Category Archives: Impact Investing

“Investing” in your savings account?

RRSP Season is here, are you saving wisely? In this article by MoneySense, we learned that a “whopping 60% of the typical [Canadian] portfolio is being held in cash–far too much to meet most retirement needs when you factor in record-low interest rates and inflation.”

This trend seems to be mirrored in ZooShare members as well: When asked, “Not including ZooShare, where do you invest?” 56% of ZooShare investors said “In my savings account”.

In the MoneySense article, when people were asked “why [they] were sitting on so much cash, the majority cited accessibility and/or convenience”.

Well, we’ve made it easy for you: Here’s a list of 3 resources to learn how you can align your investment portfolio with your values and perhaps earn more by becoming an impact investor.

Disclaimer: we are not legally allowed to offer financial advice, so please do your own research and speak to a professional. These suggestions are just starting points!

1) Read this:

The Responsible Investing Association recently published their Guide To Responsible Investment. It’s available online and chockablock full of great articles like “Climate Change and Responsible Investment” (page 12) and even features a list of Responsible Investment Funds (page 23).

2) Research these:

Since 60% of ZooShare members also invest in Mutual Funds, we thought it would be useful to share these recent developments:

NEI has recently announced plans to launch a new fund called the NEI Environmental Leaders Fund. The fossil-free fund will invest in companies providing solutions to environmental problems (focusing on energy efficiency, alternative energy, waste management, water, and sustainable agriculture).
IA Clarington’s Inhance Global Equity SRI Class has divested from fossil fuels.
OceanRock’s Meritas SRI Funds are the only mutual funds in Canada with an impact investing component. A portion of all portfolios is allocated to “Community Development Investments”. Read more here.

In addition to the funds listed above (and in the Guide), here are EVEN MORE responsible funds you can talk to your financial advisor about (if you have one) or research yourself. PS: If you don’t have a financial advisor and you’re looking for someone who knows about responsible investing, the RIA has an online directory of advisors.

3) Buy a Community Bond!

And of course, ZooShare is now offering a new series of bonds that are construction risk-free and earn 5% each year for 5 years. Help generate renewable power, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and return nutrients to the soil. You can learn more about our newest bond offering by clicking here. There are also other options to diversify your community bond portfolio, like:

Happy responsible investing this RRSP season!

NEW Bonds are here!

The NEW ZooShare bonds are here with holiday cheer!

When we sold out of bonds in March, demand kept growing, so ZooShare developed a plan to offer new bonds that will earn 5% each year for 5 years.

These bonds have no construction risk: They will be held in an escrow account until after the biogas plant is built and will be used to repay the construction loan provided by our technology supplier.

Originally we had intended to borrow these funds from a commercial lender, however, due to overwhelming demand for ZooShare bonds and our preference to borrow from our supporters, we have decided to issue another $2.2M worth of bonds.

Click here to learn more and invest.

If you have any questions, we would be happy to chat. We can be reached at 647-704-6078 Monday to Friday 10am-6pm.

Wishing you all the best this holiday season!

Daniel, Frances & the whole ZooShare Team

Blog: Help to Crowdfund CaribShare

Hello ZooShare supporters,

I would like to share a letter with you from one of our friends, Carol Lue of CaribShare Biogas. Carol is a fellow-entrepreneur and biogas developer, located in Jamaica. Drawing inspiration from ZooShare’s business model, CaribShare will use biogas technology to produce renewable power, reduce poverty and take action on climate change. They have enough funds to cover 85% of the construction costs for their pilot project, but they need your help to raise the last $20,000. If you are inspired by Carol’s work, we urge you to support CaribShare’s crowdfunding campaign. Please read Carol’s letter below to learn more.

Thank you,

Daniel

Support CaribShare Biogas-HD from Carol Lue on Vimeo.

Dear ZooShare members,

Unexpected wins are one of the joys of being an entrepreneur.

I am the Founder and Executive Director of CaribShare Biogas, a social enterprise and registered charity in Jamaica. A few weeks ago, I was honoured to speak at a Virgin Unite event in NYC to celebrate the launch of the Global Goals for Sustainable Development (there are 17, covering poverty, inequality and climate change). As CaribShare touches on several of these goals, this was indeed an unexpected win and an amazing highlight to share our story there. I was especially honoured to also share the platform with Sir Richard Branson himself who has inspired me and so many other entrepreneurs to use business as a force for social good. Our mission is to produce clean energy in a way that reduces poverty and allows us to take action on climate change.

In partnership with Ch4 Biogas in Ottawa, we are developing and operating the first biogas plant in Jamaica to generate electricity on a sustained basis. And, drawing inspiration from ZooShare’s business model and developing a partnership with ReGenerate Biogas, we are working with the hotel and small farming communities to deliver biogas solutions to the entire Caribbean region in a socially impactful way.

What We Do

We collect tremendous quantities of food waste from hotels and animal poo/manure from small livestock farms to produce biogas (type of biofuel) and organic fertilizer for sale.

The biogas is sold to businesses that are high energy users so they can self-generate electricity at a significantly lower cost than purchasing from the grid. And, the fertilizer is sold to farmers at a highly discounted rate to help lower their production cost and promote organic farming.

We then share up to 50% of our surplus revenues with our participating farmers as meaningful income to help support their livelihood and the vitality of their communities.

Our Current Project

Construction of our pilot 100 kW biogas plant in Montego Bay will be completed next month. It will process organic waste from the Sandals, RIU, Iberostar, and Half Moon Resorts as well as from 50+ small pig farms in the surrounding areas. The biogas will be used to generate electricity to help power a highly energy intensive sewage treatment facility.

My Path to Launching CaribShare

Bringing CaribShare along over the past 3 years to launching next month has been both extremely rewarding and challenging. Continuous ups and downs and incredible struggles have been faced: raising capital with limited collateral, negotiating the bureaucracy of getting our environmental permit approved, and negotiating both the seen and unseen political and competitive dynamics that come with developing a pioneering venture that is both a waste and energy company are just a few examples.

But despite these challenges, what has kept me going, beyond my confidence in CaribShare’s business model and my own personal resilience, is the clear vision that I have for CaribShare to grow and deliver clean energy in a socially impactful way across the Caribbean.

Growing up in rural Jamaica, I felt so blessed to be close to nature and to have that connection. But, I was also affected by the poverty that was around and the struggles that good hardworking people were facing. I also felt that it didn’t have to be so, and I was determined to help from then.

Fast forward many years later to 2012 after having left Jamaica to study and having worked in business and sustainability for about 15 years in Boston and Toronto, that opportunity arose. Having just been laid off and looking to begin the next chapter in my life, I entered the proposal for CaribShare into the IDEAS Energy Innovation Contest that was being sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank. And, out of 3000 proposals, CaribShare was one of the lucky 8 winners. And, as a result, I gladly moved back to Jamaica.

From the competition, I was awarded a $200K grant which I have been leveraging to raise $600K to launch CaribShare’s pilot thanks to funding assistance from Caricom Energy Program, GIZ (German Corporation for International Cooperation), and the Development Bank of Jamaica.

The Way Forward

Amazingly, our biogas plant will also be the first in Jamaica to generate electricity on a sustained basis, which is a significant contribution to solving the energy woes of Jamaica and the Caribbean. Plus, we will be diverting immense quantities of organic waste from landfills for clean energy generation and rural development. And, I can clearly see developing up to 6 of these centralized 100kW generating biodigesters in Jamaica before expanding to other Caribbean countries that also have a lot of hotel and farm waste.

But, this excitement to expand comes with sobriety in knowing that I am going against the odds in developing CaribShare from the ground up. Luckily, my supporters have remained committed despite my struggles and lengthy delays in launching the pilot because they too support the vision and see my persistence. And, through divine intervention, somehow I have been brought in touch with persons in crucial moments willing either to offer some meaningful intervention or to be truly collaborative. So, despite the never ending exhaustion that I feel as an entrepreneur, I have a tremendous amount of gratitude, optimism, and certainty in knowing that with the right connections, partnerships, and collaborations CaribShare will be unstoppable in improving people’s lives. And, yes together we can all make the Global Goals come true.

We have launched a crowdfund campaign to raise additional funds to successfully implement our pilot, which can be found here . To support our social impact, contribute to our fund, share our campaign link, and like our facebook page. Thank you for your support, and I would love to hear from you.

Sincerely,

Carol Lue

Founder & Executive Director, CaribShare Biogas

Blog: “Who Is ZooShare?” Part 2

A couple of months ago, we sent our members a gruelling 75 question survey. Amazingly…Gratefully, we received over 100 responses! Before this, we only knew the most basic information about our members–age, gender and location (which you can read about in Part 1 of this blog post). Our survey included a large variety of questions that explored other demographic data, as well as our members’ values, lifestyle and priorities. After an intensive study of the survey data, it became clear that although there are several life-stage differences between generations (marital status, kids etc), most ZooShare members share similar experiences, values and lifestyles. Scroll down to see the top 7 things we have in common:

1. A University Education

GRAD

If you are a typical ZooShare member, you are most likely university-educated (three quarters of the membership hold a BA or higher).

2. A love of Learning

books

Your love of learning doesn’t fade after graduation, in fact, when asked what activities ZooShare members do the most during their leisure time, “Self education and reading” ranked above “spending time with friends and family”! You especially enjoy reading about topics concerning environmental conservation, science, technology, and travel (and if you are a Baby Boomer, you are really interested in reading up on health and wellness). Some ZooShare members love learning so much, they made a career out of it: 16% of ZooShare members work or worked in Education, Training or Library careers (one of the most common professions among our members).

3. Being Outside

high park

Whether it’s hiking, walking, camping or gardening, you love connecting with nature. You also love to share this connection: 37% of ZooShare members have planted or tend to a community garden, and over 40% have attended a park clean-up.

4. Environment > $

money vs plant Your connection with nature is strong and the environment is a top priority for you. You are very willing–even extremely willing–to change your lifestyle to benefit the environment. You believe that reducing greenhouse gases is more important than improving the economy (58% of ZooShare members) so you shop green (94% of members) and passionately donate your time or money to Environmental causes (68% of ZooShare members) and species conservation (34%).

5. Political

But shopping green and donating your time and/or money to help the environment isn’t enough! You believe in the power of being politically active: You vote for leaders who share your values, and at some point you have attended a political rally (58%) or spoken in front of City Hall (33%). You are also likely to be left-leaning (53% of members identify as “left” on the political spectrum, followed by 28% of those who identify as “centre”, 15% who don’t identify and 3% who identify as “right”).

6. Supporters of Divestment

CU Divestment1_Courtesy of Daniela Lapidous_Courtesy of Daniela

Speaking of being political, you probably know about and support the Divestment Movement (70% of the ZooShare members do; 20% don’t know or aren’t sure about it; and 8% do not support it). The Divestment Movement encourages institutional investors to remove their financial support from the fossil fuel industry. Click here to learn more.

7. Supporters of local initiatives

You may be in the 60% of ZooShare members who often find themselves in situations where their perspective is different from their peers (because of their age/language/culture/background/education etc). For this reason, it is important to surround yourself with a group that shares similar beliefs. You can’t save the planet alone! 77% of ZooShare members have attended a neighbourhood event, 35% are part of an informal community group, and 28% have advocated for a local cause. You are also a part of ZooShare: Most members feel like they are part of a ZooShare community…And 40% of members believe that when people get involved in trying to solve environmental problems, they “make things better most of the time”, if not “all of the time” (8%). 77% of ZooShare members own a ZooShare bond, investing an average of $6,974 (a median of $4,357).

Blog: Member Spotlight: “Who is ZooShare?”

ZooShare is comprised of 3 staff, 7 Board members, and most importantly, over 450 Ontarians from across the province who are a part of our co-operative. Our membership stretches beyond Temagami to the North, Sarnia to the West, and Ottawa to the East. Our membership is concentrated in the city of Toronto.

province-far-out-shot

Geobatch-2-groups-combined-big

Most of ZooShare’s members were born in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, but there is also a large number of members born in the 1980s. Baby boomers comprise the largest demographic, followed closely by the next generation, Gen X, then the “Millennials”, Gen Y.

If you’re wondering why people born in the ’90s or 2000s (Generation Z) are investing, it’s because they were gifted a bond by their parents or grandparents.Our youngest member is 9 months old. (Technically most of these “members” are only bond-holders, members must be 18+ to vote at our AGMs).

Finally, we have a small but passionate group of the Silent Generation (Why so quiet?). Happy Birthday to our oldest member, who is turning 83 this month!

ZooShare-Membership-Age-Range Generation-Pie-Chart

In terms of the gender split, the numbers are very close! The ladies “take the lead” by 1%. We will be following up this blog post with a member-only survey to help us learn more about you, our members. Stay Tuned!

Blog: Member Spotlight: Betty-Anne Howard

ZooShare investor Betty-Anne Howard is a “financial planner with a social conscience”, meaning she cares about the environment, the world, and how people make their money. While in school, Betty-Anne learned a new way to see the world, and now she passionately champions protecting that world through the UN’s Principles for Sustainable Investment.

When did you become passionate about the environment?

I’ve always been passionate about the environment…Part of that was because I had to be: We grew up poor, we didn’t have a lot, so we had to reduce, reuse and recycle out of necessity! In the early 80s, when I was in my late 20s, I learned about and developed a feminist construct that allowed me to see the whole picture…What I learned through feminist theory was respect, power…and care for the community and other communities, and that strengthened my passion for the environment.

Why did you decide to invest in ZooShare?

ZooShare sent out a post to the members of the Responsible Investment Association (RIA) asking impact investors to share their stories. As a result of [Frances] reaching out to me, I decided to take a closer look, and I thought “this is something I could really get into”. I’m a big believer of practicing what I preach, like my involvement with the RIA and micro-enterprise lending through KIVA…It just made sense to me, especially with the 7% return, I thought “I would like to get behind ZooShare”.

What are some projects you think other ZooShare supporters would be interested in?

There are many things that are happening out in the community, as well as some things that are unique to Kingston. For example, I’m part of a a group that’s associated with Wintergreen Co-op…and I’ve been a member of SWITCH for about 5 years…

Wherever I go and whatever I do, I look for opportunities to talk about the environment and to talk about issues related to being socially responsible…For example, in my work, I wanted to hear from money managers, to what extent–if at all–we were implementing the UN Principles for Sustainable Investment, because, Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance issues (ESG) form the basis for Socially Responsible Investing (SRI). I spoke with [one of my managers] about [implementing SRI principals and] he was completely behind it, he was prepared to send out a memo about it…and later that week, he received a memo from [the parent company] asking for the same type of transparency! I was excited and thrilled and so proud of [the parent company]…My ideal goal is to not have a separate group of funds called SRIs, I want these principals to be completely integrated in every part of every portfolio manager’s investment decisions…That’s my dream.

Blog: Community Bonds Factsheet

Looking to make the world a better place while growing your money?

According to a recent report from the Responsible Investment Association, more than $4 billion has been allocated in Canada to “investments made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate a measurable, beneficial social and environmental impact alongside a financial return”. This definition speaks to the notion of a ‘blended’ return whereby investors are rewarded with both a financial return AND a social / environmental impact. It’s a clear win-win-win for the economy, society, and the planet.

Community bonds can enhance any portfolio by offering a strong return on investment, while hedging against systemic risks that could affect the entire stock and/or bond market. Since community bonds aren’t traded on any exchange, they will remain stable in the event of a crash. Community bonds do come with some unique risks, and investors need to do their homework before investing.

So how can everyday investors like you and me get in on this action? Thankfully, three leading organizations have teamed up to present a quick factsheet that outlines their community bonds:

I love the content of this factsheet, and what excites me the most is the collaboration it represents. All too often in the investment industry, I’ve seen organizations competing against each other for your (or my) money. It’s refreshing to see that these nonprofits, instead of competing for a bigger piece of the pie, are collaborating to make the whole pie bigger! This speaks volumes about the culture in the social finance sector, and provides a stark contrast to the cut-throat nature of the old investment banks.

My hope is that investors will stop asking ‘should I or shouldn’t I?’ around community bonds and start asking ‘what percentage of my portfolio should I invest?’. If Canadians allocated just 5% of their money into community bonds, it would activate more than $50 billion of capital to help the nonprofit sector grow and thrive. Now that’s a sustainable economy!

Want to learn more? Get your tickets to the Community Bond Showcase happening March 19 6-9pm at CSI Annex (720 Bathurst, just south of Bloor).

**DISCLOSURE – The author is a member of both SolarShare and CSI and is about to join ZooShare**

This post was written by Timothy Nash and was originally posted on The Sustainable Economist blog. It was re-posted here with permission.

Blog: Member Spotlight: Don Ross

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.

Blog: Member Spotlight: Denice Wilkins

Denice-Wilkins-and-John-Wilson_IMG_0815
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.

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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.”

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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.

(Flikr Photo Credit)

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

If you are a ZooShare member interested in being profiled for our Member Spotlight, please email Frances for details.

Blog: 3 ways to watch your “waste-line” in 2015

organicsCampaign

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?

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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!

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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.

REFERENCES

1. “Five Ways to End Food Waste” by David Suzuki’s Queen’s of Green
2. “27 Billion” Revisited: The Cost of Canada’s Annual Food Waste by Dr. Martin V. Gooch, Dr. Abdel Felfel and Caroline Glasbey. December 2014.