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Patagonia

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"Every one of us does things in the course of a day that adversely affect the health of the planet. We don't decide to, we just don't give it a thought." It's true, I see people doing it mindlessly every single day. Sometimes even I still do, out of habit or lack of other options. Most people don't notice because there are no immediate noticeable consequences of our actions. Patagonia Inc.'s dedication to awareness has launched an interactive mini-site, called ‘The Footprint Chronicles' which allows you to track the impact of ten specific Patagonia products (yes they're a store too) from design through delivery. They also have a ‘Footprint Library' of PDF files which describe their efforts and policies.

Their mission statement is to "Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, and use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis." This almost seems like a bit of an understatement when you visit their website and see that the shop is only a very small part of what they do. They are a big organization, and their sole profits do not come from their store alone which is what makes it a good place to shop. They're not JUST in it for the money.

Their ‘What we do' list is quite impressive, and includes an environmental grant program, internships, and creating a national park!

All this is mainly the reason why I decided to post this in Shopping the Talk, because its' an eco-store that leads you to bigger action. It looks like a good site to mine for information, and to shop at. It's a nice alternative to just sitting there and moaning. 🙂

As for the clothes, they're really cute, with more fabric patterns than most other e-shops. The swimwear looks particularly awesome.

City Walking

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I am currently in Boston (well Cambridge really), my old residence of years past. Like my subsequent five year sojourn in Toronto, I never needed a car in what Prevention Magazine cited as the number one walkable city in America. Indeed, this fact is proclaimed quite proudly with a sign in front of Cambridge City Hall. Moreover, the fact that Boston's Logan Airport itself is connected to the subway system makes an even bigger regional difference when you realize that Pearson Airport in Toronto is one of the traffic epicentres of the entire country.

The Walk Score web site puts Boston as a whole at number three behind San Francisco and New York City on its walkability index. Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Seattle, Long Beach, Los Angeles (!), and Portland round out the top ten. Not surprisingly, these are also the top American cities that I could live in.

At HuffPo, the least walkable cities are also highlighted. Not surprisingly, these grotesque car dependent cities are almost all located in the South, where a culture of American individualism has metastized into a anti-social nightmare of unaccountable ecological choices. It is no wonder that the South is also trapped within a reactionary political culture which reinforces these trends, even as the built environment neutralizes collective action and community spirit.

The Night Sky

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With the inspiring assistance of Aaron Maxwell, a recent graduate of York University with a passion for astronomy, the YSTOP students spent two evenings viewing the night sky.

In the rural environment of the King Campus, they braved very cold weather to take turns looking through the telescope, and also used a sky chart to locate constellations. Following on their afternoon experience of learning to find their way with a compass, they were intrigued to find the north star that can help them find their way after dark. They also discussed the effect of light pollution on being able to view the sky.

In the urban environment of the York campus, they attended the Wednesday public viewing session at the York observatory, and were amazed to see the rings of Saturn, which one student pointed out that he'd only ever seen before on TV. They also enjoyed Aaron's slide show presentation, which gave them background not only on astronomy but on environmental issues that affect the earth's atmosphere.

 

A Bird in the Hand

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Mist nets were not new to the YSTOP students. They had helped Brian Hickey set them up at dusk at on their first night at the King Campus to try to catch bats, though despite their patience no bats flew in.  But this time, with the mist nets set up as part of a session with Dr. Bridget Stutchbury in the woods behind their York classroom, their patience was rewarded with the capture of a chickadee. The students were delighted to have a chance to hold the bird in their hand, before it was released. Urban and rural students marvelled at the tiny, resilient creature, with a growing respect for the complexity of the environment we share with them.

Bridget also shared information about the Birds in the City project, and explained the technologies that are used in tracking and identifying individual birds to understand their migratory and reproductive behaviours. It was another example for them of how field work is connected to laboratory studies.

Invasive Species

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On the final evening of the YSTOP program, students were asked to identify environmental issues they had learned about during the week, and then, in groups, to write about an issue of their choice. The following is what one group wrote about what they had learned about invasive species. They had learned was about invasive species in a session with York grad students Corinne Sperling and Margot Sloan, which included a scavenger hunt to locate invasive species on the York campus.

Ever wonder how dandelions started growing in our country? Well, a dandelion is an example of an invasive species, meaning Canada is not its native country. It could have been brought over by boat, car, plane, etc. There are many examples of invasive species in Canada, including Norway Maple, Norway Spruce, common teasel, Japanese knotweed, dog-strangling vine, white clover, white poplar, lilacs, ivy, common tansy and the garlic mustard plant. Oh, and that grass you see all over Canada? Yeah - that's an invasive species, too, called Kentucky Blue Grass.

Are we finally reaching a tipping point?

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Yesterday Al Gore gave a speech challenging the United States to produce all of its electricity from renewable energy within 10 years. This is one of the first examples I have seen that is truly a dramatic step toward change, versus the incremental policies and initiatives we have seen so far from North America's businesses and governments (small unreliable subsidy programs, greenwashing type products and services, etc).

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The Necessary RevolutionAnd, earlier this week I was introduced to a new book titled The Necessary Revolution, How Individuals And Organizations Are Working Together to Create a Sustainable World, by Peter Senge, Bryan Smith, Nina Kruschwitz, Joe Laur, and Sara Schley. The book describes real examples of collaborations that are happening around the world to create transformative change, leading to regenerative solutions, which are essential to the creation of a flourishing, sustainable world. I'm only about a third of the way through the book, so will report back once I'm finished. So far, I can say that the book is really inspiring, and I love the way it incorporates systems thinking to shake us out of our silos and see the bigger picture. I also really like their focus on creating a desired future, versus problem solving. This is a far more motivating and engaging approach.

We know that the world needs to seriously change, and only time will tell at what point humanity wakes up and not only takes notice but actually plants itself on a different path. The noticing part has been growing strong over the last couple of years, and maybe, just maybe, we're ready to take action in a serious way!

Our Urban Experience

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The students in the YSTOP program spent a day exploring the urban environment, travelling from York University Keele Campus, where they were staying, to Kensington Market via TTC, then south on foot to Queen Street and then back on the subway with a stop at Yorkdale for a late lunch.  When we were at Kensington market we discussed the study done by the York Centre for Atmospheric Chemistry in conjunction with Streets are for People on the effect of pedestrian Sundays on air quality. Yorkdale was one of the first enclosed shopping centres in Toronto, and is interesting for the impact that such malls have on the environment, relying on air conditioning and travel by cars.

For some of the rural students the trip gave them their first ride on a subway, and for many, even those who live in the city, it was their first ride on a streetcar. Included in this post are some images and some writing that the students generated from their trip.

Our urban experience was about learning what goes on in the city, such as the transportation, tall buildings, crowded streets, big malls and fewer forests. Transportation in the urban setting is different because there are street cars, subway trains and tunnels. There is a greater population in the urban setting and public transit helps to reduce the amount of pollution being produced by people travelling around the city.

The urban environment is the TOTAL opposite of the rural environment. The urban environment has more people and modern technology than the rural environment. As we found out, there are lots of people crowding the cities from different backgrounds and cultures. We got to experience new things like sour cream and onion flavored crickets and empanadas. The transportation in a rural community is very different from the transportation in the urban community. Many people in the urban community choose to ride their bikes and take city transit, like the subway, bus and street cars, which help decrease the pollution.

Urban Wildlife

Urban Wildlife

 

Urban Landscape

Urban Landscape

 

Streetcar

Streetcar

 

In the subway

In the subway

Advice for Doing Field Work

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After two days of doing various field work activities with Dr. Brian Hickey, from the St. Lawrence River Institute of Environmental Sciences, with Dr. Dawn Bazely, and with York University graduate students Sheila Colla and Jason Gibbs, a group of students wrote the following advice about field work:

 
 Collecting water samples                   Examining water samples
 When doing field work, you need to be prepared for outdoors. Everything you do is hands on, so get ready to get dirty! Remember to always be organized, on time, and ready to go. You will be collecting data and interacting with the environment. For example, you may be observing insects, determining water quality, examining plants and the stars. You may also be taking your field work into the lab to study it more. You could find yourself setting up traps, for example, to capture bats. Another thing you could be doing is learning orienteering, getting prepared and learning your directions and surroundings so that you can find your way around. Field work connects you with the environment and its creatures.
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Sustainable Shopping: Getting in the Green Loop

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On my epic quest for green change, and the search for eco-friendly AND fashion-friendly attire, I stumbled upon (in other words, I used google) the store called the Green Loop. and I was impressed. Unlike a lot of blah eco-stores that only sell t-shirts and plain boring stuff, this store has everything from organic skinny jeans to blazers and even eco-friendly shoes.
And of course guys’ gear too, along with accessories, bags, etc. basically, a massive variety of a lot of typical things you’d see at the mall, except it didn’t take 23849543 trees and 87549999 types of pollutants to make them.

They all seem to be ‘designer’ eco-brands as well, which is definitely reflected in the price. Most of the shoes are in the $200-250 range. Dresses are around 100-150, and tops go from 40-100. High end prices no doubt. But when you think about a lot of the stores in a mall like Yorkdale, they pretty much charge the same price. People are willing to pay those prices there because they believe in the quality of those brands. I don’t actually own anything from the Green Loop but from what I can tell I’m going to say that these are probably better quality than a lot of the stuff I’ve seen in mall stores, even if you only consider the fact that if its eco-friendly, a lot of thought was put into the making (not just the design) of the item.

I was impressed with the variety. If you can afford it, it’s not a bad place to buy some chic ethical clothing and help cause me (and your kids) less asthma attacks!

(one of my favourite dresses from their store)

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