Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) Okanagan have teamed up with GreenStep Sustainability Coaching to help local businesses learn new ways to grow their bottom line.
 
As a follow up to the tremendous response to the Green Business Awards, SIFE Okanagan students Matt Cosar and Sattu Dhaliwal approached Angela Reid and Lindsay Eason of GreenStep to put together a workshop series to continue building upon the environmental successes of the business community. “We want to make sure the momentum continues and other businesses have the chance to benefit from the advantages of going green, and to help prepare them for competing for prestigious awards like the Sustainability Leader of the Year, which requires excellence,” says Dhaliwal.  
 
The outcome is a four part workshop series called “The Sustainability Advantage,” which provides small and medium sized enterprises with the opportunity to understand and apply the tremendous benefits that arise from creating a long term sustainability strategy. “We want companies to see profitability in not only improving energy efficiency and resource conservation within the workplace, but also from improving employee productivity and retention,” says Eason. “Thinking about the long term sustainability of a company is something every business owner must do to survive in a decade that is set to bring more uncertainty with rising energy and resource costs. These workshops will help local businesses to develop goals for 2010 that will carry them into the future with a strategic advantage.”
 
SIFE and GreenStep are looking for 20 Okanagan businesses to participate in the series that includes four half-day workshops, beginning September 17th 2009. Businesses can learn more and register at www.green-step.ca or by contacting Lindsay Eason at 250-868-5121 or info@green-step.ca.

The New Year's resolution of Okanagan newlyweds, Darrell and Lindsay Eason, transformed into a year long commitment to sustainable living. Follow their journey as they change from a green couple to a sustainable couple over the next year. And, get ideas and tips that can inspire you to change your life as well.

 

March 16th 2009

 

What is important to your life? Our latest journey to a cabin in the Shuswap has allowed us to contemplate this important question. How many of us actually take the time to identify if everything we are doing in our life is something we find extremely important? And take money out of the question. Humans do all kinds of stupid things for money (but that’s a whole other discussion)! 

Darrell and I stayed on a 160 acre estate in Celista, BC in the North Shuswap. There are cozy cabins, an organic garden, Icelandic horses, affectionate barn kitties and the cutest puppy ever. The estate is also home to Celista Estate Winery and the homestead is complete with an art gallery and a soon to be wine tasting bar. The owners, Marg and Jake, are the sweetest people in the world, and are living their dream. They have obviously figured out what is important to them. 

What is important to us? By spending time out there we think we have answered this question for ourselves. It’s not very profound or exciting but actually quite traditional. So here it is – having the time to enjoy the simple pleasures in life. In 5 days we forgot about stressful deadlines, irritating commutes and answering the hundreds of emails and phone calls we get each day. Being immersed in nature, we thoroughly enjoyed our time. The simple pleasures, like getting to know the area, hiking through the snow, feeding the horses, playing with pets, baking, reading, talking... Our days of nothing were filled with the most satisfying feeling – joy! Why do our daily lives have to be such hard work?

During University, I always envied the people I was learning about in Anthropology. People in many cultures work less than 5 hours a day and “work” was gathering and preparing food, clothing and shelter. That doesn’t sound like work to me. That is what we do for hobbies: garden, sew and build things. Humans enjoy doing the things that help provide for our basic needs. And do you know what they do with the rest of their day? Enjoy leisure time, relax, socialize, and create beautiful art. They don't need to worry about stock prices and retirement savings because their culture is built on ensuring everyone is looked after. 

For the past month I have been very content flipping through recipe books and dreaming of canning food and having a garden. These simple pleasures are things that people are too busy to do because they are working eight hours a day, plus commute, and spending time waiting in line in the supermarket, the bank or the mall. We don’t have time for these simple pleasures (things that we actually enjoy) because we need to earn money and find the quickest and easiest way to put food on the table, zone out and do it all again the next day.  

Well let's take a step back and reassess what really matters… and make that our priority!

The New Year's resolution of Okanagan newlyweds, Darrell and Lindsay Eason, transformed into a year long commitment to sustainable living. Follow their journey as they transform from a green couple to a sustainable couple over the next year. And, get ideas and tips that can inspire you as well. 

January 13, 2009

It has been quite a week of exploring our options and allowing ourselves to express our creativity through food. I actually baked a perfect loaf of bread in the bread maker, thanks to the addition of an egg and bread flour. The difference (I think) is higher gluten content, allowing the bread to rise instead of making a hard little puck that I had come to accept. Thanks to the inspiration of my friend Karalyn, I made two batches of wonderful organic spelt crackers with poppy seeds and organic seasoning. If I had realized how easy it was to make my own crackers, I would have started years ago. All you need is a cup of flour, 2 tbsp of butter, 4 tbsp of water, salt plus any seasonings and seeds you want to add. Just roll out the dough 1/8 inch thin and bake for 10 min on a greased pan at 400 degrees. Simpler than pie! I cut the second batch with a pizza cutter before putting it in the oven which made perfectly baked strips. I pair the crackers with Carmelis chevre and organic jalapeno and apple jelly or with home made humus. Yum!

Darrell has also been experimenting with cooking, not baking. He used some organic ground beef from Nature’s Fare and made a huge batch of bolognaise sauce to freeze. He asked the owner of Cook’s Quality Meats why it's hard to find organic beef, and he said many cattle farmers have to use antibiotics to treat infections in their herd, otherwise half of their herd would die when they were young. It takes one year for antibiotics to leave a cows system, and then it can become certified organic.

Outside of the kitchen we always look to the organic or eco-friendly option for products, but we are now starting to find ways to reduce the amount of stuff we purchase or continually purchase. I now have a toothbrush from Natural Rezources that has a disposable head, so the whole toothbrush doesn’t need to be thrown out. And our lotion, shampoo, dish soap and detergent containers are all refilled at Samson's Soap Shop.

I recommend to all those who like big box stores to try shopping for one or two items a small natural food store, artisan shop or soap shop. It actually becomes an enjoyable experience, instead of rushing around hundreds of people, standing in line, getting claustrophobic and anxious just to get everything you need in one store. The small shops help calm us down, create an enjoyable experience and make for a fun day of going to the bakers for bread, the butchers for meat, the health food store for vitamins and the Farmer's Market for veggies. The people working at these places are connected to their products, making them passionate about what they do. Do you think the cashier at Walmart gives a crap about local vs. imported products? Maybe, but her personal values definitely are not reflected in her job.

The moral of the story (or rant, if you like) is that we all need to find out what makes our conscience feel good. What is your philosophy to living happier and healthier? Do you want to make a difference in this world? Because if this is not what you are striving for, then why are you doing what you are doing?

The New Year's resolution of Okanagan newlyweds, Darrell and Lindsay Eason,transformed into a year long committment to sustainable living. Follow their journey as they transform from a green couple to a sustainable couple over the next year. And, get ideas and tips that can inspire you as well.

It was a slow start but we are finally getting the hang of focusing on purchasing only local and organic food. We've already been receiving Urban Harvest Organic Delivery for nearly two years at our current address. Urban Harvest is a local organic produce delivery service that delivers certified organic goods in reusable containers to your door. Urban Harvest offers many local and BC options, but also includes organic produce from the USA and Mexico. To find out what produce is in season in which province, visit the Canadian Local Eating website to get an idea of the type of produce you can eat if you want to eat local and seasonal. This week, we made sure we ordered only BC produce from Urban Harvest, and will stick with 100% BC produce for the entire year.

We've been using up our left over food over the past week, and finally went shopping to start our year off properly. Because Nature's Fair was closed, we ended up at Save On Foods, where we questioned and read the labels on absolutely everything we bought. We spent about two hours in the grocery store deciding what was acceptable in our program and what wasn't. At least for the produce, Save On labels where it came from, so we could choose only BC goods. Many of the packaged products trick you, because they could be packaged for a company in BC, but actually made in the USA or overseas. Spices and grains are hard, because many of them are not grown in BC or Canada. We stocked up on as many organic choices as possible, and will use them sparingly.

We have also been making more of our own food, such as casseroles, perogies, bread, soup and chutney, and freezing or canning them to eat throughout the week. This way, we don't spend money eating out during the week, and won't make impulse choices of where and what we eat. Plus, we know exactly where the food is coming from. For some great recipes, visit Urban Harvest.

Our next step is to research local restaurants to see which ones carry the most local food and have sustainability policies already in place. For suggestions, please email dazandlindz@shaw.ca.