This episode featured a panel I moderated for the Food System Roundtable of the Waterloo Region - a discussion about waste reduction in our local food systems. Included in the conversation was Thompson Tran of The Wooden Boat Food Company, Ellin Park of Zero Waste Bulk, Tara McKenna of The Zero Waste Collective blog and Kathleen Barsoum of Region of Waterloo Waste Management. This was such a great discussion, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

In this episode, I spoke with Justin Frenette, Co-Founder at Him & Her and one of the brains behind a cool new KW initiative called the Creative Capital of Canada, which I've become a big fan of. For so long, we've been known as the 'Silicon Valley of the North', both saying that we're second best and also forgetting that we also have a lot more to offer than tech in our region. You can get a taste of what's happening on the sustainability side of things if you just look at our previous podcast guests and vendors at The Eco Market. There's a lot going on, not to mention our arts and our craft beer scene. From my perspective, by focusing our community identy on tech, we're allowing a big part of our region to fall through the cracks, which is palpable from our deficiency of support to non-tech businesses, which also add so much value to our region. This is something we've been working on, especially through our pitch night - we want to see green and social businesses thrive in our community, but right now that's not an easy feat. The Creative Capital idea shifts our community identity to one that's more inclusive and also pretty damn accurate. We are an exceptionally creative region. We all know that the tech giant Blackberry started in KW, but did you know so did the blue box? An idea that has literally changed the way the world deals with waste, and we haven't stopped being creative today. We're home to Diva Cup, a world-wide feminine hygiene company that came up with an idea that seriously cuts down on waste that, prior, we just accepted. We're home to one of the best jazz performance spaces across Canada, the Jazz Room, to beauty brands like Cocoon Apothecary making waves internationally, and so so much more. From the Creative Capital perspective, the Region of Waterloo's DNA is a combination of problem solving, collaboration and hard work. We call that "creativity" - the ability to think through a problem in a different way to come up with a better outcome. It's time for the Region of Waterloo to recognize its achievements and unique creative spirit.When we acknowledge the creativity in one another, we'll see an explosion of inventiveness, because you attract what you celebrate. And then, we'll truly become the Creative Capital of Canada. Absolutely love this concept. PS, this initative will have some community members representing it at The Eco Market this April 27th. Be sure to connect with them to hear about this awesome project.

In this episode, I spoke with Emily Slofstra from Cycle WR, a local non-profit dedicated to advocating for better, safer cycling in the Waterloo Region. In trying to create a bike route to The Eco Market later this month, we quickly realized how challenging accessibility is in certain parts of Kitchener-Waterloo. It seems like with Waterloo Regions 80 by 50 goal, and our regions massive carbon output from cars, getting more people to choose greener transportation options, such as biking, should be part of our plan to achieve this goal. But how do we get started when many people feel unsafe biking to work? In my conversation with Emily, we talked about what Cycle WR does in the region, how to get involved, progress in the region for accessibility, insights from other regions, and steps moving forward.

This past Saturday, we launched a flagship event in Toronto, in collaboration with The Eco Well called a Green Beauty Night. What is green beauty? This term is thrown around so flippantly, but what makes a product truly sustainable? Is natural synonymous with 'green'? Should we be looking to certifications and non-governmental organizations for insights about our products? What are some of the metrics we should be looking to when calling a product green? Featured on the panel was Christian Euler, Jenise Lee, Dayna Stein and myself.

Alas we had some pretty big technical challenges on this recording - our primary recording was corrupt and we ended up taking the audio from our camera recording. Unfortunately we lost some parts of the conversation, but we were able to salvage a good amount of the discussion to publish a podcast. I absolutely loved how this panel presentation turned out, and I'm really sad not to have the full conversation with you. With that said, this isn't going to be the only green beauty night - we plan to launch the event in other cities, as well as again in Toronto. Stay tuned.

In this episode, I spoke with Dr. Steffanie Scott, professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Management at the University of Waterloo, and active researcher on sustainable food systems, ecological agriculture and organic sector developments. In our conversation, we talked about her recent co-authored book called 'Organic Food and Farming in China: Top-down and Bottom-up Ecological Initiatives, as well as international food systems, agriculture, food security and lots more. This is such a big and complex conversation, but I was really grateful for the opportunity to have Steffanie take me through it.

For this episode, we tried something new. This past Wednesday, we did our first live panel podcast, which happened at Wilfrid Laurier University for their Zero Waste Week 2019. You can probably guess what the topic of this discussion was. We chose a lineup of panelists, all with a diverse set of backgrounds, but all working on waste management or reduction in their on industry. Panelists included Robyn Hobbs, founder at a Waterloo-based 'eco' fashion and consulting company called Le Prix, Robyn also holds a masters in environmental studies. Ellin Park is the founder at KW's first 'zero waste' store, located Uptown Waterloo called Zero Waste Bulk. Kathleen Barsoum is the co-ordinator for the Region of Waterloo Waste Management and has a wealth of knowledge about waste management practices. Finally, Sabine Weber s a professor at Seneca College in the School of Fashion, actively researches sustainable fashion, textile waste, and social innovation, and is currently working on her PhD at the University of Waterloo. I moderated the discussion and brought a voice from the cosmetics space. As you may know, I work as a cosmetic chemist with a focus in sustainable development, mostly through my other company, The Eco Well. We talked waste… why we're all passionate about the topic, issues we see in our own industries, waste management, waste reduction, and lots more. This will definitely be the first of many live panel podcasts. Our next one up will be in Toronto on March 23rd for our Green Beauty Night, which I'm so excited about. Interested in hosting a live panel at your university or business? Give us a shout!

In this episode, we featured Samantha and Emilio from KW Professional Organizers, Waterloo based organizers with a passion for community and 'greener' living. We talked about the role organization has in our ability to lead a 'green' lifestyle, our consumer culture and some of the negatives associated with that from a waste standpoint, waste reduction, 'eco' ways to get rid of your stuff, resources in the Kitchener Waterloo Region, and lots more.

In this episode, I spoke with Beth Eden, one of the co-founders of the new University of Waterloo network, SDG Impact Alliance. On March 16th, they'll be putting on their first conference, the Global Solutions Conference, a one-day event to showcase different pathways to achieve sustainable development and to promote collaboration through the UN SDGs. In our conversations, we talked about what the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)  are, the power of collaboration from many disciplines, why they decided to launch their conference, and what you can expect from their event. We also talked about the campus-wide scavenger hunt called GooseChase, happening March 11-15th as a lead-up to the conference, and how students can get involved. If you'd like more details about their conference, be sure to click through the resource links below the podcast. They currently have their early bird tickets available! https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/global-solutions-conference-tickets-54898789758

In this episode, I spoke with Kathleen Barsoum, communications coordinator at Region of Waterloo Waste Management. We talked about how landfills work and why it's important to maintain them for as long as possible, recycling, how to effectively sort your waste, composting, as well as simple tips for everyone to incorporate into their day-to-day. Unsure about how to sort your recycling? This episode is for you!

In this episode, I spoke with Hayley Rutherford and Kate Pearce from the Waterloo Global Science Initiative (WGSI). Our conversation was mostly focused on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), an acronym that you may have already heard of. We talked about what they are, why they're a good overall outlook on sustainability, SDG action here in Canada, and how we can use the SDGs to make more sustainable decisions. We also touched on 'eco-anxiety', meeting people where they're at for a greater impact and lots more.