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According to a poll released yesterday by Bullfrog Power, “Nearly 100 per cent of Ontarians say they have reduced their household electricity use over the past five years, but 40 per cent of respondents say they do not plan to do more than they are doing now in the future.” The poll of 1,000 Canadians was conducted by Harris/Decima.

Here is what Ontarians are doing to reduce their electricity consumption, according to the poll results:
· 96 per cent of Ontarians turn off lights to save energy
· 78 per cent have purchased CFL light bulbs, and an additional 76 per cent have purchased energy efficient appliances
· 53 per cent of Ontarians unplug appliances when not in use; 33 per cent use appliance timers-both steps reduce electricity consumed by devices when not in use
· 57 per cent of Ontarians hang their laundry to dry
· Only one per cent of Ontarians report they are taking no actions to reduce electricity consumption

The poll results come on the eve of Bullfrog Power’s fifth anniversary. The company offers 100 per cent renewable energy, such as wind power and low-impact hydro – a logical next step in reducing the carbon footprint of one’s household (my personal nest has been Bullfrog Powered since 2005). Now more than 8,000 homes and 1,200 businesses in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and the Maritimes are using 100 per cent green electricity with Bullfrog Power.

In Ontario, conventional power companies offer electricity from a range of sources, including nuclear (which creates radioactive waste that must be handled… forever), coal, oil and gas (chief sources of air pollution, related watershed pollution and greenhouse gas emissions); and large hydro (which can involve problematic dams) – only a small amount of renewable energy is in the mix.

What do you think, have you hit a wall when it comes to conserving energy at home? What next step would you like to take?

I haven’t brought a plastic shopping bag home in a very long time now, but I’ve noticed that my garbage pail still has a lot of plastic bags in it: bags that have housed foods such as bagels, carrots, rice and milk.

Of course I try to avoid buying things that come in bags — my food delivery service is great about using paper bags for produce such as potatoes and beans — but it’s not always easy. Besides, I’ve recently realized that those bags can come in handy in a second life.

While visiting my grandma and my aunt recently, I asked if they had any tips for keeping carrots crisp. I love the sweet, crunchy snap of fresh carrots, but I’d found that after 12 hours or so in the crisper, they would always become a bit wobbly. My family-endorsed solution was simple: put carrots in a plastic bag. When I said I didn’t have any — that I’d been using reuseable bags for a long time now – they pointed out all the other sources of plastic bags I’d be likely to have. And it worked — my carrots now stay crisp for a week or more. (I can’t say how long they last, really — they get eaten too soon!)

If this reusing idea seems a little gross, know that I often rinse out my bags with a little soap and water, then turn them inside out to dry. But a good bag – perhaps one with a resealable closure – could come in handy in a few other ways.

Here are more ideas for reusing plastic food bags:

- Take them to the farmers’ market or grocery store to collect produce such as potatoes, apples, beans and more.
- Pack your lunch in them. Cleaned up milk bags are great for sandwiches; just slit open the end, then clip or tape them shut.
- Use them to pre-portion snacks for your purse, or for the kids
- Drape them over frost-sensitive plants on cold nights.

Do you have any more ideas for reusing plastic bags?

Fascinating how things we consider threatened or endangered species are so easy for us to eat. Particularly fish. Sandwich shops everywhere sell tuna salad; grocery store shelves offer canned tuna in a huge range of flavours.

But Atlantic bluefin tuna, the largest of the tuna species, is now on the candidate list to be declared an endangered species, thanks to the Center for Biological Diversity. How is it possible that they’re in such short supply? Aside from the miracles of modern fishing methods, environmental disasters such as the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico are taking a toll, according to this article.

In Japan, an Atlantic Bluefin tuna can reel in over $10,000, which gives you an idea of the supply vs. the demand. Tuna is a large fish, prized for sushi and many other uses. And it’s at the top of the food chain, meaning the fish have typically consumed, and thus store, a considerable amount of mercury.

So if tuna is so threatened and also unhealthy for us (particularly children and pregnant women) why are tuna sandwiches still so popular? Is force of habit?

For my part, I don’t eat fish anymore, unless presented to me at a dinner party (I may be an eco maniac, but I’m not into berating my friends). I simply feel that they’re under too much pressure from overfishing, ocean acidification, invasive species, climate change and more. Make mine an egg salad!

Have your fish-eating habits changed in recent years?

I’m no eco saint when it comes to electronics. While I don’t go through devices as fast as some people I know, I am a bit of a computer nerd and I love to understand and use the latest and greatest (no, I don’t have an iPad, although I’d love one).

But electronics require many metals, plastics and other things we commonly extract from the earth, and they’re usually made, and shipped, a long way from home. Those facts hit my top two environmental concerns: habitat degradation and carbon emissions.

How can we lessen the effects of our global obsession with TVs, phones, computers, and all those other must-have digital gadgets? First, we can try to squeeze life out of them by getting them fixed when they break, passing along old computers and other electronics along to others who can use them when we’re through, and, finally, recycling them when they’re no longer of any use to anyone.

And that’s where Chuck and Vince come in. Some municipalities are getting into free curb-side electronics recycling, including the City of Toronto. I’ve heard that this hilarious pair actually does work for the city. Thanks, Chuck and Vince, for showing us what we can recycle!

The environment may seem to be less of an issue among those in the federal government right now (if you believe the current diversion, gun control is a bigger issue than climate change), but across Canada environmental organizations and educators continue their vital work in preserving habitat, reducing greenhouse-gas emissions and many other terrific environmental initiatives. For those heading a classroom, funding for school-related environment and wildlife initiatives is available from the TD Friends of the Environment Foundation.

A few examples of recently supported school programs:
- Agriculture in the Classroom’s Little Green Thumbs project, an educational program that provides students with the opportunity to explore science and nature by growing a garden in their classroom, was supported by the TD FEF Regina and Saskatoon Chapters. The support from TD FEF helped bring this program to 45 schools from rural, urban and First Nations reserves in Saskatchewan for the 2009/2010 school year.
- The TD FEF Halifax Chapter supported Caldwell Road Elementary School’s creation of environmental education kits for Grade 3 and Grade 4 students. The Grade 3 kits allow the children to experience soil and plant growth first-hand while the Grade 4 kits provide hands-on learning about the science of habitats, which incorporates a bird adaptations activity.
- The TD FEF Fergus/Mount Forest (Ontario) Chapter provided funding for James McQueen Public School‘s “James McQueen Goes Green” project, which involves the planting of indigenous tree, plant and flower species to encourage and promote local biodiversity in the school environment. Through the project students learn stewardship, practical gardening life skills and have an enhanced opportunity to study living things found locally.

In the last 20 years, TD FEF has provided funding for nearly 4,000 environment and wildlife initiatives carried out by schools across Canada. “From in-class recycling and compost programs to planting trees on school property, teachers can make a big difference in their community,” says Mary Desjardins, Executive Director, TD Friends of the Environment Foundation, in a release. “Recognizing that educators are often expected to do more with less, we’re encouraging schools to apply for funding to help support their green projects and build awareness in the next generation.”

The program also funds projects run by non-profit organizations. Since 1990, TD FEF has provided more than $53 million in funding to over 19,000 grassroots environment and wildlife projects across Canada. Thousands of donors give to TD FEF on a monthly basis and TD Bank Financial Group contributes more than $1 million annually. TD also covers the management costs of running the program.

What kinds of environmental programs would you like to see in the classroom?

I joined leagues of litter-gatherers yesterday in the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, a national event held each September. I registered to join cleaner-uppers at David A. Balfour park in Toronto, one of dozens of the city’s sites that were cleaned up yesterday.

I’ve never seen a bunch of people so happy to be picking up trash. As we braved the stream, muddied our clothes and broke a sweat lugging heavy garbage around, we were grossed out by what people had tossed in the park, but delighted in our achievement: making the park a nicer place for everyone and everything.

For me it was more than that – it felt really nice to be among a group of like-minded people, concerned not only with the trash but with the wildlife trying to make a go of it in a city ravine, and in awe of the natural beauty all around us. I’ll be back next year for more shoreline cleanups!

So what kinds of garbage did I pick from the mud, the stream, from among the forest-floor vegetation? All kinds of litter people had thoughtlessly tossed from a bridge, from their car, let slip from their hands. The trash included:
- Cigarette butts and filters (the No. 1 type of litter picked up in 2009)
- Plastic packaging from cigarette cartons
- Beverage bottles and cans
- Plastic bags
- Many bottles’ worth of broken glass (I really tried to pick up all the little shards, motivated by the image an fox running through the park, slicing its paw on the glass)
- Plastic straws (Remind me why we need those?)
- Bits of clothing
- Part of an aluminum bed frame
- The base for a construction sign
- Bits of plant pots, plant trays and plant markers

I often do little garbage cleanups of my own. Click here to read my previous post on the gear you need to do your own.

Have you ever helped clean up a public space?
Do you have any ideas about how we can reduce the amount of litter in our communities?

Across Canada, teams are getting ready to clean up our shorelines (and parks, ravines and more) in the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup. I’ve signed up to help clean up litter in Toronto’s David A Balfour Park, which is where the Yellow River flows through to the St. Clair Viaduct.

The Shoreline Cleanup, a partnership of World Wildlife Federation and the Vancouver Aquarium, this year sponsored by Loblaw, has been running since 2003. Last year, the largest cleanup effort yet, nearly 57,000 volunteers cleaned up 1,568 sites, cleaned across 2,457 km and collected 15,930 bags of garbage. When I look at their list of top items collected, it’s surprising how many of those are related to smoking: The top collected item was cigarette butts and filters (367,010 of them in 2009), but tobacco packaging and cigar tips also show up on the list. Eco villains plastic bags (74,276) and small plastic beverage bottles (37,618) also took prominent spots on the list. Let’s hope the number of plastic bags is down this year as many cities have banned or imposed a surcharge on them.

It’s easy to participate removing trash from the environment: just visit the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup website and register for a cleanup near you. And hope for good weather!

Not much can instantly upset me like the sight of a bird hitting a window. When one of these amazingly resilient little guys, so capable and so well adapted to the natural environment comes into our increasingly vast urban landscape, glass wins.

Here in southern Ontario, fall migration seasons begins in mid August and continues through early November, so birds are on the move right now. (Spring migration runs from mid March to early June.) While it’s a great time to go for a hike and get a little birdwatching in, there are things you can do to look out for birds at home and around your community.

Developed by the City of Toronto in conjunction with groups such as the Fatal Lights Awareness Program (FLAP) and the Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS), this document, “Bird Friendly Development Guidelines” provides terrific background on birds and the urban environment. It notes: “Many of North America’s migratory bird species are facing significant population decline. Habitat loss, pesticide use, climate change and collisions with buildings and structures all contribute to this decline. As recorded by FLAP, of the 158 different species known to have been killed in Toronto by collision with buildings, at least 64 are classified as in decline. Millions of migratory birds are killed in North America each year as a result of collisions with buildings.”

The document notes that, while some bird species that live in urban areas year-round may be better adapted to light pollution and glass, it’s those birds migrating across urban areas to get to key habitats that are most at risk. Buildings with reflective glass or with a lot of greenery inside at ground level pose a high risk to birds. Those with a tight grid pattern in the window frames, screens behind the windows, decals, art or etchings that cover much of the glass surface and other visual interruptions as show in the document can help birds navigate around the building.

Here are some key things you can do to save a few birds’ lives:
- Turn off the lights! Birds will fly into windows lit from within because they can’t see the glass. Talk to your apartment superintendent, office manager and others about turning off unneeded lights as well.
- Close your blinds. Even when the lights are on, a space that looks closed off creates less risk for our feathered friends.
- Work in an office building with a floor-wide lighting grid? Encourage late-night workers to use desk lamps instead of turning on the lighting for the entire floor. Downcast or directional lighting would be the best choice.
- If you find an injured bird, transport it to a wildlife rehabilitation centre in a (unwaxed) paper bag.
- Use window decals or other film treatments. The Bird Friendly Development Guidelines says that they should have open spaces no larger than 28 cm2. Many of these products are invisible when you’re looking out.
- Tell your friends to look out for birds too. Tell it, email it, tweet it, Facebook it!
- Keep your cat indoors or inside a fixed space outdoors. According to FLAP, cats kill millions of birds each year, and birds don’t associate bells with danger.
- Support birds, migrating and otherwise, by offering bird food and clean water year-round.

For ideas on what to feed the birds, check out my earlier post here.

I’ve been writing about green living here at Eco Logic for about a year and a half now. Because of my interest in eco issues, and 285 posts later, it’s not uncommon for people to ask me how they could do better in terms of their environmental impact. Keep in mind that many of these people live lighter than I do – we all have our strengths and weaknesses! But here are some of the top things my investigations continue to show as most helpful, with links to previous Eco Logic posts explaining why.

1. Switch to a renewable energy supplier. If you only do one thing, get your energy from a provider such a Bullfrog Power, which feeds the power grid with the amount energy you consume using renewable sources, such as wind, solar or hydro, rather than coal, natural gas or nuclear. Having green power reduces your carbon footprint for every piece of bread you toast, every laptop charge, every load of laundry.

2. Eat meat less often. Yes, there are terrific sources of sustainably raised meat. But for most Canadians, it’s hard to access those local farmers all the time. Besides, eating vegetarian more often opens up some tasty new culinary options.

3. Watch what goes down your drain. From cleaning supplies, such as toilet bowl cleaner and tile cleaner to personal care products such as shampoo and shaving gel, everything you wash down the drain has to be dealt with, and we’re all downstream from someone else. Choose products with simpler ingredients lists, that sport the Eco Logo symbol, or try making your own cleaning products.

4. Make your car lonely. Where you can, leave the car in park, and walk, bike, carpool or take public transportation instead. (Unless, of course, you have an electric car powered by renewable energy!)

5. Upgrade fixtures and appliances at home and at work. Yes, changing your light bulbs to CFLs, or my favourites, LED bulbs, can save you a few bucks. Upgrading older appliances, particularly fridges, washing machines and dishwashers, to the most efficient new models will save you a bundle in electricity costs, water and carbon use.

6. Seal up and insulate your home. Yes, a caulking gun really can save you some money when you use it to seal up window and door frames, attic hatches and other air leak points. Invest in wall, attic and basement insulation up to current R-value standards to see dramatic savings from heating and cooling.

7. Buy less, share more. By swapping, giving away, borrowing and reselling everything from clothes to cars, we can keep useable goods in service longer, reducing the pressure to make as much new stuff from scratch. Don’t get me wrong, I like new stuff. But sometimes “new to you” (at a significantly lower cost) is just as good!

8. Buy locally. Knowing where your food, clothing and other goods come from means knowing how far they’ve travelled, and perhaps who benefits from your purchases and the environmental and workplace standards in which they were made. The bonus: supporting members of your community often means developing new friendships, trying new things and great service after the sale!

9. Take time to appreciate the natural world. Sometimes I think that the majority of us who live in cities easily get disconnected from all the creatures with whom we share our world. Getting out onto the natural landscape for a hike or an ecotourism trip can be a great reminder of why biodiversity is essential to good quality of life, and why trying to do the right things for the earth matters.

What else do you think is important in reducing your impact on our world? What yardstick do you use as most important? A climate change perspective? A habitat preservation perspective? A personal quality of life point of view?

Depending on what’s recyclable in your municipality, choosing better packaging can mean less in the landfill. Here are 10 switches you can make:

1. Choose juice boxes over juice pouches. When shopping for back-to-school lunch items, go for juice boxes. Tetra paks are recyclable in many areas, while pouches are not.

2. Select loose tea or tea in paper tea bags over pyramid bags. Loose tea and conventional tea bags can be composted or added to your green bin, whereas pyramid bags, often made with nylon, have to go in the garbage. See my earlier post on this here.

3. Try milk cartons over milk bags. I wasn’t sure about this one, since it no doubt takes more energy to produce a carton than a bag. But, at least where I live, cartons can be recycled while bags cannot.

4. Choose popcorn over chips. OK, this might be harder if you really love chips, but chip bags and tubes aren’t recyclable, whereas microwave popcorn bags can actually be composted, and air-popped popcorn has no waste at all (especially if you buy the popcorn in bulk using a reuseable bag, such as this type. Besides, popcorn is a healthy whole grain, so as long as you take it easy on the butter, your waistline will thank you for making the switch!

5. Go for cookies loose in a bag, or make your own. Plastic cookie trays (and cracker trays) are not recyclable.

6. Buy loose fruit and vegetables. Plastic clamshell packaging isn’t always recyclable, and when loose produce is available you can pick and choose each piece and reduce your plastic consumption. Skip the thin plastic bags at the store and put your produce in one of these reusable options.

7. Buy meat from the butcher counter. Skip the foam trays and plastic wrap and get your (locally raised) meats wrapped in butcher paper. While some places can recycle the foam trays, the little absorbent pad that goes under the meat is simply garbage.

8. Select eggs in paper cartons. Again, many municipalities can’t recycle plastic egg cartons, and foam cartons may be recyclable but are made from petroleum. Paper egg cartons are often made from recycled paper! Alternatively, you can use paper egg cartons for seed starting.

9. Paper trumps plastic for bread. Not only are plastic bread bags not recyclable, nor are those little clips that hold the bag shut.

Do you have any tips on shopping a little greener?