Vous désirez infuser Montréal de vos pensées bienfaisantes? Rendez vous sur La conspiration du Bien (lien maintenant inactif), un projet avant-gardiste qui a l’ambition de communiquer à la Ville puis au Monde entier un grand mouvement d’énergie positive. On en a bien besoin!!

C’est en réponse à ce défi que le réseau TapIt entre en scène. TapIt propose aux internautes 2 façons de découvrir les cafés qui leur offriront de l’eau gratuite du robinet: par leur site Web et via une application iPhone. Résultat: les propriétaires de cafés responsables augmentent leur clientèle et leur réputation tandis que les utlisateurs économisent 500$ ou plus par année en coûts d’eau embouteillée.

Toutes les régions du monde sont concernées ; les besoins en eau de la population mondiale augmentent constamment alors que la quantité d’eau disponible demeure la même. Si nous ne changeons pas nos modes actuels de consommation, 2,7 milliards de personnes manqueront d’eau en 2025 !

Apprenez-en encore plus sur le magnifique site de OneDrop.

However! I have taken pictures all through the process and I will be posting about my experience very soon.

Don’t give up and stay tuned.

If you plan ahead and are prepared, there is no ned to throw everything out. First of all: clear out the old paperwork. Get a few plastic recycling bins and get started. Be merciless! If you haven’t lookked at it, read it or used it in over 6 months, chances are you never will again. Why hoard it? Recycle it!

Next up were books… and I love my books. There are some I’ve read 5 or 6 times. I cherish them and would rather save them than my plants, if push comes to shove. But, again, be merciless: if you still have the complete collection of Little house on the Prairie from when you were 8, its probably time to give it up to somebody who’ll appreciate it (and is under 12). Same thing with all those not so great cookbooks: its all on the Web, so get them over to the Salvation Army or better yet: to a book exchange shop. someone will surely make better use of them than you.

Once I was done with paperwork, magazines and books, I already had about one sixth of all my boxes that were destined for a second life. That’s a LOT of stuff. But I wasn’t finished: I went through all my archives, my kitchen utensils, my clothes and my bathroom stuff. And guess what? Another 8 boxes went the way of the Salvation Army. All in all, I’m pretty sure I’ve saved 300 sq ft worth of breathing space.

Next up: finding an earth-friendly contractor!

|| Adam Werbach ||

So first tings first: the “before” pictures!

The goods:

• located 200 meters from a metro (which means I can continue to take public transportation)

• 10 minutes bike ride from the office

• a few blocks from parks and supermarkets

• built in 1953, has only had one owner (very rare)

• no structural work to be done

My personal design brief goes more or less as follows:

• keep as much of it as possible

• open it up, bring in the light

• transform the back yard into a food growing place, as well as an outside “room” for summer living

• use as much ecoresponsible materials as possible

• buy locally as much as possible

• ban all toxic materials

• when felling walls, do it in a way that the wood beams may be recycled

• pet project: try to keep the ‘70’s era bar as intact as possible, while upgrading it to suit my own tastes

All that carpet and tiles are coming off, and we’ll see how the original wooden floors are looking. For colors, I’m very tempted to go all out in very bright colors: mazatlan blue, coral, kelly green, etc (all in non VOC paints, of course). I also want to open up a large chunk of the kitchen and have a great big huge door to have seamless outside-inside living during summer months. I’ll need help with the garden, but a huge bonus will be the fact that I’ll be able to compost to my heart’s content and reuse that beatiful humus in my garden! I want to plant varieties that will be sturdy, local and easy to take car of.

So let’s consider this week one and see how it goes.

Productive House
Maison Productive is concept, in the heart of Pointe St-Charles, that has everything I want in housing: ecoresponsible materials, energy efficiency, variety AND it grows its own food. It sports large bike racks and huge bonus: 2 Communauto parking lots on the premises! Europe has been sprouting this kind of urban development for a while now, but its finally here now, and hopefully the first of many of its kind.

notNeutral’s Transport Quilt

Made of organic cotton with non-toxic dyes, this embroidered quilt is reversible to suit your (or your little one’s) mood. Sold at Feel More Human which is behind my inspiration for today (such a great name…)

Sony’s take back system

One of the worst feelings at the end of an object’s life, especially a digital toy that you’ve coveted, loved, used but is now way past its prime, is the sense that there is nowhere to rest its plastic bones. So we hoard them in boxes and carry them around, at one point perhaps sending them off to the Salvation Army, or simply throwing them out. Sony has introduced its recycling system and its all being taken apart and refurbished here in Canada by GEEP.

Chaque ensemble de 10 aimants est vendu à 12$, +3$ de frais d’envois.