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For many people, reducing their impact on the planet seems a better idea every day. And for those who have yet to develop the fervour to go "green," well, there's the guilt imposed by their more environmentally conscious neighbours to contend with.
Some are striving to produce fewer of the greenhouse gases (GHG) that scientists believe are warming Earth. The converted are striving to use less energy and build with materials that don't pollute and don't travel long distances to get to their houses.
The National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy estimates that 66 per cent of the residential buildings that will be standing in Canada in 2050 have already been built, so there are lots of reasons to find ways to make existing homes greener. And Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. reported in 2003 that homes accounted for 17 per cent of Canada's total energy use and 16 per cent of its GHG emissions.
Homeowners are joining the revolution by the truckload.
In one measure of the zeitgeist, the recent Green Living Show in Toronto attracted homeowners and consumers looking for ways to reduce their reliance on products that pollute, cars that guzzle gas and practices that consume energy.Even people who haven't developed an environmental conscience may be motivated to cut down on energy use, replace their lawns and grapple with the elimination products of worms in order to save money.
Whether you're virtuous or villainous, here are six things you can do at home to reduce the size of your carbon footprint:
Work with nature
Design your garden to work with the surrounding natural environment.
Landscape Design company Aesthetic Earthworks uses cold-processed fresh fish fertilizer, mychorrizal fungi, seaweed and tea, among other things, to keep plants healthy. The all-female team relies on muscle-power — not machinery — to design, build and care for chemical-free gardens in the Toronto area.
"We're not competing with the typical mow-and-blow companies," says owner Claire Suo-Cockerton.
Regard for the environment starts with low-maintenance design, she explains.
The designers often opt for dry-laid stone walls and rather than mortar between patio stones, for example, Aesthetic Earthworks uses polymeric sand that shifts with the earth's freeze/thaw cycle, says company founder Claire Suo-Cockerton.
"We create all-natural organic gardens and avoid using grass, which is one of the highest-maintenance, resource-draining plant materials you can have," says Ms. Suo-Cockerton.
Instead, the team favours indigenous species and self-sustaining ground covers such as purple carpet thyme, bugleflower, bunchberry, wintergreen and sweet woodruff.
"For us it's all about preventative health," she says.
Build with reclaimed wood
Decrepit Toronto factories are full to the rafters with salvageable wood. In fact, the rafters themselves are often made of Douglas fir first harvested a century or more ago, says Evan Murray of Vintage Woodcraft Inc.
Vintage buys the wood as buildings are torn down, then reuses it for flooring, staircases, timber framing and furniture, he says.
The demolition of the original coliseum at the Canadian National Exhibition grounds, for example, produced lots of old timbers that have found their way into Vintage's current crop.
Using reclaimed wood means fewer modern forests are cut down and fewer materials are added to landfills, according to Vintage. Besides protecting the environment, the practice also preserves Canada's architectural history, the company says.
Old-growth forests grew without pollutants and the intense cutting pressure that characterizes some logging today. As a result, trees grew to huge diameters and majestic heights. The lumber sawn from such trees was straight and the growth rings much tighter than lumber seen in present times, says the company.
Erect a 'living wall'
One version of a "living wall" is based on a traditional craft of using willow to make wicket fences, patterned on the natural growth of the willow.
An Ecological Sound Barrier Solution Inc. weaves boughs from basket willows into a fence that can act as a screen for privacy or a barrier for reducing noise pollution. The fences are made from two to three-year-old willows joined together with rope between posts.
For homeowners who need a barrier between themselves and a busy road or noisy neighbours, a biodegradable wooden structure is filled with soil, says Josef Scholbeck, president of An Ecological Sound Barrier Solution Inc. The willow boughs are planted on each side of the barrier.
For people in need of a privacy screen, the willow fence can stand on its own.
By comparison, concrete and plastic noise attenuation walls are bleak, obstructive, and prone to deteriorating or becoming covered in graffiti, Mr. Scholbeck says.
With the living wall, maintenance consists of an annual trimming of new shoots, Mr. Scholbeck adds. Another advantage is that willows establish very quickly. "After about six weeks it's fully in bloom and so you have an instant landscape."
Plant a bog garden
The North American Native Plant Society recommends building a garden under a home's downspout in order to take advantage of the rainwater that runs through the eavestroughs.
The garden is not so much a bog as a very damp patch of soil that provides a hospitable environment for such plants as wild ginger, ferns, coneflower, dogwood and purple-stemmed astor.
A bog garden will appeal to homeowners "after biodiversity and the insects and the birds that look for these things," says Pat Agnew, a gardener and member of the society.
Ms. Agnew says increasing numbers of gardeners are filling plots of land with multiple species instead of monoculture grass.
Because the downspout garden springs from wet soil rather than standing water, there's no need to worry about an increase in the local mosquito population, Ms. Agnew adds.
Create an 'energy wall'
Many homeowners light up their patios and gardens with solar-powered lamps these days, and now the same technology is being used to warm and brighten entire houses.
Photovoltaic, or PV, systems are already status symbols in Europe and Japan, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., and they could become equally fashionable in North America, the agency predicts.
The devices convert sunlight into electricity. The systems produce no pollution or emissions and have a life expectancy of more than 40 years.
The higher energy prices climb and the more likely brownouts and blackouts become, the more consumers are looking into PV systems, according to CMHC.
The agency says solar-electric systems are ideal for homes or cottages which don't have easy access to utility power lines, but they're also fine for most homes — alone or in combination with other types of systems.
The basic building block of a solar-energy generating system is called the solar cell, which is built into a PV module. The modules are connected together into panels and arrays.
The solar lights used in gardens are miniature versions of the PV systems that power cottages and homes that are "off-grid." In this type of system, the solar modules charge a battery, which in turn operates the electrical loads.
Other types of systems exist, including some connected to the power grid. In most cases, says CMHC, the ideal location for a solar array is on the roof of the house but some panels hang in windows.
CMHC encourages people who are building a house to consider installing a system, or at least plan for the future by making the house "solar ready."
It probably won't be too long before homeowners who prepare their homes now can cut thousands of dollars from their future electrical bills, the corporation says.
USE worm CASINGS
In a factory at the former Canadian Armed Forces base in Downsview, Ont., millions of red wigglers are munching through tonnes of organic material — they seem to like coffee grounds, and ripe fruits and vegetables best — and providing the "casings" used as a soil booster for growing indoor and outdoor plants.
Michelle Tian of the registered charity Evergreen, which sells worm casings in two-litre bags marked Woop to raise funds, says the red wigglers got the job because they excrete 97 per cent of the nutrients they take in.
"They're very special," Ms. Tian says. "We have 15 million of these worms in the plant."
The worm excretions create spaces in the soil that allow better air and water flow. The micro-organisms in the casings are also effective in deterring aphids, white flies, spider mites and other pests.
The natural ingredients won't burn or harm plants the way that synthetic fertilizers sometimes do.
Joanna Ranieri, a development assistant for Evergreen, says that about two to three truckloads of waste arrive each day at the former air force base. The produce is collected from grocery stores, catering companies and restaurants.
So not only is Woop good for the plants, Ms. Ranieri points out, everyday it keeps a few truckloads of waste out of the landfill.
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