Being Green in Toronto – Everyone Can Participate!

Collage: Being Green with Wo-Built

Being environmentally conscious is a topic that is very much in the forefront today and is a concern to everyone. In today’s eco conscious world everyone can do their part for the environment.

In the City of Toronto alone everyone from school-age children, large corporations and ordinary citizens are learning to be environmentally friendly. Most of us do the usual things such as recycling and using compact fluorescent bulbs but as the Green Toronto Winners and Finalists list proves, many people are thinking of new and innovative ways to be environmentally friendly and saving our resources. Highlighted on this list, you can read about the "Now House™ Project Inc.", a green design award winner for a home with a near zero energy retrofit that will hopefully be modeled for future "green" homes. Also highlighted is Campbell Company of Canada, a winner for the water efficiency award. They have implemented a water recovery program that saves 25 - 40 million liters of water a month. To read more about the many other creative ways that some people in our great City of Toronto have come up with to being environmentally friendly, please follow the link to Green Toronto Awards Winners and Finalists.

Although we didn’t make the list (maybe next year!), we at Wo-Built always try to do our part as green builders. One initiative that we strongly believe in is the donation of reusable items from our building projects. One such worthy cause close to our hearts is Habitat for Humanity. They will reuse most items in their building projects or they will be put up for resale at Habitat Restores to raise money for much needed supplies for their ventures. Follow this link Building Homes - Leading Women into Construction to read about Wobuilts’ adventures at Habitat for Humanity.

You can also join us on our twitter page for regular updates and links to some interesting reading. As well as saving resources for future generations, being green can be fun!

Lonya is the staff writer for Wo-Built Inc.

youtube.com: Future City Toronto
This video is being shown at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Mayor Miller will be attending to represent Toronto as Chair of the C40 at the Climate Summit for Mayors and continue to champion the leadership of cities in fighting climate change. Watch the video to see what Toronto is doing to fight climate change.
Find out what you can do at www.livegreentoronto.ca
Credit: livegreentoronto

links:
City of Toronto: Solid Waste Management: ReUseIt: Minimize the waste through reduction and reuse strategies
City of Toronto: Green Toronto Awards Winners and Finalists
City of Toronto: What's the City doing to shrink its footprint?
City of Toronto: Zerofootprint Toronto

Wo-Built: Going Green in the City: Building and Renovating with "Being Green" in Mind:
Part 1 - Eco-Friendly Home Improvements
Part 2 - Going Green Is Becoming Mainstream
Part 3 - Living Rooftops - An Environmental Alternative for "Green" Building
Wo-Built: Our Green and Eco Tweets to Follow

examiner.com: Toronto Mayor David Miller - Copenhagen climate change summit 2009
"The Toronto Mayor promises a plan to extend the Transit City plan with over 120km of light rail transit. In an attempt to restore and reuse, a plan to strengthen the economy and to create green jobs includes building construction to retrofit old high-rise concrete apartments fighting climate change in the process."
by Tomitheos Linardos
thestar.com: Toronto struts its stuff at Copenhagen climate conference
by Paul Moloney