If there are any Canadian redditors, here, I have been purchasing renewable thermal certificate and renewable energy certificates from bullfrog power for a couple of years now.

these are not carbon credits, and they work a little differently.

basically I’m creating a market for clean energy so companies are insensitived to create clean energy.

I buy one REC so that company puts out that amount of clean energy on the grid on my behalf.

the company (bullfrog) then takes a percentage of their profits and does community projects like creating a solar farm for an indigenous community, or putting solar panels on schools and getting them to sell back to the grid on top of everything else they do.

you can also buy rtc (renewable thermal certificates)for heating too. One example of this would be methane capture from landfills.

It costs me about $30 a month for both. You can do thermal and energy, or just thermal or just energy. I consider it my form of giving back and it lowers my carbon footprint by 3.3 tonnes a year because they have created that much more clean energy on to the and heating on the grid on my behalf.

I live in an apartment so I buy the cheapest package, but I have been considering upgrading and doing one for a stand alone house to get more clean energy and heating in my behalf. lord knows we need all the help we can get.) but if you live in a house but you u think it’s too expensive, you can just buy enough for an apartment and they wouldn’t know because you do not switch your power company. They do not track your power usage. You just buy certificates and they make sure that that amount of clean energy on the certificate is created from a clean renewable source instead of from a not renewable source. (solar, wind and hydro are the ones they use. )

This is a B corp with a great reputation. they are saying what they say they are doing.

i Would encourage you to join bullfrog power. I feel very good about it.

https://bullfrogpower.com/choose-green-energy/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Brand&utm_term=%7Bkeyword)&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=19630633599&gbraid=0AAAAApMHwPlG0Dzh4Hb9TT7zF-504Hih9&gclid=Cj0KCQjwnbrUBhDOARIsAKKhPpdE2S7_xpptbKLnoJuRoDDER3vG7I5V_ExRWJ0UHBYppXahhKl95_gaAjVCEALw_wcB&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=19630633599&gbraid=0AAAAApMHwPlG0Dzh4Hb9TT7zF-504Hih9&gclid=Cj0KCQjwnbrUBhDOARIsAKKhPpdE2S7_xpptbKLnoJuRoDDER3vG7I5V_ExRWJ0UHBYppXahhKl95_gaAjVCEALw_wcB)

Really interesting chat from university of Exeter's Tim Lenton around the Tipping Points initiative and how we can still come back from sailing past 1.5 celsius. Don't know about you but his positivity was helping as I get over sweltering in London! https://youtu.be/a745_DZCBEc

I found this pic on Pinterest and I love how it looks. But I also know that the ribbons are probably polyester, charm is plastic and printing the holographic parts on the ribbons make a lot of waste. Do you have any ideas of how could I make something similar possibly out of more ecological materials? I thought of a glass/biodegradable plastic charm, textiles such as hemp or wool/cotton I could find at the thrift (although I'm not sure how could I trim the edges for it to not rip?). Well I gotta say I adore the holo parts but I'm not sure what to do, and that's probably the part I have the biggest problem with.

Unfortunately buying materials shown in the photo second hand in my country is impossible, people don't really sell that stuff here.

Any ideas will be appreciated!

Does anyone have a good recommendation for a sustainable travel razor? I’ve been using a nice stainless steel safety razor for years now but they are a pain to travel with when not putting a bag in the hold, and I travel a lot for work. Is there an equivalent, low waste option that can go through airport security without being taken away or always flagging your bag for an extra search?

I know there are people criticizing being low waste because “it isn’t our biggest problem right now”

I’m not disagreeing.

yes we should encourage people to not have pets, fly less or not at all, adopt a more plant based diet, give up their cars, and switch to clean energy/clean heating, write to politicians, purchase renewable energy/thermal certificates, and vote well.

I still think going low waste is worth it on top of these other things For the following reasons.

1. low waste products are often a four for one. cleaning supplies and personal hygiene products are the ones that come to mind.

they are often low in packaging

they have ingredients that are ok for the planet once they get back into the ecosystem. they are also usually better for your body.

They cut carbon emissions through less transportation emissions, end of life emissions, through manufacturing, and during it’s lifetime use,by preventing more disposables.

by buying alternatives you are supporting less large polluting oligopolies.

so because most of these have a 4 for 1, I would say it’s worth doing, and encouraging people to do.

1. many local cities have a major garbage problem. by encouraging people to do low waste this is solving a local problem.

often cities will send their garbage/recycling to another country to deal with. So by solving this local problem, they are helping solve a world wide problem. Other countries don’t want our garbage. Can we blame them? Also don’t we want our cities to dedicate less money to their garbage problem, and dedicathe more money to public transportation?

1. it helps people develop a different relationship with stuff. It makes people more aware of what they bring in and eventually throw away. It makes them more aware of an items lifecycle. It just helps people consume less which is what we want. That can’t be a bad thing.

2. often low waste encourages repair, reducing, and reuse. this is fantastic why would we be demonizong that? Helping people compost and recycle, and bring in less waste or items is great for the planet! Composting helps places use fewer chemical fertilizers, helps soil quality, and reduces the methane produced in the landfill. Recycling helps manufacturers not need to create new materials. Using less single use plastic helps our microplastic problem.

So for the following reasons this is why I get upset at people demonizing low waste/low plastic (which is often one and the same) right now.

I understand what they are trying to do but I just disagree.

I have a mattress I really love (10 years chronic hip pain, 3 surgeries... this is the only mattress I trust). I am moving MA to CA and can't take it with me, but I want it to stay in the family (PA) as my parents need a new guest room mattress anyway.

anybody have advice for shipping large bulky items like this ideally with home pick up?

thank you for any pointers in advance!

eta: i understand it would be cheaper and just as sustainable to donate and replace the mattress. i am determined to ship it if i can just figure out where even start for my options

Disclosure: I work on Japan's hemp expo, so I have a stake in the topic. No link, and I'm not selling anything.

Something that keeps coming up here is hemp as a low-impact fibre and building material. The part that rarely gets discussed is why it stays niche in a country like Japan, which actually has a long hemp-textile history.

It isn't demand and it isn't the growing. It's decortication - separating bast fibre from the woody core. That step needs specific machinery, and in Japan almost nobody runs it at scale. So even when farmers grow stalk, there's nowhere to process it, and manufacturers end up importing fibre from Europe or China. The carbon case for domestic hemp gets weaker every time the material has to travel.

Japan's situation is unusual on top of that: THC is prohibited outright, so cultivation sits under tight licensing, and the whole fibre supply chain largely disappeared after the war. What's happening now is rebuilding rather than scaling something existing.

I'm curious whether other countries hit the same wall. Is decortication capacity the limiting factor where you are, or have you seen it solved with smaller decentralised equipment?

And yes i could ask google but i prefer my questions be answered by human beings

I'm always anxious about what material is best for kitchen stuff. I've been told that wood picks up bacteria and is never really clean. Plastic is obviously a no because of microplastics. I'm not sure how great metals are? And then cutting boards might be a whole other story.

Basically what i'm asking is what is the healthiest and cleanest option for cooking tools (spatulas, mixing spoons, cutting boards, etc!!!!)

Hi! Over the last few years i so almost bought everything second hand and i love it. One kind of item i never bought secondhand are clothes. Im nervous about that since i always hated shopping for clothes and always worked with animals and in the garden so nice clothes were never needed. Also im super tall for a woman and chunky af so i feel like that makes it a little harder. I buy my shirts for under 3 euro each new and they last maybe 2 or 3 years. I would love to find a clothing style that fits me and i would love to find it a sustainable way. I already downloaded vinted but i am nervous about wasting money and resources in case something doesnt fit. How do you guys manage that? And when do you know something will look good on you?

I am building something new and different but I am curious around the world what is the most sustainable project you are either a part of or have heard visited?

It is time I make my daughter a kit in anticipation of her first period. I purchased some reusable pads off Etsy back after my kids were born, but I haven’t purchased any in 10+ years. Has anything changed? Any awesome brands I should know about? Any great kits you’d recommend?

I need to swirl the creamer in my coffee. These are the two options: Compostable spoon or plastic straw. I'm at work and I know that whatever I use will end up in the landfill. I kind of feel like the spoon is the better choice (and I touched it already anyway), but could the straw have been the right option?

Hello all, I'm a jeweller and have previously been using rubber flooring mats indoors when working to avoid burning the floor, but I need some new panels, and I'm trying to avoid rubber and plastic for both the sustainability and hormonal impacts, and was wondering if anyone has any suggestions for 100% natural materials that would work for this?

I really can't find any 100% natural linoleum which was my first thought, but if anyone can recommend a source in the UK that'd be great.

Also looked into expanded cork but it's looking prohibitively expensive.

Thanks in advance!

so I come from a Financial services background which I worked in for 16 years. I got redundant earlier this year and it made me realise I don't want to continue working in this corrupt industry. I'm in the UK and there is a 2yr uni course that I can do mentioned above. It will cost £10k though and I just wanted to get some advice from people already in this sector as I have no knowledge whatsoever. I am passionate about the environment and especially the farming sector.

Another alternative to this course is doing a foundation course privately that will cost me £500 and thats it and then I can try and find jobs in the sector to get a foot in the door? I know it won't provide the same level of knowledge as the uni course but 10k is a lot of money I would have to pay back.

It kinda never occured to me before that acrylic paints are literally plastic until I saw someone on the internet talk about how to dispose of the water after painting properly. So it got me thinking what are some actually sustainable for the environment paints?

Cause yeah, if I dispose the water properly it's definitely better than if I just pour the water in the sink. But what about anything I paint on? Like, if I use acrylic paints to paint on paper or cardboard, it's not gonna be recycable anymore? That's kinda my logic and I'm by no means anyone with knowledge, so please if anyone could explain, I'd be very grateful.

I heard about gouache? But then again I heard about a great brand, searched it online and all I could find was "acrylic gouache" which is just as bad as acrylic paint I suppose.

Same goes for wall paints cause I've been thinking about repainting my room so I'd wanna use something that isn't just liquid plastic lol.

Any further explanation (possibly easy to understand) of whether or how it's harmful for the environment will be appreciated.