TIP for Wednesday April 30th, 2008

This weekend the temps are going up, which means we can get back to sitting on the patio sipping on a glass of our favourite wine! This year why not pour a glass of organic or biodynamic wine. Biodynamic on the label means the wine was holistically produced with consideration for the local ecosystem, soil, and even phases of the moon. Of course organic wine means less chance of chemical insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides on the earth and in your glass. You'll be supporting eco-friendly farms because organic farmers employ green agricultural methods such as planting cover crops. Organic wine is also easy on your tongue and may lead to gentler hangovers, because it is minimally processed and has no added sulfites. Sulfites are preservatives found in regular wine. Happy sipping! :)

TIP for Tuesday April 29th, 2008

Earth month is almost over but why stop being green? Take it a step further and get hooked on planet-positive beauty tools. These tools work as well as or better than conventional. Buying high-quality beauty tools that last a lifetime means less waste in the end. Help the environment by incorporating sustainable supplies such as recycled aluminum and packaging. There are some cool eco-beauty tools available these days like The Silence HP Graphite, these super quiet hairdryers only use about 2/3 the power of conventional ones. Look for makeup brushes made with natural products like bamboo handles, crystal glass nail files last forever or leaf fiber blotting linens that remove sweat and oil from shiny faces. Some of these eco beauty products go a step further in helping the environment, by donating a percentage of their sales to breast cancer or planting of trees etc. For links to these products check out

http://www.hairpower.com/products.html

http://www.boscia.net/newsite/product_detail.php?products_id=58

http://www.95andsunny.com/selecta.html

http://www.drugstore.com/products/prod.asp?pid=169381&catid=24584&aid=333840&aparam=zWVH4MO6EJI-C0CDeYV1KIS1idZAYPgrLw

TIP for Monday April 27th, 2008

This one’s for the all the dog owners. What do use to stoop and scoop? A plastic grocery bag? I know you think you are being less waste full by finding a way to reuse plastic bags but…but the reality is that you are only preserving your dog’s poop. Plastic bags can take 1,000’s of years to break down…so does whatever’s inside of them. In North America, the poop that dogs produce could fill an 800 ft tall football field each year. Use biodegradable bags, which break down in as few as 30 days. Plus nowadays Bio-bags are comparably priced to regular baggies.

TIP for Friday April 25th, 2008

The Ontario government introduced legislation on Tuesday (Earth Day) to ban the sale and cosmetic use of pesticides on lawns and gardens. An important day for our environment. Good news is that there are effective alternatives This is slug season with all the flowers trying to pop up, slugs think it’s an all you can eat buffet! Copper serves as a great barrier for slugs, giving them a small shock when they try to cross it. By using old pennies to create rings of copper surrounding your plants, you can have a natural, non-toxic, slug-free garden and get rid of your loose change. Since slugs are most active in damp nighttime conditions, watering in the AM instead of the PM can reduce slug damage by 80%. Or you can try adding lava rocks, gravel, and other rough materials to your garden their rough surfaces irritates and deters slugs.

TIP for Thursday April 24th, 2008

Tuesday was Earth Day and on my way to work I saw a lady watering her garden and then washing the dirt off the sidewalk in front of her house. I was horrified because as I stood and waited for the bus she did this for close to 15min!!! On Earth day of all days. Some countries in our world don’t even have clean water to drink yet alone to wash the sidewalk! So it got me thinking. How can we reuse water for use outdoors? A gray water system, it directs gently used water (called gray water) to your garden. Gray water systems can save up to 40% of drinkable water, and if enough people install systems, we could have smaller water-purification and sewage-treatment plants. Hooking up a gray-water system can also increase your home's value. Just make sure you only use the gray water only for non edible, washing your car and driveway! Also be sure to only use eco products since gray water can seep down into groundwater reserves. For more on gray water systems check out http://www.saniflo.ca/graywater_pumps.asp?gclid=CNG7nMuR9JICFSQTIgodszfzwg

TIP for Wednesday April 23rd, 2008

What’s all the hype? Organic this and organic that. Why is it better? Well first, we know that organic fruit and veggie farmers don’t use pesticides and organic produce always has a lot more flavor and vitamins! Fruit is full of cell-protecting and renewing antioxidants. If you really want some serious antioxidant power certain dried fruits have more than fresh. For Example: Dried blueberries have four times the antioxidants. But make sure they are organic. Some dried fruits are treated with preservatives called sulfites, which can cause allergic reactions. Or if you really want to make sure they are organic, get a Dehydrator and do it yourself! Check out http://www.amazon.com/LEquip-528-Food-Dehydrator/dp/B00004Z4GQ for one!

TIP for Tuesday April 22nd, 2008

Happy Earth Day! Here are some more simple ways to be GREEN

Kick the Bottled Water Habit

Every year, 1.5 mil barrels of oil go to making plastic water bottles used in North America, and less than a quarter of those bottles are recycled, so choose a reusable bottle instead.

Climb Your Way to Green.

A great way to save energy and get energy! Take the stairs. Climbing stairs burns up to 10 times more calories than standing in an elevator. And, depending on type, capacity, and usage, an elevator’s yearly energy usage can equal the energy used to power seven homes annually.



Want to get GREEN? Tonight you can check out a FREE screening of Al Gore’s Documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” at U of T’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at 6pm and The Green Living Show is happening this weekend at the Direct Energy Centre with special guests former US pres Bill Clinton and actor Ed Begley Jr., Robert Kennedy Jr. and Jean Michel Cousteau.
For more EARTH DAY activities around the GTA log on to www.earthday.ca

TIP for Monday April 21st, 2008

April is Earth Month and over the weekend communities and schools all over Toronto celebrated with GREEN activities and community clean up festivities. Tomorrow is Earth Day, so why not get everyone in your office involved with the GREEN program! Office buildings account for 28% of commercial energy demand, but with a few easy changes we can reduce office energy use by 10%. Simple things like setting computers to hibernate and turning them off before you leave to recycling ink cartridges. Ink cartridges can take up to 450 years to decompose plus refills cost 75% less than new ones. Save ink and paper by using electronic documents and only print if it’s absolutely necessary. If you have to print use both sides of the paper. Now you have a GREENer workplace! Happy Earth Day!

For a list of Earth Day activities around the GTA log onto www.earthday.ca and be sure to check out our website www.flow935.com and leave your comments or questions on the Green Blog. If you have a green tip or an earth day activity that you’re hosting send me an email jeni@flow935.com

TIP for Friday April 18th, 2008

April is Earth Month and Tuesday April 22nd, 2008 is Earth Day. The GTA is hosting GREEN activities all weekend to bring about awareness and to help the environment. Here are some of this weekends events;

WalMart is hosting a community clean up at North Park Saturday from 11-2pm

Celebrate Earth Day at Toronto’s Botanical Gardens for walks and talks Saturday 11am til 4pm

Help raise funds for the WORLD WILDLIFE FUND in CANADA by climbing the CN tower. The 18th annual CN TOWER STAIR CLIMB is Saturday

Computation’s Computer Recycling Event is on, drop-off your unwanted computer equipment for recycling this weekend 10:00am until 6:00pm at 280 Jane Street

The Toronto Zoo is hosting a PARTY FOR THE PLANET Saturday and Sunday

Earth Day at Downsview Park- come out and celebrate by helping to plant 2,000 trees Sunday, April 20, 2008
11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Entertainment, Kids area and a recycling yard!!

Sunday High Park’s Grenadier restaurant on Bloor St. west of Keele St. will be the spot for COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENT DAY for the West End. You can drop off cell phones, computers and other small electronics, batteries, used tires and more for recycling. And donate items for reuse!

Sunday is the RECLAIM EARTH DAY CLIMATE RALLY 12noon at Yonge & Dundas Square with a parade at 1pm that will end at Queen and John Street for a STREET FESTIVAL from 2-4

Have a GREEN weekend! ;)

TIP for Thursday April 17th, 2008

Brighten your whites without harming the environment. Laundry detergents contain petroleum, ammonia and chlorine. Each year in North America, 25,000-plus kids "are exposed to" and have accidents involving chlorine bleach. Also fragrances and harsh solvents like ammonia contained in some typical detergents and fabric softeners can trigger your allergies and asthma, and cause skin irritation. If every household in North America replaced one box of 48-oz, petroleum-based powder laundry detergent with a vegetable-based one, we'll save enough oil to heat and cool 5,300 homes for a year. All natural laundry detergents are better for our groundwater and they can brighten your whites just as well!

TIP for Wednesday April 16th, 2008

Warm weather, flowers in bloom, it's time to do some GREEN spring cleaning. Get your carpets and upholstery looking new and fresh by using a greener method of cleaning...Steam it!!! Avoid the chemicals of spray carpet-cleaners and use the strength of good old fashion hot water! Vaporization, not contamination. Common cleaning chemicals have a toxic ingredient called perchloroethylene or perc. The International Agency for Research on Cancer says perc is a "probable human carcinogen" that can cause anything from dizziness to death. By avoiding products with perc you will also prevent it from ending up in groundwater. For more info on the hazards of perc go to http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts18.html

TIP for Tuesday April 15th, 2008

The Plastic Bag MONSTER! Canadians use approximately 9-15 billion petroleum-based shopping bags each year and they seem to be everywhere—they litter our streets, they harm the environment, and they kill wildlife. While a plastic bag only gets used for less than an hour, that one bag can take up to 1,000 years to break down in our environment. As part of an Earth Day campaign to ban plastic shopping bags from cities across Canada, LUSH Cosmetics is urging Toronto shoppers to swap their plastic shopping bags with a free, reusable, eco-friendly tote bag. Starting Wednesday April 16th customers can go into any LUSH store and sign a petition or you can go to www.Lush.ca

Similar initiatives have been successful around the world. Last year San Francisco banned plastic bags from all supermarkets and pharmacies, while the Irish government introduced a plastic bag tax that has slashed consumption by over 90%. Let's do our part and stop The Plastic Bag MONSTER!

TIP for Monday April 14th, 2008

Now that the Sun’s shining and the winter blues are gone the winter dingies have stayed behind! Time to clean all those places you missed over the winter. Freshen up your house with eco-cleaners that don’t have all the chemicals but can still attack the dirt! Eco cleaners are better for the environment. High concentrations of detergents were found in 69% of waterways in a 2002 nationwide study. Fewer chemicals make a safer home for our children. Conventional cleaning products are responsible for about 10% of toxic-exposure calls to poison control. Use natural cleaners like baking soda, lemon juice, and vinegar they can make your home sparkle safely! Check out http://housekeeping.about.com/od/environment/a/vinbaklemons.htm for ways to use natural cleaners.

TIP for Friday April 11th, 2008


Ok... so the rain is here all weekend. You can get ready for the April showers by stocking up on eco-raingear. Manufacturers are coming up with more and more creative ways to re use materials, like plastic bottles instead of making more PVC plastic. Green raingear works just as well at keeping you dry and with the new styles it doesn't have to look like a garbage bag. Many of today's clothing companies are coming out with stylish eco-gear like Pategonia and Timberland. Check out these Canadian companies www.eco-gear.ca www.shokkwear.com www.gpogear.ca

TIP for Thursday April 10th, 2008

Got a sweet tooth? Go for organic sugar. It tastes better than artificial sweeteners, and it has fewer pesticides. As little as 1 tsp of the common herbicide paraquat, which is used on sugarcane crops, is toxic. Organic sugar is all natural and does not contain ingredients such as aspartame and sucralose, which can lead to headaches and even depression, (and a recent study now links sugar substitutes to weight gain!). Plus staying away from those little colourful packets, saves trees, and the less refined a sweetener is, the less energy is used during the production process.

TIP for Monday April 7th, 2008

Flick the switch! A simple action that could have great effects! Turn it off at night! Appliances at night that aren’t in use and still plugged in waste a lot of energy. In the average home, 40% of all electricity used, is to power electronics that are turned off but still plugged in. Think of all the money you’ll save on your electricity bill, by using a Power strip with a surge protector that makes it easy to "unplug" many appliances at once. For more energy tips check out http://www.powerwise.ca Save the environment one switch at a time!

TIP for Friday April 4th, 2008

Today’s tip was sent to me by one of our listeners.

E-invitations, The hassle and stress free way to organize your event. “I think that instead of buying so much paper why not do them on the computer and e-mail them to your guests and they in turn can e-mail their response back to you. It saves time, money and it is very efficient. I've done it a few times and it really works!” Not only are e-invitations convenient but they save you from spending extra money on postage and standing in line at the post office! Plus there are many websites that you can go to customize invitations for free like www.evite.com , or greeting card sites with a difference www.bluegreenplanet.org Find free ecards that can be customized with famous quotes, environmental facts, or poetry.



Thank you to Samantha Forde for this great tip! Keep the tips coming ;)

TIP for Thursday April 3rd, 2008

April showers bring May flowers and spring cleaning! Thinking about doing some painting this weekend? With the warm weather we generally think we can open the windows to prevent fumes from that new coat of Mushroom cap on the living room walls. Not so! Conventional paints still give off gas from VOC chemicals even when you can’t smell it anymore. VOC’s Volatile Organic Compounds found in regular paint have been linked to headaches, and nervous system damage. Other chemicals found in traditional paint like benzene and formaldehyde also can trigger asthma and allergies. Look for Eco Paints that have the GREEN SEAL www.greenseal.org/findaproduct/index.cfm#paints and are less harmful to the environment. One gallon of conventional paint that's not properly disposed of can seep into the earth and pollute 250,000 gallons of drinking water. Don’t forget to do your part in protecting our environment. April is Earth Month and every little bit helps!

TIP for Wednesday April 2nd, 2008

Earth month kicked off yesterday around the world, dedicated to educating people on how we can help the environment and slow down global warming. Cities around the globe host a multitude of events that focus on the environment. Here in Toronto many communities, businesses and school participate in cleanups, eco-festivals and more. Earth Day Canada is April 22nd and you can go to http://www.earthday.ca/pub/resources/top10.php to check out the top 10 actions that you can take part in to help the environment, and get a list of all the Earth Month activities that are taking place in your area. Our friends at Pizza Pizza are doing their part and bringing back the “Phones for Food” program. Get a free slice of Pizza when you drop of your old cell phone at any Pizza Pizza location. The Canadian Association of Food Banks will then sell your mobile phones to re-manufactures and the cash goes to local food banks!!

TIP for Friday March 28th, 2008

Tomorrow at 8pm turn the lights off for a full hour. It's Earth Hour and you'll join millions of people around the planet coming together for a great cause....global warming. Last year's Earth Hour, which happened only in Sydney, Australia, had the effect of taking 48,000 cars off the road for an hour. This year's event is global, so savings will be even bigger. Earth Hour organizers are also raising awareness by promoting energy-efficient lighting. Get together with friends, and make a night of it. Toronto will be joining in on Earth Hour with a free concert at Nathan Phillips Square with a special performance from the first Canadian Earth Hour Ambassador, Nelly Furtado. She will perform an unplugged concert starting at 7:30pm powered by green, renewable energy from Bullfrog Power. Tomorrow night Torontonians will witness hundreds of buildings in the downtown core, including City Hall, turn off their lights for one full hour! Join in and be a part of the solution.

http://wwf.ca/earthhour/

TIP for Thursday March 27th, 2008

The SPF countdown to summer is on. Time to pull out the 15, 35 and 40. The last few days the sun had been shining I've been taking advantage by getting my daily dose of Vitamin D. But even when it's overcast, the sun still wreaks havoc on your face. Use eco-facial moisturizers with sunscreen to prevent wrinkles, avoid chemicals and be environmentally friendly. Eco sunscreens aren't heavy and thick like regular sun block and a moisturizer with SPF means you have one less product to buy and apply. The common sunscreen chemical, Parsol 1789, has been linked to cancer, liver damage, and Parkinson's disease. So look for mineral-based 'sun blocks which use titanium dioxide or zinc to protect against UV rays. They work just as well as conventional sunscreens, but with fewer toxins. To find out how safe your favourite personal care product is check out this link. www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/index.php

TIP for Wednesday March 26th, 2008

Have you got a green bin? Do you use it? You can be even greener by keeping some of your compost. The average household produces more than 200 lbs of kitchen waste every year. If you love to garden you could turn that into the best fertilizer ever!! Compost recycles nutrients and organic matter, providing food for plants and the microorganisms that keep soil healthy. It also improves the water-retaining capacity of soil, s you can water your plants less often. Most of the garbage in your kitchen is compostable, including: vegetable scraps, fruit peels, bread and cereals, grains and pasta, coffee grounds and filters, tea bags, and even crushed eggshells. Just stay away from throwing animal-based and oily foods, those can go in the city green bin. For more tips on how to get the most out of composting go to www.compostguide.com