Green Calgary's Blog

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...

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...

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...

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...

It's that time of year again! If the snow last weekend was any indication, our water collection period is coming to an end and it's about time to winterize your rain barrel to avoid damage to the barrel. Here's how: If you have a Rain Barrel with an overflow hose: 1. Remove the overflow hose & store it for next spring. 2. Turn your barrel upside down & drain completely. 3. Store & secure your barrel for the winter. Ideally, move the barrel into a garage/shed if you can, but if you are leaving it outdoors, store it upside down and secure it to prevent damage & water accumulating. 4. Reconnect your downspout to allow melting snow to drain away from your foundation.   If you have a Rain Barrel with a diverter kit: 1. Turn your barrel upside down & drain completely. 2. Store & secure your barrel for the winter. Ideally, move the barrel into a garage/shed, but if you are leaving it outdoors, store it upside down & secure it to prevent damage ...

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...

It's rain barrel season for Green Calgary again, and we have so much going on at the rain barrel sites other than just rain barrels! So what can you expect from the sales dates? Bag Share: The Bag Share is back! With such a huge success of the program last year, we're repeating it this year. We'll be collecting your extra reusable bags on site at each Rain Barrel Sale and redistributing them to others! We thank everyone for their donations! Activities: At each of our Rain Barrel Sales we will have activities on site for children and youth to get involved and learn about sustainability. They can participate in Environmental Jeopardy, Spin the Enviro Wheel, and much more! Rain Barrel Repair: We will have Dirk Struck, the Barrelman himself, onsite to repair your rain barrels. Bring old barrels down with you to get repaired. It's $15 per outlet repaired and Dirk takes cash. Thanks! Partners: Each site will have some of our community partners on-hand to provid...

Happy Earth Month everyone! We're all getting a bit of spring fever here at Green Calgary as we prepare for our busiest month of the year! Here are a few things we're up to throughout the month, as well as some Earth Month actions for you to take! For us it starts (and ends) with Rain Barrels! Our annual rain barrel sales are back and we start selling online right now! Our rain barrels are a great deal at $65 per kit, and our composters are on sale, too, at $45! You can preorder yours today or come to one of the four sales locations across Calgary in the coming months (more info on these below). Then, later this month we'll be celebrating Earth Week and Earth Day by participating in environmental awareness events across Calgary! You can even book us to come to your business or community association throughout Earth Month as our Lunch and Learn series is on special for $250 per session or 5 for $1000! You can find more info about those on our website . As Earth Mo...

It's 2019 and another World Water Day is upon us. Water is such a vital part of our lives. We drink it, eat it , wear it, use it, bathe in it, and more every day. It seems odd that we only celebrate water on a few days every year! Each year, the UN declares a theme for World Water Day. This year's theme is clean water for everyone. Surprisingly, there are many communities - even in Canada - that don't have access to clean water. It goes to show that we still have a ways to go in terms of managing this precious resource. Here are other reasons we should all respect our waters! Calgary gets floods. We all remember the big flood of 2013, but there's flooding fairly regularly. The City has plans extending far into the future to help lessen the impacts of floods. Learn about how to mitigate flood risks for you and your neighbours on The City of Calgary's website . It takes a lot to manage our water. The City of Calgary has its job cut out for it! Betwee...

We all know that water is a precious resource and most of us take care not to waste it, but there are some amazing facts about water that can help you conserve even more in your day-to-day life! Here are 5 amazing things you never knew about water! 1. Water conservation isn't just about water. When we talk about saving water, we're not just talking about the wet stuff itself. Water conservation is about domestic water (the stuff you use at home) and virtual water, which is the water that we don't see - this refers to the water that is inherent in products we buy and use. 2. Domestic Water. The water we use at home for cleaning, cooking, and washing is called our domestic consumption. In Calgary, our average water consumption each day (per capita) was 387 litres in 2017 . That's much higher than the 223 average for Canadians in 2013. Overall, both of these averages are very high on the global scale. 3. You can cut down on your domestic water with choices ...