1st Place Winner — Ontario

Kerrie Lowitt
Newmarket, Ontario

It began as a casual hobby in the summer of 2001 to reintroduce native plants to an area of land which was cleared by Ontario Hydro and literally grew into the discovery of my life’s passion: biodiversity. I learned during the subsequent years the impact these native plants have on supporting the ecosystem of which they were a part, and furthermore, the ways in which our actions can critically determine the levels of biological diversity around us.

As an individual EcoAction member, I have tried to encompass many of the principles underlying Earth Day Canada’s ‘Eco Tips’. I choose to grow and purchase heirloom vegetables which nurture the genetic diversity needed to sustain plant and animal life; I travel by train rather than plane, when possible, to lessen my carbon footprint so that I can “practice what I preach” (even if it entails a 27 hour long VIA train ride to Halifax from Toronto!); and most importantly, I try to share and continue to expand my knowledge by working on projects throughout the year which have biodiversity as their defining premise.

I believe a respect for biodiversity can be reflected in promoting a lifestyle which offers a realization of the multiple implications of our actions; the ecological life force which can be strengthened through individual actions like gardening and through slightly more indirect actions such as mode of travel; and most importantly, taking time to realize the endless array of interactions in the world around us that sustain, nourish, and support our life system.

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2nd Place Winner — Ontario

Don and Sandra Massé
Portland, Ontario

My wife and I decided that if we were going to build our own home, we wanted an environmentally-friendly home. We wanted the house to be as energy efficient as possible and did a lot of research in that area.

We set up our house so it would get maximum sunlight by situating the house to face true meridian south. In order to make the best use of the sun's energy we installed 34 windows, with a great number of them facing south. We installed a geothermal furnace so we do not use any fossil fuels for heating and air conditioning. The furnace also gives us hot water.

We put a green roof over our main living area which is accessible from our second floor. It is covered with three to four inches of soil above a drainage layer, and planted primarily with drought resistant sedum. It helps keep our house cool in the summer and adds extra insulation in the winter. A greener roof is supposed to last longer than other traditional roof coverings. We put an energy shield on the outside of the house to help insulate, which gave us almost an extra R10 insulation factor. We had Spider insulation sprayed into the house to avoid any drafts and provide an insulation factor of R28.

We also have a rock room in the basement. When we planned our footings out for our house we went around the top of the rocks coming out of the ground and they now form the floor for one room in the basement. The rock helps keep the house cool in the summertime.

Our next energy saving project was putting heat panels on the south side of my garage. Heat panels are used more in Europe and mainly for industrial buildings. My garage is 36 feet long and 13 feet high. My wife and I put up the heat panel hardware, and a friend who sells the heat panels came over and helped me install them. The heat gain in the panels works out to 30 degrees Celsius on a sunny day (i.e. if the temperature outside is 0 degrees Celsius on a sunny day the heat in the panels goes up to 30 degrees Celsius).

These are some of the ways we are contributing to helping the environment in our lives. We hope we can help make the world a better place and continue to think of ways to do so. We may install a windmill to harness wind power if we can afford it...

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1st Place Winner — Western/Northern

Betty Offin
Castlegar, British Columbia

Three years ago, when I retired to this community, I became aware of the great waste of green resources that took place because food related businesses in my small community do not compost. I canvassed the town and interviewed food related business owners, asking to take their wastes to compost with my red wiggler worms. All businesses but one turned me down. So, I began working with that one business, Weezie’s Borscht Hut. I began picking up her 100 pounds of greens, including wet wastes, egg shell and coffee grounds to my home. I have done this for three years so I estimate that I have hauled about 16,000 pounds or eight tonnes of green garbage to my house. I have fed the compost to my worms, in three compost bin made from free, thrown-away wooden pallets, and composted the rest outdoors. I have created soil to make five gardens, I have passed along red wigglers to many dozen people, teaching them to compost indoors all winter with red wiggler worms in bins. Weezie began going totally green by providing me with all her paper and cardboard waste, which I also compost. I also accepted jobs as team leader for our new community garden.

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2nd Place Winner — Western/Northern

Michelle Honeyman
Didsbury, Alberta

I was not aware of my eco footprint until I completed a course in sustainability and heard the stats. I used the EcoAction Teams calculator to see what I could do to reduce my impact. I had already replaced all the light bulbs in my house and made sure the electrical appliances are unplugged when not in use but I thought there may be more. I have always kept the temperature turned down. I switched to eco friendly soaps and detergents and I will replace my washer and dryer with front loading once they have reached the end of their life. My children have a bath, not a shower, because three in the tub at once is okay and I reuse the grey water to fill the washing machine. I keep a large pail next to the bathtub and it is inevitable that I will have a load or two of laundry to do (we are a family of five). I am sure there is some sophisticated system that diverts the grey water to be reused but for now, my five gallon bucket and a short trip down the hallway to the laundry room works for me.

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1st Place Team Winner — Ontario

Kathryn Cullen
Fairlawn Green Action
Toronto, Ontario

Fairlawn Avenue United Church has had a very active and dedicated Green Team and “Green Action” program in place since 2006. We run seminars and workshops, film screenings, Earth Day services, Earth Hour celebrations, include the principles of green action in our worship services, undertake tree planting and “Earth Angels” gardening projects, bike clinics, and serve on organizing committees of other organizations such as Green Awakening Network. We have a distribution list of people who receive our monthly “Green Tips,” and we have an extensive web site based on our Six Action Areas: Recycling, Property Improvements, Locally Grown Food, Transportation, Communications and Gardening. For example, in the area of property improvements at the church facility, we’ve changed almost all of our lightbulbs to CFLs for a substantial reduction of energy consumption and cost saving.

One of our most fun and successful events was our Historic Cycling Tour of North Toronto event. We promoted the use of alternate forms of transportation such as walking, cycling and transit. One of our members is an amateur historian and led us on a very interesting bike tour, full of funny details of people from the past, and fascinating historical tidbits of the neighbourhood. Our express purpose was to get people to keep using those bikes for their transportation! The event was a huge success in showing people the joy of cycling and the ease of adopting this alternate form of transportation as a part of our daily lives. I would heartily recommend this type of event, or other cycling-related outings, to other groups to encourage people to experience or renew a very enjoyable transportation alternative.

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2nd Place Team Winner — Ontario

Liz Muggah, Chair Local EcoAction Families
Lindenlea, New Edinburgh and Rockcliffe Park
Ottawa, Ontario

Local EcoAction Families (LEAF), a community environmental organization, was formed in 2008 by a group made up mostly of mothers. Our focus is on greening our very local environment and we are very active in our efforts to create, support and sustain a green community.

Our first objective was to increase awareness for environmental issues in our neighbourhood. To this end, we have been present at most of the community association sponsored events where we have talked and discussed green seasonal topics of interest with our neighbours. We also increase awareness through the submission of regular articles in our community newspapers and monthly “eco-tips” which are distributed via electronic listserv. Last October we hosted a film screening for “Be the Change,” a documentary about people in the Ottawa area doing ordinary and sometimes extraordinary things to make a positive difference for the environment.

In addition to education we are also interested in promoting waste reduction and diversion. We have started a program to facilitate the proper disposal of a variety of products including batteries, CFL bulbs, e-waste and the plastic and styrofoam plant pots. Over a designated period we have arranged to have our neighbours drop off a particular product and then we have brought this to the facility where it can be disposed of properly.

In the spring of 2008, we distributed information about green gardening techniques and had an information table at the Spring Community Plant sale. We also distributed a petition for people to sign to say they supported pesticide-free gardening. Finally, we facilitated the use of aeration as a pesticide-free option by arranging for a local company to aerate interested homeowners’ lawns for a discounted rate.

Another of our successes has been to link with other community and school-based environmental groups who are doing wonderful things to support the environment. Last year we formed a loose umbrella group with representation from seven other groups to encourage the sharing of information and support. This has led to some great linkages between groups. One of these is a series of “eco-seminars,” where each environmental group is taking turns hosting a community session on a topic of particular concern to them but with a local focus.

As a final example of our efforts to focus locally on change, I wanted to mention our Green Giant Awards. We have just started this award which will be given to a community member, giant or not, who is doing something to better their environment. The winner is awarded local notoriety by having their photo and story in the community newsletter (on the front page no less!) and also has the warm feeling of knowing they are inspiring their neighbours to keep working towards a greener community.

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1st Place Team Winner — Western/Northern

Scott Brisson
Representative, Vincent Massey Collegiate Sustainable Development Committee
Winnipeg, Manitoba

Vincent Massey Collegiate Sustainable Development Committee is a high school group dedicated to the completion of Alternative Energy Array [AEA] Project, an ongoing project which consists of a wind turbine, solar cells, installing photovoltaic cells, a green house and a green roof. The first task in this plan, to install a wind turbine, has already been completed, and now we are working towards installing green roof technology. In the final stages, we will be building a greenhouse in which food can be grown for the cafeteria. Energy generated from this array will used in the school and greenhouse. We received a generous donation of two 225 watt solar cells from Homewood Solar and Wind. This ongoing project of our high school's Sustainable Development Committee is all about changing our student body's perspective on energy, and altering our school's energy consumption. It is the active solutions we are working on in response to the growing problem of non-renewable energy. By establishing renewable sources within the school, our group is preparing it for a greener future.

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2nd Place Team Winner — Western/Northern

Denise Henn
VIA Rail Vancouver Green Team

Having worked in the railway industry for 34 years, and surrounded with a decidedly un-green environment of locomotive engines and machinery, Mike Di Giovanni quietly held the first VIA Rail Green Team meeting here in Vancouver in June 5, 2002. VIA Rail’s executive understood the importance of environmental responsibility, and soon Green Teams were springing up throughout the corporation. Recycling programs were established within the administrative offices, maintenance shop, and onboard the train. New, earth-friendly products were tested to be used in cleaning and lubrication of engines. Recycled paper products became the standard and Fair Trade coffee was introduced. An old machine was recycled and lovingly redesigned into The Green Machine – used to extract oil and crush filters to lessen the volume of waste from the maintenance centre. Suddenly it was exciting to be a member of the Green Team! Mike realizes that, just like a literal train, the wheels of environmental awareness are now turning and the momentum will be hard to stop.

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1st Place Team Winner — Quebec/Eastern

Thomas Howard
Baie Verte, Newfoundland

YEA! and EcoAction Teams: Raising Environmental Awareness on the Rock

The EcoAction Teams program is providing one environmental youth group in Newfoundland with a fun and engaging way to get more young people involved in what is quickly becoming a green revolution! In 2005, a Grade 9 student volunteered for a Great Canadian Shore Line Clean Up in Baie Verte, Newfoundland. The beach clean ups continued each year and in 2006 led to the creation of YEA! (Youth for Environmental Awareness).

YEA! has been involved in several initiatives in their short history. In February 2009 YEA! was successful in securing a Provincial Health and Wellness grant to help make their community the first idle-free town in Newfoundland and Labrador. Through presentations and partnering with the grocery store the group also helped to reduce the number of bags being used by customers and encouraged the use of re-usable bags. The local mail-order catalogue outlet came on board in 2007 and agreed to accept any catalogues that were returned to the store. YEA! organized a catalogue drive in February 2009 and collected 565 glossy magazines and catalogues which were boxed and shipped for de-inking and recycling..

The EcoAction Teams program is developing into an awesome new way to connect with youth across Canada. The site provides YEA! with a powerful conservation calculator and a cool interface to inspire more acts of green. YEA! is looking forward to new ways to make a difference. Building the membership base and getting young people involved in upcoming household battery recycling drives, tire pressure clinics, and taking an activist role on environmental issues will keep the group very busy for the next year and beyond. With the Eco Action Teams advantage, this green revolution is just beginning!

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2nd Place Team Winner — Quebec/Eastern

Cynthia Ballesteros
Targray Technology International
Kirkland, Quebec

Targay Technology International developed an environmental committee in 2008. We recently moved to a new facility where renovations were incorporated to improve on energy consumption. We changed the lighting in both the warehouse and office space as well as installing a heating and cooling system that can be monitored online. Timers were installed in all washrooms. The committee took additional steps of: removing all paper cup usage for coffee, purchased energy star compliant appliances, began a composting service and purchased recycling bins and instilled a recycling pickup on a weekly basis, seeing as the City of Kirkland does not offer this service to commercial residents. We will also soon begin lunch and learn sessions for employees and a tree planting ceremony is being planned for the Spring. Our cleaners were hired on the basis they use only environmentally friendly products. The Committee is organizing a green week for the summer of 2009 filled with activities for employees requiring their participation on saving energy and becoming greener. We have recently taken steps to begin monitoring our energy consumption in the hopes to reduce our usage. Finally there is some research being done at the possibility of incorporating a roof garden!

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