesday and Thursday and it’s never safe to bike to the fields).

Smog is all around us

Why is Pollution Probe asking us all to change our commuting habits? Because of the increased levels of smog. Smog originally known as a mix of smoke and fog, it is now more commonly known as a noxious mixture of air pollutants, including vapours, gases and particles that can often be seen as a yellowish-brown haze in the air.

Some quick facts about Pollution Probes Clean Air Commute Week:

• Began in 1993
• Registered over 650 GTA workplaces
• Saved over 4,000 tonnes of air pollutants from going into the air (NOx, SOx, VOCs, CO, CO2) (since 2000 when reporting of pollutants was introduced to the event)
• Over 80,000 diary cards returned by participating employees.
• On average, between 70-80% of the individuals who switched from driving alone to a cleaner mode of transportation during the event said they intend to continue on a permanent basis (based on surveying done since reporting began in 2001). Over the past 16 years, the event has succeeded in switching thousands of people to public transit, carpooling, biking, walking and telecommuting.

With an estimated 500,000 cars travelling on the 401 everyday programs like this are needed to remind us that every little bit makes a difference

Thanks to my bf I was directed to the ‘ultimate’ TTC Map on torontoist.com. Dreamed up by Dieter Janssen, an architecture professor at the University of Toronto this map adds new lines, extends existing ones and tries to capture the GTA audience.

Below vs. Above Ground

Streetcar or Subway? Economically it just doesn’t make sense to build more subways. From what I’ve heard every subway kilometre costs $200million and every streetcar kilometre $70million. But with the harsh climate and rolling ravines in Toronto I don’t know that complete surface transit is the answer.

Fare Hikes to Fund New Transit

Either solution where are the funds going to come from to build on this infrastructure? With budgets stretched thin already and existing infrastructure already failing one suggestion has been to increase fares. Before the fare hikes come in, we need to have a zone system in place and a ‘pay-as-go’ card.

Paul Kashimoto made an interesting remark – why not follow the Hong Kong example and earn revenues from managing properties in the vicinity of the transit stations? From Design-Build to Design-Build-Operate.

Although Jansenn’s dream might seem far-fetched it is necessary to have a healthy, sustainable city. For too long Toronto has let its infrastructure be stagnant and we’re paying the price today.

Remember Home Economics? The class that you about cooking, sewing, knitting when you were in grade school. I also took a class called Active, Health Living in University, which talked about nutrition, how the human body works and even had a 1hr per week activity component to it.

The Edible Schoolyard

Waters has a different spin on it all. As part of the core curriculum at Martin Luther King Middle School of Berkeley, CA students plant, water, weed and harvest to create their own meals from their schoolyard garden as part of their edible schoolyard. (And the students didn’t lose their playground areas for the garden, instead Waters turned an abandoned parking lot attached to the school into the garden area).

Why is Waters’ doing this? To encourage students to eat healthier and to make informed decisions about what to eat; again her slow food movement versus the fast food so readily available to these students. Ultimately her goal is to have schools include food and how we grow it as part of their formal academic coursework.

Vegetable and Fruit Garden at the White House

Back on March 20th the White House Blog announced that the Obama’s would have an 1100 sq. ft. vegetable garden and on April 9th the planting began. The planted the garden for their children, to encourage them to eat more fruits and vegetables at each meal.

We can all learn from the Obama’s and Waters; each famous in their own right and they remind us how important it is to eat healthy. Although it is not possible for many of us to have 1100sq. ft gardens we can access local fresh produce at farmers markets, even at our local grocery stores. In the end it is about making informed decisions and making a difference to reduce our impact on the planet.

Obesity is on the rise not only here in North America but world wide. Part of the rise in obesity is the accessibility and the cost effectiveness of FastFood – McDonalds, Harveys, Burger King, Wendy’s, Tim Horton’s, etc …

The antithesis to that is something called the slow food movement, and part of that is Alice Waters. To her it is all about fresh foods – locally grown, pesticide free, organic, free-range food.

Chez Panisse

This is where it all began. In 1971 Waters opened this restaurant after returning from rural France where she was inspired by the simple yet fresh flavours. When she returned home she based her restaurant off this mantra, with daily menu changes and only local, sustainable foods.

Some say her food is over-priced and for the elite. On her 60 minutes interview last night she says it’s all about choices … some people want the latest Nike shoes and some people want good, wholesome, sustainable fresh foods.

Where does that leave the average person?

Waters is lucky in that she lives in a climate that supports a diverse amount of foods through the year. In Toronto, and through much of Canada and the Northern US, we are forced to rely on green houses, and sometimes even other countries, to get the foods we have become accustomed to.

I do agree with Waters in that it is about choices – buy a bag of cookies or buy a bag of cherries? One of the best and healthiest foods out there is oatmeal and it costs only pennies a bowl – add to it some fresh fruit, dried fruit, nuts, raisins … and you have a very delicious breakfast or snack. Healthy eating doesn’t mean you have to blow your budget but it does force you to shop smarter

There really is no denying that the world is addicted to coffee. In almost every major city world-wide you can find a Starbucks or some other trendy coffee house serving up the hot, golden-black liquid we all crave every morning. But they are also a major source of garbage

Sustainable Beans

The recent trend is to supply coffees that are from ‘sustainable’ coffee farms. In my first undergraduate degree I took a course called “ECO324: Sustainable Economic Development” with Dr. Michael Hare at the University of Toronto. He was passionate about providing fair wages to the coffee farmers of the world, not exploiting the resource at the expense of future generations, and in general being a much more respectful world citizen. Now that I was informed I made a conscious effort to only by fair-trade coffee (Ten Thousand Villages has some of the best).

But buying fair-trade, sustainable coffee is only the first step.

Time to ‘Green’ our sugars, mixers, and milk/cream

As I purchase my coffee in my reusable cup I am now usually stunned by how much waste is produced from ‘dressing’ up my coffee. I prefer the brown, unrefined, cane sugar but none of the coffee houses have it in their refillable, glass sugar jars. Instead I am forced to use the bleached, white sugar so I don’t produce waste from those little packets. And every time I add my sugar and milk I tell myself I’m going to start carrying a spoon with me so I don’t have to use a plastic or wooden stir stick.

We are continuing to ‘green’ but as you can see we still are a far ways off from being sustainable.

Suggestions to coffee houses

1. Do away with the little sugar packets – like the metal containers for milk and cream, have glass jars for sugar (white and brown) and sweetener
2. Provide spoons – many of the coffee shops have dishwashers for their stay-in cups, add spoons to the mix and decrease the need for wooden stir sticks. Or find metal stir sticks that can be washed and reused.
3. Paper bags – instead of the waxed, non-recyclable ones just have simple paper bags. Or as it is the same with a reusable coffee cup offer customers a discount for bringing their own container

Yesterday while riding home from work I was stopped at a railway crossing for a massive freight train to pass. As the line of cars grew on either side of the train tracks I noticed one thing in common amongst all the drivers, they all left their cars running.

What about turning your car off while you’re waiting for the train to pass?

I had the opportunity to live in Switzerland for a summer and I was always amazed at how environmentally conscious the Swiss were. Get to a red light, turn your car off. Get to a rail crossing, turn your car off. No matter what the idling circumstance they always turned their car off. How come Canadian’s can’t adopt the same habits?

Congestion costs Toronto $2.2 BILLION per year

Congestion in Toronto is almost unbearable at times. It is not only the highways that are congested it is the city streets. And much of that congestion leads to idling – where you sit in your car and go no where. Unfortunately it is somewhat unreasonable to turn your car off on the highway, wait ten minutes and then drive again. The idling I’m referring to is when you’re waiting for a friend, picking something up, dropping something off, etc … or waiting for a train!

In Toronto there is a by-law that prohibits idling. If your car is sitting still for more than 3 minutes out of every 60 minutes than you could be charged with idling.

Of course there are those people that believe that idling is necessary. There are individuals who believe that you need to warm your car up for at least 10 minutes on a cold day. Modern technology and modern cars actually only need 30 seconds to warm up. Or the individuals that believe that is uses more gas when you stop and start the car. The reality is that you use more gas when you idle for more than 10 seconds. More on these myths can be found here.

In the end the message really is to turn your car off whenever you can. Perhaps in the future Toronto will have a fourth colour to the traffic lights, so we can turn our vehicles off and turn them back on when it is our time to drive again.

Ontario with its cold winters and (usually) hot summers creates a unique environment growing some of the most delicious fruits and vegetables. And as our community awareness about global warming, climate change, etc increases so does the demand for the local farmers markets.

Tfmn.ca
The Toronto Farmers market network is an attempt to combat climate change while bringing the residents of Toronto Local Ontario Produce. Each week across the city there are various farmers markets, some open all year others are only seasonal.

Hot foods right now.
Asparagus. And soon to come strawberries. Mmm

List of Markets (Alphabetically)

Appletree Market
200 Eglinton Ave. W.
Thursdays, 3-7 pm, April 23-Oct 29 outdoors, Nov 5-April 22 indoors

BirchCliff Village Farmers’ Market
1512 Kingston Road (east of Warden)
Fridays, 3- 7 pm, June 5 to October 23, 2009

Birchcliff Village Indoor Market
1688 Kingston Road
Thu 12-7, Fri 12-7, Sat 10-5, Sun 11-5, Nov 2008-May 15, 2009

Bloor-Borden Farmers’ Market
Green P lot, Lippincott and Bloor St.
Wednesdays 3-7 pm, June 3 to October 28, 2009

Distillery District Farmers’ Market
55 Mill Street
Sundays, 10 am – 5 pm, late June to mid-Oct (exact 2009 dates tba)

Dufferin Grove Organic Farmers’ Market
873 Dufferin St. (in Dufferin Grove Park)
Thursdays, 3 – 7 pm, Open all year

East Lynn Farmers’ Market
1949 Danforth Avenue, near Woodbine (in East Lynn Park)
Thursdays, 3 – 7 pm, June 4 to October 29, 2009

East York Farmers’ Market
East York Civic Centre, 850 Coxwell Ave
Tuesdays, 8 am – 2 pm, May 22 to November 4, 2009

Etobicoke Farmers’ Market
Etobicoke Civic Centre, 399 The West Mall
Saturdays, 8 am – 2 pm, June 6 to November 7, 2009

Evergreen Brick Works Farmers’ Market
550 Bayview Ave (between Prince Edward Viaduct (Bloor/Danforth) & Pottery Road)
Saturdays, 8 am – 1 pm, May 23 to October 31, 2009

Evergreen Brick Works Chefs’ Market: open to chefs, caterers and retailers
550 Bayview Ave (between Prince Edward Viaduct (Bloor/Danforth) & Pottery Road)
Tuesdays 8 am – 1 pm starting June 2, 2009

Guildwood Village Farmers’ Market
The Guild Inn, 191 Guildwood Parkway (at Kingston Road)
Thursdays, 2-6 pm, June 11 to October 22, 2009

Liberty Village Farmers’ Market
(Liberty St – Atlantic Ave)
Sundays, 9 am – 2 pm, June 7 to October 27, 2009

Metro Hall Farmers’ Market
55 John Street, near King St.
Thursdays, 8 am – 2 pm, May 28 to October 15, 2009

Nathan Philips Square Farmers’ Market
Nathan Phillips Square, 100 Queen St. West
Wednesdays, 8 am – 2:30 pm, June 3 to October 14, 2009

North York Civic Centre Farmers’ Market
Mel Lastman Square, 5100 Yonge St.
Thursdays, 8 am – 2 pm, June 4 to October 29, 2009

Riverdale Farm Farmers’ Market
201 Winchester (in Riverdale Park)
Tuesdays, 3 – 7 pm, May 12 to October 27, 2009

St. Lawrence North Farmers’ Market
92 Front Street East (at Jarvis)
Saturdays, 5 am – 5 pm, Open all year

Sherway Farmers’ Market
North Parking Lot, Corner of 427 and The Queensway
Fridays, 8 am – 2 pm, May 1 to October 30, 2009

Sick Kids Hospital Farmers’ Market
555 University Avenue
Tuesdays, 9 am – 2 pm, June 2 to October 27, 2009

Sorauren Farmers’ Market
40 Wabash Ave. at Sorauren
Mondays, 3-7 pm, May 11 to October 26, 2009

Stonegate Farmers’ Market
194 Park Lawn Road (At The Queensway),
St James Humber Bay Anglican Church
Tuesdays, 4 – 7 pm, June 23 to October 6, 2009

The Stop’s Green Barn Farmers’ Market
The Green Arts Barn, 601 Christie Ave. (entrance from Wychwood)
Saturdays 8am – 1pm, year-round

Trinity Bellwoods Farmers’ Market
1053 Dundas St West (Northwest corner of Trinity Bellwoods Park)
Tuesdays, 3 – 7 pm, May 12 to October 27, 2009

University of Toronto Farmers’ Market
University College, 15 King’s College Circle, in the rotunda
Thursdays, 11am – 2pm, Oct 10, 2008-April 9, 2009: resuming in Sept
The Village Organic Farmers’ Market at the Toronto Waldorf School
9100 Bathurst
Saturdays, 8:30 am – 1:30 pm, Open all year

Weston Farmers’ Market
GO Train Parking lot, John St. (Weston Rd. & Lawrence Ave W.)
Saturdays, 7 am – 2 pm, May 16 to October 31, 2009
Withrow Farmers’ Market
725 Logan Ave (in Withrow Park)
Saturdays, 9 am – 1 pm, May 23 to October 31, 2009