Sustainable Living

by Susan MacVittie

Sipping on a morning cup of Jo goes beyond the quick fix of liquid wake-up - it's now a reflection of the drinker's ethical values. In the 1980s a rise in ethical consumerism, driven by issues like child labour and environmental degradation launched the branding of organic, fair trade and union-made products. For coffee-drinkers this means that there is now a befuddling assortment of coffee to choose from. Knowing which one is the real ethical deal is a lesson in the coffee commodity chain.

Bean 101

Coffee has always been a boom and bust crop in Latin America and Africa with little of the wealth going towards the growers, pruners and pickers. Although it is the second most traded commodity next to oil on the global market, in many countries a days' wages for picking coffee beans wouldn't buy a fancy cup of java at your favourite coffee shop.

by Norberto Rodriguez dela Vega

BC has a new growing movement– and that movement is Smart Growth.

by Carrie Saxifrage

We’ve ridden our electric bike on Cortes regularly for the last year, covering about 2,555 km at a cost of less than $6 in electricity. We’ve saved hundreds of dollars on gasoline and reduced our global warming emission by more than half a ton. To top it off, riding an electric bike is fun.

Electric bikes solve two problems: the weight of the car and the use of fossil fuels. In a car, most of the fuel goes toward moving the machine, not the person.

Once the problem of weight is solved, the fossil fuel problem diminishes in comparison. Nonetheless an electric bike powered primarily by hydroelectricity uses one of the cleanest sources of power available when it comes to carbon emissions.

All those little car trips have an impact. About 20% of the average person’s carbon budget goes toward road travel. Over forty percent of that comes from trips of 8 km or less, well within the range of an electric bike. Sixty percent of pollution from auto emissions occurs in the first few minutes of travel before the vehicle warms up. In January 2006, we purchased a Crystalyte 408 hub wheel with a 36v nickel metal hydride battery. After test driving a model, we realized that the hub and battery were so heavy that we needed a dedicated bike if we still wanted to enjoy our mountain bikes. So we bought a beat up old bike to convert to an e-bike.

Although most American states allow Low Speed Electric Vehicles on their roads, in Canada only British Columbia allows their use on public roads, subject to the same restrictions as other low speed vehicles, such as avoidance of freeways, major bridges, and tunnels, as well as proper lights and signage. Meanwhile, sales of the Quebec-produced Zenn car are proceeding apace in the United States with 30 dealerships. In October, the first cars rolled off a Chinese assembly line for the American ZAP Company (Zero Air Pollution) which also manufactures electric scooters and battery chargers. Dynasty’s BC-produced IT is gearing up for a market improved by sales tax rebates.

by Stephen Salter

Economists and ecologists across Canada are locked in debate: How much pollution can the planet ab­sorb? How much will Kyoto cost? I think we’re ask­ing the wrong questions.

City life has isolated us from nature’s laws, so that we tend to see the environment as “out there” and sepa­rate from ourselves. We have the illusion of clean homes because we’ve become adept at making the by-products of city life — sewage, garbage, carbon dioxide from our cars — go away, out of sight and out of mind. In nature however, there is no “away.” Nature’s cycles are closed, complete, and perfect.

by Leslie Gillet

America's rooftops could generate 964 TWh (24 percent of US sustainable electricity needs) if solar shingles were used to roof an average of 540 square feet of every dwelling. Many open air car parks could also be covered, providing welcome shade for the vehicles.

-Guy Dauncey, www.earthfuture.com

The folks working at Gulf Islands National Park Reserve in Sidney BC are smiling broadly these days. That's because their Operations Centre has just received Canada's first ever LEED Platinum certification - one of fewer than 10 buildings in the world to obtain this type of certification.

LEED refers to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standard developed by the Canada Green Building Council to accelerate the design and construction of "green" buildings. LEED uses a point system to certify buildings: Silver (33-38 points), Gold (39-51 points) or Platinum (52-70 points).

Use of the ocean, sunlight and the region's abundant rainfall were incorporated into the Operations Centre's systems during construction. As a result, the building uses 75% less energy than a comparable standard building and reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 32.3 tons annually. Some of the centre's features include an ocean-based heat-pump system, coupled with a hot water radiant heat floor system, to provide heating, rainwater storage to flush the building's low-flow toilets and a roof-mounted photovoltaic solar system to supply 20% of its energy needs.

by Barry Saxifrage

Almost all the energy we use to build the "good life" comes from fossil fuels, gas, oil and coal. But now that same fossil fuel use is tearing our good life apart. We can’t have both anymore. Time’s up: we have to choose now. We can promptly and purposefully create a new version of the good life without fossil fuels…or we can continue aimlessly into collective misery.

Fossil fuel emissions drive climate change and ocean acidification. Together they are inflicting thousands of cuts on our web of life. All 6.5 billion of us rely on this web for food, water, shelter, resources, health, jobs, security and plain old fun. Parts of the web are collapsing. According to top climate scientists, we’ve already emitted too much carbon dioxide (CO2) from burning fossil fuels. Unless North Americans seriously cut our emissions now, it may be too late.

At the same time, our oil demands now outpace supply. The rocketing increase in oil prices is eroding capital, jobs, lifestyles, and even access to food, heat, and shelter, in BC and worldwide. Top economists say that without massive preparation, peak oil will cause economic disaster.