Being The Change

“Nothing focuses the mind like a crisis”

- Liam Neeson (Brave Blue World)

Quarantine life has given me ample time to reassess the world and our impact on it. After a year of forgoing the usual social obligations, I find myself happier than ever. It amazes me how much joy can be gained by “going without”.

The compulsive drive to consume was ever-present back in the days of bustling social life. Without the incessant advertisements and “keeping up with the Joneses” I have learned to appreciate the true value of everything this world has given me. Reducing consumerism is one big step toward preventing a future like this:

From the ashes of this pandemic, an inferno of social and cultural change burst forth. You can join this growing movement by taking the first step toward positive change in your life. I have compiled some of my personal projects and top suggestions below to set you on a path to saving the world!

Sustainable Kitchen

Kitchens are considered the “heart” of a home, making them a perfect place to launch your sustainability journey.

Start with the two simplest tasks: eliminating single-use plastics and composting food waste. These steps will not only create positive environmental change, but they will also save you money. Creating your own compost will promote strong healthy growth in your garden for free! If you don't have a garden or city composting program, seek out a community garden or neighbour who can make use of it.

Even those with little to no outdoor space can be gardeners. A balcony or window ledge is enough to have a small herb garden or hang a couple of planters. Tomatoes and strawberries thrive indoors with a bit of love. Many foods can be grown completely indoors with a bit of DIY expertise. In addition to the FREE FOOD, indoor gardening improves the air quality in your home.

Container growing is an excellent way to upcycle and reuse plastics that could otherwise not be recycled.

If possible, don't forget to create an outdoor floral space to support your local bees!

Grow, Cook, Eat (available on Amazon Prime)

From seed to table this series shows you how to start growing your very own eco-friendly garden. The hosts offer top-notch tips for both in-ground and container gardening. They have you covered no matter what type of growing space you have. Every episode features a different food, from planting the seeds to harvesting a beautiful bounty. They also offer some great ideas on compositing and homemade nutrient supplements that your plants will love! As a fun bonus, each episode concludes with a delicious recipe to test out!

Not-So-Fast Fashion

I took a year off from purchasing new clothing to start the ambitious project of making my own. Knitting was the obvious starting point for me. I had recently picked up the hobby as a quarantine project and couldn’t wait to give my new skills a real test. Working with yarn also offered a bonus that I found very appealing on my recently-laid-off budget. If you get to the end and hate it, just unravel and try again! No more buyer's remorse, and better yet, no waste!

You don’t have to run out and buy a stack of yarn or sewing machine if fashion design is not your cup of tea. There are thousands of individual artists crafting incredible sustainable clothing lines. Supporting these artists keeps the community alive and prevents a need for “updating” your wardrobe with every changing fad. Fast fashion brands are designed to be excessively consumed and thrown away after a short time. The clothing they offer is not made to last, it is made to fall apart so you will come rushing back for the next big trend. Fill your closet instead with unique and sustainable artisan clothing that you will continue to love for years! Curating a closet that brings you joy, instead of chasing the latest trends, will open up a wider world of possibilities to express your individual style.

If you want to read more about that project check out my article on sustainable fashion!

Art-cycling

As an artist, I have been presented with some amazing opportunities to upcycle and rejuvenate items. Sourcing art supplies from a local goodwill or salvation army not only saves money, it gives an old item new life! Old paintings can be used as a canvas for new artwork. An old faux fur blanket can become part of a new costume. There are endless possibilities for inspiration and upcycling! Check out the videos below featuring a project I worked on that utilized all kinds of upcycling and creative reuse. Many of the costume pieces featured were crafted with secondhand items and scraps from previous art projects.

You can apply this tactic to spring cleaning or downsizing as well. Remove items from your home that no longer bring value to your life, without adding to our world's landfills.

One of my top recommendations for doodlers is the Buddha Board! With a bit of water, you can create infinite artworks. After each masterpiece has evaporated you have a clean slate to start anew. Countless trees worth of sketchbooks can be saved by switching to Buddha. You can even save your doodles in a digital scrapbook if you take a quick photo or video of each creation!

I consider personal style a continuous expression of artistic flair. Chief among my fashion pursuits has been the glorious technicolour rainbow that is my head. Changing up my hair colour regularly led me to seek out healthy and sustainable colouring options. Arctic Fox has become my true love. The conditioning base leaves my hair silky and the glorious scent is TO DYE FOR! Perhaps the most important bonus, it's vegan and cruelty free. Check out the quote from their home page below and follow the link to learn more!

“OUR MISSION FOR HEALTHY, COLORFUL HAIR

Arctic Fox Hair Color is long-lasting direct dye that is DIY-friendly and conditioning with a delicious grape scent. AF products are contrived of all-natural ingredients that contain no drying alcohols, PPDs, or harsh chemicals.” -Arctic Fox Home Website

Sustainable Business

I have had the pleasure, and immense challenge, of working from home over the past year. Taking charge of a home office has given me a chance to consider how work environments affect our lives. Small changes can make a dramatic impact!

You don’t have to work from home or be the boss to make a difference. Here are a few of my top ideas for creating a green workspace, including some incentives for your boss!

Go paperless everywhere possible

Reduce excessive notepaper waste by emailing all notes and memos. For more urgent messages, keep a small dry-erase board on each desk to create reusable memos or urgent notices. Having a designated board for urgent notes will keep desktops more organized and efficient. Never again will a sneaky bit of paper run off with your valuable information. You'll be saving money on paper, and saving the planet, one memo at a time!

Noissue 100% compostable mailers

A small change in shipping practices can make a huge impact on sustainability. Switching to 100% compostable mailers worldwide could prevent literal tons of plastic waste from entering our ecosystem.

Offer reusable dishes, straws, and cutlery

I know, nobody wants to do the dishes at work, but it's a small price to pay for keeping an atmosphere over our heads. Try offering a special reward, like a bonus 5-minute break, to the first person who claims dish duty each day. Soon everyone will be clamouring over each other for the honour or tidying the lunchroom!

Start an office garden

Gardening is a great team-building exercise. The care for this space can be shared by all employees who wish to relish in the fruits (or vegetables) of their labour. Access to a beautiful outdoor space and fresh air to clear their minds can actually improve productivity and raise everyone's job satisfaction.

When the harvest comes around, your office will be stocked with healthy snacks to keep your team energized. Consider making a special little smoothie bar for your employees to sample their amazing harvest. Team members will also be saving money on meals. It's like a bonus check right into their tummies.

Fruits and berries can be harvested throughout the year, and leafy greens can be harvested and re-planted midseason. Keep these easy lunchable snacks stocked up in your garden! Strawberries and raspberries are technically weeds, making them very resilient and great for beginner gardening!

Don't forget to include a flower patch in your space. Help the bees! For double-duty beauty, plant edible flowers. After the bees have their fill you can add them to food or create your own tea.

Cardboard egg cartons are perfect for starting plants. Because they are compostable, you can plant them right into the garden. This is a fun way to recycle old cardboard egg cartons and help the bees at the same time. If you're feeling ambitious you could even get into beekeeping!

Embracing Minimalism

Minimalism is a growing movement with amazing potential. Consciously maximizing the joy our environment provides is invigorating for the spirit and more sustainable for our planet. Satisfying environments satiate the driving need to shop and consume.

Since embracing a minimalist mentality I find myself surrounded by things I love instead of clutter. I still have my “unnecessarily” large collection of Star Wars toys and other nerdtastic goodies, but I am no longer surrounded by items that mean nothing to me. I did away with the “live, love, laugh” lifestyle and created a haven of personal joys.

Before plunging into a minimalist lifestyle there are a few basic ideas to keep in mind.

1) Minimalism isn't about throwing away all your possessions willy-nilly. Take time to think about each individual item in your home. Does it add value to your life? Does it brighten your life or serve a vital function? In the words of my tidying hero, Marie Kondo, “does it spark joy?”

2) Remember that the value of a memory is not in an item, it lives in you and with the people who share those memories. Consider taking a photograph of sentimental items that you wish to let go of. This way you can cherish a piece of the memory without holding onto the physical item.

3) Think like a dog. Have you ever noticed a dog is just as thrilled to receive a dirty stick as they are a fancy toy or expensive treat? They are simply thankful for the gift of joy and promise of playtime. Embrace this ideology in your own life. You don’t need to have the most expensive new toys. The importance comes from the value you see in an item. Collect moments of joy rather than trinkets.

4) Having less doesn’t mean going without. It is adopting an awareness of what you have and what you really want in your life. Filling our lives with items we think we are supposed to have doesn’t equal success or happiness. Having a lot of stuff, in the end, only means you're great at acquiring stuff.

Responsible Disposal

Clearing out clutter can be exceptionally thrilling, but it’s important not to get caught up in the passion. Responsible disposal of your purged items is the key! Don’t toss everything onto the curb for the garbage truck. Make sure any items that can be recycled or up-cycled go to the appropriate locations and donate any items that could still be of value to someone else. Keeping plastics out of our oceans starts at home.

1) Look for a program in your area that promotes reusing items that aren’t accepted by goodwill or similar programs. In Edmonton AB, we have a location called the Reuse Centre. It gives people a place to donate old craft supplies or bits and bobbles like milk jug lids or vinyl records that no longer play. These items can then be repurposed by artists or those who can give these items a second chance. Reuse Centres are an excellent resource for low-income children’s programs and promote the idea that what we may consider trash can still have a role to play in someone’s life.

2) For items that are still in usable condition, I suggest donating them to your favourite local program. Look for Goodwill, a women’s shelter, a youth program, anywhere you feel that your old items would make the most difference in your community. Take this opportunity to be the light in someone’s life.

3) Check out your local Eco Centre to find out what kinds of items they take in to reuse or recycle. This is most likely where you will want to dispose of any old spray cans, electronics, or items that need to be broken down before they can be safely disposed of. Think carefully before you toss items into your trash bin. You would be surprised how many items can be easily reused!

4) For old cotton clothing that is ripped or stained, look for an alternative to trashing them. Goodwill often tosses these items and won’t put them out for sale. One option is to use these old items as cleaning rags. Another great option is to look for a local program that needs material to make face masks for homeless or low-income communities in need. Your old garment could help protect the community instead of rotting in a landfill.

5) Add books to your local Little Free Library or donate like-new condition books to a local school or public library program.

Healthy Housekeeping

I highly recommend looking into Norwex products! Norwex window and counter cloths will save you a ton of money on chemical cleaners and they are much better for the environment. Simply add water to the cloth and wipe your surfaces clean. The cloth disinfects without any need for chemicals. If you have children or pets at home it will cut out any residue left on surfaces they frequently touch.

My personal favourite as a housekeeper was the window cloth. With water alone, the window cloth leaves a streak-free surface with the bonus of saving you, and the planet, a pile of paper towels!

Norwex products were a staple item for me as a domestic housekeeper, especially in homes with glass-walled stairways or large windows. The glass cloth can also be used to shine up your chrome and stainless steel surfaces! Perhaps the biggest impact of switching to Norwex has been eliminating the need for plastic containers or spray bottles of cleaner. Eliminating this source of plastic waste made a huge impact on the total waste production of my home and business. (I’m not sponsored or employed by Norwex, I just love the products!)

Switch to earth-friendly cleaning supplies. You can get a surprising amount of cleaning done with a little vinegar, dish soap or baking soda. Pure castile soap can be used for nearly all cleaning endeavours. Essential oils are also a great way to add delightful scents without using harsh chemicals. Replace your aerosol room sprays with an essential oil diffuser to eliminate another source of plastic waste! If you have pets it is important to choose animal-friendly oils. Certain essential oils can be dangerous to your fuzzy companions so do your research and, when in doubt, always check with your veterinarian.

The nice weather is a perfect excuse to get outside for some fresh air and help clean up your neighbourhood while you're at it. Take a bag along with you for a walk and fill it with any trash you come across. If you have a pet that you walk frequently, try changing up your daily route to cover new areas.

Consider switching to biodegradable wood pellets rather than clay cat litter. The pellets are sustainably crafted of compressed recycled wood byproducts from the lumber industry. They have a delightful cedar scent that is 100% natural in contrast to artificially scented clay. Natural scents are more health-conscious for both your pet and the environment without sacrificing odour reduction. LEARN MORE HERE.

Lowering Your Carbon Footprint

Reduce your driving distance

Bike or walk manageable distances that you would normally drive, such as a trip to nearby stores or taking children to a park. These small trips add up. We can cut down our carbon footprint by substituting earth-friendly transportation options.

Cut out power waste

Locate the items in your home that are constantly draining unnecessary power. Rarely used technology, outdoor lights that come on during the day, and any items that you don’t unplug while not using will continuously waste power. Unplugging these items when they’re not in use will cut down power waste and save you money!

Don’t forget your reusable bags!

Cutting down your plastic consumption is an easy yet impactful commitment. Make sure to have reusable bags readily available for all shopping adventures.

Shows That Get Us Thinking

Streaming services have made it more accessible than ever to learn about our planet. Educational tv isn't exactly known for its thrilling action sequences, I know. Lucky for you, educational content these days is not only visually breathtaking but also fun to watch! If you can get your family learning along with you then it’s bonus bonding time. Children are more receptive to education in a fun format, so don’t forget to bring the whole family in on your Earth-ucation!

Explained: The World's Water Crisis.

Broken- recycling sham

Be conscious about the products you choose, do your research and don’t be fooled by flashy packaging.

Netflix

(UN)Well

Dive into the controversial world of commercial “wellness”.

Netflix

Brave Blue World-

Learn about the innovative leaders battling the water crisis to create sustainable solutions.

Netflix

History 101, episode Plastics

For the purposes of this article I recommend at least the episode “Plastics”, however, the entire series is quite interesting. Understanding history is essential to creating a brighter future!

Available on Netflix

Bill Nye: Science Guy & Bill Nye Saves The World

Bill is back with a vengeance! Take a more adult-focused look at climate change and environmental impacts with our favourite Science Guy.

Connected

Follow the threads that bind our global ecosystems and communities together. Everything is connected!

Check out my listicle with more top show recommendations for Earth-ucation!

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WANT TO KEEP LEARNING?

Check out some of my other recommendations for improving our environment and reducing our carbon footprints in my article Planet Earth Needs You!