Transition Brockville              

EMC St Lawrence / Jill Hudson / 24 November 2011

Leeds & Grenville Computer Technology Centre recently won the Green Award during the Brockville and District Chamber of Commerce (BDCC) Gala.

LGCTC has been doing its part to significantly reduce the amount of electronic waste that makes it to the landfill and refurbishing computers and other electronics - passing the savings along to the consumer.

"We repair or refurbish. We also provide low-cost equipment to businesses and individuals, senior citizens, students, people on social assistance, medical issues," said Paul Donovan. He and David LeSueur own LGCTC.

The facility is part of Ontario Electronic Stewardship Organization (OESO) - which covers east of Kingston, south of Ottawa, right to the Montreal border as LGCTCs refurbishing jurisdiction.

OESO is an organization that is mandated to handle E-waste around Ontario. It consists of a number of components - collecting the E-waste, refurbishing the equipment, consolidating the E-waste and shipping the remainder.

[ FULL ARTICLE HERE ]

Documentary on planned obsolescence (2010)

[ Hat tip to Green Communities Canada! ]

Energy Bulletin / Christine Patton / 28 October 2011

Growing up in America, my generation was taught that any and every need could be met by a particular product or service, all of which were just waiting to be purchased. To afford these purchases as part of a "lifestyle," the proper career path for middle class people was to attend college, learn an intricately detailed specialization in order to make a salary, and buy whatever we might need or desire, from childcare to lawn services to fast food to psychiatric services.

While specialization can certainly make economic sense, the pendulum swung too far. We grew up to be thoroughly knowledgeable in a very narrow field, yet helpless and unempowered in every other walk of life, at the mercy of a cheap-energy growth economy supported by underpaid or slave labor and ongoing environmental destruction. While we grew up believing that having the money to purchase all of our needs equaled independence, many of us have learned that we've inherited a thinly-disguised dependence on the vast, complicated systems needed to support us.

In order to reclaim skills once lost, regain a sense of control over the process of your life, and withdraw your support from the often-immoral, often-unsatisfying industrial economy, consider becoming a producer of the things you want and need - in your home, your garage, your workshop and your garden.

Environmental & social justice activist Julia Butterfly Hill shows how our belief that we are separate from the whole has created a disposability consciousness.

Yes! Magazine / Bea Johnson / 14 September 2011

A few years ago, my husband and I decided that we wanted a better world for our two boys, now 10 and 11 years old. We embarked on a journey to do our part for the environment: My husband quit his job to join a sustainability start-up; I tackled the home.

I started by adopting reusable water bottles and shopping totes, but slowly took it further by replacing disposables with reusables (toilet paper excluded), shopping in bulk with cloth bags, bringing glass containers to the store for wet items (meat, deli, fish, cheese, oil...), and even testing more extreme ideas, like shampooing with baking soda and vinegar for 6 months. A year's worth of our household solid waste now fits in a quart size jar.

What we discovered along the way is that the benefits of the zero-waste lifestyle go well beyond the obvious environmental impact. It has not only made us healthier (since the healthiest foods do not come packaged), but it has also saved us a great deal of money. Most importantly, we now have more time to do the things that matter most to us, like spending it with our kids.

We find that we have become a closer and happier family in the process. We have found balance without compromising our goals, aesthetics, or sanity. Zero-waste living is on auto-pilot.

[ FULL ARTICLE HERE ]

 
Leave any unwanted but still useful items at the curb in front of your house by 9 a.m. on the scheduled dates.

Post Carbon Institute / Richard Heinberg / 25 July 2011

Energy conservation is our best strategy for pre-adapting to an inevitably energy-constrained future. And it may be our only significant option for averting economic, social, and environmental ruin.

The world will face limits to energy production in decades ahead regardless of the energy pathway chosen by policy makers. Consider the two extreme options—carbon minimum and carbon maximum.

[ FULL ARTICLE HERE ]