Lakehead University Calls for Climate Action
It’s no secret. Science demands a dramatic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in each year of this decade if we are to avoid the worst of human-caused climate change. Lakehead University isn’t asking whether to do this, but how. Along with Sustainable Orillia and other local groups, Lakehead has committed to taking serious action to […]
Reducing Housing Emissions: the Easy Steps
Let’s start with a simple truth. While it’s important for citizens of Orillia and elsewhere to reduce their personal emissions—sometimes referred to as their “carbon footprint”—the most important thing we can do as citizens is demand that our governments act to force industry and corporations to take serious action to reduce the emissions that result […]
Reducing our Emissions at Home
Housing—Sustainable Orillia’s focus for the fourth quarter of 2021 Sustainable Orillia has determined that “housing” will be our theme for the 4th quarter of 2021 (October-November-December). Readers will find that articles and our art contest for this quarter will focus on various aspects of housing—with special emphasis, as readers might expect, on the various actions […]
Ten reasons to have climate hope
A recent article in the David Suzuki Foundation’s newsletter, Finding Solutions (Summer, 2021), presented a positive message for its readers, one that Sustainable Orillia would like to pass on to our readers and supporters. The full text of the article is reproduced below. “Canada’s progress on climate change continues to be dangerously slow. We don’t […]
Sustainable Orillia thanks its Wonderful Volunteers
As the third annual Sustainable Orillia Month fades into recent history, what does not fade is the extraordinary passion and efforts of the many Sustainable Orillia volunteers who helped make the month-long campaign happen. More than fifty volunteers rallied in support of a full lineup of events, including the Electric Vehicle Weekend, The Repair […]
The ‘Little House’ – a Sustainable Journey
Hello there and welcome to my personal journal, chronicling some of the experiences and decisions during a major renovation to my ‘little house’ that sits patiently waiting for activity to get underway. Like many of you out there, I know very little about retrofits and passive housing, nor do I know much about all the […]
Want to take personal climate action? Consider your investment strategies.
Many people in our community are working hard to make their daily lives more sustainable and, in the process, to reduce their personal carbon footprints. Some reduce or eliminate meat from their diets. Others turn to active transportation—cycling or walking—or transit rather than taking the car out of the garage. Some buy an electric vehicle. […]
Artistic Call Out
$75 for the successful submission Sustainable Orillia (SO) is again inviting artistic submissions under its next seasonal theme of “Housing.” For many, the word will conjure up the recent election issue of “affordable housing,” but while that issue should correctly be top of mind for our elected representatives—leading to solutions, we hope—the climate crisis and […]
Youth Organized Climate Strike this Friday
Friday, September 24th, 2021 is Fridays For Future’s Global Day of Climate Action – a day to come together, make our voices heard and ask our local governments to build a greener, more climate resilient world. Fridays For Future is a youth-led and organised global climate strike movement that started in August 2018, when 15-year-old […]
Sustainable Orillia Month 2021 Launched
Mayor Steve Clarke has declared September, 2021 as ‘Sustainable Orillia Month’—a month-long program of information, education and practical advice, organized by Sustainable Orillia and designed to engage our citizens and help make our community more sustainable. In his announcement, Mayor Clarke said, “There is no question, climate change is here—contributing to the extreme heat, forest […]