Earth Day Clean-up – Join Us on Saturday, April 22nd
Organized by our good friends at Green Orillia – this is an opportunity to commemorate Earth Day with fresh air, friends and neighbours as part of their clean-up campaign. Gloves and bags will be provided for all participants. Go to Green Orillia’s Facebook page to RSVP or come on down to Couchiching Park on […]
Big Move #3 in Action – St. Paul’s Retrofit Tours
Come on down and see first-hand how St. Paul’s Community Centre is making important moves towards their net-zero goal, while saving money. Several free and friendly ‘Retrofit Tours’ are planned for this coming week and they offer real-time examples of how organizations and individuals can make ‘moves’ or changes to reduce the carbon footprint of […]
Orillia’s Climate Future: Year Two – just Twenty-Seven to Go!
As many of you know – our community climate change action plan, Orillia’s Climate Future, has a long-term goal to reduce Orillia’s carbon emissions down to net-zero by 2050. The plan received endorsement by Orillia’s City Council in April last year and, although it’s a long-term plan, there are a number of ‘near term’ initiatives, […]
A New Lens on Carbon – From Emissions to Offsets
You won’t want to miss this series of public workshops. Hosted by Sustainable Orillia, this three-part series focuses on ‘carbon’… what it is, how it is affecting our lives and what we can do to both combat carbon’s negative effect, as well as how we might use that knowledge to invest and prosper in the […]
Join Us, Learn the Full Story on Carbons – From Emissions to Offsets
Carbon, carbon, and more carbon! Despite what we often hear, CO2, or carbon dioxide, isn’t all bad! We just have too much of it in our atmosphere and our oceans! And yes, we have to do something to keep it from getting worse. The good news is that we can counteract climate change. How? We […]
Announcing the 2023 Sustainable Orillia Art Contest!
In 1970, Joni Mitchell, Canadian singer and songwriter had a hit song called “Big Yellow Taxi.” The song contained the line, “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone,” and went on to lament, “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.” Mitchell was obviously way ahead of her time in drawing attention […]
Under the Sky We Make (Part 2) Personal Tips from the Author
A recent Sustainable Orillia review of Kimberly Nicholas’s book, Under the Sky We Make: How to be Human in a Warming World (2021) focussed on the personal story that emerged from the author’s exploration of climate change. Her personal story illustrated that, as her awareness grew of how her own practices and actions were contributing […]
Under the Sky We Make, Part 1: (A Review)
Some climate deniers angrily ask that environmentalists follow their own advice and reduce their own emissions before telling everyone else what to do. Kimberley Nicholas, the author of Under the Sky We Make: How to be Human in a Warming World (2021) has done just that. She not only “talks the talk,” she “walks the […]
Nature – hard to beat, and so available – by Carol Strickland, for Sustainable Orillia
As I returned from a walk in the forested parkette in my neighbourhood, I reflected once again how at peace I felt compared to when I set out, full of the issues currently dominating my life. It is amazing how something small—the chattering of chickadees or the rat-a-tat-tat of a woodpecker on the tree high […]
Six Tips for a Sustainable New Year
While any time is the right time to cut back on some of our traditional excesses—especially following a holiday season fraught with over-consumption—a new year is a good time to look for, and make, sustainable choices in our lives. Understandably, every household will make different choices. The important thing is to reflect on our lifestyle […]