Re-thinking our paw print - Earth Day thought
Please note that the blog post you are about to read was written by a dyslexic dog mama with ADHD. Here’s what’s going on inside my brain…
Earth Day has been celebrated and people have posted all the lovely things they did. Businesses flooded social media with their promises of how they are being green. I had started to write this on Earth Day, and I got distracted by the dogs. Then I was reflecting on what to write.
Then I became upset.
So much that I couldn't even post on social media the standard “celebrate earth day” post. As it’s mostly become about greenwashing. What do I mean? Good question, example A product is created and packaged in plastic. The packaging has a symbol that suggests it is recyclable. And the writing on the package says made from recycled content. Yay, right? No! Have we even considered do we need it? Is there a better option? Did you know most plastics are not recycled? Many municipalities can not recycle them. So those plastics are gathered and shipped somewhere else. So in another country is a pile of plastic just there. It's not going to disappear magically. For more information on plastic and our earth check out your favourite streaming app.
Now, what? I thought I was doing a good thing. Right? Here are the changes we at Bark’n up the Green Tree have done in our home. Get ready for some old-school thinking, things my mother and grandmother did. Go grocery shopping once a week. We go once every two weeks.
With costs rising check out your local store flyers, we do this online or on the store apps. Buy what's on sale, stock that pantry. Being Celiac food costs can add up. So we purchase large bags of GF ingredients from Tara Foods. Make larger meals and freeze the leftovers. Now, I will call myself out as when freezing we have used freezer bags. What the heck! The waste, one use and toss. My bad. Granted I had tried using glass jars for freezing. Oh boy! If you are a last-minute pull-out of the freezer person. Do not use glass as it will break. We have switched over to silicone bags. I could write for days about what we do at home, maybe that should be a separate post in itself.
What are we doing as a business to be green? Some of these things we have done right from the start. Hardware comes from Ontario business. Custom fabrics are printed in Montreal. Montreal is one of the leading fashion hubs.
Fabrics used in our new Little One's Collection are purchased from an Ontario business. Partnered with YGK Takeaways for local shipments. Partnered with ATMO to up-cycle car seat straps. Designing products with an end-of-life plan. And, learning how we can do better.
While writing this morning I had a helper. Co-author Willow.
