We began to generate and export power to the Ontario grid on April 1st and reached our 500 kW capacity for the first time on April 12th. We are now generating revenues from processing food waste into biogas and then generating power. With COVID-19 restrictions still in place, we are now planning to hold a virtual ribbon cutting ceremony in the summer. For now, here’s a sneak peak:
Inside the biogas plant digester, about 1,900 cubic meters of organic “waste” is being digested! The bubbles are the biogas coming up from the slurry.
ZooShare Bonds are Back!
– Earn 5% for 5 years or 5.5% for 15 years
This is our first bond offering since 2016. These bonds will be used to redeem and refinance maturing community bonds.
So far, we have sold $2.1M worth of bonds to current investors and people who signed up for our waiting list. Only 50% of bonds remain!
The Offering Statement will expire on June 30, 2021.
While our Founder and Executive Director, Daniel Bida, continues to be involved at a project level, our new Co-operative General Manager, Rob Grand, is taking over all of Daniel’s co-op related responsibilities: Rob will work with the Board to lead the co-op as we enter this next phase of operations.
About Rob: Rob Grand is an experienced entrepreneur and business manager with expertise creating, developing, and consulting with successful businesses, social enterprises, and non-profits in the Environmental and Renewable Energy sectors. Rob has served as a Director and Advisor to more than a dozen organizations including the TD Friends of the Environment Foundation, Green Enterprise Toronto, The Coalition for a Green Economy, and the LFP Foundation. Outside of the office, Rob coaches hockey, teaches skiing, paddles whitewater, hikes trails, climbs rocks, and can often be found with camping gear strapped to his touring bike.
If you would like to introduce yourself to Rob and welcome him to the team, or if you have any questions, please send Rob an email: rob@zooshare.ca
Take a hike!
(Literally, in Rouge National Urban Park.)
Want to see the biogas plant in-person, from a safe distance? Check out the trail next to the Rouge Valley Conservation Centre (AKA Pearse House) at 1749 Meadowvale Road: There are 3 trails in Rouge National Urban Park, ranging from 1.5km to 3.5km, and the best view of the biogas plant is just a couple of minutes from the trail head! Please note that while we plan to offer supervised tours in the future, the biogas plant is an industrial site and members of the public are not allowed. Please stay on the trail. Click here for directions and parking information.
Above: Sights from the Rouge National Urban Park. Please share your photos of the trail and snaps of the biogas plant: #ZooShare and #rougeNUP.
Right now, we are facing a decision that will affect Toronto for the next 50 years. How will we deal with the city’s waste?
A future vision of Toronto. Credit: Flickr/Daniel Calero Jimenez 2014
Over the next 6 months, members of the public and city councillors alike will discuss and debate the fate of Toronto’s waste via the proposed Long Term Waste Management Strategy. At ZooShare, we firmly believe that there is no such thing as “waste”, only wasted resources. But how does a city like Toronto implement this philosophy into a 50-year plan?
A Zero Waste future is “a future where there is no waste, where everything is designed to be reused or to become the materials and resources to create something new”.1 As you know, at ZooShare we’ll be doing just that. There are other local examples too: Take our former contest partners Furniture Bank and/or Toronto Tool Library (read more about each of us in the report). We are all examples of local businesses participating in the circular economy, “where unwanted materials are not disposed in a landfill or incinerator, but…keep valuable resources circulating in the local economy, supporting good green jobs, benefitting the community and reducing harmful environmental impacts”.2
Credit: Toronto Environmental Alliance “Zero Waste Toronto A Vision for Our City” 2016 Page 7
But Toronto still has a ways to go. According to TEA’s report, a lot less could be going to landfills, especially organic waste (food, plant and yard waste). Despite the Green Bin and Yard Composing programmes, 182,000 tonnes of organics are still put in the garbage and sent to the landfill each year!4 This is why waste Education and Effective Communications is one of the priorities outlined in TEA’s report.
Credit: Toronto Environmental Alliance “Zero Waste Toronto A Vision for Our City” 2016 Page 15
Toronto is ready to take the next step towards a zero-waste future. As outlined in TEA’s report: “We have the programs and infrastructure to reduce, reuse and recycle almost all of our waste. We have an excited and robust group of businesses and communities ready to scale up with creative solutions that support a circular economy. Now is the time to continue our zero waste journey.”5
Hopefully, in 2066, Torontonians will be living in a zero-waste city. Make it happen. Do your part now.
Credits:
1 Toronto Environmental Alliance “Zero Waste Strategy A Vision for Our City” 2016 Page 03
2 Toronto Environmental Alliance “Zero Waste Strategy A Vision for Our City” 2016 Page 06
3 Toronto Environmental Alliance “Zero Waste Strategy A Vision for Our City” 2016 Page 16
4 Toronto Environmental Alliance “Zero Waste Strategy A Vision for Our City” 2016 Page 18
5 Toronto Environmental Alliance “Zero Waste Strategy A Vision for Our City” 2016 Page 24
If you are an animal-lover, environmentalist and/or conservationist, then you have probably heard the full gamut of zoo criticism. Yes, animals belong in the wild…But what happens when “the wild” disappears?
First, let’s step back a bit and start with a brief history of zoos…They have come a long way from the menageries of the Victorian era, which were designed first for the scientific study of animals, then quickly took off as a form of mass public entertainment:
It wasn’t until the late 1970s that the idea of creating a space for the needs of animals was developed into a reality. Up until that point, the Modernist movement had influenced the design of zoos, meaning that they were designed to be functional. On her website, desigingzoos.com, Zoological Planner Stacey Ludlum writes: “This belief, along with the advances in medicine and desire for sterilization, created zoo exhibits that were easily hosed down and cleaned regularly. This meant concrete everywhere.” 1
It took Architect-turned-Zoo Director David Hancocks to revolutionize animal enclosures. By redesigning the gorilla cages into habitat-inspired enclosures, he not only changed the philosophy of the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, but inadvertently designed a new model for modern zoos everywhere…But, as he explains, change did not come easily: “If a traditional Zoo Director had seen or heard what we were doing he would have stopped it” he says, “I had Zoo Directors tell me it was stupid, irresponsible and unnecessary…If the gorillas climbed they would fall and break their necks…We were putting their health at risk.” Despite the criticism, the team at the Woodland Park Zoo pushed ahead, and soon “landscape immersion” was born. This coincided nicely with the building animal rights movement. (You can hear the rest of David Hancocks’ interview here.)
Just as larger societal movements influenced zoo design of the past, so too do they influence zoo design of the present and future. Currently, with our focus on “the brain” (MRI technology etc) we are now designing zoos that reflect that focus.
Currently, Zoos are trying to create opportunities for animals to use their brains as they would in the wild–even if those opportunities don’t look like “the wild”. A good example of this is the Philadelphia Zoo’s new trail system, Zoo360, which allows animals to explore the Zoo above visitor’s heads. This campus-wide network of see-through mesh trails links similar animal habitats, so animals can use one another’s spaces in a time-sharing system. 2
Andy Baker, the Chief Operating Officer at the Philadelphia Zoo, says “this really came out of our goal of creating best experiences for animals, and I truly think this reinvents the way animals experience our zoo…We’re not truly trying to recreate the wild. We’re trying to create environmental opportunities, so the opportunities for new sensory input, exploration, freedom of locomotion…The same functional needs and opportunities that animals have in the wild, without having to recreate the natural habitat.”3
But moving further into the future, we may see a model that is truly inspired by nature, and doesn’t just mimic the landscape or the activities that animals do in the wild.
“Zootopia” is a concept that flips the modern zoo on its head. The Givskud Zoo and Safari Park in Denmark is working with an architectural firm to create a zoo in which the animals roam free and the humans are in cages–or at least, in more confined spaces (safe from the animals). Architect Bjarke Ingels says “What we’ve tried to do is eliminate all traces of human architecture.” NPR reports that buildings are to be “masked as rolling hills and hidden barriers in waterways [that] replace visible fences and barricades”.4The model is inspired by the rapid collision of nature and cities, or as Ingels gently puts it “the distinction between the city and nature … is blurring more and more…It becomes more relevant to make sure that the other life forms can actually cohabit successfully with us.”
Cohabitation is a very important point. Because, up until recently, humans and wild animals have been able to maintain separate lives…But as cities and the human population grow, animals are having a harder time to find space to live. In fact, many don’t.
Currently, we are polluting rivers, clear cutting forests and acidifying the ocean faster than our environment–and most animals–can keep up. The latest edition of the WWF’s Living Planet Report is devastating: Since 1970, 52% of all wildlife on Earth has been wiped out.
Let me repeat that: In the past 40 years, half of the Earth’s wildlife has gone extinct.
Credit: Courtest of WWF International
When The Guardian interviewed the Zoological Society of London’s Director about this report, he said, “If half the animals died in London zoo next week it would be front page news…But [this extinction] is happening in the great outdoors.”
The implication here is that the vast scale of what we have done to the planet is too hard for most people to fathom–perhaps they don’t even know…But in a smaller, controlled environment, such as the local Zoo, people care. Julia Phillips, a Toronto Zoo employee explains, “When people see a live animal, they have a desire and a passion to protect that animal.” Zoos inspire us to do more to help the animals we see.
What many people may not know however, as Phillips explains, is that “Zoos play a really important role in terms of protecting species and acting as assurance populations for species [whose] habitat is no longer there for them in the wild…We can eventually bring them back to life, it’s sort of a Noah’s Ark in a way.” In her TED Talk, the Toronto Zoo’s Gabriela Mastromonaco also uses “the arc” analogy for today’s modern zoos, making the case that Zoos are ensuring the survival of endangered species that can be released into the wild after their habitat stabilizes.
In a video released this summer, The Toronto Zoo shows that they have a storage facility of genetic material (e.g. animal sperm, eggs, embryos etc) in tanks of liquid nitrogen, in which “there are herds of bison, prides of lion, and all sorts of wildlife that we don’t have enough space for in the Zoo itself, however these specimens fit perfectly well in the frozen Zoo, and are waiting to help repopulate species as needed. We are dedicated to conducting groundbreaking scientific research that will ultimately save many species that would otherwise disappear from our planet forever.”
Going forward, the public-facing exhibits of Zoos and the way we interact with the animals may change, but the role of zoos in the conservation of animals and valuable ecosystems must continue, and indeed, accelerate. Hopefully, we can all play a role in the protection and conservation of what is left of “the wild”.
PS You can read more about the Toronto Zoo’s conservation efforts in their Strategic Plan.
The longest federal election campaign in recent history is coming to an end. We are now less than 2 weeks away from ushering in a new government, and advance polls begin this week. Unfortunately, the topic of the environment hasn’t received sufficient attention, so we haven’t heard a lot about strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or develop more renewable energy–including innovative and impactful solutions such as biogas. The Globe Debates didn’t shed any light on the political future of the renewables industry: “As the fastest-growing sector in Canada, it can’t be ignored, yet we didn’t hear details about a renewable path,” said representatives from the David Suzuki Foundation. One reason for this may be that the production of electricity is a provincial issue, not a federal one–but that being said–the environment (read: climate change and climate change solutions) is a growing concern among Canadians, and the topic seems to have been underestimated–at least initially–by party leaders and their teams.
When the election campaign first took off in August, Huffington Post Canada readers expressed that “the environment was at the top of their list” of campaign issues, and in early September, a survey of CBC’s Vote Compass users confirmed that the topic of the environment ranked second only to the economy, above health, accountability and even taxes! Despite the public’s interest in hearing about the environment, the economy has dominated discussions, and, as pointed out by the CBC, “the environment and climate change were reduced to fine print”. An article in Macleans echoed the sentiment, stating that “as party leaders make speech after speech promising millions for this and millions for that, even the global threat of climate change warrants barely a mention…The silence is deafening from all three major parties.” Indeed, continuing into October, The National Post wrote “If voters were hoping this election campaign would provide a stirring debate on the issue of climate change, with clear options from all the parties on how to reduce Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions in the most cost-effective way, they will no doubt be disappointed. The parties have instead indulged in the usual finger-pointing and vows to do better, while failing to produce convincing plans to meet our international commitments.”
With the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris around the corner in November, it’s a surprise there hasn’t been a more concerted effort on behalf of the parties to communicate a strong message on what they think Canada’s position on climate change should be–especially since their current plans on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are essentially the same. As pointed out by The National Post, “There is in fact little difference between the policies on offer from the three main parties: all would largely leave the task of emissions reduction to the provinces.” That being said, The NDP is the only party to pitch an actual action plan on climate change ahead of the election. Will we hear more about a path for renewable energy alternatives as the election comes to a close? Your guess is as good as mine. For now, here’s what the parties have promised regarding the environment:
The Conservatives would:
• Lower GHG emissions by 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.
• Move to a low-carbon economy by 2050 and eliminate use of fossil fuels by the end of the century.
• Buy international credits to get to its greenhouse gas emissions goal.
• Reduce methane leaks from the oil and gas sector, capping emissions from the fertilizer and chemical producers and from natural-gas fired electricity.
• Approve the Enbridge Northern Gateway oilsands pipeline.
• Support both the proposed TransCanada Energy East project, and TransCanada Keystone XL oilsands pipeline.
• Protect Canada’s environment by promoting hunting, angling, and snowmobiling tourism.
• Pay $200 million over two years for Environmental projects such as cleaning up federal contaminated sites and protecting species at risk.
The Liberals would:
• Partner with provinces and territories to establish national emissions-reduction targets and provide funding to create the provincial strategies, including carbon-pricing systems.
• Invest $200 million a year to develop clean technologies in forestry, fisheries, mining, energy and farming.
• Put another $100 million into organizations that promote clean technology firms.
• Continue to oppose the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline; but support Energy East and Keystone XL pipelines.
• Phase out subsidies for the fossil fuel industry.
• Put a moratorium on tanker traffic along the northern coast of British Columbia.
• Reinstate $40 million cut from the ocean science and monitoring program at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
• Increase protected marine and coastal areas to five per cent from 1.3 per cent by 2017, and to 10 per cent by 2020.
• Along with the U.S. and Mexico, develop a North American clean energy and environmental agreement.
The NDP would:
• Lower GHG emissions to 34 per cent below 1990 levels by 2025-2030.
• Create a cap-and-trade system with a market price on carbon emissions; revenue from cap-and-trade would be invested in a greener energy sector in regions where dollars are generated.
• Redirect $1 billion a year from fossil fuel subsidies to investment in the clean energy sector.
• Introduce the Climate Change Accountability Act to ensure that Canada meets its long-term target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 80 per cent below that of 1990 levels by the year 2050.
• Invest in Sustainable Development Technology Canada – including wind, hydro, solar and geothermal technologies.
• Work with provinces to create a new fund to help Canadians retrofit their homes and offices to save energy and money.
• Would oppose the Keystone XL pipeline and the Northern Gateway pipeline (it initially supported concept of west-east pipeline, but says Energy East can’t be approved without more stringent environmental review process).
• Is promising that Canada will become “the global leader in the fight against climate change”.
The Greens would:
• Reduce emissions 40 per cent below 2005 levels by 2025 and 80 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050, becoming carbon-neutral by 2100.
• Eliminate all fossil-fuel subsidies to industry.
• Bring in a $30/tonne price on carbon.
• Oppose “any and all” pipeline plans.
• Introduce carbon pricing through a fee-and-dividend system to reduce fossil fuel use and encourage private sector investment in green tech, clean energy and green jobs.
• Refine capacity to process the oil Canada already produces.
• Accelerate construction of green infrastructure, ensuring a majority of Canada’s energy needs come from renewable sources by 2025.
• Work with the provinces to ensure no new coal-fired electrical generation plants are built in Canada.
• Legislate a ban on super tankers on British Columbia’s coast and impose a moratorium on drilling for oil and gas in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
• Produce stronger environmental assessment laws to help defend coastal communities from risky pipeline and tanker schemes.
• Repeal the Conservative omnibus security legislation.
The Bloc Quebecois would:
• Reduce dependency on oil.
• Make banks and oil companies pay more tax.
• Invest $40 billion in green technologies.
• Tighten security measures surrounding the rail transport of hazardous materials.
• Promote transportation electrification.
• Increase funding for greener residential, commercial and industrial buildings and introducing tax incentives for installing or converting clean heating systems via geothermal energy and hydroelectricity.
Spring cleaning? Donate your things to Furniture Bank and stop “waste” from going to landfills while turning someone’s house into a home…
Like ZooShare, part of Furniture Bank’s mission is to divert “waste” from landfills. Since 1998, Furniture Bank has saved over 320,000 tonnes of furniture from being thrown out. Items are given, at little or no cost, to individuals and families in need. So far, 62,000 people have been made to feel more at home.
A look at some of the quality items donated to Furniture Bank
The History of Furniture Bank
Furniture Bank began almost 20 years ago thanks to one woman and her car: Sister Anne Schenck was working at a refugee centre in Scarborough, when she realized that newcomers to Canada “were literally moving into apartments with nothing”. When the Refugee Centre closed in 1994, “I finally had some time to think about how I’d set up what became Furniture Bank,” says Schenck, adding “There was no business plan. I was just doing what I could do and I started talking about my dream.” As word spread, Torontonians who were downsizing or upgrading saw donating to the Furniture Bank as a “natural opportunity to help,” she says.1 With the help of numerous volunteers, countless hours of pro-bono work and financial donations, small and large, Sister Anne formally incorporated Furniture Bank as a charity in 1998.2
Furniture Bank isn’t simply a warehouse for donated chairs and tables–it is a resource to find the confidence to build a better life. 70+ agencies refer over 5,000 people every year to Furniture Bank. Clients are newcomers to Canada, people transitioning out of homelessness, mothers with children exiting abusive relationships and many others in need.
ZooShare Visits Furniture Bank
ZooShare recently visited Furniture Bank in Etobicoke to learn more about the process: “It was incredible, like walking into an IKEA showroom of quality furniture,” says our Communications Coordinator, Frances Darwin. To learn more, Frances sat down with Noah Kravitz, Community Manager and Fundraising Coordinator at Furniture Bank:
ZooShare sat down with Noah Kravitz, Community Manager and Fundraising Coordinator at Furniture Bank.
“Donations are not limited to furniture,” explains Kravitz. “We also accept artwork, pots and pans, carpets, TVs, computers, printers and small kitchen appliances.” Thinking of getting a new mattress? Even your old bed can be donated. Furniture Bank also works with Sleep Country as part of their Mattress Recycling Programme, receiving 20-25 beds every 2 weeks. Concerned about bed bugs? No need to be. Furniture Bank has a 99.98% prevention rate due to the extreme care of inspection of all donated items (before pick-up, during processing, after processing) and even bring in a special dog once a month to sniff out the little critters, just in case!
Furniture Bank also accepts beds, artwork, pots and pans, carpets, TVs, computers, printers and small kitchen appliances.
Keeping Money in the Bank
How does furniture bank make money? “As a charity, we are grateful for monetary donations, but we also recognized the need to be self-sustainable,” explains Kravitz. For this reason, Furniture Bank launched its Social Enterprise delivery service 10 years ago “which has been the bread and butter since then,” he explains. How does it work? “There is a fee to pick-up your donation, which starts at a competitive $99 $150*.” And why would you choose Furniture Bank over other “junk-haulers”? “Because, as a registered charity, Furniture Bank can issue a “donation-in-kind” tax receipt for the value of the donated furniture. When you donate your furniture, you change a life and reduce you tax bill at the same time!
Recycling Materials into Dollars
In addition to donations and revenues from their pick-up service, Furniture Bank is also able to recycle unsuitable furniture and e-waste to earn additional dollars to help their mission. “Where items aren’t in good enough condition to make it into our showroom, we can recycle the raw materials,” says Kravitz. According to the Furniture Bank blog, over 4500 kgs of cloth and fabrics, 2000 kgs of electronics and 50,000 kgs of metal last year.3
Employment Programme
By training and employing youth and newcomers to Canada through a skills training and employment programme, Kravitz says, “Furniture Bank offers employment to individuals facing barriers in our warehouse, call centre, in furniture repair, upholstery and woodworking.” In the near future their employees’ skills will enable Furniture Bank to provide an additional revenue generating arm: a furniture repair service. Are you a carpenter, cabinetmaker, upholsterer or designer? Click here to learn more about how you can help.
Win a $99 $150* furniture pick-ip!
This month, let ZooShare and Furniture Bank help you with your Spring Cleaning. You could win a Furniture Bank pick-up worth $99 $150* when you enter our monthly contest. (Please note: There may be additional charges based on the volume of donated goods and the location of the pickup.) To learn more about Furniture Bank’s pickup service, click here.
References:
1. Interview with Sister Anne Schenck by Cam Gordon: http://www.furniturebank.org/discover-sister-anne-started-furniture-bank/
2. http://www.furniturebank.org/us/furniture-bank-story/
3. http://www.furniturebank.org/furniture-donation-recycling/
Don grew up in North Western Ontario where the outdoors was his playground; As a pilot, he witnessed the sky being used as a garbage dump; Last year, he and his wife Heather only threw out 3 bags of garbage.
When did you become passionate about the environment?
There isn’t a particular moment that I can say I became passionate about the environment, it’s been a part of my life since I was young. I grew up in North Western Ontario, the outdoors were my playground: Fly-fishing in the rivers, camping in the woods, playing in the snow…It gave me respect for the power of nature…And if anybody has ever gone winter camping in Canada…it certainly teaches you to respect the power of nature!
In high school one of the class projects was doing a documentary about what was important to you. Mine was an exposé about the pulp and paper mills that I grew up around in Fort William. I put it to music and tried to show how we were using the sky as a garbage dump, pumping all this pollution up into the sky. Not too long after I finished high school, I got my aviation licence: Flying around Thunder Bay, I saw a many factories and mills that reinforced my view that we were treating our air and atmosphere like a garbage dump. It made a very strong impact on me.
If I had to pick a particular moment when I became more involved as an adult, it would be around the turn of the century: Prince Edward County was going to be first County in Ontario to have wind-farms, and having lived there since 1980, we certainly knew we had a tremendous wind resource here! The people that were opposed to the wind farms were getting a lot more attention than those in favour, so I founded Citizens Advocating for Renewable Energy (CARE), which gave a voice to the silent majority who supported wind power.
In 2005 my wife Heather and I were some of the first in Ontario to receive the Renewable Energy Standard Offer [the predecessor to the Micro-fit program] in which people were given the opportunity to sell power to the grid. With Bullfrog Power we paid a small premium in order to source our energy from wind and small run-of-river (hydro) projects. We put solar panels on our roof and added more panels after the Micro-fit Program came in. Together, with the solar hot-water we added, it made us more conscious of the power we were consuming and how it was being produced.
Around that same time, An Inconvenient Truth came out, and that’s also when our 1st grandchild was born…That was my driving force from that point on…When you have grandchildren, that changes everything. I always visualize my grandchildren being my age, 60, what kind of world will we have for them? We have to do things that will make it a better world for them and for their parents.
Why did you decide to invest in ZooShare?
ZooShare fits with what we think is right. We feel like we have to set an example, and leading by example is the best way. I think it was Ghandi who said “be the change you want to see in the world”. If you want something to happen, it’s you who has to make it happen. Rather than just wishing things were different, make them different.
For us, ZooShare was a perfect way to get involved, we really love the idea of making use of waste products. Our society needs to manage our waste better, what better way than making clean electricity from it?
7% is a wonderful, very attractive return on our investment, so for people that are more focused on the financial benefits, you can make some green for yourself while producing green energy. For us it wasn’t as much about the return as much as it was about being a part of an innovative, creative and positive environmental project with high-visibility: We like that [the ZooShare biogas plant] will be in a public place (at the Zoo) where millions of people will see how energy is produced. It will trigger thoughts about how energy is made and consumed. Now, I don’t think energy production is something that most people think about, we all take it for granted.
We were also very attracted by the teaching element of ZooShare. I know we’ll be taking our grandkids to the Zoo again, and we’ll be able to point to the plant and say, “we helped to make that happen” and “we can make the world a better place”.
Finally, we were very impressed with the professionalism of the team and how our questions were answered. We had the good fortune of knowing Petra [who sits on the ZooShare board] and Daniel [ZooShare’s Executive Director] was wonderful in answering the questions we had. We would recommend to anybody that they get involved in ZooShare and buy bonds.
What are some conservation projects you think other ZooShare supporters would be interested in?
Water conservation is very important to us. I helped start County Sustainability Group. Every year we raise awareness about water conservation through the sale of rain barrels, which coincides with World Water Day. Rain barrels create an opportunity for people to think about where water comes from, and what an important, scarce, and rare resource water is and that we really need to treat it with respect. We use the proceeds from the sale of rain barrels towards a bursary for students in Prince Edward County who show an interest in studying environmental sustainability.
Heather and I have always been thrifty, not wasteful…One day, on garbage pick up day, we suddenly realized how many bags of garbage people were putting out…We couldn’t remember the last time we did that, so we decided to keep track…It was quite amazing: we only put out 6 bags for the whole year! So I wrote a column about that for the County Weekly News and challenged people to reduce their garbage by 50%. That year we reduced our own waste from 6 bags to 3. We do that by practicing ‘Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rethink’. ‘Refuse’ and ‘Rethink’ are the ‘silent Rs’: ‘Refuse’ is to be a smarter consumer: consuming less is the very first step. You have to decide between wants and needs. ‘Rethink’ is to think about everything you’re doing and try to find a better way to do it. It’s never being satisfied that you’re doing the best you can, because there’s always a way to do it better.
Another area that I think a lot of people could think about doing to take better care of the planet–and themselves– is gardening. When you think about our parents during the war, everybody had gardens, it was essential, there’s no reason why anybody who owns property could not have a garden of some size, shape or form. Since I’ve retired I’ve ben carving up my lawn and using more and more garden space and growing our own food. It’s better for you, and it’s an amazing way to keep yourself in good condition, you know where your food is coming from, and you reduce your carbon footprint (instead of buying food that is being transporting from everywhere around the world, you’re going out to your backyard). There’s instant gratification in having your own garden because you can pick it and cook it fresh right away. It also increases your own food security, knowing you can grow it and store it and have it there when you need it. You can also support your local organic growers and farmers, CSAs and community gardens, and advocate for bees and pollinators that are being devastated by neonics.
Gardening is also a great tool for the next generation. it’s a skill that kind of got lost after our grandparents, but when kids see it, they are amazingly interested in how things grow. There’s nothing better than taking my grandkids to the garden. In our generation, people have a consciousness of what we are leaving behind…it makes your decisions easier, it makes you think, “it’s not about me it’s the people who follow us”.
About ZooShare
The ZooShare biogas plant will recycle manure from the Toronto Zoo and food waste from Canada’s largest grocery chain into renewable power for the Ontario grid. This process will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of removing 2,100 cars from the road each year, and will return valuable nutrients to the soil in the form of a high-quality fertilizer. To build this project, we are selling bonds that earn a return of 7% each year for 7 years.
If you are a ZooShare member interested in being profiled for our Member Spotlight, please email Frances for details.
Denice and John at ZooShare’s “Thanks A Million!” party October 2014.
ZooShare Investor Denice Wilkins is a lifelong environmentalist, protector of turtle eggs (ask her about Turtle ICUs) and even owns an organic blueberry farm in Tweed, Ontario. Denice and her husband, John Wilson, built and designed their passive-solar home.
When did you become passionate about the environment?
“You’d think Detroit would be a weird place to become so interested in nature, but you don’t have to live in the country to become passionate about the environment,” Denice points out. The Michigan-native founded a neighbourhood environmental club at the age of 10, in which duties included: alleyway trash pick-ups and stuffing neighbours’ mailboxes at dawn with messages like ‘Keep America Beautiful’, written in red and blue. She and her friends even wrote to the Governor of Michigan and told him about their environmental concerns “and he wrote back!” exclaims Denice. Meanwhile, in Quebec, Denice’s future husband (John Wilson, pictured above) was catching frogs and snakes and appreciating nature “the country-way”. While Denice went on to get a degree in Environmental Education, John became a wildlife photographer and cinematographer. “He shot his first wildlife film in The Galapagos, during an 8-month motorcycle trip through South America,” Denice reveals. The pair even made films together in Iceland and South Africa.
Why did you decide to invest in ZooShare?
“We always wanted to invest in socially responsible investments, and so when I heard about ZooShare and the idea of ‘impact investing’, I really loved it because we didn’t want to profit from things we think are wrong: tobacco, nuclear missiles, etc…” laughs Denice. “And responsible investing is about the environment, social justice, gender equality…[Those concepts] are a part of our lives, our careers, our passions…and so ZooShare fits beautifully into that…It all weaves together…I’m very passionate and concerned about the state of the planet, from extinction to climate change to the myriad of problems that are impacting the planet right now…And I really believe in the power of one: The power of one person to make a difference, and the power that one idea can have to inspire a group of people to make a larger change…When you feel so powerless…It’s easy to become apathetic and say ‘there’s nothing we can do…we’re on the Titanic and it’s going down’, but investing in ZooShare is a way to do something, and that just helps me feel a little bit better about things.”
What are some conservation projects you think other ZooShare supporters would be interested in?
Denice’s husband, John, was really ahead of the curve when he designed their passive-solar home 35 years ago: “He was an early adopter of energy efficiency,” explains Denice: “The house is oriented to the south, with lots of large windows to let the light in. The windows on the North side are smaller and fewer. We only have one level that is above ground and the rest of the house is below ground, which keeps the house insulated. On a sunny day we don’t need any heat source on at all…Until the sun goes down, then we start our wood stove…We’re not off the grid, but we have a solar hot-water heater, and our home is Bullfrog powered.
Denice and her husband also own Wilson’s Organic Blueberries, an acre and a half farm in Tweed, Ontario, where people can pick their own organic blueberries (July through August). “We also help pick blueberries for people who don’t want to pick their own,” mentions Denice.
In addition to being a member of ZooShare, Denice has another special connection to the Zoo: “One cool thing I didn’t mention is that I am on the board of the Quinte Field Naturalists, and one day we received a package from the Zoo about their turtle conservation efforts. We worked with the Toronto Zoo to put a turtle nesting beach on my property.” Denice learned about Turtle Nest Protectors, simple contraptions that prevent rapidly growing raccoon and skunk populations from devouring turtle eggs, which are in decline due to habitat loss. Although Turtle Nest Protectors are easy to make, Denice recognized that most people wouldn’t bother making them, “so we sell them inexpensively,” she adds: “Turtle Nest Protector is a boring name, I prefer ‘Turtle ICU: Incubation Care Unit.”
“Turtles are very site-loyal,” Denice explains, “if a turtle nested in your yard last year, it will probably come back. And please help a turtle across the road! The ones that are killed on the road are generally females going out in search of a place to nest. If it’s safe and you can pull off the road, help the turtle go in the direction it was heading.”
You can read more about Denice’s Turtle Initiatives here.
About ZooShare
The ZooShare biogas plant will recycle manure from the Toronto Zoo and food waste from Canada’s largest grocery chain into renewable power for the Ontario grid. This process will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of removing 2,100 cars from the road each year, and will return valuable nutrients to the soil in the form of a high-quality fertilizer. To build this project, we are selling bonds that earn a return of 7% each year for 7 years.
If you are a ZooShare member interested in being profiled for our Member Spotlight, please email Frances for details.
What a way to start 2015! On January 1st, Metro Vancouver made it illegal to dump food waste in landfills. Vancouver is leading the country by example: “We encourage food scraps recycling because it’s the right thing to do, it takes waste out of our landfills, it reduces our methane contributions, and it creates compost and bioenergy.” says the City of Vancouver website.
We’re excited to hear that Toronto is currently undertaking a long term waste management strategy for the next 30-50 years: “Development of the strategy will consider options which support waste reduction, re-use, recycling and recovery before final disposal,” says Annette Synowiec, Manager of Waste Management at the City of Toronto. You can learn more, share your thoughts, and get involved by clicking here.
In the meantime, it’s important to make sure that we each watch our own “waste-line” in 2015…And just to be clear, we’re not talking about shedding pounds or body sculpting! CBC recently reported that “more than $31 billion worth of food is wasted every year, and as tempting as it might be to blame waste on farms, supermarkets and restaurants, the reality is that most food waste is produced by you and me. Canadian households are accountable for almost 50% of that food waste:
Why? Well, you’re not the only one who buys fruits and veggies with the ‘best of intentions’ (which become mush at the back of your fridge). There is some “guilt relief” by putting that liquified spinach in the green bin, but let’s talk about ways we could prevent “veggie liquefaction” in the first place. Here are 3 ways to watch your “waste-line” in 2015:
1. Buy Less!
In the average Canadian household, one in four produce items gets thrown out1. As the price of food continues to rise (35% in the last decade) wasted food starts to look more and more like wasted money–as it should. Are you part of a one or two person household? Do you have a Costco membership? Please don’t buy that 6-pack of romaine lettuce! Not only is fresh produce more expensive at Costco, but do you really need six heads of lettuce? Or a huge box or oranges? Yes, it might seem like a good deal, but it’s not if you’re throwing half of it away. “We didn’t renew our bulk shopping membership a couple of years ago,”says Annette Synowiec, Manager of Waste Management Planning at the City of Toronto. “I take stock of what I have in my pantry, and I’ve made a conscious effort to do small-scale grocery shopping…It saves me so much money.”
Be honest with yourself: Do I really have the time or appetite to eat all that food?
2. Preserve!
So you’ve bought less food, but what do you do with it once it’s in your house? Yes, you eat it. But how do you make that food last longer? “By learning preserving techniques you can learn how to keep that food,” says Toronto’s Joel MacCharles, founder of wellpreserved.ca. In a compelling TED TALK about food preservation, Joel explains that “if you can boil water, you can preserve food.” An even easier technique includes using your fridge effectively. But if you’re not big on glass jars or fridge organization, perhaps paper sounds more appealing to you? Fenugreen FreshPaper helps your fruit and veggies last 2-4 times longer: Their paper is infused with a special blend of organic spices with anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties. ZooShare supporters get 20% off FreshPaper by using the discount code SHAREFRESH at checkout.
3. Watch This!
“Just Eat It” is a documentary about food waste by Vancouver filmmakers Jen Rustemeyer and Grant Baldwin. We had the privilege of watching this film at Hot Docs last year. Now it’s streaming for FREE online thanks to B.C.’s Knowledge Network. Watch it now!
About ZooShare:
The ZooShare biogas plant will recycle manure from the Toronto Zoo and food waste from Canada’s largest grocery chain into renewable power for the Ontario grid. This process will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of removing 2,100 cars from the road each year, and will return valuable nutrients to the soil in the form of a high-quality fertilizer. To build this project, we are selling bonds that earn a return of 7% each year for 7 years.
!["This was at London Zoo, on the famous Mappin Terraces...apparently practical, providing a catchment for water to feed the aquarium below, but it was no place for a polar bear. [They were] living in what looked like a concrete pit, where they had to endure baking sun with only a small, grey pool for their comfort, which seemed a poor substitute for the Arctic Ocean." writes Sue Gilbert. This photo was taken in 1972.](https://zooshare.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/polar-bear-1.jpg)
