Green Calgary's Blog

  With the 20cm of snow this week, many of us are switching out our old all-season tires for winter tires to ensure road safety and precent our vehicles from skidding off on icy roads. While average tires have five years lifespan and absolute replacement timeline of ten years, it is inevitable that many Calgarians will throw away tires at some point in our lifetime. Not sure what to do with your old ones? Take them to one of the three City of Calgary landfill sites for FREE recycling! h    Spyhill Landfill 11808 69 Street NW Mon-Sat 7:30am - 5pm   East Calgary Landfill 3801 - 68 Street SE Mon-Sat 7:30am - 5pm     Shepard Landfill 12111 -  68 Street SE Mon-Sat 8am - 5pm Life After Re(Tire)ment   Recycled tires are processed into crumbs and remade into new products such as shingles, playground tiles, sidewalks, and more! Have questions about recycling? Check out the City of Calgary What Goes Where for more information! 

  Green Calgary is on the search for its next leader! If you have an unwavering passion for the environment and sharp business acumen, then we're looking for you! Take a look at the position requirements HERE and apply! Applications accepted until the position is filled. No phone calls please.

Green Calgary is looking for a dynamic communicator with a passion for the environment to join our team as a Communication and Fund Development Coordinator. If this sounds like you or someone you know, take a look at the position requirements HERE and apply before August 14th! No phone calls please.

It is with a mix of joy and sorrow that we say goodbye to Green Calgary’s Executive Director, Nirmala Naidoo, who has been appointed by the Governor General of Canada to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) as the regional member for Alberta and Northwest Territories. Green Calgary offers its congratulations for such an important appointment and wishes Nirmala the best of luck on her new journey. Green Calgary is committed to continuing its climate and environment education initiatives with Lex van der Raadt stepping in as Interim Executive Director. Lex has been with Green Calgary for over 3 years as a communications specialist and most recently as the Manager of Employees and Communications. “In such a difficult time this year, Green Calgary has done an excellent job of responding quickly to changing circumstances,” said Lex. “Green Calgary is well-positioned to continue its climate and environment education work uninterrupted. Expect more great in...

Green Calgary brings summer camps to your own backyard this summer! Green Calgary has developed a new summer program to help bridge the gap between a summer camp and online learning in the new Backyard Science Summer Program! The program has activities, guides, videos, and live sessions to give you a fun-filled week of having your very own summer camp. With hours of content each day and hands-on support from our experienced educators, your child will learn about the science of nature, while having fun outdoors! Green Calgary offers four camps in July and August. Each camp is geared towards a certain grade, though the content for each camp is different, so your child could attend multiple camps. The first camp is the Adventurer Camp for Grades 5-6 and is focused on Bees and Bugs. It runs from July 6 to 10. Find out more and register here... The second camp is the Explorer Camp for Grades 3-4 and is focused on Plants and Nature. It runs from July 20 to 24. Find out more an...

It's another Earth Week and while it's not a great time for many to celebrate, there are still some things that we are doing to mark the occasion. We wanted to share some of what Green Calgary's been working on for this Earth Week. Rain Barrel Sales - Green Calgary's annual rain barrel sale fundraiser has moved online and we're still selling rain barrels and delivering them to your door. We're pleased that for Earth Month we've dropped the cost of the barrel by $10, plus for the whole season, we're paying half the shipping! You can order yours HERE . Online Activities for Kids - Green Calgary's educators have adapted our programs into online activities to help parents and teachers deliver environmental education at home! Each week has a different theme and different activities to try - check the activity guides to find which part of the curriculum they fit into. You can find those HERE . For this Earth Week, we're also premiering our ...

Green Calgary’s annual rain barrel sales have been a major fundraiser and community event for over 20 years, a legacy which we intend to honour this year.  While the current public health crisis has kept many of us separate from one another, the possibility of holding rain barrel sales in a physical location has become an impossibility.  So, Green Calgary is taking the sales online instead! What you can expect: · The same great Green Calgary rain barrels in blue or white · Rain barrels at a special, bargain price of $75 barrel until May 1st when they go up to $85 · The same excellent rain barrel support through our help desk · Green Calgary pays half the delivery fee! A new, reduced price of $10 delivery for your first two barrels, $10 per barrel after that (in the same order) · Delivery to every quadrant of the city on select days (pick up from our offices might become available at a later date) We’re hoping this change will be a welcom...

It's World Water Day on March 22nd! The theme for this year's celebration is water and climate change, and how those two are linked. You can read more about this here. For Calgarians, though, our own water is much more top of mind! Here are some things to remember about water in Calgary: Our drinking water is some of the best! It's also completely screened for disease and is very clean. To help with the financial difficulties of Calgarians at this time, Mayor Naheed Nenshi announced plans to let Calgarians defer their water bills. Conserving water will help to reduce stress on the already stressed utilities in Calgary. Here are some of our favourite water conservation ideas: Collect the water you use for rinsing fruit or leftover water in drinking glasses and use it to water your plants. Time your showers and set a goal to lower your time! A great way to do this is to play music and try to reduce the number of songs you hear while showering! When do...

With many Albertans staying at home due to COVID-19 either in self-isolation, or while feeling sick, what can you do at home to pass the time while still being green? If you don't want your home electricity and heating bills to go way up, try these green activities! Curl up in blankets. If you keep your thermostat down lower during the day, you'll find it pretty cold at home. But save your heating bill by curling up with some blankets! Make a hot beverage. Still with that cooler home idea, you can make tea, coffee, or any hot beverage to keep yourself warm, but also keep yourself hydrated. Play board games. Board games are a great way to pass time without using up much energy and these days you can get board games about almost any topic and for any age/number of players! Read a book. Books are still a great way to spend your day and they take very little energy, plus they work well with curling up in blankets and making a hot beverage! Start a project. If you're stu...

March 8th is International Women's Day! Use this opportunity to celebrate women by supporting local businesses run by women, such as The Apothecary in Inglewood , and local organizations, such as Green Calgary , that are run by women. It's also a good reminder that climate change disproportionately affects women worldwide , so supporting women is another way of supporting the environment, particularly supporting women in leadership roles, women's education, and preventing women's poverty. Share International Women's Day events with us and the Green Calgary community on social media on our Twitter , Facebook , and Instagram !

Green Calgary is going to the Calgary Home + Garden Show this weekend to talk to folks about rain barrels, but the show also acts as a reminder that gardening season is just around the corner, if not now. Many gardeners, some in Green Calgary included, garden throughout the winter with things like sprouts, microgreens, and container plants that winter well. However, now tends to be when people planting their gardens from seed start planning their gardens and even starting their seeds. One of the advantages to starting this early is that you can design your garden to take advantage of the whole growing season, with things that bloom early, others that bloom late, and plants that protect your garden from pests while attracting pollinators. The City of Calgary's YardSmart program has some handy tools to get you started . Another reason to get ready early is to make sure you have your water usage laid out. Plants have various water needs, plus watering in shade and in sun is di...

The staff at Green Calgary were discussing their weekend plans and, while the weather has certainly been playing yo-yo with outdoor plans this month, we all were excited to get out and enjoy the city. There was a lot going on last weekend because of Family Day, as we pointed out on our social media, but there are still some great things you can do in YYC this weekend! Get Outside. Winter is slipping away from us, so it's a good time to try enjoying winter scenery. Some of us were planning on enjoying a little of that outdoor time, walking to our local parks, or carpooling with friends out to the mountains. YYC Hot Chocolate Fest.  A few of us have been trying out the hot chocolate fest this year. This annual event supports charities while showcasing the hot chocolate talent of some of Calgary's best cafes and restaurants! You can check their website or download their app to find participating hot chocolatiers and rate the different beverages that you try! Make it more...

Family Day is just around the corner and while we encourage everyone to get outdoors and enjoy Calgary's urban environment, it might be worth it to take a moment to reflect on the beauty of the nature in and around Calgary, and how your family is part of that ecosystem. Alberta is an incredibly beautiful place - our tourism industry reflects that - but while Albertans can enjoy and appreciate our natural spaces, those spaces also need our respect and stewardship. Not only do those green spaces provide Albertans with places to play and enjoy, they are also good for us! Research has shown that living close to green spaces and spending time outside betters our health.Those wild spaces are at risk from climate change, which itself comes with significant health risks . What does this have to do with families? Well, it's our families that live with the consequences of climate change. Children will have to live with our increasingly fragile world, while the elderly are at h...

We've talked about various holidays and how to make them green before, but we've never looked at Valentine's Day before. Many of the same gift ideas apply to Valentine's Day, such as giving experiences, choosing sustainable gifts, and spending time with the ones you care about. But here are some Valentine's Day specific thoughts for you: Sweet. Get some sustainable and ethical chocolates for your partner, friends, or even yourself! You can find these at Community Natural Foods , Calgary Co-Op , or any of the chocolatiers in Calgary! Spicy. If it's a romantic gift you're looking for, why not a lovely potted plant? It lasts longer than cut flowers and is beautiful for much longer! Savory. If you're looking for some sustainable eating-out options in Calgary, there are some great options. Shokunin Izakaya is dedicated to environmental sustainability, as is Una Pizza . There are plenty of restaurants that are trying to being more sustainable. S...

Green Calgary is happy to announce that we will once again be participating in Shaw Birdies for Kids presented by Altalink! This great initiative supports youth by matching donations up to 50%, growing the impact you can make on donations to our children and youth programs! You can donate here! Green Calgary has some great youth programs on offer this year that could use your support! In addition to mainstays, like Waste in Our World, Water for Life, and Worms Love Leftovers, our Citizen Science programs are back and expanded! Teachers can book for their classes here . We also have some surprises upcoming for our youth programs that we're not quite ready to announce yet, but trust us, they will be great! Supporting youth climate and environment education in our City is the first step in creating well-informed citizens and stewards of our urban environment. We invite you to be part of the process. For a limited time, make your donation go further.  Click here to suppo...

At the end of 2019, Green Calgary was talking with some of our frequent partners and friends in the sustainability community, and we got to talking about our wishes for 2020: what our sustainability goals were individually, and what we hoped for in general. We wanted to take this moment to share some of our wishes for 2020, and some of those that we've gathered from the community. We hope that this might inspire you for the year and help showcase some other voices in the sustainability community! First, Green Calgary's sustainability wish for the year is for more Calgarians to engage with the sustainability community - there are many great organizations and events throughout the year in Calgary, and we hope that Calgarians show their passion for the environment, our city, and the planet. Next, we have some responses from a couple of members of the community. From Joe Vipond (@jvipondmd on Twitter): You can find more of what Joe is working on at The Cana...

When undertaking a renovation, there are a few things you can do to make your renovation more environmentally friendly! The best thing you can do is make conscious decisions – plan out the renovation and look for alternatives where they exist. Often, there are eco-friendly options out there, but we just don’t see them! Here are some more tips: Do research. Look into the products you’re getting and what kind of environmental programs the business has in place. You can check various certifications, too, such as Forest Stewardship Council for wood and Canada’s EcoLogo program for eco-friendly products. Paint. Painting is an easy way to brighten up a home and the biggest issue are the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in many paints. Look at labels and ask in the paint department for low-VOC paint, recycled latex paint, or natural paint. Repurpose & Reuse. Find new spots for old furniture, such as turning an old dresser into a new shelving unit. Check in thrift stores and onl...

Welcome to 2020 everyone! A new year and a new decade, and introducing some more sustainability into your life has never been easier! With 2020 starting off with some major climate-related disasters and lots of uncertainty, it can feel out of place to equate using a water bottle to fighting climate change, but we're here to remind you that tackling climate change and sustainability starts with each and every one of us making choices in our lives. Looking at climate and environment news, it's clear that the problems our planet is facing are global, so personal solutions can often feel small or insignificant, but they really do have an impact on the world we live in.  Every action we take helps shift behaviours - in us, in our social circle, and in the local economy. That means each step we take on our green journey makes a difference, even if that difference is very small, and when we add them all up, we make a huge difference. So, while it's important ...

We all struggle to be more sustainable in our everyday lives, whether there's something that we always forget to recycle, some product that always seems to make it into our shopping cart that we don't need, or some electronics we can't seem to remember to turn off. Whatever the case may be, Green Calgary's holiday wish is for everyone to take that next step that they've been putting off to be more sustainable. We hope that this year has been kind to you and that next year will be even better. From everyone at Green Calgary, Happy Holidays! Please note that Green Calgary's offices will be closed from Wednesday, December 25th to January 1st, inclusive. The EcoStore is now closed for the season and will reopen January 7th, 2020. Thank you!

We hope our 2019 Gift Guide gave you some ideas for great green gifts to give to everyone! When we have a gift to wrap, however, what are our options to make it as green as possible, and where does the wrap go when we're done with it? I've listed some wrapping options first, then where to put your wrapping waste at the end. Without further ado! No wrap: You heard it right! No wrapping is the best way to give nature a break. If you're gifting an experience or a donation, this is a no brainer, but even for other gifts, you might be okay with leaving it uncovered! Reusable gift bags: Reusable gift bags, especially out of durable materials like cloth, are second to none when it comes to green gift giving. The bag itself is like another gift and once you get a good supply of these out to your friends and family, you can trade them back and forth for years! They're also easy to make for anyone with a sewing machine. Wrap it in another gift: Folding up a blanket or...