To the socially conscious members of Taking Action McGill:
Four U2 Undergrads at McGill have started a website www.munzer.ca, Montréal’s first online landlord ratings website. The goal is bringing transparency to the rental market by bridging the information gap between landlord and tenant. Users search for their landlord and view his/her ratings. Users can also post landlord ratings as well as anecdotal comments. Note that this service not only warns tenants about potential problem landlords, it also rewards landlords who have provided quality service.
Check landlord ratings at Munzer.ca, and please also fill out a landlord profile to enhance the service our website provides. By pooling our information we can improve the rental market in our city.
Cheers,
Munzer.ca Staff
This group of four young gentlemen is on a mission to prove that anyone can do anything. This very simple premise is incredibly powerful in practice, and not too disimilar to our own beliefs at TakingActionMcGill. Everyone can make change for a better world and life if they simply, willingly, and without pretense take responsibility for their lives and actions. These guys at The Buried Life were a major inspiration for us and you should definitely check them out at theburiedlife.com. Watch their videos, read about their adventures and leave your list of things you want to do before you die, and they’ll try their darndest to help you out.
(Note from The Buried Life and TakingActionMcGill: don’t be afraid of throwing “Stop Global warming” or “Improve My Community” on your list)
Here’s a short trailer for your enjoyment
Filed under: Taking Action
A documentary made by two McGill students illuminating the human side of homelessness in Montreal. Definitely worth a look all the way through to the very strong ending. Here’s part one of four.
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
If you’re like us, your mailbox gets bombarded with unsolicited junk almost daily. Ads, flyers, leaflets, menus, catalogues etc. mostly printed in colour ink on high quality paper, and all of which you never look at other than to throw it into the recycling/waste bin.
900 000 Publi-Sacs are distributed weekly (more than 46million yearly) in their accompanying plastic bags. It costs the province of Quebec an estimated $1million a year to recycle all this junk-mail, which often arrives in the recycling bin straight from the mailbox un-read! And what’s more? According to our own McGill Marketing profs, unsolicited ads aren’t even an effective Marketing tool for many of the businesses who practice it. Considering most perpectives, these distributions are a waste and a nuissance.
If you’re of the rare coupon-cutting breed that finds these distributions useful, that’s fine, get your coupons and ads online www.publisac.ca. If you are of the mind that they are simply pollution and a bother there is an extremely simple way to reduce this waste and bother.
What you can do:
1) Get a sticker for your mailbox! We’ll be distributing stickers this week and next week at Bronfman so keep an eye out for us (we are Vaughn, Etienne and Phil)! Or go to your local “Eco-Quartier” to pick one up. To make your own, it needs to bear very close resemblance to the official city issued one that you can find at ungestesimple (you can also print this out if you want to), and be no less than 3.5 by 3.5cm, and no bigger than 6 by 6cm.
2) Stick it on your mailbox! You’re done; no more hassle, no more clutter, no more invasion of your space…
However, there is an IMPORTANT optional 3rd step:
3) Notify us of your postal code in the comments section of this post and we’ll contact Publi-Sac, through an alliance with Eco-Quartier Jeanne Mance, and tell them to actually stop printing packages for those on our list. You’ll also be entered into a draw on April 9th to win two meals at Lola Rosa’s restaurant on Milton and Lorne! We will contact you by email.
YOU’RE DONE!!! Tell a friend or your fellow apartment dwellers to do the same.
If you receive addressed advertising and want it to stop, register your name with the Canadian Marketing Association “Do Not Contact” Service
To find your ‘Eco-Quartier’ go to Ville de Montreal: Eco-Quartier
Filed under: Dialogue
What do you guys think? Does anyone actually open up the pubi-sacs they receive and find them useful? do coupon-clippers still exist?
It’s pretty clear that our stance is that they’re a pain in the ass, and a very wasteful one at that. But we’re open-minded and want to get a less biased idea of how people feel about these things.
Some inspiration for the rest of us.
These students took on a great initiative, got people involved in and aware about waste reduction, and they ended up learning a lot themselves as well.
If you want to learn more you can contact them at aninconvenientbag@gmail.com or you can find their group “An Inconvenient Bag” on Facebook.
AN INCONVENIENT BAG – WASTE REDUCTION CHALLENGE
From March 16-23 2006, we ran a contest where participants were required to keep track of everything they threw away and recycled on a provided log sheet. Two points were awarded to garbage items, and one point to recycled. Prizes were awarded for participation.
Prizes were all donated by local businesses and we did some fundraising for a $25 cash prize for the winner and $115 donated to the David Suzuki Foundation
The contest was hugely successful and helped raise awareness of responsible consumption. We would encourage anyone interested to run a similar contest, or even just take on such a challenge on their own. It’s a real eye-opener!
What can you do to make a positive change regarding your use and recycling of batteries? Find out from one of our contributors on our Events/Initiatives Page or click here heavy metal.
Reminder
GreenDrinks tonight from 5 to 7p at the Thompson House (3650 McTavish). Code Phrase: “Are you green?”
also…
“Join us for free refreshments, drinks, music and interesting conversations on Wednesday at 6p onwards at the QPIRG office (3647 University St., 3rd Floor). Don’t be affaid: we are friendly!” from GreeningMcGill
learn more here at greeningmcgill or Your Events/Initiatives
Filed under: Events
Booze and people interested in the environment and the community. What could be better?! Also, a good place to network for jobs! Bring a couple of friends and check it out this tuesday 5p to 7p at Thompson House (aka. the lavish post-grad building) just up the street on McTavish.
“A lively mixture of people from NGOs, academia, government and business. Come along and you’ll be made welcome. Just say, “are you green?” and we will look after you and introduce you to whoever is there.It’s a great way of catching up with people you know and also for making new contacts. Everyone invites someone else along, so there’s always a different crowd, making Green Drinks an organic, self-organising network. These events are very simple and unstructured, but many people have found employment, made friends, developed new ideas, done deals and had moments of serendipity.”
Why bother conserving water?em>
Water is essential to life. Of all the water on this planet, only 2.5% is freshwater. Less than 0.01% is easily accessible freshwater in lakes and rivers.
Canadians and Water Consumption
Canada is the second largest water consumer in the world
The cost of water is relatively inexpensive in Canada which can lead to overuse and waste
Region of Peel residents use slightly less than the Canadian average
Water Facts
Did you know..?
The average Canadian uses 340 litres of water per day.
The average adult drinks 1.5 litres of water a day,
which includes coffee, tea and various juices.
Only 5 per cent of all water used inside the home is used for cooking and drinking purposes.
Peel residents use 50 per cent more water in the summer to water their lawns and gardens.*
More than 24 million Canadians depend on municipal drinking water.
22 million people use Canadian municipal sewer systems.*
In 2001, water demand in Peel Region exceeded 700 litres per day per person.
*Environment Canada
Retrieved from..www.region.peel.on.ca
Phil
The availability of water will be one of the main issues of the 21st century. Water covers about 70% of our planet and is vital for all living things. 97.5% of that coverage represents saltwater, which is undrinkable by humans, and the other 2.5% is freshwater. However, of that 2.5% of freshwater, approximately 68% is trapped by the glaciers, so that leaves less than 1% (approximately 0.3%) as our supply of freshwater, which is either ground or surface water. This number seems alarmingly low, and with many in this world without access to drinking water, what we need to survive, we must modify our way of living and consume less in order to ensure that we can continue to have access to clean water.
The trend of water consumption in the 21st century is scary. Currently, in terms of litres/person a day, the per capita consumption of water in Canada is around 335L/day, about 300L/day in the US, and around 150 L/day in the UK. This represents a utilization percentage of 54% of the annual freshwater available for humans to be used. We may be thinking that these numbers aren’t a worry because this consumption pattern has remained constant throughout our recent past, but there may be a problem that will be encountered in future years.
Due to the expected increase in the world population over the next decades, the rate of water utilization could reach 70% of total freshwater by 2025 if the level of consumption per person stays constant. But, if less developed countries start to attain the level of water consumption of more developed nations, then we might be using more than 90% of the total annual freshwater available in 2025. Now, this is a statistic that leaves us in an alarming situation. So, what can we do to reduce our water consumption?
Let’s look at the different areas of water consumption in the residential domain. According to SoDCon, a comprehensive study of domestic water consumption patterns, in the United States, the highest usage of water for residential use was for toilets at 27.6%, followed by washing machines at 21.7% and showers at 16.8%. It’s not surprising to find toilets at the top of the chart for residential uses of freshwater when we consider the number of flushes that occur manually or automatically throughout the year which usually represents a volume of 6 litres of freshwater. If we want to reduce our residential consumption of water, we have to look at these areas.
In the toilet department, the best solution would be to implement a water saving device in the cistern, which is where the water is being stored, to reduce constant leakage throughout the day. And when you need to replace your old toilets, opt for dual flush models which use much less water. For the washing machines, use them only when they are at their full capacity. The same goes for dishwashers if you absolutely must use them. In the shower department, quite simply, take shorter showers of (5 minutes max), buy a timer to help you with this, and stay away from baths. All of these actions are absolutely painless and will go a long way towards conserving more of our most precious resource.
Clean water will only continue to be there if we take pro-active action to reduce our consumption levels and to be responsible.
- Étienne Lemay
