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How to Green Your Home and Planet with an Indoor Garden

Just Vertical’s AEVA indoor garden system is a simple, sustainable, and cost-effective way to grow your own nutritious food at home.

Frank And Oak Is Paving the Way for Sustainable Businesses

Mediaplanet interviewed CEO and co-founder of Montreal’s Frank And Oak, Ethan Song, to learn about the importance of sustainable business practices.

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Time to End Single-Use Plastics for a Brighter Ocean and Climate Future

While single-use plastic certainly isn’t the sole driver of the climate and oceans’ breakdowns, it’s representative of a wasteful and careless culture.

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How Canadian Businesses Are Fighting Climate Change with Green Energy

Learn how Canadian businesses can contribute to a greener future and smaller carbon footprint by purchasing renewable power from green retailers.

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Tackling the Single-Use Plastics Crisis One Compostable Coffee Pod at a Time

Four industry experts discuss emerging public-private partnerships when it comes to tackling single-use plastics — from production to disposal.

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Building a Sustainable Future in Consumerism with Lauren Singer

We spoke with Package Free CEO and sustainable lifestyle influencer, Lauren Singer, about her zero-waste journey and the start of her innovative business.

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Starting Your Sustainable Lifestyle, Step by Step

Zero Waste Collective blogger, Tara McKenna, gave Mediaplanet the low-down on zero waste lifestyles, and what it really means to live sustainably.

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The post Greening Your Home and Business appeared first on HiveInnovates.

What were your first steps into starting a zero-waste lifestyle?

I started reading a lot of books and doing a lot of research. I went down the rabbit hole of just learning about recycling and plastics. From that research, I started doing the simple things first. It was things like making the decision to give up disposable coffee cups, for example. I didn’t make that connection until I was like, “Oh, I clearly have reusable cups at home.” And I think most of us do but don’t always use them. So, I took baby steps by making those small transitions, but then I dove further into it by assessing everything in my kitchen and asking myself how I could reduce waste. At the grocery store, I hadn’t really thought much about buying sweet peppers in a plastic bag versus loose. So, then I made simple swaps like that. I’d say it took almost a year to transition my lifestyle completely. So, it was just taking it day by day, step by step, choosing reusables on the go and shopping with reusables and choosing less plastics and less packaging when possible.

What would you say has been the biggest challenge while transitioning into this new lifestyle?

In one sense, some of the biggest challenges with the transition were just finding new places to shop. Finding the places that are more local or less packaged — that’s a bigger challenge for some people because not everyone feels like they have the time to figure that stuff out. Luckily more and more places are starting to facilitate that.

A lot of people dive right in and think it’s too hard. Do you think that’s what discourages them from continuing?

Yes! And actually I think a lot of people are almost daunted by the lifestyle because from the outside it does look too hard, I don’t think the point is to get everyone to become zero-waste, I think the point is to have everyone do something small. If everybody decided to give up coffee cups, that would be a huge impact. It’s definitely about progress over perfection, and I think more people making small moves is better than a few people trying to do an extreme version of the lifestyle.

The post Starting Your Sustainable Lifestyle, Step by Step appeared first on HiveInnovates.

Food waste is a massive problem in Canada. About 40–60% of all food grown gets wasted — which is not good in a scenario where we’ll need to grow 70% more food by 2050 to feed an ever-growing population. With farmable land already stretched to the limit from fertilizer runoff, pesticide use, and land transformation, how do we grow healthy, nutritious food to feed more people without creating more waste?

These are the questions that Conner Tidd, Co-Founder of Just Vertical, and his partner Kevin Jakiela were asking themselves as graduate students at the University of Toronto. For Tidd, an avid supporter of sustainability and green living, it was the wasted cilantro he bought for his tacos that started gnawing at him. “I found the only kind of cilantro I could get at the grocery store was that big, one-sized bunch so I’d end up using only half of it while the other half turned to slime in the fridge,” he says.

Indoor hydroponic garden system solves many problems at once

The two partnered on a graduate research project to develop a solution — a simple, accessible, waste-free hydroponic indoor garden system that would allow people to grow food at home. The AEVA indoor garden system, a spinoff from their research, lets people do just that. People can save money growing their own fresh produce at home while reducing water use and saving transportation costs and carbon emissions. Best of all, it eliminates food and packaging waste. “You can harvest just what you need for that meal and the rest keeps on growing,” says Tidd.

Affectionately referred to by Tidd as the “Nespresso of growing food,” the AEVA system is a simple, plug-and-play device. “You plant by putting a small seed pod in, adding water and nutrients, and then you grow,” says Tidd. In addition to being functional, the AEVA is nice to look at. “We designed it with furniture and décor in mind, so it’s not just a bunch of lights, tubes, and plastic, it’s a piece of living art for the home,” he says.

The AEVA can produce about a handful of greens a day — enough to satisfy most people’s needs for herbs and leafy greens, though it’s not restricted to growing lettuce and herbs. It can grow virtually any type of produce that grows above ground, such as tomatoes, kale, Swiss chard, and strawberries. “We grow over 200 different varieties of food, including about 12 different kinds of basil,” says Tidd. 

We designed it with furniture and décor in mind, so it’s not just a bunch of lights, tubes, and plastic, it’s a piece of living art for the home.

Conner Tidd, Co-Founder of Just Vertical

A made-in-Canada solution

AEVA is made in Canada with sustainably-sourced materials. “We’ve also made efforts to have as little waste as possible in the product and process, so all the pods are reusable and built to last. The entire system is meant to last more or less forever,” says Tidd. 

Using AEVA, anyone can be an indoor gardener, and not only save money and the planet, but enjoy the physical and mental health benefits of having plants in the home. “I think it also helps reconnect with our food and realize that when we throw out that last bit of spinach, or in my case cilantro, we’re throwing out what actually went into it — not just our money but all the farmers’ efforts and inputs,” says Tidd.

The post How to Green Your Home and Planet with an Indoor Garden appeared first on HiveInnovates.

What inspired the idea behind Frank And Oak and making it sustainable? 

For us, it was about wanting to create a brand that had the same values as the communities that we were involved in, which meant building a brand for this generation. There’s always this desire of giving back, and it’s no longer only about making cool products, but putting out cool products that have meaning. 

Congratulations on Frank And Oak’s B Corporation certification! What did you find most challenging about the process of getting certified? 

B Corp is quite stringent. It doesn’t only cover the areas of environment and sustainability, it also covers things like governance, charity work, and employee practices. The reason we wanted to be a member of B Corp was to have a third party take an external look at our practices. The main challenge was how many areas B Corp actually covers, and therefore it’s quite challenging to score enough points to be part of it because it’s not about doing one thing well, it’s about being a well-rounded company in terms of social and environmental practices. It gave us a transparent assessment of where we stood as a company and provided us with areas of improvement, which we implemented. 

Frank And Oak just released its 2022 sustainability goals. Looking into the future, what are you most excited about? 

I’m most excited about the overall engagement of our employees, and also of our customers in Canada and the U.S. We’re really seeing a shift, a broader shift, and I’m excited that we’re part of this movement that we created ourselves. It’s really sad with all this talk about climate change and all this talk about frustration. Ultimately, it’s about caring for our communities, our environment, and our future and the future of our societies. I really see that as a broader movement from a new generation that we’re seeing. And that’s what I’m most excited about. From a business perspective, this is driving change in both what companies do and what suppliers are doing. 

Why do you think it’s important that more businesses start taking on a more sustainable approach? 

By giving better options for customers, you’re also helping to shape people’s awareness around their own practices. I think that we’re in a society where people consume and there’s nothing wrong with that, but for businesses, it’s better for them to take an approach where they’re being respectful and mindful of the environment.

The post Frank And Oak Is Paving the Way for Sustainable Businesses appeared first on HiveInnovates.

Dr. Sylvain Charlebois

Director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab, Dalhousie University

John Pigott

CEO, Club Coffee

Susan Thoman

Managing Director, Compost Manufacturing Alliance

Single-use plastics are now seen as a global crisis. Less than 10% of them are recycled. The rest are sent to landfills, dumped into lakes and oceans, burned for energy (with its own environmental implications), or shipped to countries like the Philippines, which are now pushing them back to us.

The issue stays in the spotlight with every news report of marine animals hurt or killed by plastic in our oceans. Governments are now committing to action and calling for collaboration to get results. The growing importance of partnerships to create innovations such as plant-based compostable packaging can’t be overstated.

Seeking alternatives to single-use plastics 

Over a period of eight months, Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, Director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, co-authored the recent report, The Single-Use Plastics Dilemma: Perceptions and Possible Solutions. 

“Our recommendation is for the government to actually entice and encourage companies to use compostable technologies, and perhaps even help companies to commercialize these technologies,” says Dr. Charlebois. “Right now, the technologies do exist, but they’re not necessarily accessible financially. Incentives need to be brought forward to make the connection between people who actually need the technology and companies that would benefit from using different packaging.”

The good news is that change is happening. Dalhousie University’s study shows that Canadians are seeking alternative options and looking to composting and packaging-free foods. The big advantage for consumers is simplicity. “It’s convenient,” notes Dr. Charlebois. “Just put your items in a green bin. With recycling, there’s processing that’s necessary and there’s a bit more work, like sorting and cleaning, required from the consumer.”

The amount of single-use plastics, such as coffee pods, is staggering. Billions of pods end up in landfills every year. As one of the world’s top three coffee-loving countries, Canadians want solutions to minimize that waste and divert nutrient-rich coffee grounds back to compost and back to the earth.

Traditional plastic recycling of some pods is an option, but it’s not as easy as consumers would like. They have to separate the foil lid, clean out the grounds, and remove a paper filter inside of the cup, and even that may not be enough for recyclers. A better alternative was needed.

Compostable coffee pods reduce plastic waste

Toronto-based company Club Coffee has risen to the challenge and introduced compostable coffee pods. “We understand that consumers want solutions to single-use plastic waste in our environment,” says company CEO John Pigott. “Listening to them led us to create a compostable coffee pod. We saw many ideas and innovations out there that we could build on in collaboration with academic experts and other partner businesses to make a difference for consumers and the environment.”

Club Coffee’s goal was to give consumers the compostable pod they wanted. “We’re doing that now with Loblaw Companies Limited and other partners,” says Pigott. “That’s just the start. We’re working on more innovations in sustainable packaging that can get us past throwaway plastic for good.”

For its part, Loblaw Companies Limited values collaborations with industry partners to implement innovative solutions that have positive impacts on the environment. “It was incredibly important that we could offer great-tasting, convenient coffee in a more environmentally-responsible packaging format and sell it at the same price as before,” says Ian Gordon, Senior Vice President of Loblaw Brands Limited. “We’re proud to partner with other Canadian companies and to work together to achieve greater results. We’re always bringing innovation to the industry, and there are times, like with PC® Single-Serve Compostable Coffee Pods, where we need to strategically collaborate with partners to succeed.”

Switching to compostable coffee pods can make a significant impact. “Our network of compost facility owners appreciates that extra steps have been taken to field test the disintegration of the compostable pod in various composting processes, as spent coffee is a highly-valued input for making great soil amendments,” says Susan Thoman, Managing Director of the Compost Manufacturing Alliance.

The benefit of strong partnerships and the larger-scale use of compostable and plant-based materials for consumers is that they’ll make newer technology more affordable, as well as more widely available and adopted. As Dr. Charlebois notes, “As a society, we’re going to have to make some choices.” With partnerships and innovations to address the single-use plastic challenge, those choices are clearer.

Ask the Scientist: How Does Composting Work?

Dr. Calvin Lakhan, a Faculty of Environmental Studies researcher at York University in Toronto, offers his thoughts.

How does composting work?

At a very high level, it’s a controlled biological decomposition of organic materials. Microorganisms consume organic material, utilizing carbon as a source of energy and nitrogen as a source of protein that allows them to reproduce.

Why is it important?

Composting helps divert organic material from landfills, and subsequently reduces the carbon footprint associated with untreated organic waste. Perhaps more importantly, it helps promote sustainable behaviour and awareness in consumers.

What can Canadians do?

Households can participate in the Green Bin program offered by some municipalities. In those without one, an at-home composting pile can be set up.

What’s the alternative to plastic single-serve coffee pods?

Compostable pods abate twice as much carbon when compared to plastic pods, and at approximately one-twentieth of the cost. It’s the economically- and environmentally-preferred option.

3 Surprising Facts About Single-Use Plastics

Dalhousie University’s report, The Single-Use Plastics Dilemma: Perceptions and Possible Solutions, contains some riveting findings:

1

Canadians are largely united about the need for change. Almost 94% of respondents are personally motivated to reduce single-use plastic food packaging because of its environmental impacts. Residents of Quebec and the Atlantic provinces are the most motivated.

2

More than 70% said they support a ban of all single-use plastics in food packaging, although adopting new technologies
was preferred to outright bans.

3

Biodegradable and compostable solutions are the most popular with Canadians.

Video by:

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What was the initial inspiration for you to start your zero waste journey?

I’ve been passionate about sustainability for a very long time, but everything for me really started when I read Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring, it’s about the effects of DDT and man-made pesticides on bird populations, human populations, and the environment, and it showed me that human beings are the only creatures that really have the power and the capacity to damage the planet for everything else that lives here. That really motivated me to start thinking about the power that people have to create negative or positive impact. I initially spent most of my time protesting for the environment and talking to everybody about environmental issues, but I realized through a series of events that there was a big misalignment between the way that I was living my life every day, and the values that I had.

During that process, what did you find was the most challenging part?

Everyone always wants to know what the most challenging part was, but really none of the steps to reduce your waste are hard. The hardest thing is really the mental block and preconception that kind of leads to questions like that and thinking that reducing waste is hard. Even eliminating a little bit of waste from your routine is something really, really positive, so I learned how to change my outlook and my narrative from being like, “Oh man, I’m so bad, I made trash today,” to being more like, “Wow I’m amazing, I’m having a positive impact and saving money!”

For anyone in the mindset of not being able to start a zero waste lifestyle, how do you suggest they turn that around?

One of the things I think blocks people is that they think, “Oh I’m just one person,” or, “What difference can I really make?” But I always like to say that the average American makes about 4.4 pounds of trash per person per day. So, reducing that even a little bit helps to keep hundreds if not thousands of pounds of trash out of landfills, and that’s significant, right?

Did you find that maintaining your sustainable business practices made starting a business even harder?

I actually found that it made it a lot easier. I believe that the function of business is to solve problems and Package Free was started on the back of two major problems. One was making sustainable products more accessible and convenient for people, which was something I knew existed because of Trash is For Tossers and speaking to the community and people around me. And two, there were all these great sustainable businesses that were having a hard time growing and scaling their companies, because they were mission-driven and not necessarily business driven. We’ve kept over 100 million pieces of trash out of landfills over the past few years and we’re really just getting started.

The post Building a Sustainable Future in Consumerism with Lauren Singer appeared first on HiveInnovates.

Humans have tipped the planet’s balance, and everyone is paying for it. We take too much, we make too much, and we waste too much, thanks to our linear system of consumption. This linear system and our throwaway culture aren’t, and never were, serving us or our planet. There is no “away” for our waste to go. Our natural systems have reached their limits.

We’re in a climate crisis. The state of our oceans is dire. Rapid and widespread biodiversity loss across ecosystems is weighing heavily on wildlife and nature lovers worldwide. The merging and amplification of global environmental crises isn’t a coincidence. The interconnectedness of our blue planet’s natural systems is both a strength and a weakness in the survival of life on Earth. 

Plastic has emerged as an unfortunate player in our planet’s multi-system breakdown. Our reliance on plastic, mainly in single-use formats, contributes to the climate, oceans, and biodiversity crises and has created its own — the plastic waste and pollution crisis. 

Almost all plastic is made from fossil fuels. From extraction to disposal, plastic creates harmful emissions. Recent studies also found that plastic emits even when it’s in the form of pollution. Without a halt in plastic production, greenhouse gas emissions related to plastic will continue to rise, which in turn puts more pressure on the oceans, which are already feeling the effects of a changing climate. Changing ocean conditions make it harder for species to be resilient against threats like plastic pollution, and marine biodiversity gets it at all angles.

We need a new system that’s truly circular instead of linear — one that rethinks, reduces, and reuses, instead of one that takes, makes, and wastes. 

With so many massive problems to tackle, where’s a person supposed to start? While single-use plastic certainly isn’t the sole driver of the climate and oceans breakdowns, in our everyday lives it’s representative of a wasteful and careless culture we need to leave behind. By rejecting single-use plastic where possible, encouraging businesses to do the same, and joining a global movement of people calling for a ban on non-essential plastics, we can help curb our collective plastic and carbon footprint. More sustainable ways of receiving goods and services are all around us — we just need to embrace them and use our collective power to demand greener and healthier solutions.

The post Time to End Single-Use Plastics for a Brighter Ocean and Climate Future appeared first on HiveInnovates.

Preventing a climate catastrophe will mean overhauling many parts of our society. We often look to governments or non-profit organizations to precipitate such changes, but the role of businesses shouldn’t be overlooked. With more agility than governments and more capital than non-profits, businesses are in a unique position to make quick and impactful environmental change.

Energy sourcing is an area where businesses can make real headway. Renewable energy sources like wind, solar, and hydro provide less than 18% of Canada’s total primary energy supply, according to Natural Resources Canada. Though it varies by province, much of the country’s power still comes from non-renewable sources like coal, gas, and nuclear.

Businesses looking to tackle climate change can support new and existing renewable projects, which displace polluting sources and help green the local grid. But there’s no need to erect a wind turbine outside every office building. By choosing a reputable third-party green energy vendor, businesses can reduce their carbon footprint and advance renewable energy in Canada — all while showcasing their sustainability progress to their employees, customers, and investors.

Those who shrink their carbon footprint now won’t be ignored. People prefer to work for, buy from, and do business with companies whose values align with their own.

Sean Drygas, President of Bullfrog Power

Taking action

For the past 14 years, Bullfrog Power has been helping thousands of businesses and individuals shrink their carbon footprint and promote their sustainability story. For every kilowatt hour of electricity a customer uses, Bullfrog puts the equivalent amount of renewable power onto the grid. Bullfrog’s green energy comes from carbon-free sources, like wind, solar, and low-impact hydro.

Sean Drygas, President of Bullfrog Power, says that their green energy model is popular with corporate customers who want to fight climate change, but who don’t have the option or the desire to operate their own renewable project.

“It’s a simple and effective way to show your stakeholders that you’re serious about sustainability and the environment,” he says. “Businesses are making an impact on the energy system, and their customers and employees typically respond very well to that.”

Drygas adds that large businesses are increasingly attracted to power purchase agreements (PPAs), which allow them to partner with a generator to source green energy and help get a specific renewable project off the ground. Bullfrog helps customers negotiate favourable PPA rates and choose environmentally-friendly energy projects.

Growing concern about the climate and advantageous renewable power prices are making now an ideal time to choose green energy. “Typically, our customers are committed to buying green energy for three years or less,” Drygas says. “But if you can commit to a PPA for, say, 7 to 10 years, you can get a brand-new wind or solar project built in Alberta for less than the cost of the province’s grid electricity today.”

“In fact, many renewable projects wouldn’t exist were it not for the customer’s long-term commitment,” Drygas continues. “Businesses with a PPA can talk about how they made a wind farm or a solar project happen, and how that benefits the environment and the community. It’s a great sustainability story.”

Looking to the future

Drygas says that the world must transition to a low-carbon economy, and that businesses will play a key role. “You can be a leader in that transition, or you can be a straggler,” he adds. “Those who shrink their carbon footprint now won’t be ignored. People prefer to work for, buy from, and do business with companies whose values align with their own. And right now, people care about building a green future.”

The post How Canadian Businesses Are Fighting Climate Change with Green Energy appeared first on HiveInnovates.