Submitted by: Alison Mey, Marketing Intern

That wonderful woman in your life who raised you, fed you, sheltered you, and loved you finally gets some appreciation. Every second Sunday of May we come together to celebrate our mothers, and their impact in our lives. Mother’s Day falls on May 12^th, and it seems to be fast approaching! Now what better way is there to show your love than by having a completely green mother’s day!

Here are a few tips we’ve come up with to keeping your Mother’s Day environmentally friendly:

Green cleaning products

You know what your mom would really like to wake up to on Mother’s Day? A clean house. That might be a nice change for her! She will definitely appreciate having someone else looking after her for the day. So while she’s still sleeping in, a nice gift would be to shine and buff the house. Our suggestion here is to use environmentally friendly cleaning products that keep your home and family healthy. This means staying away from chemicals that can eventually lead to health hazards.

Give her a “green” gift

Everyone knows that the gift is one of the most important parts of Mother’s Day! She’s spent the day with her family, and is starting to feel the love, but that little gift will just put it over the top.

So what do you pick? We suggest going for something that uses all recycled packaging, and preferably made in Canada. Try to stay away from products that include harsh chemicals and irritants such as SLS, parabens, PEG, artificial fragrance and colours. This way your gift is helping the environment on top of helping your mom lead a more comfortable and enjoyable life.

If you’re interested in what products include nasty ingredients for the top two tips, visit www.ewg.org/skindeep to get the facts.

Keep your celebrations closer to home

Mother’s Day is a day to be with your family, and to enjoy each other’s company. While it may be fun to do a long road trip, keep in mind that all that gas-guzzling isn’t helping the environment! As a replacement, why don’t you try going for a bike ride together, or having a picnic at your local park. If you aren’t the outdoors type, why not make your mom a nice dinner at home to show she means more than just spending a few dollars.

In the end, Mother’s Day should be about happiness, health, and love. So let’s all say a big thanks to Mom for everything she’s done for us!

You may hear people talking about them as they walk through the meat aisle in your store.  Healthy eating calls for avoiding these “noxious chemicals” at all costs. The controversy, highlighted by CBC’s Marketplace, about nitrite preservatives in “Natural Selections” products caused some headaches for Maple Leaf.  These chemicals can form a cancer causing agent, nitrosamines, when they react with the proteins in your meats. …So, how do you avoid these ingredients?  In food, it is much easier.  Eat fresh and unprocessed foods whenever possible and you’ve taken a great first step to avoiding preservatives and choosing a healthier lifestyle.

The school year is almost over.  Don’t forget to thank the teacher who guided your children. They provided the greenest gift your child will ever receive, knowledge.

Not sure what to buy?  Most teachers are swimming in the coffee mug they received in years past.  If you want to find something original and more meaningful talk to your kids.  They may have heard the teacher talk about what they love to do away from school.  If your kids don’t know, Green Cricket  offers ten great green gift ideas to surprise the teacher in your child’s life.

1.  Personal basket of home-cooked meals. Why not make some of your specialties and package them up in a reusable box or basket? Everyone loves a homemade lasagna, baked pie or jams and jellies!

2. Books promoting outdoor activities and/or sustainable living. It could include hiking on local trails, camping, bird watching or greening a garden with water efficient plants.

3. Plants and/or gardening supplies so that they can produce their own local and sustainable food.  It is a great gift for the amateur gardeners out there.

4. Natural personal care products because so much of what we use becomes a part of us via our skin.  Your teachers can safely pamper themselves after a year of giving so much to their students.

5.  Solar or “people” powered gadgets. Give them something fun, exciting and good for the environment.

6. Give charitable gifts in your teacher’s honor. Whether it be to a local charity that supports environmental initiatives, an international organization that encourages sustainable living on a global scale, or a children’s charity.

7. Organically grown and fair trade coffee for a pick-me-up before all the early morning extra-curricular groups and teams they oversee.

8. Basket of environmentally friendly (and appropriately certified!) household products.  That way teachers can breathe easily knowing that they protecting the environment that their students will inherit.

9. Give a picture, poem, quote or craft to let your child show their teacher know just how much they mean. To make the gift more ‘green’ use recycled paper or be creative with bottles, cans and cardboard from your recycling bin.

10. Contact one of your old teachers. Let them know the important role they played in your life.  It will be a great reminder of their lasting impression.

What teachers appreciate most is the thought behind the gift .  A well thought out gift will remind them that despite moving on, students will carry the teacher’s lessons for the rest of their lives.

[Concept developed by Guest Blogger: Katrina Dudar, Edited by Green Cricket staff ]

Bio for Katrina:
As an avid environmentalist, Katrina is honoured to be contributing to
this wonderful space as a guest! Currently working at an environmental
education charity for children, Katrina spends her days trying to find
fun and innovative ways to inspire children to care about our planet and
to do small things everyday to make a positive difference. Some might
think this sounds challenging, but when you take the time to think about
just how impressionable young children are, her job instantly becomes
easier! As a mom to a youngster who has had his fair share of health
issues, she is happily forced to invest a significant amount of time
staying informed about emerging environmental issues and searching for
ways to minimize her own footprint while encouraging others around her
to do the same.

Cottaging is one of the great pleasures in life, but as more and more of us head north to enjoy the great outdoors, the stress on the lakes can be more than they can bear. Here are a just a few tips on how you can minimize the impact of your cottage on the lake that you love.

1) Always choose biodegradable – Although there are no universal standards around what biodegradable means, in a nutshell it says that a product will break down into substances that are naturally occurring in a short period of time once it is used. For things like soaps, shampoos and cleaners that you’ll be using up at the cottage, this is critically important. Conventional products can literally take years to break down, which is very harmful to everything in the lake.

2) Think of your septic system – Bacteria are necessary for the effective functioning of your septic – they do the majority of the work breaking down your waste. You can imagine the problems created when you put things like antibacterial soap or toxic chemicals into your septic system which kill off all of the good bacteria. Choosing green products make a big difference when your wastewater goes directly into the environment.

3) USE your septic system – The lake is great for swimming, but it’s not a bathtub. The load of soap and shampoo that gets added directly to the lake has many implications for the plant and animal life. It makes a big difference if your wastewater runs through your septic system first before heading into the lake – 95% of the breakdown has already occurred.

You may be just one person, but there sure are a lot of you. Every year there are more and more people on the lake, and many of our lakes are being pushed to the brink. Fishing is on the decline and swimming is being threatened. We need to be much more careful with the products that we put in the lake. If you must bathe in it, be sure that you use products that have natural ingredients, are biodegradable and phosphate-free to minimize the damage.

4) Remind your renters – many long-time cottagers know these tricks, but renters can also have a big impact on the lake when they come up for their vacation. Why not leave them a note, or put it in your contracts that they need to respect the environment while they visit so that it will still be great next year.

Visit www.greencricket.ca for more information on green camping & cottaging, and green living in general. We’ve also got a full line of green products for your home & cottage.

Have a great Summer!

Easter, like many other holidays, has become more and more commercial over the years. Gone are the days where time was spent with family enjoying each others company over a big meal. There are, however, many ways to enjoy an eco-friendly Easter. With a little bit of research and some creativity, there are many options to choose from!

Colouring eggs

An age old tradition that kids love! Before you go out and buy a traditional decorating kit, try and use natural dyes. You’d be surprised by your colour options and impressed with the end results. To create the dye, boil the ingredient in water for about 15 minutes. Remember, the longer you boil it, the darker the dye will appear. As for the eggs, boil them in water with a spoonful of vinegar and then let them cool.

Your ingredients could be any of the following:

• Grape juice (for violet or purple)
• Red cabbage or canned blueberries (for blue)
• Spinach (for green)
• Carrot tops, yellow onion skins or paprika (for orange)
• Coffee (for brown)
• Red beets or cranberries (for pink)
• Red onion skins or Pomegranate juice (for red)
• Orange or lemon peels, ground tumeric or cumin (for yellow)

Purchasing eggs

And what about the eggs themselves? You want to ensure that they came from hens that were raised without any unnecessary antibiotics. Eggs from pasture-raised chickens are healthier than those that are factory-farmed particularly when they have access to the outdoors each day, and those that eat organic feed.

Baskets

Why go to a dollar store to buy a plastic basket that might not even survive the day?
Make your own – it’s far more fun! Dig out those leftover rolls of wallpaper that have been hiding in your basement since the 80’s, cut them into strips and then weave the strips together. They will be sturdy enough to last until next year, and the kids will enjoy the arts and crafts!

Treats for the basket

Finally, when it comes to the goodies you place in your baskets, the choices are endless! Who said only chocolate could be included? What about organic dried fruit, mini muffins made from organic ingredients or reduced-sugar organic cookies?

If you do want to include traditional treats, try and purchase fair-trade and/or organic chocolates if possible. If you decide to include gifts or toys in the basket instead, try to buy second hand, local or natural products (i.e. wood). Or better yet, cater to the aspiring gardener and put together a seed starter kit with some child-friendly garden tools and a few packs of seeds. It’s a great way to teach them how to plant and care for their own garden, and gets them out in the backyard enjoying nature!

Celebrate spring

Children love to be outdoors, no matter what time of year. Embrace this, dress for the weather and head on out for hike on your local trails! Be sure to keep your eyes open and point out things that are starting to bloom, and watch for birds and other animals that have come out of winter hibernation.

If you’re feeling more adventurous, head out to a local farm to see what spring brings, including some baby animals! Or if you want to stay closer to home, weather permitting, pack up a picnic and head to a local park to enjoy the spring air.

Having family over?

• Buy local flowers to decorate
• Prune some branches off of early blooming shrubs in your yard, and put them in a vase
• Have an early dinner then go for a walk to enjoy spring and all of the things that are starting to bloom
• Turn down the heat in your house before company arrives. The extra bodies will make the up the difference in the drop of the thermostat!
• Encourage guests to carpool, reducing emissions and ensuring you have a designated driver if the need arises

Easter dinner

Start your menu planning early! Try and minimize the number of meat dishes you serve and focus on seasonal vegetables like parsnips or fancier dishes like cabbage rolls.  Try and choose organic vegetables where possible or those that haven’t been shipped for thousand of kilometres from overseas.

While entertaining, avoid using disposable plates and paper napkins – it’s a great excuse to bring out the fine china and cloth napkins! If you do choose to go disposable, check your local health food store for biodegradable dish options.

By incorporating some of these ideas into your Easter celebrations, you could have a huge impact on minimizing your eco-footprint this year. Hope some of these suggestions help, and enjoy your time spent with family!

Written by Katrina Dudar

Earth Hour is this Saturday, March 31^st, from 8:30-9:30 p.m. Events are taking place all across our province, our country, our planet. The people at Green Cricket were asked what their plans for Earth Hour were, and here are some of their responses:

Getting the family together for some nice after dinner conversation, with dessert (preferably something chocolate).

Enjoying a peaceful run with the lights in the city dimmed.

Having a living room campout and playing Monopoly with my kids by the light of our windup lantern.

Earth Hour (http://www.earthhour.org/) is a planet wide event that brings awareness to climate change.  It was started in Sydney, Australia in 2007 as an event to show that everybody can have an effect on climate change. Earth Hour went international the next year with Toronto signing up and then quick expansion to around 135 countries. Brought to the world by the World Wildlife Fund and symbolized by 60+ which represents the sixty minutes in the hour PLUS continuing to make a difference every day.

The amazing response to Earth Hour shows that the citizens of planet Earth care about the anthropomorphic causes of climate change and want to do something about it. This event acts as a stepping stone to make people more aware of what they can do to counteract climate change. As simple as turning the lights off for an hour is, it shows that everybody can have an impact through small lifestyle changes. Lowering the temperature on your thermostat in the winter by a degree or two, walking or riding to work or using mass transit and making sure you turn your lights off are just a few of the ways we can help save our planet.

Some cities, such as Toronto (in their Distillery District), have events to commemorate Earth Hour that include performances, a countdown and an art show. Events such as these bring an inclusive feel to Earth Hour and don’t leave you sitting home in the dark.

Get involved in Earth Hour and try to expand it to your daily thoughts and actions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FovYv8vf5_E

Green Apps

Facebook, your cellphone, your Playbook or ipad. What do these items have in common? Apps. Every one of these has access to apps. Whether you’re playing games, finding out the weather or traffic, or looking for a specific film or restaurant there is an app for it.

The Green community is no different. There is a myriad of apps covering a variety of topics ranging from green products, travel, food and general green tips and information. Websites like Tech Crunch

http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/10/top-ten-green-apps/  go into detail on a number of the apps and how to purchase them and what they do.

After consulting a few sites , here are 8 green apps in a few categories that I found interesting:

 Shopping:

GoodGuide-while shopping you can scan the barcode and find out the environmental impact of 70,000 participating products

Locavore-covers eating locally and provides recipes for the foods you purchase from your area

Travel:

Hootroot-it’s similar to google maps but shows the carbon footprint of your travels

Carticipate-an application for finding ride sharing

Green Gas Saver-tracks your driving tendencies and informs you of ways to save gas through better use of speed, acceleration and turning

PedNav-you type in your plans for the day and PedNav creates the best itinerary for walking to your locations

General:

Get Green-supplies tips and suggestions on what you can do to improve your environmental lifestyle

Green Genie-this is a plastics directory for recycling. Different plastics are recycled in different areas and this app lets you know what can be recycled

These are just 8 out of the multitude of apps out there. By using your search engine hundreds more are at your fingertips in seconds, able to provide information about any environmental area you are interested in.  

Teachers, Honoured Guests and Fellow Classmates - It’s speech time! If you or your kids are having trouble coming up with a speech topic, Green Cricket is here to help with 8 suggestions on green topics that are not only interesting but also raise awareness about the environment.

1.       Clean but not very green - what is really in the soap we use? We all know that soap helps us get clean when we have a bath, shower or wash our hands, but what chemicals are in soap and are they safe for us? SLS and SLES are 2 to be concerned about.  Here are some links to get you started:

http://chemistry.about.com/od/cleanerchemistry/a/how-soap-cleans.htm http://www.kitchendoctor.com/essays/soap.php

http://www.natural-health-information-centre.com/sodium-lauryl-sulfate.html

2.       Hot air? What alternative energy sources really work? Whether you are talking about electric, hybrid or hydrogen power for vehicles or wind, solar and tidal energy for power generation, alternative energy is being used to lower our reliance on fossil fuels. Which of these sources is the most cost effective? Which produces the most power? Do these alternative sources have impacts on the environment?

http://www.planetfriendly.net/energy.html

http://netpilot.ca/aes/

http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/technology/transportation/hybrid-cars/

3.       Common scents and health risks. You may have seen the signs- Scent Free Zone,  please refrain from wearing scented products due to allergy reasons. Why are scented products a problem? Is there a need for fragrance free products? Check out some of these links to find out more:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-500165_162-57349626/can-scented-products-make-you-sick/?tag=facebook

http://www.chrc-ccdp.ca/pdf/legal_sensitivity_en.pdf

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/blogs/queen-of-green/2011/06/companies-wont-disclose-parfum-ingredients/

4.       The dirt on recycling-it’s not working. We all know that recycling is important to save our environment. Is the program doing what it’s supposed to?

http://www.scienceclarified.com/Qu-Ro/Recycling.html

http://www.itworldcanada.com/news/canadian-it-pros-face-recycling-challenge/135914

http://www.environmentalindicators.com/htdocs/execsum.htm

5.       Going green at home. What sorts of things can the everyday person do at home to be green? There are tonnes of quick and easy ideas as well as some bigger ones. Lowering the thermostat a degree or two in winter can save energy. Switching to energy efficient lightbulbs also conserves energy. Installing a living wall helps provide healthier air to breathe. Learning about the ingredients of products you buy and where they come from is another way to go green at home.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/interactives/cp-fluorescent-bulb/

http://www.greenovergrey.com/living-walls/overview.php

http://www.saskenergy.com/saving_energy/tips.asp

6.       Carbon footprints and food-the 100 mile diet. How does our food get to us? Transport trucks drive from Florida to bring us oranges, bananas are shipped by boats from overseas. This increases our carbon footprint which we would all like to reduce. The 100 mile diet is one way to reduce that Footprint. It’s another name for eating local.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-to-lead/global-food/part-4-is-the-100-mile-diet-a-pipe-dream/article1813387/

http://www.ecolife.com/health-food/eating-local/100-mile-diet.html

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/what-you-can-do/reduce-your-carbon-footprint/

7.       Walk, drive or take the bus-costs and benefits. Places to go, people to see. How do we choose to get there? Distance, cost, time, convenience, impact on the environment? All of these are considerations when we need to get somewhere. What is the best choice?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_transport

http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/programs/environment-commuteroptions-menu-519.htm

8.       Green Buildings. What defines a building as green?  What technology is out there to reduce energy use?  What are the benefits of a green roof or living wall? What is LEED? Windows, insulation, furnaces and water heaters-can these help? An overlooked part of Green buildings are the products used inside them-are they environmentally friendly and safe for the user?

http://www.cagbc.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home&Template=/Templates/EnglishHome.cfm

http://www.greenovergrey.com/living-walls/overview.php

 http://vancouver.ca/sustainability/building_green.htm

It’s not good for you, or the environment, to idle your car

Although it’s tempting on frosty mornings to start your car long before you’re ready to hop in it and go, letting it idle in the driveway pollutes your neighbourhood, wastes gas, and isn’t any better for your car than driving away thirty seconds after you start it in the first place.

But warming up the car is a Canadian habit. Based on research by the Department of Natural Resources, in the peak of winter many Canadian motorists idle their vehicles for about eight minutes a day. Nation-wide it amounts to more than 75 million minutes of idling a day, wastes over 2.2 million litres of fuel and produces over five million kilograms of greenhouse gases.

Idling is such a pollution problem in big cities that some, like New York, have passed no-idling laws. Although our communities are not densely populated idling is still a pollution problem and a public health issue since many of the places where people idle are public areas where there are more people around to breath in the fumes. As well, you inhale exhaust if you’re sitting in an idling vehicle.

An idling vehicle emits CO2 (the primary greenhouse gas) and a mix of other gasses that have been linked to increased rates of cancer, heart and lung disease, asthma and allergies. Children and the elderly are more at risk. The environmental Defense Fund calls idling the second-hand smoking of the outdoors.

Warming your vehicle on cool mornings is only one of the reasons why Canadians idle their vehicles. Empty vehicles idle in public places while the driver runs an errand, people sit in idling cars in store parking lots, presumably while someone does the shopping, and people idle while they chat.

If you have a habit of idling, being mindful of its effect on your health and on the environment might make it easier to stop. Natural Resources Canada has some other suggestions too:

Your car doesn’t need to idle to warm the engine. In fact, the best way to warm your engine is to drive your car at a moderate speed. About 30 seconds is all that’s needed before you put it in gear and drive away. As well, driving your car gets the heater going more quickly so you won’t have to wait too long for the car’s interior to warm up.

Don’t leave your car running while you run an errand. It will only take a minute for your vehicle to warm up again once you return.

Instead of sitting in a parking lot with the car idling while someone is in getting groceries, turn off the car and go into the store. It saves on gas, reduces green house gas emissions and you won’t be breathing fumes that leak into the car.

As a general rule, if you’re stopped for more than 10 seconds, turn off your engine. It has a minimal impact on the starter switch, and idling for over10 seconds uses more fuel than it would take to re-start your engine.

[written by guest blogger Bridget Oland]

[from guest student blogger* Adam Grzegorczyk]

The ski season in Canada is in full swing, boosted by some good snowfall in many places since the New Year. Skiing and snowboarding is such a breathtaking outdoor sport that it seems wrong not to be green when you hit the slopes. After all, if you are taking advantage of that great part of nature that includes snowy mountainous inclines in its design, why not lessen your impact while there? So what’s the best way of going green when on the slopes? Well it is probably something you consider anyway: where to go?

Ski resorts are caught in a classic catch-22, they generate huge amounts of emissions through snowmaking, grooming, moving people, and even getting to the resort itself, that they can often be the largest non-point source polluter in any given area. Yet it is those very emissions that may very well lead them to having no snow at all in a few decades (or years depending on who you want to listen to). You do still need snow to ski, right? So you can imagine that ski resorts have a natural incentive to go green. Not all resorts are viewing this in the same manner however.

The choice you must therefore make is to choose a resort that is proactive in its environmentally sustainable principles. Resorts all over North America and the world are choosing to use different initiatives to make their resorts more sustainable, while some resorts still chose to keep their heads in the snow. Those who decide to do something are initiating projects such as the building of wind turbines for power, the purchasing of carbon offsets, or the promotion of car-pooling initiatives all to lessen their impacts on climate change. Making a conscious choice to support resorts that practise these principles is a great first step in making sure that when you hit the slopes you do so in a responsible and educated manner.

Whistler, British Columbia for example has made commitments to conservation efforts that have cut electrical consumption by 18% in the last two years. The resort has also dedicated $320,000 to conservation initiatives this season alone and has cut more the 540 tonnes of waste produced this year.  For examples south of the border one has to look no further than Aspen, Colorado. Aspen has been an industry leader in sustainability for years.  Some of its most significant environmental initiatives include using biodiesel fuel in all of its snow grooming machines, and making snow with specks of dust to lessen the energy and water needed for production. They were also the first in the U.S. ski industry to offset 100 percent of its electrical use with renewable energies. These pioneering principles have led to over 45 other U.S. based resorts to follow Aspen’s lead.

The choice you are making is a choice you will have to make anyway. So why not choose a resort that practises sustainability principles and makes commitments to reducing its impact on the environment. Ask questions and do some research. Not only will you be able to cruise down those slopes with a lighter conscience, you’ll be doing all the other resorts who don’t a favour, because unless they want to get inline they won’t be around much longer.

A great site that recommends and highlights sustainable ski resorts can be found at www.OnTheSnow.com: Green Guide.

* We would like to welcome the Niagara College Bloggers! These students are in the second term of a 1 year post-graduate program in Environmental Management and Assessment at Niagara College. The students have diverse backgrounds and will be sharing their expertise in all things green.

[Student Profile: Adam Grzegorczyk is from Oakville, ON who has been snowboarding for the past 15 years. He has been lucky enough to be able to travel around the world snowboarding and been involved in multiple sustainability initiatives during his young environmental career]