Green Options

So, it seems that raising a fuss, and threatening to go to court can pay results. As recounted earlier in this post, Elizabeth May, leader of the Canadian Green Party was being prevented from participating in the televised leader’s debate featuring leaders of Canadian political parties with sitting members of parliament. As of this afternoon, the broadcasters’ consortium has agreed to allow

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This week from our friends at ZapRoot: The most notorious bicycle thief is caught in Canada. Find out how Green is Joe Biden? Check out a new batch of Alternative Autos.

Perhaps I’m mistaken, but it seems that some Canadians like to use vivid examples from nature to help illustrate their political talking points. Several days ago, the Conservative Party’s website featured an attack ad that utilized a bird pooping on Stephane Dion, the leader of Canada’s Liberal Party, to enhance the negative message’s effect.  Steven Harper, Canada’s Prime Minister, apologized today for the ad which he called “totally inappropriate.”

Canada’s Green Party leader, Elizabeth May, is taking Canadian broadcasters to court over their decision to exclude her from the party leader debates ahead of Canada’s federal elections.

It’s not all about Sarah Palin in Alaska you know. The latest news from the last frontier (or should that be the final frontier?) is that Alaskan police have pulled over a solar-powered car, which they mistakenly identified as a UFO.

For almost two years, Canadian Marcelo da Luz has been driving his solar-powered car, the Power of 1 (Xof1 for short) across North America in an attempt to set a world distance record for a solar vehicle. When he reached Alaska earlier this week, the admittedly off-the-wall looking car was spotted by a concerned citizen, who dialled 911 to report a UFO sighting. Alaskan police quickly took off in hot pursuit, and pulled poor Marcelo over for interrogation.

Think for a moment, if you wanted to make the maximum impact in greening one product area, what would it be? Cars may come to mind first, but that requires a significant commitment and investment by the buyer.  While it can and will make a positive impact, there’s an area that’s much more ubiquitous and may not even register on the radar for some - office supplies.

Think about how much you use. Think about how much a company of 50 uses. 500. To use supplies that are less impactful, or perhaps even eliminating the damage they typically do, has enormous potential.

It’s this thinking that led Gil Yaron, once a lawyer focused on shareholder activism and socially responsible investing to create Vancouver based FrogFile in 2006. In his work leading up to this, he saw that many companies were interested in greening their office operations, but they didn’t quite know how or where to do that. Then once they did know what they wanted to do, there wasn’t a place to get what they needed.

FrogFile seeks to be a remedy for this quandary. And yet, you might say, green office supplies seem to be everywhere these days, both online and in office supply stores large and small. What does FrogFile contribute, and how do they stand out from this growing chorus?

Another whopping chunk of ice has broken free from Ellesmere Island in Canada’s northern Arctic. This Markham Ice Shelf, just one of five remaining shelves in the Canadian Arctic region, split away sometime in August. The shelf is gianormous. It’s 19-square miles, around the size of Manhattan, and now adrift in the Arctic Ocean. In addition, two other large chunks - totaling about 47 square miles - split [...]

Why is it so easy to be green in Canada?

I spent the first night of my summer vacation in a bed-and-breakfast in Toronto with my family.  (Yes, I blogged while on vacation.  That’s what happens when free wireless is available everywhere and you have obsessive-compulsive disorder.)  We drove from Chicago in our Toyota Camry.  It’s not exactly a Prius, but while averaging about 30 MPG, we had a smaller carbon footprint than we would if the three of us traveled by plane.  We brought most of our own meals and snacks in reusable containers, printed out travel and maps on previously used paper, and reused our water bottles.  So we thought we were being green.  But a morning walk around Toronto made us feel only light green, at best.

This week on ZapRoot: KFC Canada tries to do chickens right with their new animal welfare plan. China’s air control results. Check out new Alternative Autos: Chevy Volt, Shelby Supercars, Prius, and more.

With the rapid retreat of polar ice, a brave new world is being opened up to those who are willing to go take it. We’ve seen America and Russia send parties north to stake claims, and now Canada is following suit, looking to discover and tap mineral, oil and gas riches beneath the Arctic.

Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the decision on Tuesday. Researchers both on the ground and in the air will be gathering data on Canada’s three northern territories: the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

100 Million Trees Are Cut Each Year to Generate Junk Mail
A report by ForestEthics, the nonprofit environmental organization whose mission is to protect endangered forests, has made a very startling revelation: that there are 100 million green reasons why junk mail are an annoying intrusion.

Not that the 100 billion pieces of junk mail Americans receive each year are irksome enough or that the emissions of junk mail are equal to those of over nine million cars or 51 million tons of greenhouse gases.

The group estimates that every year, more than 100 million trees are cut down to make junk mail - the equivalent of clear-cutting all of Rocky Mountain National Park every 4 months!