In this episode, I spoke with Keenan Reimer-Watts, founder at Communities for Conservation, a KW organization that funds text-to-donate software. By texting "Conserve" to 20222, you can donate $5 to support the International Conservation Fund of Canada (their Canadian partner is the Cambridge based rare). Communities for Conservation believes that, as more and more people take smaller actions like this texting, it will snowball into larger actions and behavior changes as they begin to identify as the type of person who cares about these issues. Absolutely love what Keenan is doing and was excited to sit down with him for this episode. In our conversation, we spoke about how he got into the environmental movement, the work he's doing, "eco-anxiety", the power of human influence for social good, and lots more. PS, Keenan is one of our finalists for our upcoming pitch competition, and after this conversation, I think you'll see why. Come on out this February 27th to support Keenan and all of our other amazing finalists. Tickets are $10 and 100% of that will go to our top 3 winners.

In this episode, I spoke with Nicole McCallum, co-founder at the Waterloo Region Environment Network (WREN) and current PhD candidate at Laurier. We talked about why she chose to study business and economics to be a change maker in the environmental space, how WREN started and what they do in the region, and better decision making for better sustainable outcomes - the part of the conversation that we focused most of our time on. There's such an overwhelming problem with misinformation, which is seriously stunting our ability to move forward. An underlying part of progress will be knowledge, and it's really important that knowledge is actually accurate. We spent a lot of time talking about critical thinking, information bias, the scientific method, interpreting research, and steps we can all take to make better decisions.

In this episode, we featured Dr. Phil Loring, Arrell Chair in Food, Policy and Society at the University of Guelph. He works in coastal communities around the world to understand the challenges that they face, specifically regarding food security, livelihoods, conflict over resources, and climate change, which was the topic of our discussion. In our interview, we talked about his research in Alaska and lessons he took away, sustainability in our fisheries, food security for communities around the world, the impact of misinformation, steps moving forward, and more.

In this episode, we featured Tyler Plante, Outreach & Program Coordinator at the Sustainability Office at Laurier and co-founder of Hold the Line WR. In our conversation, we talked about all of the amazing progress Laurier has achieved making their campus a sustainable leader for campuses across Canada, some of the activities the Sustainability Office does for their students and the KW community, opportunities to get involved, and lots more. We also talked about Hold the Line WR, including need to knows for the Waterloo Region, especially pertaining to Bill 66.

In this episode, I spoke with Dayna Stein, founder at a new minimal waste pop-up shop located in Toronto. Dayna and I have been working together in my other business since she's launched, sourcing her cosmetic type products, which for minimal waste or natural, comes with some challenges, which we talked about. In our conversation, we broke down the word sustainable and what it means as well as metrics to look for when looking for 'greener' products, waste in cosmetics, waste reduction, and lots more. This episode was originally aired on The Eco Well's podcast, but I enjoyed the conversation so much, I wanted to share it here as well. PS, if you haven't noticed yet, we're launching a green beauty night in Toronto, featuring a panel of local experts. I'm really excited to have Dayna with us as one of our panelists at this event, and I think you'll know why after you listen to her speak - I think she's doing absolutely amazing work.

In this episode, I spoke with Truzaar Dordi, PhD candidate at the University of Waterloo studying sustainability management. The financial sector isn't one we generally think about when thinking about sustainability. But when the top 5 banks in Canada doubled their investments in tar sands in 2017, clearly where we decide to put our money can certainly have an environmental impact. In our conversation, we talked about sustainable financing and what that means for us as Canadians, integrating environmental decisions with our financial systems, the financing needs we'll need to have in place if we want to actually meet the latest UN Sustainable Development Goals, current issues, what consumers can do, and lots more.

In this episode, we took a break from our regular conversations to speak with Jen Lyon, our marketing director who's been a huge support for The Eco Market. This will be our last episode of 2018, so we wanted to take the time to reflect on the year behind us and look forward to the year ahead. We talked about Jen's experience working with The Eco Market, some of the things she's learned along the way, the power of collaboration, the affordability of a 'green' lifestyle and lots more.

Before I leave you with the podcast, I just wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart for supporting The Eco Market, whether it's just by listening to this show, sharing our content, coming out to our events or supporting us as a volunteer, vendor or sponsor. Our regular Eco Cast podcasts will return this January, but until then, I hope you have a very happy holidays and new year. Thank you!

In this episode, we featured Lauren Smith, co-founder at PolyGone Technologies and PhD candidate at the University of Waterloo. By now, you've probably heard of microplastics, causing some serious problems with our aquatic ecosystems, and in turn, things like drinking water and food. When we think about microplastics, it's easy to come to the assumption that most is coming from microbeads, now banned in many countries around the world, including here in Canada. Did you know that your clothing is also contributes to this problem? In this conversation, we talked about plastic microfibres in clothing, how they're entering our waterways, the impact on our environment, issues with regulating the problem, and technological solutions, including via PolyGone.

In this episode, we featured Tara Mckenna, founder of The Zero Waste Collective, a blog and community dedicated to promoting a more minimal waste lifestyle. At this point, we've all heard stats about our plastic pollution problem… such as, by 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. What can we do as individuals to reduce our impact into this problem and maybe, one day, help to solve it? In this conversation, we talked about the zero waste movement, how we can all take little steps to reduce our garbage output, need-to-know's about our waste management systems, and lots more.

In this episode, we featured Dr. Rene Van Acker, Dean of the Ontario Agricultural College at the University of Guelph. What is sustainable agriculture? It seems that there are many conflicting thoughts on this. To be sustainable, should all of our agriculture be organic? Can we rely on systems like hydroponics or even urban farming to serve our growing population? With fungal diseases like wheat leaf rust wreaking havoc, how do we manage it to ensure food security? Where do genetic modifications come into the picture? Sustainable agriculture is anything but a simple conversation, but Rene was the perfect person to take us through the topic. In this conversation, we talked about what 'sustainable' means, how we can apply sustainability principles to agriculture, Canadian farming, weed management, and lots more