Baleen Group News and Stuff

Article in Shareable.net

2011-11-21T08:20:00.001-08:00

Check out my article on ZERO WASTE in @ShareableDesign http://t.co/bW8KsCRA

Featured in Toronto Star

2011-10-27T07:32:00.000-07:00

Very proud of the story of my ZERO WASTE family in October 21, 2011 Toronto Star - front page of Living Green Section.

Monkey See - Monkey Do

2011-04-27T08:28:00.000-07:00

There are times when the actions of others just make me wonder. Then there are times when the actions of others - although puzzling give hope for the future. This morning falls into the latter.

I walked my daughter to school today. Our street is L shaped. As we walked down to the corner, fully 80% of our neighbours had dutifully put out their organics, recycling and garbage at the curb. Our household only does so when we need to (once a month or so for organics and recycling, once every couple of years for garbage!) so I didn't think much of it - Wednesday morning is our neighbourhood's usual pick up day.

As we took the corner and headed east, the street was bare. Not a single household had put anything to the curb - 0%. I looked back at the other and it hit me - Easter! Because of the Easter Holiday our pick up schedule had been moved forward by one day. Toda

y is not our pick up day and as such this section of the street had not put out their bins.

So look at the 2 pictures above and realize that they were taken from the exact same spot, at the exact same time merely one faces north and the other faces east.

So why am I optimistic about this observation? It shows excellent evidence that people are social creatures and that we tend to do what others around us do. At the heart of this morning's situation I can only assume that one person on the north part of the street put out their bins last night forgetting about the Easter schedule change. Another person saw their bins, put out their own and so and so on. In the span of a few hours this "epidemic of minor forgetfulness" spread to 80% of our street with the only "means of transmission" was seeing what your neighbours do. Around the corner, our neighbours to the east couldn't see what was up so were not "infected" by this epidemic.

My good friend, the late Jack McGinnis was credited with being the Father of the Blue Bin and modern day residential multi-material recycling. He always believed that as long as people were given the right tools, they would do the right thing. And so it was with recycling, your neighbour started using the blue bins, you started using your blue bins, then green bins and so on.

Today I am optimistic that if we can develop the right tools and get them in the hands of business and the public that they will take them up.

They simply need to be highly visible signs of action (much like a blue bin by the side of the street). From there a well-designed tool, with the right communication can "infect" people to do the right thing.

Monkey see, monkey do.

Online Astroturfing

2011-02-28T13:24:00.000-08:00

I had read about Online astroturfing before but didn't ever fully realize the scope of the problem and its implications. George Monbiot (as usual) doesn't shy away from tackling the issue head on the following article.

http://www.monbiot.com/2011/02/23/robot-wars/

So much concern is put into people stealing your identity online when it is important to remember that should it ever happen, while it certainly sucks, you are still you. In this article the damage comes from the leagues of identities that don't ever truly exist but whose sheer numbers can influence public perception and action on key aspects of our lives.

County going to full-pay system for trash

2011-02-23T09:25:00.000-08:00

Great idea !!!

Bold, brave moves like this show leadership and vision vs. a lot of the other decisions made of late

click here for story

Jeff Rubin article on How do oil shocks cause recessions?

2011-01-27T09:12:00.000-08:00

As all of my Economics Profs in school will attest to, my contributions to the fields of Economics were few. They should be thankful I studied hard enough to pass them on the first go around and not have to deal with me the following term. It probably would have been different if Jeff Rubin was the Prof.

Jeff Rubin the former Chief Economist with CIBC World Markets and author of Why Your World Is About To Get A Whole Lot Smaller (a book that is on deck on my night table).

A very interesting and easy-to-follow connect the dots of what has happened recently and what is likely to happen again.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/commentary/jeff-rubins-smaller-world/how-do-oil-shocks-cause-recessions/article1882165/?cmpid=rss1

Unbefrickinlievable!!!

2010-11-22T10:21:00.000-08:00

To paraphrase our good friend George .... just unbefrickinlievable!!

http://www.thestar.com/news/sciencetech/environment/article/892053--climate-bill-commons-crushed-in-one-blow?bn=1

and

http://www.cleanbreak.ca/2010/11/17/ashamed-today-to-be-canadian-as-conservative-dominated-senate-connives-to-kill-commons-passed-climate-bill/

Article on the "10 R's"

2010-11-11T12:15:00.000-08:00

Don't get me wrong - recycling is great but as Lloyd Alter tells us there are upwards of 9 other R's we should practice and use before resorting to recycling. If more organizations and people truly embraced the 3 R's (reduce-reuse-recycle) as well as the 10 R's, ZERO WASTE becomes the obvious solution.

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/there-are-10-rs-recycling-least.html

Recent article in local news ...

2010-11-05T08:33:00.000-07:00

Talking about our participation in EcoBusiness ...

http://www.newsdurhamregion.com/news/article/165294

David Suzuki’s must-watch “Test Tube” video – It’s an eye-opener

2010-10-07T04:08:00.000-07:00

I had read this "line of reasoning" in one of Dr. Suzuki's books way back and always thought it cut right to the heart of the matter but good for him for making it even more "user-friendly" in this very cool video at http://interactive.nfb.ca/#/testtube

It doesn't matter what your political stripes, what/who you believe or don't believe, etc we are all pretty much agreed upon the concept of exponential growth learned way back in high school math class. Here Dr. Suzuki shows us how exponential growth is so very important to how we all live our lives.

Enough of me talking - just watch the video.

Excellent article on on a simple solution to a problem we have made far too complex

2010-05-06T06:52:00.000-07:00

A good read from Planet Green titled

Why Elegant Simplicity is the Most Important Idea You've Never Heard Of

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/work-connect/elegant-simplicity-important-idea.html?campaign=daily_nl

Shawn’s Top 8 List for Earth Day 2010

2010-04-20T09:21:00.000-07:00

If I had to boil it down to just 8 things to do starting this Earth Day they would be:

1. Drink tap water
- drinking bottled water is as bad for the planet as drinking most sodas are for your body

2. Eat food – local, bulk, unprocessed
- eating food from the other side of the planet in small quantities, overpackaged and overprocessed is bad for the planet and your health

3. Walk, bike, transit, carpool
- in that order

4. Stop using pesticides
- you should love your family, pets and neighbours much more than you do your lawn

5. Insulate
- Canada tends to get a touch brisk in the winter and rather warm in the summer. Insulation works both ways, improves comfort and saves loads on energy costs.

6. Compost
- the green bin is good but composting your own reminds you that in nature there is no waste

7. Boycott something
- don’t be sheep! If you don’t like something, do something about it, stop dealing with the offender and tell them about it. It feels good!!

8. Listen to your kids/talk to your kids
- hear what they think about the topic and what they would do if they were in charge – it’s not long before they will be!

Not to get political or anything but this is just wrong ...

2010-03-17T08:20:00.000-07:00

I have met Stephen Leahy before - he is a good guy doing a thankless task - reporting on Environmental Issues in Canada ...

His most recent article is a good read and should make us all demand more transparency when it comes down to our most important resource - the truth.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50682

Baleen Group featured in local newspaper story ...

2009-12-29T11:52:00.000-08:00

Green Brooklin entrepreneur earns accolades in 2009

in Whitby This Week

December 24, 2009

We should still ask ourselves the question - So what if global warming is a hoax?

2009-10-20T06:44:00.000-07:00

I liked this answer - a generous serving of facts with a nice side order of sarcasm ...

http://www.grist.org/article/so-what-if-global-warming-is-a-hoax/

The Assumption of Inconvenience

2009-10-06T06:22:00.001-07:00

An interesting article about the "assumption of inconvenience" at

http://www.grist.org/article/2009-10-01-the-assumption-of-inconvenience/

While this article is very "macro" it caught my attention on a lot of things I have found in my own life and work. People "assume" that to live in a home with 99.3% waste diversion would be very "inconvenient". The opposite is very much true. Sure we spent a fair bit of time thinking about how we live and the layout of our home but now we only put out the garbage once or twice a YEAR and only put out the recycling every 3 weeks but that is a whole lot less inconvenient than hauling (the maximum) 3 bags to the curb every 2 weeks!

the number of times I have heard people say I don't have time to do this or that as it pertains to this topic always stuns me - if they only knew how easy it really is!!!

Featured in Durham Parent story (Aug 6, 2009)

2009-08-11T11:17:00.000-07:00

We were recently featured in a magazine article talking about Zero Waste. See the full story at http://www.durhamparent.com/NEWS/3142.html

0.7% away from Zero Waste

2009-06-19T09:57:00.000-07:00

We have been conducting a little experiment for a while now at our home/home office closely monitoring the way we handle all of our waste materials. This isn’t something we started out of the blue. I grew up in the country so I have been composting all my life. We didn’t have curbside pick up so for us it was a visit to the dump 16km away in Port Perry in our 1976 Mazda with the trunk the size of a modern day SUV’s glove box. Old habits die hard and for the last few years we have steadily been doing more and more things to reduce the amount of waste we create. We saw a big change by converting all our garbage cans throughout the house into recycling bins and putting a tiny container for garbage inside. For example, take a look at your bathroom and you would be amazed how much of the materials used there are recyclable (toilet paper rolls, shampoo bottles, etc) or compostable (used tissues, etc). In 2008 we started keeping track and only sent 2.4 bags of residual materials to the curb for the entire year. Everything else was either re-used, composted or recycled with our biggest reduction coming from stuff we didn’t buy in the first place! Our goal for 2009 is 1.6 bags and just 1 bag in 2010.

Recently we put out to the curb a bag of residual materials (it took us a little over 8 months to fill it) and it gave us an opportunity for a "quasi-scientific" materials audit. Given that all of our materials and recycling bins were empty last week we decided to weight all the materials we created in 1 week to get an estimate of our diversion rate. With 56% of our household materials by weight going in the back yard composter and in 1 week we only generated 100g of residual materials, (we took pictures) we weren't surprised to find we have a 99.3% materials diversion rate. Only 0.7% away from (absolute) Zero Waste but we're working on it!! Our next big step is to reduce more of our papers going into recycling - recycled or not it is still too high and reduce is always the first step.

A few things we learned or were confirmed by the audit:
• Back yard composting is really the way to go! We recently bought a second composter and have it going in the side yard. We combine our yard waste with a our kitchen waste and feed it to the thousands of worms living in our composter and create beautiful black compost that then goes back onto our yard and gardens. The municipal green bin program is great for chicken bones and dirty tissues but save the good stuff for yourself and save shipping it all over the countryside to be processed.
• We separate a number of materials that aren’t accepted in Durham’s recycling Program but are accepted in nearby Markham’s (as well as Kawartha Lakes). Whenever I have a meeting in Markham I drop them off at one of their depots for no charge. In our garbage alone it reduces our residual materials by 66%. If these items were recycled on a broad basis in Durham it would go a long way towards improving the waste diversion rate.
• A large portion of the residual materials is certain types of plastic films, cellophanes, blister packaging, etc. All of these are plastic-based and a colleague who is an expert in recycling says that they can be recycled but are not currently accepted in any recycling program yet are still sold in stores.
• Lastly, we use far too much paper in our house. I admit I am addicted to a daily “dose” of the Globe & Mail. We also get the local paper which is 80%+ flyers that we don’t read nor want and usually are advertising “crap” that will end up in a landfill in no time anyway. So as a first step we are going to ask to receive the local paper only on Fridays (down from 3 days a week).
• Re-using is perhaps the easiest and most beneficial of all the steps we have taken. Down in the basement we have a box on a shelf marked Goodwill. If we have stuff that we don’t use, no longer want, etc we put it in the box. When we know we are driving by a Goodwill we drop it off. It stays out of landfill, gets in the hands of someone who can use it and supports the good work of the folks at Goodwill – win, win, win.
• People might think 99.3% waste diversion would take a lot of time and it would be messy or smelly. Yes we have put a fair bit of thought and design over the years to have our house set up so that 99.3% is possible (I once counted and I think we have over 30 different materials collection bins throughout our house (but they are all hidden away and our house doesn’t look weird!?!)) however on a week to week basis I would say we spend about 3 minutes every 2 weeks putting out the recycling, 30 seconds every day emptying the compost and maybe about 10 minutes every year emptying our residual materials. Zero Waste saves a lot of time, saves a lot of money and helps save the environment!
• Lastly, we have made this a family effort. Sure a lot of these have been my ideas but I always think about what will work within our household. The best thing we have done is raise our 5 year old in this environment. She is going to be around a lot longer than me and my wife so her good habits formed now will have the greatest impact on the environment – in the long term. And if you think your family won’t go for it then just do a thing or 2 at a time and you will quickly be amazed at the changes you can easily adapt to and the net impact they will all have.

Back from a Florida vacation

2009-06-03T09:04:00.000-07:00

Some quick thoughts on our recent Florida vacation.

Yes, yes - I took a plane to Florida - we aren't perfect but we did our best while there. We drove to Buffalo then took a direct flight which saved a lot of $$ and a lot of GHG. While there we rented a compact car and marvelled at the average size of an American parking spot (based on the average size of an American car - not to mention the size of an average American navigating in and out their vehicle) We did a lot of green stuff while there - dolphin watching, kayaking with manatees and time on the beach - all good fun.

We were fortunate enough to see the Space Shuttle launch viewed from the Kennedy Space Centre. There aren't many more shuttle launches to go - I highly recommend you try and take one in - but be warned to be "flexible" in your schedule as their dates change frequently.

We also did the Disney thing which was a thrill for our 5 year old. A very impressive place just in terms of logistics, efficiency - not only of how they conduct business but also their ability to siphon money out of your wallets!!

Some highlights of our trip:

playing together as a family in the surf of the ocean never fails to delight and have a special ability to imprint on your memory banks
I usually save fiction reading till vacation and thoroughly enjoyed Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes. I quickly devoured this award-wining novel. While not always a "feel good" read it should none-the-less be a "must read" for all.
And for sheer giddy fun I recommend that everyone try indoor sky-diving. I'm not sure how many such facilities there are. I remember reading about a place outside Montreal when I was kid. I happened to find one in the heart of all the amusement parks in Orlando and I thought I would give it a try. It was awesome!!! Every time I came out of the wind tunnel I was giggling like a little kid. Suitable for all ages, sizes, etc. I look at it this way - I once spent $75+ to watch the play Rent. I would gladly pay double that to have the memory of that experience wiped from my memory banks. At this place for about $50 you get a chance to fly - not gracefully mind you but in safety with loved ones on the other side of the glass taking video - check it out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiBibCjX7cg

Africycle 2009 Bicycle Collection - Final Results

2009-04-27T07:39:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to share some final results:

A glorious sunny warm day on Saturday
72 bikes collected in Brooklin
14 bikes collected in South Whitby
86 total bikes collected
$250+ collected from donors to offset shipping costs
My garage now clear of 4 bikes that have been in there for last few weeks!!

Thanks go out to:

Brooklin Home Hardware for the venue and support
Brooklin Village Public School Environmental Club and their leader Liz Ashour for painting the blue bike and marketing support
Peter and Nicole Dewsbury as our south Whitby partners
Brooklin Town Crier for puclicity
and everyone who donated a bicycle, some money or both!!

See some photos from the day at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/baleengroup/sets/72157617388517996/

A good time as any to start back yard composting ...

2009-04-22T13:01:00.000-07:00

I nearly forgot that this was featured on the David Suzuki Foundation website for the David Suzuki Digs My Garden Contest - just a few things about our approach to composting ...

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/NatureChallenge/newsletters/july2008_gardening/page2.asp

(towards the bottom ...)

Thought-provoking Reading for this Earth Week

2009-04-21T09:03:00.000-07:00

Recently 3 articles caught my eye that as I read them I felt as though I should be holding up a lighter (like at a Pink Floyd concert - do they do that any more??) I enjoyed them so much.

#1 An article discussing that improvements in quality of life seem to be making the planet a happier place but only to a point. In fact some countries that have (and consume) "too much" are actually declining in the "happiness scores". the quote I liked was:

“The choice of sustainability is very consistent with a happier life,” Professor Kasser says. “Whereas the choice to live with materialistic [values] is a choice to be less happy.”

They also touch upon the inverse relationship between carbon production and happiness and that measuring a nation's worth by GDP alone is fool-hardy at best and most likely reckless for our long term health as a planet.

http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2008/07/22/why-your-happiness-matters-to-the-planet/

#2 From the April 20, 2009 Globe and Mail an article on the fact that in tough economic times people are not as willing to pay a premium for "green products". while some might see this as disappointing I hardily agree. If manufacturers and retailers think they can charge more for a product just because it is somehow green the public will never "sign up" in the numbers required to make the difference intended by creatiing the product in the first place. Take lowly toilet paper. At my local store, the recycled stuff costs more (sometimes 50% more) than the virgin material stuff. With local municipalities crying poor that the commodity prices of recycled products are in a freefall then shouldn't we see great savings in recycled products in the marketplace. sure there is a lag but come on!!! I think this article covered it well that we shouldn't buy green just because it is green. Buy it (#1 if you actually absolutely need it) if it is a quality product, at a good price and if it happens to be green then great. Paying extra to be green is not sustainable on a large scale in the long term.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090420.RCONSUMERGREEN20ART1939/TPStory/?query=green+marketplace

#3 An article that links obesity, energy consumption and climate change - I think the article speaks for itself (although I liked the quote "When it comes to food consumption, moving about in a heavy body is like driving around in a gas guzzler.") and affirms some of the findings from #1 above - let's not get fancy here but we don't need all these studies to tell us LESS IS MORE!!

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/04/eat-like-its-1975-to-save-the-planet-report-links-obesity-climate-change.php?dcitc=daily_nl

Pitch_In Brooklin and Africycle Bicycle Collection in its 7th Year

2009-03-31T04:07:00.000-07:00

Both Programs developed by Baleen Group staff ...

Pitch-In … Your Bicycles!!

As part of Pitch-In Brooklin 2009, in co-operation with Africycle, used bicycles will again be collected to support programs to provide quality, affordable, sustainable transportation in Africa. Africycle is a charitable organization started by a number of young people based out of Uxbridge.

Some of the bicycles collected will be retained, refurbished in Canada, and sold here in an effort to help pay shipping costs. The balance of the bikes will be shipped by cargo container to Malawi, in southern Africa. In Malawi, bicycles are refurbished by Malawian employees (inside the cargo container which does double duty as the bicycle repair shop). The bikes are sold to pay the salaries of the employees with any profit used to support a school for children who are orphaned, disabled, or designated as “vulnerable.”

This year there will be two minor changes to the program:

• Bikes donors are asked to give a minimum $5 donation per bike to help defray the costs of shipping the bicycles to Malawi. Donations over $20 are eligible for a tax receipt.

• Donors will be able to follow the donated bicycles through the “Blue Bike.” One of the donated bikes will be painted bright blue and pictures will be taken to chronicle its journey from collection in Brooklin, shipment to Africa and eventually its new owner in Malawi. These pictures will be shared in future editions of the Brooklin Town Crier and on the Pitch-in Brooklin website.

Bicycle drop offs can be made on:

• Saturday April 25th from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. at the 6th Annual Pitch-In Brooklin. Bikes can be brought to the Brooklin Home Hardware, 64 Baldwin Street.

• Saturday, April 25th 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. at the 10th Annual Whitby Shores Neighbourhood Garbage Cleanup. Bikes can be dropped off at 303 Whitby Shores Greenway.

The best bikes for this Program are older mountain-bike style or solidly built cruisers. If you have a bicycle like this you wish to donate, please bring it to one of the locations mentioned above. This program gets the bikes out of your garage, keeps the bikes out of our landfills, and puts them in the hands of people who are most in need.

If you don’t have a bicycle to donate, you can still help further the work of Africycle by making a ﬁnancial donation to assist in shipping costs or with the purchase of a bike for a health care worker in Africa.

The cost to ship a bike to Malawi is about $35. $125 purchases a bicycle for a health care worker, from the Africycle Malawi bicycle shop. One bike helps a CHCW reach far more people in a day, educating Malawians on HIV/AIDS prevention methods and distributing Anti Retro-Viral medication. Over 85% of the Malawian population lives in rural areas, thus making transportation solutions crucial in the battle of this horrible disease.

For more information or to get involved in Pitch-In Brooklin visit http://ca.geocities.com/pitchin_brooklin@rogers.com/index.htm. For more information on Africycle visit www.africycle.org.

Durham's climate change group has a vision

2009-03-17T14:03:00.000-07:00

Some work we did on Mar 13 with the Durham Region Roundtable on Climate Change. More details at http://newsdurhamregion.com/news/article/121912