At this magazine, we have long had green practices. We run a lean, efficient business, working from home offices with primarily previously used furniture and fixtures. We try to avoid air conditioning by managing our houses for natural cooling. We reduce our consumption of heating fuel by burning dead wood from our forest. We have used LED lightbulbs for many years. We do not print thick, oversized issues and print very little more than we distribute. We recycle everything possible, first reusing blank sides of printed paper for rough notes. We regularly donate office and household discards to reuse shops or give them away, instead of seeing them as waste. Our wardrobes are minimalist. When possible, we shop in person instead of ordering by truck delivery. We try to repair things instead of instantly replacing them with new ones. We often eat vegetarian meals, one of us exclusively. We drive hybrid electric vehicles and own them for their life span. Solar panels on the barn power lights, tools and our golf car. One of us chooses to ride a bike for some errands.
Our concern for nature extends to financial donations to wildlife rehabilitation centres. We grow native plants and have our properties counted as providing pollinator habitats. We work hard to eliminate invasive plant species on our country property, which we have had designated a nature reserve, the first registered with Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy in Halton Region.
We do all this because we believe that the survival of all species on this earth depends on using up minimal resources and preserving nature.
