Sustainable Tiffin Delivery Arrives in Toronto

Many other cities already have tiffin delivery and now Toronto is one of those cities and here we have a triple-bottom line company rising fast.

She hires Good Foot Delivery and its developmentally disabled couriers for anything within the PATH walkway, otherwise she’s driving the meals downtown until the electric-powered rickshaw she ordered from China arrives.

Pabari, who was born in Kenya to Indian parents, hit on the business idea in her Beaches home while packing lunch tiffins for her son, who’s now 10. Pabarai had quit her six-figure, “soulless” job in marketing for a home-improvement chain after the 2008 death of her father and was re-evaluating her life.

Tiffinday has a triple bottom line: to make money, be environmentally sustainable and socially just.

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Fair Trade Jewellery

Blood diamonds have been a part of the jewellery industry for too long, and now FTJCo in Toronto is “North America’s original certified fairtrade fine jeweller”.

It’s great to see a jeweller that understands that fair trade and social justice can be a key part of their business. If you need new jewellery you should always try to buy from sources that are people and earth friendly.

Certified participants in the Condoto Community Council’s Oro Verde initiative, the source for our metals, receive a guaranteed minimum price, a social premium, and the opportunity to empower themselves through a stronger base for bargaining, better knowledge of market values, and the possibility of sourcing pre-financing from prospective buyers.

Fairtrade Fairmined certification provides an incentive for sustainable mining, keeping communities together.

ENVIRONMENTAL GOOD
The Condoto miners use no toxic chemicals such as cyanide or mercury, key causes of many challenges associated with industrial mining and prospecting activities.

Oro Verde’s environmentally friendly approach and the Fairtrade Fairmined certification place the responsibility for land stewardship in the hands of these miners, balancing it with tangible incentives and rewards for minimum-impact practices.

Check out the fair trade jewellery here.

Brewery is Also a Power Plant

Here at Things Are Good we tend to like beer and we’re always happy to see the brewing process become more environmentally friendly. A smart inventor in the USA has found a way to convert a naturally occurring element of the brewing process and converts it into natural gas!

The brewery is Magic Hat and their motto is “Saving the earth, one beer at a time” – I can’t wait to try their beer.

The MIT-trained mechanical engineer has invented a patented device that turns brewery waste into natural gas that’s used to fuel the brewing process.

The anaerobic methane digester, installed last year at Magic Hat Brewing Co. in Vermont, extracts energy from the spent hops, barley and yeast left over from the brewing process — and it processes the plant’s wastewater. That saves the brewer on waste disposal and natural gas purchasing
The 42-foot tall structure, which cost about $4 million to build, sits in the back parking lot of Magic Hat’s brewery, where it came online last summer.

Fitch, 37, is CEO of PurposeEnergy, Inc., of Waltham, Mass., a renewable energy startup company whose lone product is the biphase orbicular bioreactor, which is 50 feet in diameter, holds 490,000 gallons of slurry and produces 200 cubic feet of biogas per minute.

Brewers big and small have wrestled with waste issues since the dawn of beer-making. In recent years, they’ve turned to recycling — both as a cost-saver and for environmental reasons.

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Thanks Greg!

Japan Stops Antarctic Whaling this Winter

Sea Shepherd has succeed in its goal to stop Japan from whaling. The stoppage is a result of Sea Shepherd actively hindering the ability of whalers to kill whales, nobody has been harmed by the organization but Japan is calling for the group to be banned by other nations.

Japanese whalers seem intent on whaling again this year but for now let’s take a moment to rejoice that the needless slaughter of whales is not happening for the rest of the winter.

Japan has suspended whaling in the Antarctic after repeated harassment by conservationists, says a government official.
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ships have been chasing the whaling fleet for weeks in the icy seas, trying to block Japan’s annual whale hunt, planned for up to 945 whales.

The Australian Greens said late last night that the Japanese decision was “truly a cause for celebration”.

Read the full article.
Check out Sea Shepherd.

Sustainable Haircuts

Sustainability is great and even local and small business can benefit from shifting the attitude to a more planet-friendly one. In Toronto a hair salon has started a bunch of sustainability practices at the benefits are grand!

Over the last 17 years or so, Phillips has turned the place into something of an eco-hub, reducing the business’s electricity consumption by more than 50 percent and purging their hair and beauty product of what he considers to be environmentally harmful and personally toxic ingredients. A member of the Windshare Cooperative (co-owners of the Exhibition Place Wind Turbine with Toronto Hydro Energy Services) and the Toronto Environmental Alliance, Phillips has earned several awards for his efforts, including most recently, a Green Circle Award for Environmental Stewardship at the Mirror Awards honouring Canadian hairdressers, stylists, salons and spas. In an industry known for excess, glitzy surfaces and throw-away ideas, Phillips has tried to create a green heart at its core.

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