We’ve all been told idling cars is bad for the environment.  There is even a Be Idle Free Video Contest for youth ages 7 to 18 in the Edmonton Capital region.  The contest challenges youth to make a video about why people shouldn’t idle their cars.

Interestingly enough, this contest sparked the interest of an Edmontonian with a different view point.  He made a video about why idling is good.

Take a look for yourself:

If you feel differently (and you’re between the ages of 7-18), make a video explaining why, and enter the contest at: www.edmonton.ca/beidlefree

If you’re not within the age category, tell your children, students, nieces and nephews about it – and challenge them to enter the contest.  There are great prizes to be won!

If you’ve been been out enjoying these last days of summer at the assortment of Edmonton festivals, you might have run into one of our summer research students  who have been continuing to ask Edmontonians to give us your ideas about sustainability and what Edmonton needs to do to ensure we preserve and sustain our environment.

Here’s another update from one of our research students Emma Sanborn, who was on-site at Hawrelak Park for the Celtic festival to talk to Edmontonians amidst the bagpipes and chain mail.

The first thing I say when I approach someone these days is “Hi! I’m with the City of Edmonton.” That’s because “these days” I am a Student Researcher who engages the public in the City’s new environmental plan ‘The Way We Green’. The more I talk with my fellow Edmontonians, the stranger my opening line has started to sound however: aren’t we ALL with the City of Edmonton?

It’s become clearer to me that we are all with the City of Edmonton, I just happen to be one of the lucky people with the task of gathering the concerns and dreams of the people of this beautiful city. I guess you could call me a concern-and-dream-catcher…and at the 3^rd Annual Celtic Festival, I caught a bit of both.

Light-hearted Celtic melodies floated lightly on the breeze in Hawrelak Park on this lush green August afternoon. One of the performers aptly commented “Edmonton, now what a beautiful place. Does it get any more beautiful than this??”

Irish Dancers performing a two-hand reel at the first Celtic festival held in Hawrelak Park. Three years later Edmontonians were still celebrating. Photo credit: Bill Hately

However the first comment that appeared on our public whiteboard urgently cut through this airy fairy mood, and demanded “Stop buying throwaways! (like dusting cloths and disposable diapers).” This kicked off further discussion, both on the whiteboard, and amongst festival attendees.

I quietly listened as a fully-armed and impressively bearded man (dressed in authentic chain mail), and a vendor from another tent, debated Edmonton’s transportation system. I’m happy to say the men settled the situation with iPads instead of swords (they both completed ‘The Way We Green’ survey on iPads, and duelled within the comment box). Upon returning to the whiteboard from this heated iPad battle, I saw someone had drawn a lovely apple tree and wrote “walk more” above it. Beneath this apple tree, in the gigantic scrawl of a child, “Lo chlyn evyn,” was cryptically scrawled, a comment I think the City should take into deep consideration…

My work as a Summer Research Student has made me realize several important things: we are all with the City of Edmonton, and we all have opinions about Edmonton’s future environmental policy. It’s absolutely essential that these opinions are communicated through pictures and comments on a whiteboard, discussions in a park, and completed surveys. Debate and discussion only help strengthen and shape the environmental policy of the beautiful city of Edmonton, which so many of us call home.

For more information on The Way We Green and how you can participate, visit www.thewaywegreen.ca

(Blog post also appears on thewaywegreen.ca)

As part of the development of The Way We Green Strategic Plan, we’ve had a series of Public Surveys where we’ve asked Edmontonians to give us your ideas about sustainability, the environment and what Edmonton needs to do to ensure we live in harmony with nature. Most recently some of our summer students have been out and about asking Edmontonians what they’re thinking about Edmonton and how we can all work together to preserve and sustain our environment. Our summer students are going to be providing some regular updates from the street. Here’s the first update.

Hi, I’m Tristan! As a Research Student for the City of Edmonton, I was fortunate to be at the recent Cariwest Festival with my co-worker Chris, engaging the public about ‘The Way We Green’. A bright, sunny day and the vibrant energy of Cariwest promised lots of people, and it was interesting to get an insight into public opinion.

Although there were many people at the festival who passed by us to enjoy the many booths, booming bass, and dazzling colors – there were quite a few who did stop to chat with us. Some people had heard of ‘The Way We Green’ initiative, and knew a little bit about it, while others were being introduced to it for the first time. There was also a large diversity of ideas and opinions as to what Edmonton should do to make the city more Green.

Here are a few of the suggestions that stood out for me:

One person was quite passionate about pesticides, herbicides, and how harmful their short and long-term effects can be to the environment, and more importantly, to human beings. They raised the concern that these products are being used in children’s playgrounds, hospitals, and in parks.

A mother from the suburbs advocated strongly for public transit, specifically busses, as she felt that the current transit system is doing an inadequate job of meeting the transportation needs of her school aged children. I must admit, I can relate to wishing that buses came more frequently and had routes running at later times of the day than is currently offered.

An enjoyable experience was hearing a woman speak of Edmonton with love, reminiscent of a mother whose child has grown and gone. Although she herself has since left Edmonton, she said hearing about ‘The Way We Green’ evoked a feeling of pride.

I was pleased to hear a couple of Edmontonians share with me all the things that they already do to be environmentally friendly – they said that they have two composters, one outside and one inside (Vermicomposting!) Awesome! The first person to introduce vermicomposting to me was my Dad when he finished the Master Composter/Recycling Program. I’m excited to find others who do this. A lot of people seem to have an aversion to having worms in their houses, but not those two, who were also recyclers and long time gardeners. They might have also had rain barrels – very useful this summer! In any case, it was thrilling for me to connect with others who do these sorts of things. Of course I know a few people who compost, use rain barrels, garden, etc., but a troubling number of my friends and family don’t and speaking to some of the people today infused me with a touch of hope.

Make sure to check out the picture above to get more insight into what was being said at the festival – and you can always go to TheWayWeGreen.ca to contribute to the growing discussion!

I live in an old townhouse and I’m a renter so these two realities significantly restrict my ability to make energy efficiency improvements. But I keep working on it.

My latest challenge was to make my windows more efficient. Both my living room and bedroom have south facing windows that are more than 3 meters wide and are not double-paned. I went and picked up several rolls of energy efficiency film. With some degree of trepidation I cleaned the windows and unrolled the film. I wasn’t sure how easy it was going to be to cover each window but with sweat dripping from my brow as I sat on the couch thinking about it, I decided I might as well dive right in.

I was pleasantly surprised. The hardest thing was actually cleaning my windows (again, they are old). The film was easy to cut and even easier to apply. I put most of the pieces up by myself with very little struggle. And what a difference it has made! My husband has his own personal weather station that tracks the temperature outside versus inside. On the hottest days since putting up the film the indoor temperature has been 2C cooler than on comparable days before the film. That might not seem like much but I’ll take every degree I can get. I’m also looking forward to seeing if it makes a difference in the winter. Oh to be able to sit in the chair in front of the window throughout the year without fear of sunburn or frostbite.

The window film is available at hardware stores and some paint stores. I paid about $30 a roll, but it was worth every penny. I used glare control downstairs and clear upstairs. You can also get decorative films but I’m not sure if these do much for energy efficiency. A side benefit is that the film helps prevent your furniture and other items from fading in the sunlight.

You can also get window insulation kits. I’ve used this in past winters. It creates a kind of artificial storm window. The only problem is that my cat has discovered sitting in the window and tends to make holes in the plastic. The benefit of the energy efficient film is that it goes right on the window (and is removable) so that my cat can’t make holes and during the summer the windows can be opened and closed as normal.

You can find more information about improving window efficiency in the CO2RE Home$avers Windows booklet http://www.edmonton.ca/environmental/programs/home$avers-booklets.aspx

Last week the City of Edmonton released its EcoVision Annual Report. This document is basically a report card on our environmental status – both for City operations and in the community. We look at all the work done by the city that may have an impact on the environment and evaluate it against specific measures.

The report is not a bragging document. Sure, there are environmental initiatives that we’re doing that we’re incredibly proud of – like our pest control systems and our waste management systems – but there are also areas where we need a lot of work – like in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

We strive to make this report as clear and as accurate as possible. We not only report on what is happening with each of the programs, we also rate them by whether or not they are meeting the measures created for them. For instance, under toxic substances, the report card shows that the status of this area is good in that the City has reduced the amount of toxics used in our operations and is likely to continue, as non-toxic options present themselves, into in the future. On the other hand, the measure of community greenhouse gases is showing that Edmonton is not meeting its target on reducing greenhouse gases (in fact they are continuing to rise) and that trend isn’t likely to get better by the time of the next report.

The Council and administration of the City of Edmonton take this report seriously and use it to work on areas that need improvement. But we hope that you will also read the report and think about how you can have a positive impact on the environment. The protecting the environment is everyone’s responsibility. Until we all make the commitment to do better – drive less, use less water, keep toxins from going down the drain, stop idling our cars – this report will always show areas that need improvement.

To read the full EcoVision Annual Report visit www.edmonton.ca/EcoVision

Also, make sure to follow the progress of the public consultation of our developing Environmental Strategic Plan over at www.thewaywegreen.ca

One of the interesting things about ecomobility (getting around via people powered options) is that many of the people who do it are not thinking about being more environmentally friendly. During the spring and summer I bike, inline skate, or walk as much as possible for three main reasons: it’s cheaper than either a car or transit, I get to work out on my commutes leaving me more time for other things, and I feel better after a bike ride through the river valley. In the winter I rely more on the bus and walking. I have to say walking onto a pre-warmed bus always seems a lot better than standing outside and scraping ice off my car windows.

On Saturday, June 19th I hope to find out what other people think of when they are inspired by ecomobility. Active Edmonton, Walkable Edmonton, and Mountain Equipment Co-op’s Bike Fest 2010 are putting on a Car-Free Day from noon – 4 p.m. The event is taking place along 102 Ave. between 104 St. (the Downtown Farmer’s Market) and 100 St. The area will be closed to cars, but open to the creativity of Edmontonians who enter the Park(ed) Stall Contest. Individuals or groups can register and decorate a parking stall along the road, and visitors will have the opportunity to vote for their favourite stall.

I’m really looking forward to seeing what Edmontonians come up with; especially after the little preview park that the organizers (Dot from Active Edmonton, Ian from Walkable Edmonton, Karly and Corinne from Mountain Equipment Co-op) set up last week.

I already know I’ll be stopping at the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues to see their living local stall “intersection repair” and get a glass of lemonade, in my reusable mug of course.

What do you see when you think of ecomobility?

To find more out about Park(ed) Day, and to register for a parking stall visit www.edmonton.ca/activeedmonton

Edmontonians are passionate, proud recyclers.  Due to the relative ease of the all-in-one-blue-bag recycling program, about 90% of single family residents and 80% of the apartment/condo dwellers have been diligent participants in the program.   It is obvious that the same percentages do not apply to City residents’ commitment to other “green” life choices such as carpooling, water conservation, composting, or say…cutting down on air travel.  I’m not trying to guilt trip, I’m simply pointing out that recycling is our low hanging green behaviour fruit; and since it is the easiest way for us to alleviate a bit of our environmental cognitive dissonance, we tend to take it more seriously (but not too seriously).

That said, who hasn’t asked “Can I recycle ?” at one point or another. The City posts on its website a detailed breakdown of which materials go into Recycling or Garbage vs. what needs to be taken to an Eco Station.  Realistically though, not everyone wants to consult the full list every time they are stumped by an obscure type of packaging that appears to be potentially recyclable.  Come on!  Just tell me if I can recycle this pizza box or not; and what about those clear plastic containers that the strawberries are sold in?

As an employee of the Edmonton Waste Management Centre (EWMC), here is my expert response: use your best judgment and let us take care of the rest.

Our recycling process is designed, and runs with a lot of forgiveness - in other words, it’s flexible.   The recycling plant uses a combination of mechanical processes (i.e. screening, magnets, electromagnetic currents – I’m serious!) and manual sorting to separate the co-mingled blue bag material into the different material types: cardboard, paper, glass, metals and plastics.  A bit of contamination is expected and permitted by the downstream markets which take these materials from us and turn them into new products.

What all of this means is that if the packaging container in question is dry and relatively clean, just toss it in.  If the pizza or take-out box has a little grease stain, toss it in.  Well, how big does the grease stain have to be before it can’t be recycled, you ask? Use reasonable judgment. You should know better than to throw out a pizza box with gobs of cheese or slices of pizza stuck to it.

However, there are some definite NO NO items, specifically stringy things such as Christmas lights, garden hoses, wires, etc. These items can get wrapped around and caught on the conveyor belts and pulleys in the plant, causing motors to burn out, other damages, and production delays that can easily be in the tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars range.

You may have also heard that shredded paper should go into garbage not recycling.  This is also TRUE.  The recycling equipment is not designed to handle tiny pieces of paper.  Shredded paper will either stick to the conveyor belts which could have sticky juice or pop stains, or fly off the belts due to its lightweight.  Put the stuff in your garbage and it will be composted just like the food and yard waste.

There is so much more that I can divulge, but there is no better way to understand the processes, and to increase your own recycling competency than to see the plant, in its full magnificence, in person.  In fact this upcoming Saturday, June 12th, from 9AM to 4 PM, we will be hosting an Open House for the general public.  Come on down with friends and beloveds to take in one of the many tours, scheduled to run every 25 minutes, and see all the different ways in which our city is conserving energy and resources through progressive waste management. Other stops on the tour include: North America’s largest co-composting facility – that’s where your garbage goes to become top quality compost), the e-waste recycling plant, education and research facilities, and the future site of the world’s first municipal waste to biofuels facility.  Everyone raves about Edmonton’s recycling program, but that is just the tip of the ice berg of what makes the EWMC the most state-of-the-art waste management site in North America.  So come and see beyond the recycling; come see the big picture.  You won’t be disappointed.

This week is a busy one around Edmonton. Not only is it the beginning of bike month, but it’s also Environment Week and the National Commuter Challenge. I’ve been out with the ETS Community Relations team at several events, promoting the new bike racks featured on additional bus routes (maybe you came by and entered your name in for a draw of a new Dahon foldie bike). Folks from the Office of Environment (Karen and fellow blogger Colin) were there with information about the CO2RE program, as well as well as Chris from Sustainable Transportation, answering questions about all of the different alternative modes of transportation like carpooling, cycling or walking (who would have thought that walking would ever be considered an alternative form of transportation?).

What always comes out of events like these (what do you expect when you put a transit guy next to environment and sustainable transportation) is a conversation about Edmonton’s current transportation situation and its longterm sustainability. Did you know that Edmonton has one of the highest car dependence rates in Canada and citizens are spending more time in their cars, driving longer distances? This is one of our city’s biggest challenges that we’re always trying to address across all departments, be it through services provided by ETS, programs provided by Transportation, Environment, or Community Services (think Walkable Edmonton or LocalMotion), or through policy like our Transportation Master Plan.

But how are we as residents of Edmonton trying to spend less time in our cars? What is helping us make different decisions when it comes to deciding how to get around the city? When are we choosing to take transit, carpool, walk or ride a bike? These decisions are part of an every day challenge that we all face when trying to make our city more sustainable. Sure, participating in events like the Commuter Challenge are great ways to start, but what happens once the week is up? What about all the other weeks of the year?

We’ve begun to ask Edmontonians for their stories about how they choose to travel every day using more sustainable modes of transportation. James, an employee in our IT department, was the first to share his story, explaining how transit, in particular the recent expansion of the LRT system, has helped him reduce his dependency on his vehicle. Instead of driving to work, now he can take the LRT decreasing the time it takes him to get to work by up to 50%. But hey, don’t take my word for it. Hear it from the man himself.

This is the first of what will become a series of videos and stories about how different Edmontonians are choosing alternative transportation modes. We’re calling it The Every Day Challenge, building on the principles of events like the Commuter Challenge, except we plan for this project to be ongoing; our end goal being a city where our first choice for transportation is always the most sustainable one, be it taking transit more, walking, cycling, carpooling, or any other alternative mode that lessens our dependence on the single occupant vehicle trip.

Stay tuned to the blog as we post more stories from Edmontonians like you who are already making these choices. You can also check out the event and discussion on Facebook (this one is hosted by the Transit Rider’s Union of Edmonton) or add your thoughts to the growing conversation on twitter (official hashtag #yegEDW, but also check out what people have been saying at #yegtransit #yegbike #yegwalk). Coming up next, tales from your not-so-average pedestrian and a self-professed fair-weather cyclist who still managed to ride all but three months of the winter.

The Charles Labatiuk Environmental Excellence Awards are one way the City of Edmonton recognizes the environmental dedication of its employees.

The awards, named after the late Charles Labatiuk, a Waste Management Branch engineer and dedicated environmentalist, are presented in three categories: Innovation, Continual Improvement and Leadership. This year the Office of Environment, which administers the award program, received 25 worthy nominations. Of those, 9 were short-listed and today, one winner was chosen in each of the three categories.

Innovation:

Carmen Linman from Community Facility Services – Cemeteries, won the award for introducing the concept of green burials in cemeteries. These burials don’t use caskets or urns and make use of trees or rocky outcrops as grave markers. This option is now being introduced at all Edmonton cemeteries.

Continual Improvement:

Greg Sorenson and Don Tymchak from Fleet Services won this award for their work in supervising the City’s fuel storage sites. Fleet Services makes every effort to ensure there are no leaks from its fuel storage facilities and Greg and Don created the measures to either prevent leaks or to deal with leaks quickly and effectively.

Leadership:

Wendy Lasksosky from Drainage Services won the award in this category. Wendy helped create, design and implement the ISO 140001 program in Drainage Services. ISO 14001, called Enviso within the City, is an internationally-recognized, peer-reviewed environmental management system. It can take a year or more for a branch to satisfy all the requirements to receive ISO 14001 designation and Wendy was instrumental in making that happen for Drainage Services.

The City of Edmonton is proud of employees like our Charles Labatiuk Environmental Excellence winners who go above and beyond the call of duty to ensure their work has only positive impacts on the environment.

What could be more Albertan than a snow storm hitting the city two days into my car free trial? What could be more frustrating than injuring my knee two weeks before I commit to going car free? But a little bit of snow wasn’t about to stop me (or the many other Edmontonians who kept walking and cycling during this short reminder of winter weather).

Spring snowstorm photos: Tom Young

To be honest, I thought I would have an easier time with this whole experiment. I have lived in Edmonton without a car and managed just fine with public transit and my bike in the past so I was quite surprised when I added up my mileage and discovered that, although I had not personally driven anywhere, I had accumulated the same amount of car kilometres as I had cycling kilometres. I was even more surprised, this time pleasantly, to learn that my bike and walking trips had saved me $50 regardless of whether I would have normally used the car or taken the bus.

Overall, I avoided four trips in the car as the only occupant (I car pooled instead); three car trips were completely avoided (including walking to and from the Muttart bedding plant sale with an armful of plants); and I avoided seven bus trips (walking or biking instead).

Here’s what I found most interesting though: spending time walking and cycling increased the time I spent with my husband because we would arrange to meet and then travel home together, something we wouldn’t do with either the bus or the car. And showing up on my bike to visit my three-year-old niece inspired her to practice riding her bike in the basement. We would have gone outside except for the snow on the ground. It also improved my mood and when I got home from each trip I was more willing to do other activities, like cleaning, because of my increased overall activity level.

So how much did I reduce my footprint by? Well, I started with a footprint of 7.4 tonnes of carbon dioxide. If I was to consistently maintain the reduced car trips that I did for the past two weeks my footprint would be 6.5 tonnes of CO₂. The reduced number of trips on public transit would further reduce my footprint by 0.1 tonnes for a total of 6.4 tonnes.

Not bad. If I was to pay an organization to offset this amount it would cost between $140 and $240 depending on which organization I chose. I’m going to keep trying to reduce my footprint though, rather than offset it. Mission #2 is no meat.

If you are looking for some resources or events relating to reducing car trips in Edmonton check out the 2009 Local Motion project in Parkallen and Park(ed) Day on June 19^th.