Earthmatters

Be kind, reward generously, support good and healthy living. Seek and encourage the best in one another. For whatever unites us is greater than whatever divides us! This is just some of the philosophy behind a manufacturer of soap and body care products.  Dr. Bonner's has been producing soap since 1858.  It came of age during the 60's and has grown to become the third largest B Corporation with over $100 million is sales last year. https://www.drbronner.com/  

Due to the fact that we were busy with the Global #ClilmateStrike in our hometown, we present this repeat program. The Joyce Centre for Partnership & Innovation is the cornerstone of a record-setting $54.25 million renewal of technology labs and classrooms. The five-level centre is also a showcase in environmental sustainability as the region's first net-zero energy institutional building. With solar panels on the roof and high-efficiency lighting and heating, purchasing offsets, and by educating students to use less energy, the building's energy use is close to equal that being generated. The Government of Canada's $20 million investment in the centre is the single largest federal infrastructure funding in Mohawk College's 50-year history. Now that construction and renovations are complete, enrollment in technology programs will grow from 3,500 to 4,500 students and applied research activity will increase by 50 per cent.

New and resurgent solutions are democratizing how we produce, consume, govern, and solve social problems. The maker movement, collaborative consumption, the solidarity economy, open source software, transition towns, open government, and social enterprise are just a few of the movements showing a way forward based on sharing. The sharing transformation shows that it's possible to govern ourselves, build a green economy that serves everyone, and create meaningful lives together. It also shows that we can solve the world's biggest challenges — like poverty and global warming — by unleashing the power of collaboration. Shareable is an award-winning nonprofit news, action and connection hub for the sharing transformation. https://www.shareable.net/ https://www.shareable.net/the-response-how-puerto-ricans-are-restoring-power-to-the-people/  

World Resources Institute (WRI) is a global research organization that spans more than 50 countries, with offices in the United States, China, India, Brazil and more. Its work focuses on seven critical issues at the intersection of environment and development: climate, energy, food, forests, water, cities and the ocean. We spoke with Ryan Sclar, co-author of two reports on the adoption of electric buses to existing public transit systems. Ryan is the Urban Efficiency and Climate Research Analyst at the WRI Ross Center For Sustainable Cities. https://www.wri.org/

Based in Calgary, Canada, the ARC Energy Research Institute conducts economic and investment analysis for ARC Financial Corp. and its stakeholders. ARC Financial is an employee-owned, private equity investment management firm specializing in the Canadian energy industry. Jackie Forrest actively monitors emerging strategic trends related to energy. She is an author and sought after public speaker with 20 years of experience in the energy industry. Jackie is the host of the ARC Energy Ideas podcast, a weekly show that explains the latest trends and news in Canadian energy and beyond. https://www.arcenergyinstitute.com/

Author and filmmaker Helena Norberg-Hodge is the founder and director of Local Futures. A pioneer of the 'new economy' movement, she has been promoting an economics of personal, social and ecological well-being for more than thirty years. She is the producer and co-director of the award-winning documentary 'The Economics of Happiness'. Helena has just released a new book, 'Local is Our Future', connecting the dots between our social, economic, ecological and spiritual crises, revealing how a systemic shift from global to local can address these seemingly disparate problems simultaneously. https://www.localfutures.org  

2015 to 2019, Dr. Dianne Saxe was the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario (ECO), an office that has since been abolished. She was appointed unanimously by all MPPs to report to the Legislature on Ontario's environmental, energy and climate performance, and to be the guardian of the Environmental Bill of Rights (EBR). During her term, she improved the effectiveness of the Environmental Bill of Rights, increased public understanding of the urgency of climate change, and issued highly praised reports on a wide range of environmental, energy and climate topics. https://saxefacts.com/

Climate Action Network Canada – Réseau action climat Canada (CAN-Rac Canada) is a coalition of more than 100 organizations across the country. CAN-Rac Canada is the only network in the country that brings labour, development, faith-based, and Indigenous groups together with the key national, provincial, and territorial environmental organizations working on climate change. The network plays a critical role in helping Canadian organizations understand and respond to climate change impacts and policies, across Canada and around the world, to coordinate efforts for greatest impact. Catherine Abreu, Executive Director of CAN-Rac, is one of the world's 100 most influential people in climate policy as named by Apolitical in 2019.  Catherine has over 15 years of experience campaigning on environmental issues including 7 years in the heart of the global climate movement.

Throughout various communities across America, there are plenty of opportunities in need of funding in order to come to fruition. Examples include properties requiring capital to become productive again or entrepreneurs working on promising businesses that have no access to capital to grow. There are plenty of citizens that wish they could make meaningful private equity investments locally, but have no outlet to do so. Kwaku Osei is the CEO of Cooperative Capital. He was previously an Executive Associate at Rock Ventures where he worked on special projects with Dan Gilbert and served as CEO to Project X LLC, a $1MM+ tech spinout of Rock Ventures.

Scientists and foodies have been searching for alternatives to traditional, animal protein-based food.  Land use, greenhouse gas emissions and obesity are touched on during this discussion about eating insects instead of beef, pork and poultry. While many get squeamish at the idea, entomophagy — people eating insects — is a possible way to ensure a sustainable and secure food supply for the eight billion of us on the planet. David Waltner-Toews, a veterinary epidemiologist from Kitchener, Ont., releases his latest book, Eat the Beetles! In it, Waltner-Toews criss-crosses the world, foraging in Japan, visiting insect farms across Canada and sampling insect-focused dishes in Australia and France – to make the case for greater insect consumption.

Founded in 2003, Post Carbon Institute's mission is to lead the transition to a more resilient, equitable, and sustainable world by providing individuals and communities with the resources needed to understand and respond to the interrelated ecological, economic, energy, and equity crises of the 21st century. We spoke with Rob Dietz, Program Director at Post Carbon Institute about the many programs that PCI offers. postcarbon.org resilience.org

Effective communications are integral to gaining acceptance for carbon pricing and to ensure that audiences understand human-induced climate change. Dr. Louise Comeau, is an independent researcher and communications specialist and a Research Associate at the University of New Brunswick. Her communication, policy and education recommendations are based on quantitative and qualitative research. She has almost 30 years' experience in analyzing and developing climate change policy, communications, and solutions-related programming. More information can be found at http://louisecomeau.ca/ https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/07/02/1906589116    https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758%2Fs13421-019-00948-y    https://climateoutreach.org/resource-type/centre-right/

M-KOPA Solar has provided 750,000 homes in East African villages and towns with small, affordable solar kits - bringing households light, power and communications, and avoiding harmful kerosene and diesel fumes.  Through micro-payments, as little as fifty cents per day, M-KOPA allows customers an affordable approach to ownership and self-sufficiency. Since 2010, Co-Founders Jesse Moore and Nick Hughes, and their growing company, have employed 3,000 people and avoided approximately 780,000 tonnes of CO2.

In 'Trains, Buses, People", transportation expert Christof Spieler looks at how cities can build successful transit.  He profiles the 47 metropolitan areas in the US that have rail transit or BRT, using data, photos, and maps for easy comparison. He explains broad concepts, but recognizes all of the technical, geographical, and political difficulties of building transit in the real world. Spieler is Vice President and Director of Planning at Huitt-Zollars, and a lecturer at the Rice University Schools of Architecture and Engineering.  He was a member of the board of directors of Houston METRO from 2010 to 2018.

Christiana Figueres was appointed Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in July 2010, six months after the failed COP15in Copenhagen.   During the next six years she dedicated herself to rebuilding the global climate change negotiating process based on fairness, transparency and collaboration, leading to the 2015 Paris Agreement, widely recognized as a historical achievement. Over the years she has worked in the fields of climate change, sustainable development, energy, land use, technical and financial cooperation. Figueres was recently named one of the top 100 most influential people in Climate Change policy. I met up with Figueres at 'Collision' a high tech conference during a Q & A session. Also at the Collision tech conference held in Toronto was another member of the top 100 Climate Change Influencers, the Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Catherine McKenna.  In that capacity, McKenna drove her country's efforts in ratifying the 2015 Paris

In 'Protecting Pollinators: How to Save the Creatures that Feed Our World', beekeeper and author Jodi Helmer explores why pollinator decline has become so dire and how it can be reversed.  Her book, published by Island Press, offers a hopeful vision for the future of pollinators - not just the iconic monarch butterfly and the dainty hummingbird, but the drab hawk moth and homely bats that are just as essential. The book ends with twenty-nine actionable ways for readers to get involved with pollinator protection, including choosing plants with a variety of colours, shapes, and scents, and leaving "mulch-free" zones in your yard.

Over two billion cups of coffee are consumed, worldwide, every day. According to the International Coffee Organization, each year some 10 million tons of coffee is produced employing 120 million people with 25 million of them being small farm producers in 37 countries. We spoke to three retailers of coffee, all using certified Fair Trade coffee, and asked how and why they got started. One company is a worker co-op, another is a certified B Corporation (meaning that social and environmental values are just as important as shareholder returns), the third is a private company but 100% of profits go towards food, water and education facilities in countries around the world. http://planetbeancoffee.com http://ethicalbean.com http://earthgroup.org/

Transportation is often noted as the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions.  The built environment – offices, factories, homes and hospitals, for example are not far behind.  Between the ecological footprint of construction, demolition, and the ongoing generation of heat and electricity used on a daily basis, its no wonder says Jeff Ranson of the Canadian Green Building Council (CaGBC.  After all, we spend upwards of 90% of our time inside buildings, he notes. CaGBC, as its known, is a membership-driven association of builders, architects, and green building advocates focused on improving industry standards, developing best design practices and guidelines, advocating for green building, and creating educational tools to support its members in implementing sustainable design and construction practices. Jeff Ranson, Regional Director for the Toronto Chapter of CaGBC, recently spoke to a group of green industry leaders explaining what the Council does, the state of the green building construc

Clean Works is a joint venture between Paul Moyer, a fruit farmer and Court Holdings Ltd., a family business involved in manufacturing, technology and steel services. The process - called Clean Verification - was validated by the Food Science Department at the University of Guelph, a leading agri-food institution.  The method is chemical-free and waterless. According to Clean Works, the process using ultraviolet light and vaporized hydrogen kills up to 99% of pathogens and complies with regulations.  This innovation is garnering interest and support from industry leaders across North America.

Growing crops to feed farm animals is vastly inefficient, driving up the price of grains and legumes, and entrenching global poverty.  The challenge to produce enough food for 9 billion people by 2050, requires a more efficient system and less food waste. The Good Food Institute works with scientists, investors, and entrepreneurs to discover improved methods and use all the tools of science to uncover new ways of producing healthy and nutritious food. GFI, as it is known, has placed a focus on clean meat and plant-based alternatives to animal products—foods that are more delicious, safer to eat, and better for the planet than traditional production methods. One of the recipients of GFI's Competitive Research Grant Program is Professor Mario Martinez and his team at the University of Guelph.  Their two year focus will be on the study of "plant-based meat" that will give meat lovers the textures they savour in beef, chicken or fish while retaining the human and environmental health benefits associated