Green Calgary's Blog

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...

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...

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...

Every year, I try to be well-prepared for the holidays. I know people who are very prepared - they have a schedule and everything goes smoothly. That never seems to be me, though. Between a packed social calendar, trying to make it to friends' Christmas parties, a work celebration, and family events, on top of a hectic schedule of shopping, baking, making travel plans, and more, I never seem to have time to put much into holiday decorations! To be really green, I should probably make my own and reuse them for years, but I've never really had the time for that, either! Here are some holiday decorations that you can make/put up that are easy AND pretty green, too! 1. Make a Gourd Display: I haven't tried this one yet, it was just an idea I had when I sat down to make this list, so maybe it needs some refinements, but why not get a mix of a bunch of different gourds and squashes and make a little display of them? Sort of like decorative gourds for harvest, but then you ...

It's November, which means that holiday parties are just around the corner. You may have even begun planning them already! But whatever phase of planning your in, we have some ideas for you on how to plan this holiday season with sustainability in mind! 1) Conceptualize. Party planning begins way back in the concept phase. Make yourself a list of things you need to have at the party, things you want to have, and things you don't want to have. Once you have this list in front of you, you can see where your priorities lie and start shifting things around. This lets you make a master "to do" list quite easily. It's right in this phase where you can start the groundwork of making your part sustainable. 2) Research. Now that you have your master "to do" list, you can look at how each step can be handled in the most sustainable way. If you have food on your list, you can start to ask: what kind of food, where do I get it, what do I do with the lefto...

Ideas for a waste free Thanksgiving and Halloween! October is here and it's a month of feasting! Whether that is Thanksgiving staples or candy. In either case, celebrations undoubtedly mean that there is more waste than usual and being that this month also includes Waste Reduction Week (Oct 21-27) in Canada, it's a great chance to practice some waste reducing tips! Show your thanks to our planet by cutting down on waste! Thanksgiving. This national holiday is usually accompanied by feasting as a harvest festival and that means food waste. Here are a few ways to avoid the waste. Share food. Whether this means inviting people over, giving leftovers to your neighbours, or freezing as much as you can to give to others later, sharing food keeps the food waste down and is in the spirit of the season! Give yourself time. We live busy lives and frequently the holidays creep up on us, but prepare ahead of time and you can avoid a lot of waste. This lets you bu...

As one festival ends, another one is upon us.  Calgary Folk Fest  is just around the corner and will occur July 23-25. This festival has happened for 40 years in Prince’s Island Park and is a hot spot for showcasing funky food, cool market finds, and seventy artists from over sixteen countries! Another reason to showcase this festival is because of the extent Calgary Folk Fest goes through to try to make the festival as sustainable as possible. At this event, disposable water bottles are not available for sale and because of this, every attendee should bring their own reusable bottles to refill. Food  purchased at the event is also provided on completely compostable dishware along with compostable cutlery. At the event, an event greening crew is in place to manage all the waste disposal to make sure that everything is properly sorted and other volunteers are constantly monitoring and cleaning up any litter that ends up on the ground includi...

Ya-Hoo! Stampede is just around the corner and we want to remind you of some tips on how to enjoy the festivities in a sustainable way. The Stampede has come far in its efforts to try to make the event as green as possible and are continuingly trying to improve this . As they are doing their part, it’s important that we as attendees try to do our parts as well! Read up on our ideas from last year here . These include using environmentally safe and mineral-based sunscreens , which is important not only for human health but for ocean health as well. Also included in the blog is using reusable or compostable dinnerware for your at home stampede parties, as well as bringing your own water bottle to the grounds and filling it up at the refillable water stations. Another way the stampede aims to help reduce carbon emission is by introducing discounted transit prices during Stampede week. Taking transit is a great way to not only reduce air pollution but to also invest in the communit...

Summer in Calgary has officially kicked off! This means that market season is now upon us. There are tons of markets scheduled for the rest of summer and even multiple ones happening this upcoming weekend. As mentioned in one of our previous blog posts , shopping local is a great and easy way to be green. At the markets, you will find a variety of goodies ranging from vintage clothes, to farm fresh produce, and maybe even some beeswax wraps to reduce your plastic wrap consumption. Shopping local has plenty of benefits including helping the economy. Did you know that spending $100 locally ensures that $68 stays in the community? This article explains this notion in more depth and also talks about the importance of supporting your neighbors and becoming an active member of your community. These local businesses also tend to have a smaller carbon footprint than their big brand counterparts, which is another reason to spend your money locally. There are also advantages to buying loca...

I love to get into the kitchen and cook. Many of us here at Green Calgary do. I also love that it's one of the easiest places to make a real difference in my environmental impact! The average Canadian throws out about 170 kg of food every year, making up about 40% of what we buy! So, I make it my mission to cook and eat as sustainably as possible, and I've found that, actually, it's not that difficult! I'll go through a little list here of some general tips, and some specific ingredients you can use! Here are your Green Kitchen essentials to live by: Plan your meals: My partner and I always plan two weeks of meals at a time, so when we buy groceries, we know when we're buying things we need versus things we just want... That helps remind us that we don't need to purchase too many unnecessary or unhealthy foods. Have a storage plan: Plan where all the food is going to go. Partly, this also means planning on what you do if your lettuce starts to go bad...