Coffee Houses on Sustainability – 10 tips to make your lifestyle greener!

Photo: The planning team for the coffee houses. From right to left: Dave Kelly (GCA Treasurer), Angela Keller-Herzog (Basement Flooding), Joan Freeman (Greenspace & Water), John Humphries (Transportation), Jennifer Humphries, Della Wilkinson (Homes & Energy) and Carol Macleod.  Missing are Kate Reekie (Zero-Waste Living), Bill Nuttle (Calculating Your Carbon Footprint) and Leslie Cole.  

Photo: Jennifer Humphries 

Coffee Houses on Sustainability – 10 tips to make your lifestyle greener 

By Della Wilkinson, Kate Reekie and Jennifer Humphries 

A series of Coffee Houses on Sustainability brought over 900 Ottawa residents together to build knowledge and to motivate more people to choose sustainable lifestyle options. The six events were co-funded by the City of Ottawa’s Community Environment Project Grant Program, the Glebe Community Association and the Community Associations for Environmental Sustainability (CAFES). Several Bank Street businesses provided free coffee and cookies: Bridgehead, McKeen Metro, Wholefoods, Happy Goat, Starbucks, Wild Oat Café and Second Cup. This is an overview of things we learned by attending. 

Homes & Energy 

#1 Old houses can be adapted to our changing climate.  

By considering energy, carbon and resiliency as part of retrofit objectives, you can reduce energy bills while improving thermal comfort, air quality and resiliency to power outages. The first step is to reduce heat loss in your house by sealing gaps, adding insulation and upgrading to high efficiency windows and doors. If your furnace and air conditioner don’t need replacing for several years, explore adding solar panels to your roof in the short term so that you have renewable energy for that heat pump when the time is right. Consider the City’s Better Home Loan Program as an option to finance such changes. 

Reducing Your Carbon Footprint 

#2 Everyday choices make a difference, but some have bigger consequences than others. 

Project Neutral’s carbon footprint estimator asks seven simple questions and estimated one of the authors’ household carbon footprint within a few percentages of a more detailed calculator that required details on where they live, utility bills, how far and by what mode they travel. The Carbon Literacy Challenge revealed how different choices contribute to our impact on climate change. Breaking down our relative levels of carbon consumption into heating, transportation and other categories helped to decide where best to focus efforts. 

Greenspace & Water 

#3 Plant native plants and trees (not cultivated varieties or invasive species). 

Native plants and trees provide nesting sites, food sources and corridors for wildlife to move between fragmented areas in urban settings. They are low maintenance and have evolved to survive in our climate, hence they require fewer added resources such as water and chemical amendments. Cultivated plants are genetically altered to have different characteristics i.e., bigger blooms, different coloured foliage, etc., but the plant may be unusable/inedible to native wildlife.  Cultivated plants have fun descriptive names following the Latin name. For example, Phlox divaricata (native to Ontario) versus Phlox divaricata ‘Blue Ribbons’ (cultivated version).  

#4 Keep the stormwater on site rather than overwhelming city sewers 

Rain Ready Ottawa offers e-courses and rebates for a variety of stormwater management options as shown. The Glebe is a secondary stormwater retrofit area eligible for e-courses. 

Transportation 

#5 There’s a lot of misinformation circulating about e-vehicles 

Do EV batteries need to be frequently replaced? No, they should last for the lifetime of the vehicle, after which they can be used as stationary storage before being recycled into new batteries. Charging EVs takes too long! Most of the charging happens at home or, thanks to fast charging (20 to 60 minutes), while we shop or eat. EVs don’t work in the cold! The low centres of mass mean they handle well in snow and preconditioning means no scraping off ice and near-instant heat. 

#6 Understanding the health benefits of a 15-minute neighbourhood 

The Glebe is a 15-minute neighbourhood, but what factors impact whether we choose to walk, bike or drive? Would a Walkable App with information on the weather, local roadworks, traffic, scenic options and amenities help us make more sustainable transport choices? There are numerous models of e-bikes including those designed for transporting children. 

Zero-Waste Living 

#7 Buying less; buying better 

For most people, adopting a zero-waste lifestyle will not involve the widely reported extreme of reducing their waste to fit into one mason jar per year. Realistically, it is about becoming more conscious about the waste we produce – and that includes recycling, which we should also be reducing! Every time we think we need to buy something, think “Do I really need this?” or “Is there another way I could meet my needs?” First ask if you can borrow the item from friends, family or neighbours. If not, then can it be rented? Then, can it be purchased used? If you follow this line of thinking, the planet and your pocketbook will surely thank you! 

Climate Risk of Basement Flooding 

#8 Things we can do to protect our basements from urban flooding 

Urban flooding occurs when stormwater or sewage backs up into the basement or enters the home after runoff has accumulated on the ground. The City of Ottawa’s Three Steps to Cost-Effective Home Flood Protection offers suggestions at zero cost (maintain storm drains, eavestrough, plumbing, etc.), under $250 (add window well covers, downspout extensions) and over $250 (install a backwater valve, install a sump pump).  

Coffee Houses on Sustainability 

#9 Advocate for a better environment 

Each event raised topics on which the City of Ottawa is seeking public feedback, such as the new zoning bylaw, Bank Street active transportation and transit priority study, climate resiliency strategy and more. A recent survey on Engage Ottawa showed most respondents supported limiting idling to one minute with set temperature thresholds. 

#10 Knowledgeable neighbours live in your community 

Considering making a sustainable change? Ask around as there are residents living close to you who have already made sustainable choices with respect to their homes, energy, mode of transport, consumption, waste and greenspaces. Start a conversation, maybe over a cup of coffee, then gather trusted information and turn thought into action! 

Della Wilkinson, Kate Reekie and Jennifer Humphries are members of the Glebe Community Association’s Environment Committee and helped to organize the GCA coffee houses on sustainability. Follow the GCA Environment Committee on Instagram @gcaenviro175.