Although this holiday season presents us with a unique set of challenges, many people still consider gift giving and important tradition. As stu dies show that most people produce up to 30% more waste during the holiday season, now might be the time to think about helping your loved ones move toward more sustainable ways of living.   A guiding question to consider is: Which products will help contribute to a healthier environment? ·         Bamboo toothbrush ·         Metal drinking straws ·         To-go kits for your car (real cutlery rolled up in fabric napkins) ·         Stainless steel kitchen composter ·         Organic skin care products (buy or make your own) ·         House plants (improve air quality and they’re beautiful!) ·         Indoor herb garden ·         Soy or Beeswax candles ·         Food wrap alternatives to single-use plastic ·         Reusable shopping and produce bags ·         Reusable beverage bottles   If you would like to avoid some of the waste produced

  If, as a society, we hope to transition towards a sustainable future we will need to insert the concept of  “enough” into our economic equation.  It is quite understandable that as our numbers increase we might need to increase goods and services in  order to get by. Recently my son and his wife gave birth to twins, which means that their household now  is consuming more than it did before. And in situations where people are experiencing abject poverty –  not having access to basic human needs - it will of course be necessary to ramp up consumption in order to  live in a sustainable manner.  But it is a troubling fact that large segments of our population are presently gobbling up more goods and  services than our planet can afford to deliver. And the problem is compounded by the fact that masses of  poor people around the world aspire to a lifestyle equivalent to ours. Where might such resources come  from? A case in point is the growing concern world-wide about our use of fossil

  Lives in southern Manitoba have been greatly altered in recent weeks. As Covid cases rise rapidly in our province  and across Canada, the need to act responsibly becomes critical for each of us and all of us. As we face limiting  contacts and activities, one of the things that remains constant is our trips to the grocery store. We can be thankful  for food security in our community, but another challenge accompanies our food shopping. Since the start of the pandemic, I, thinking of myself as a safety-conscious consumer, had begun to purchase fresh  produce in plastic packaging. Upon advice from my friend whose son is an emergency room doctor in BC, I had also  dutifully wiped down all food purchases with sanitizing wipes or washed produce in mild soapy water for twenty  seconds since mid-March, even when I did not feel like it.   But as my guilt rose, so did my desire to do some digging on single-use plastic packaging for foods as a safety  measure. Turns out research is being active