Columnists

During my recent visit to Japan, I noted that most people carry a handkerchief. These are not, generally, lacy little numbers with embroidery. And they are not just for women. Since it’s a warmer climate, and generally more humid, everyone keeps the appearance of cool with a fashionable brow-mopper. The styles range from linen with traditional designs to bold, bright, graphic patterns, to loud plaid with terry cloth on the reverse side. The prices range from about $4 to $30. Even the shops selling manga-related stuff had handkerchiefs — I bought my partner one with a Star Wars motif.

And we needed our hankies throughout our trip, thanks to the 28-degree, 85 per cent humidity Tokyo heat!

Of course, sneezing or coughing into a hankie isn’t couth in Japan — that’s reserved for tissues — but at least the tissue is spared for a more fashionable alternative most of the time.

Yesterday, day four on my visit to Tokyo, my partner and I took a break from the city’s well-organized, chaotic, architecturally impressive built-up areas and paid a visit to the Institute of Nature Study, which I believe is part of the National Museum of Nature and Science. Formerly the site of dignitaries’ residences, the 200,000-square-metre area has been naturalized since 1917, and the gardens of those palatial homes were returned to native plants.

We walked through roped-off paths through the park; most of the area is not accessible. It seems that the zone is truly left to its own devices because there is a rich understory of ferns, vines, and other rich flora. I admire this use of space — so often urban parks are really for people (and their dogs), and end up with a somewhat trampled feel.

Have you visited a wild urban park anywhere around the world?

I took this photo of an incineration tower from a building in Ebisu Garden Place, Tokyo. It was one of many towers visible by scanning the city from above. There were no visible emissions coming from the stacks.

Upon arriving at my friends’ place here in Tokyo, my tour of the apartment included the trash facilities – the choices are combustible and non-combustible, and I believe PET bottles and aluminum cans are separated as well. So that’s it, all the combustibles are burned right here in the city, rather than trucking them out to the countryside. To make that work, the facilities would have to be clean, the emissions would have to be contained, or certainly people in this well-organized, clean city would complain.

According to this Washington Post article, one of the plants burns 300 tons of garbage a day, and actually creates electricity for use in the surrounding area from the process, as well as an ash that can be used in building materials.

I’ve often wondered if incineration would be a good choice for Canada’s cities – my view of the Tokyo skyline left no doubt.

How do you think we could manage waste better?

I’m visiting friends in Tokyo this week, so I’ll keep my eyes out for interesting things with an ecologic bent. After arriving into Narita airport yesterday afternoon, my partner and I validated our Japan Rail passes and boarded a train for Tokyo. It was no shock to me that the train system was so efficient, having heard about the legendary bullet trains, or “shinkansen” in Japan, but after a 12.5 hour flight, seeing that the rail system is integrated into the airport was a relief: I knew that trains would be available at regular intervals, and that we would be efficiently whisked to our destination. While the train we were on wasn’t a high-speed one, it was quick by Canadian standards. A woman even came by with a snack cart, from which we could purchase food using a card you just touch to a sensor. The efficiency was delightful. As we rocketed toward Tokyo, additional rail lines showed up around us, carrying trains of many vintages, from what looked like 50s era trains to modern transit. When we arrived in Tokyo, we seamlessly transfered into the subway system, and switched lines to get to our destination, using escalators and moving sidewalks all the way (no need to lug suitcases up stairs).

I plan to ride the shinkansen out of Tokyo later in the week; I’ll try not to spend the whole time thinking about the possibilities for Canada if only we had high-speed rail. But our country was practically founded on the dream of a national railroad, and it seems like it’s more than time for an update!

Do you have a rail dream for Canada? Have you taken high-speed trains in other countries?

Have a look at this terrific slideshow illustrating kids’ postcards to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The World Wildlife Federation (WWF) asked kids to send in their postcards with an illustration about climate change and a letter advocating for solutions, as part of the My Future, My Climate Postcard Contest. The WWF received over 800 entries; their three selected winners each gets a bicycle of his or her choice, to “to support their carbon friendly lifestyle.”

Have you ever written a letter to the media or to a politician asking for change?

I was looking for some statistics on Canada’s bottled water consumption recently, and I came across an interesting fact.
According to Statistics Canada, while there is there is a strong relationship between wealth and drinking bottled water, and there is also a strong relationship between having a university education and having wealth, there is a lower likelihood of drinking bottled water in the home IF members of the household have a university degree. The StatCan report says, “It is possible that university graduates are more aware of the environmental issues surrounding bottled water. They may also be more sceptical of the claims that bottled water is a healthier choice than tap water.”

I hope that this shows, at minimum, that education can make a difference in helping people make better choices, be they about packaging and waste, habitat preservation, the global effects of burning fossil fuels… or any other important issue.

Did you have a turning point in your environmental thinking, where learning something new made you change what you do?

The strawberries are late to the party this year. Genuine 2009 Ontario-grown produce is starting to show up at farmers markets in Toronto, and I’ve been looking for the little red gems, but no sightings yet. The strawberry season is a little delayed. I just hope we’ll get extra-sweet flavour to reward the wait. We have a veritable jam cupboard full of strawberry recipes over on Homemakers.com.

I am trying to grow some berries of my own — my aunt gave me a variety of pink-flowered strawberries for my garden. So far they seem a little lifeless, but hopefully, with a lot of watering and sunshine, the transplant will take and I’ll have delish berries (before the ‘coons get them).

Looking for fresh fruit markets in your area? For the Homemakers.com Cross-Canada guide to farmers’ markets, click here!

To shop for other locally made goods across Canada, have a look at Farmers Markets Online for everything from wine to organic meats to cleaning products.

Have a favourite farmers’ market? Tell me about it!

I dropped by the East-end-Toronto clothing boutique Common Sort on the weekend; a friend of mine installed computer-controlled heads on the mannequins in the window, so my partner and I had to check out just how well the speechless-yet-fashionable models would follow our movements. Not bad!

The shop’s owner, Nicole (that’s her in the snapshot), is a real talent at selecting funky clothing and footwear that you could call second hand, recycled, reused or “previously enjoyed.” Or, I suppose, sustainable. I found a knee-length hemp wrap skirt made in Romania (I thought it was linen at first, so I had a pleasant surprise!) and a neat knitted shrug with frilly green layers, perfect for wearing over a dress.

It was great to shop for clothing more or less guilt free – I found a few things to add to my wardrobe without requiring that something new be made for me, I was supporting a small business owner, and the clothes were very affordable too. What’s not to like about that?

Have you bought recycled fashion or other reused goods?

I had a chance to watch the documentary Addicted to Plastic over the weekend. Although I had heard about the areas of the ocean that tend to accumulate plastic, it was fascinating (and scary) to see just how much plastic was in the area of the Pacific shown in the film (especially compared to the relatively insignificant amount of plankton in the same area). It was scary to see just how much plastics have infiltrated our food chain — the film shows a dissections of dead gulls from a beach in Holland; their stomachs are loaded with bits of plastics, and shows how toxins from plastics make their way into the fish we eat.

I appreciated that the film doesn’t lay blame on society for becoming reliant on plastics, showing that we just got caught up in its convenience without seeing the looming issues down the road. It seems that if we can contain plastics, largely by avoiding convenience plastics and reusing as much of the material as we can for new things, we’ll really reduce the severity of the plastics pollution problem. Beyond that, Addicted to Plastic shows many case studies of people who are doing a terrific job of recycling plastic into new goods (such as Interface carpets), or creating plastics from plant material such as corn.

My bet: We’ll be mining old landfills for plastics, metals and other valuable materials within 15 years.

Do you think you could live without plastic?

I receive a fair number of media releases at my post at Homemakers magazine, and I love reading about the terrific things some companies are doing to try to produce the stuff we need while curtailing their output of greenhouse gasses (GHGs).

Today I received word from Aveda that they’re purchasing wind credits against 100 per cent of the power they use in their main manufacturing plant. I believe they’ve been doing this for a while, and I’m glad they’re sticking to their commitment.

Last week I was having a look at the Attitude dishwashing tabs package for an upcoming article on dishwasher tabs in Homemakers magazine, and I noticed that Attitude has joined Carbon Zero. That means that they’re purchasing carbon offsets for the manufacturing, distribution and retail sale of their products; those offsets are essentially used to plant enough trees to absorb the carbon used to get you the dishwasher tabs.

A couple of months ago I heard about the Motorola w233Renew, a mobile phone made with recycled plastic from those big water-cooler water bottles. The phones are also carbon offset, for the manufacturing, shipping, retail sale, and even the power the consumer uses for a two year period AND the recycling energy needed to take the phone apart at the end of its life. I was really impressed with this end-to-end approach to energy use.

All of these firms also reduced the energy they use in the first place; after all, it will cost them less in carbon offsets if they aren’t using as much power. But it’s also the right thing to do. And the sustainability expert at Motorola told me that the company learned how to dramatically reduce their shipping costs by sending out phones in smaller boxes, a practice they plan to use for their other phones. It makes green sense, whether we’re talking the environment or the wallet.

If a product you’re considering buying has been carbon offset, are you more interested in purchasing it?