More than half of the food produced in Canada every year goes to waste – that’s 2.2 million tonnes. Food waste is contributing to climate change, and Zero Food Waste Canada is working in four cities across the country to try and work against this.

This week’s guests, Yasmine and Fatima, talk about their non-profit that picks up food that would be wasted from restaurants, and donates it to folks who need it. Learn more about how to be a food rescuer, how you can reduce the amount of food waste you create, and the technology advancements that are helping us do just that!

This week’s guest draws attention to one of the solutions from the Drawdown Project – Indigenous Peoples Land Management. She wants us to know that If we protected Indigenous peoples forest tenures, we would save between 9 and 13 gigatons of carbon over the next 30 years.

Ana Simeon from Raven also talks about colonial attitudes, racism, and oppression that are working against the ability of Indigenous people to be stewards of the land and ocean in a way that preserves them. Her vision of the future is to create a living for everyone within a safe envelope for the climate, without suffering.

This week’s guest reminds us that we’ve been hearing for a long time, what the effects of climate change will be, and it really is an urgent matter. She has spent a lot of time thinking about how to effectively communicate this urgency. Sundeep Virdi is the Chair of the EnviroCentre Board of Directors, and joined because she truly believes that small changes have an impact, and it’s one way to contribute to the cultural transformation required to take climate action.

Political inertia is what keeps Sundeep up at night, and she shares that the antidote to this is community building and grassroots activism. Sundeep’s call to action is ‘Big or small, get involved!’.

This week’s guest helps build compost heroes! Akil Mesiwala, founder of The Box of Life, wants us to think about waste as an asset and a resource. He talks about the recipe of creating good soil, how you can do it in your kitchen, and creating your own cycle at home. Looking to nature is always a good idea, to see how things are recycled naturally.

Also, a big plug for adopting wormies in your house!

“If in Ottawa, half of the trips people take were done using active transportation, we would reduce the number of cases of diabetes in the city by over 1600 in the next 10 years.”

This week’s Green Room guest goes on to ask why elected official are not making the connection between public health and a good economy. Brigitte Pellerin, author and Ottawa Citizen columnist is advocating for us all to make changes in our own lives to reduce our emissions. Her fear is leaving behind a world that is uninhabitable for her children.

This week’s Green Room guest calls on us to shape the future we want and to use our purchasing power to influence what companies are doing to address climate change. Michael Thaler from The Growcer, says the government needs to provide better support to farmers so that they can work to decrease water usage. He tells us about what happened to him that really made him face the consequences of climate change, and motivated him to become a biologist.

“Building connections that help people understand what their contributions are in sustaining the diversity of life on this planet.” That's what this week’s guest spends her time doing.

Teika Newton from Climate Action Network Canada, works on thinking of solutions to the climate emergency, is hopeful about the future, and tells us that creativity is key to these solutions. She believes that change happens at the personal level, and sometimes the comforts of privilege hold us back from making these changes.

Cette semaine, notre invité Patrick Robert-Meunier de Mobi-O nous parle de l’importance de la mobilité durable, et le besoin de créer un avenir ou la voiture n’est plus la reine de la route! On discute de l’opportunité créé par la pandémie de transformer les habitudes de vélo récréatif en vélo utilitaire, ainsi que le besoin d’une combinaison d’investissements dans l’infrastructure durable et de sensibilisation pour changer les habitudes de transport des gens. Selon Patrick, l’action collectif est essentielle pour mettre la pression sur les décideurs et les élus pour faire les décisions difficiles en matière de mobilité durable, surtout en ce qui concerne notre dépendence sur la voiture.

Michael Shank is the Communications Director for Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance and is passionate about working at that level because change can happen quickly. Michael discusses the top behavioural changes we can make to have the most impact, based on a study by Lund University. He also calls on the environmental and climate movement players to lead by example in normalizing eating a plant-based diet, and the importance of a regenerative future.

This week’s guest is shedding light on the environmental impact of buildings, and the decisions that can make a difference in lowering it. Toon Dreessen, President of Architects DCA, wants us to hold our elected officials and planning departments accountable. Seeing things through an architectural lens does not only apply to buildings, but also to procurement and infrastructure. He suggests that we ask our local architects questions, start the conversations in our community, and support and advocate for good design.