S U S T A I N A B L E C A T A L O G U E

A handcrafted

Holiday

SEASON JOY

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H A N D S W O R T H S E N V I R O N M E N T A L C L U B

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F R O M O U R S C H O O LA N D B E Y O N D

A B O U T U SAs the environmental club, we strive

to raise awareness among students to

understand environmental issues. In-

stalling a sense of responsibility and a

personal commitment to protect and

preserve the environment through-

out our community. Our club holds

activities, meetings and fundraisers to

continually raise awareness and get

involved.

We’re excited to have launched

Handsworth’s Holiday sustainable

catalogue. Please continue to

read about everything you can

do to make your holiday season

greener. We hope you get some

new information on how to

make your festivities friendlier to

our planet. Knowing that you’re contributing to the future of the planet can give you a sense of fulfillment. When we talk about sustainable holidays, we mean taking a different approach to celebrating the holidays without causing drastic consequences for the environment

HANDSWORTH

Secondary

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S O C I A LINSTAGRAM:

@HSS.ENVIOR.CLUB

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T H O U G H T- F U L G I F T S

FIG. 1

Bc playthings is a kids toy store that supplies toys for all age

groups. The store makes sure to do everything they can to help

the environment. This includes using paper bags, buying local

products and buying from toy companies that are from all over

the world that is made to work with the environment instead

of against. Bc playthings also have a variety of products that

can be used as stocking stuffers or any other small gifts! As well

as toys this local store has a wide variety of puzzles for all age

groups!

EdgemontVillage

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EdgemontVillage

O H D E E R !

FIG. 2

Delish is a sustainable store that is all for the

environment. They sell multiple beauty products

along with, cutlery/kitchen utensils, and lots of

other stuff. Delish fully represents sustainability

and helping out the environment. This is a great

place to stop by and get presents for someone as

well as natural home supplies that you may need.

We seriously recommend checking out Delish!

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3 2 B O O K S

32 Books & Gallery is an oasis of literary and artistic delight

in the heart of Edgemont Village. They carry a superb selec-

tion of books in all genres, local gifts and cards for all ages &

inclinations, art and jewellery by Canadian artisans, games

& puzzles, journals, stationery and, of course, service with a

smile.

We applaud the work of the Handsworth Environmental

Club. We have worked closely with Ocean Ambassadors

Canada to eliminate the use of plastic bags in our Village

and are proud to have been one of the first local shops

to do so. We have also partnered with Project Drawdown

to spread the word about positively impacting change in

these challenging environmental times. We work hard to

offer the best books to our customers about these crucial

issues. Please let us know if there is a title that we should

have on our shelves.

Not sure what to get for someone on your list this holi-

day season? December 1 to 24, for every $50 in gift cards

purchased at 32 Books & Gallery, you will receive a FREE $10

gift card!

Happy Holidaze, and thank you for supporting local, inde-

pendent businesses!

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Are you planning on having a holiday party this year? If so, have you thought about how to keep it environmentally friendly? I know, when you think of going green the first thing you think about isn’t usually your holiday party, but changing it can actually make a big

impact. How do you plan for a green holiday party? Think about how to keep it waste free. This means using reusable decorations, that can be used again for either your everyday life, or another party. An easy way of doing this is buying fun cups (that aren’t single use plastic) that you can still use everyday. Also, if you plan on giving gifts at your party, to use recyclable wrapping paper or even something else that doesn’t have to be thrown away at all (even a blanket orna scarf could work). Secondly, think about what you are

feeding your guests. For this party, you could try to create a plant based menu, or if that isn’t accessible for you, cook with food that is in season near your location. Lastly, try and

reduce food waste as well as other waste. Find out how many guests you have to feed ahead of time, and cook accordingly. Then afterwards if there are lots of leftovers and you

can’t eat them all yourself, send your guests home with reusable containers full of the food. These small changes may seem silly at first, but if you make it part of the tradition,

Hospitality Gone Green

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Christmas wrapping paper is a staple piece of many people’s holidays. Around 540 000 tonnes of wrapping paper, gift bags, and tape are used and thrown away by Canadians each year. Although some of this material can be recycled, a large majority of it actually ends up in landfills. It is said that the amount of waste produced each Christmas is equivalent to 100 000 elephants. It may not seem like using eco-friendly gift wrap and recycling properly will change this number but taking the proper steps to reduce your waste could actually make a huge difference. The most effective environmentally friendly way to wrap presents is by using upcycled materials from your home, but if you do buy wrapping paper, it is import-

ant to know how to properly recycle it. Wrapping papers and bags with glitter, velvet, or foil cannot be recycled and should be avoided this holiday season. Plain paper gift wrapping

can be recycled as long as any tape and bows are removed. That being said, there are many alternatives to wrapping paper that can be found within your home. A few great materials to use instead of gift wrap are scarves or old fabrics, newspapers, old maps, reusable bags (an example could be a tote bag), inside-out chip bags (for smaller items), and jars/tins. It is also important to try to avoid using tape while wrapping. Instead of using tape, try using string, yarn, or thin strips of old fabric. To avoid using tape for options such as scarves and fabrics, the fabric ends could just be neatly tied. If for some reason, these options do not work for you, there are also environmentally friendly papers that can be bought locally or there is

natural kraft paper that can be found at Michaels and can be hand-Decorated. Knowing how to properly recycle your wrapping paper and using sustainable alternatives is a great way to

Eco-Friendly Wrapping Paper

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L O V E & S U S T A I N A B I L I T Y

On the wishlist-

P E A C E

Local Sustainable Fashion

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Hunter &

Hare

Hunter and Hare is a curated consignment store that specializes in women’s clothing. They also carry jour-

nals, beauty products, jewellery and homeware items. Shopping local and second hand is an easy way to

support small businesses and reduce fast fashion.

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G O G R E E N I N T H E N E W Y E A R

2022 is fast approaching, and with every new year, new resolutions are made. A new

year is a great opportunity to rethink habits and make goals on how to incorporate

environmentally friendly things into your life. Here are a few things we’ll be thinking

about this year.

Buy less

Every item, from the clothes you are wearing to the phone in your hand requires

resources to produce. Even environmentally friendly products like reusable straws or

sustainable clothes can’t compare to simply buying fewer items. Some ways you can

do this is every time you make a purchase, to stop and think about if you really need

it. Another way is instead of donating things you don’t use anymore, to see if there’s

another use for it, like for a Halloween costume, or spare fabric, or if anyone else in

your household wants it.

Eat less meat or dairy

Many studies show that avoiding meat and dairy products is the single biggest way

to reduce your environmental impact on the planet. Industrialized livestock produc-

tion, meaning more and more cows and other animals used in farming, produces

huge amounts of methane (a greenhouse gas about 28 times more powerful than

carbon dioxide in a one-hundred-year period). The good news? You don’t have to

be a vegan to start making a positive difference. Some ways you can reduce your

food footprint are to commit to reducing your meat and dairy consumption by a few

meals per week (even one meal a week helps!), to tell five friends about your choice,

and to make fresh fruits and vegetables a bigger part of your diet in the new year!

Less time in cars

Air pollution is another big contributor to climate change, and by reducing your

time in cars, we can make the air cleaner. Some ways you can do this is by walking or

biking to work, school, or other activities. Another alternative for longer distances is

public transportation such as the skytrain, the seabus, or taking the bus. If you ditch

the car for one of these alternatives for just one day a week, this reduces your individ-

ual carbon footprint, and makes a significant impact on carbon emissions.

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WHY CELEBRATING SUSTAINABLE HOLIDAYS MATTERS

For obvious reasons, celebrating the holiday sustainably is important because the

planet has had enough of our carelessness. Holidays are celebrated by billions of

people around the world, so the impacts add up enormously in a short amount of

time. But if everyone becomes mindful of their actions, it can yield massive cumula-

tive effect on our environment.

Having sustainable holidays not only benefits the environment, but also our commu-

nity, in- including small businesses. In Canada, as of 2019, small businesses represent

97.9% of all businesses, yet they see sustainability as a more important aspect of

business than large companies do. For example, based on a Waterloo study led by

Sarah Burch (2018), it found that 8 out of 10 small and medium enterprises surveyed

in Toronto and Vancouver consider sustainability to be important. Thus, supporting

local and small businesses will feed their financial capacity to create programs and

initiatives to be green, contributing positively to the overall well-being of the planet.

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THE HANDSWORTH ENVIRONMENTAL CLUB THANKS YOU

As we continue to celebrate the holidays year after year, we can still do so in a way that is conscious of

the implications our actions have on environmental sustainability.

And though the holidays are a special part of the year, that doesn’t mean we get to forget about the

pressing issues of today. Keep our city clean!

Happy Holidays+

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