Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 04/25/2010 - 14:10
This past few days I was lucky enough to spend the entire weekend at the Green Living Show. I probably had the best job in the whole place: move around the show, meet exhibitors, guests and speakers, and then write about it on this blog, Facebook and Twitter.
So all weekend I was moving from one vendor to another, catching all the speakers and demonstrations and trying out products.
Now, as the Green Living Show comes to a close for another year I've learned a few things. First of all, the green community in Toronto is flourishing. It's really inspiring to see so many people come together around the most important issues facing our world today: the environment and sustainability. Toronto is often thought of as a city of microcosms. There are all kinds of different communities, east end and west end, north and south, trendy and less trendy. But at the Green Living Show there's a sense that everyone belongs to one community, one city, and we all want it to remain clean and green for a long time.
Another thing I noticed was that there's something for everyone, regardless of how "green" you consider yourself. For people new or just gaining interest in environmental issues there are exhibitors that can help you take small steps towards a greener lifestyle. Perhaps you're interested in just getting healthier and eating more organic foods, or finding a bike to get outdoors more often? These are some of the smaller things you can do and the Green Living Show has a variety of vendors who can help.
At the same time, just an aisle or two over, there are exhibitors that can help you take really large green steps. Maybe you're getting ready to install solar panels on your roof, or looking into designing a new house made from all eco-friendly products? Or perhaps you're interested in a more energy efficient heating and cooling system for your home? The show features vendors and information for some of these larger, more costly and complicated green choices.
On Saturday I spent some time listening to actor Colin Firth talk about his green lifestyle. He said something really relevant to myself and a lot of other people. He mentioned how he didn't particularly want to give up the luxuries of waste, driving and living without a care for the world. He didn't really want to give these things up, but he realized that if we don't we'll be ruining the only planet we have. I thought this was a really great message. We don't always want to do what's hard but we have to. When it comes to the planet we have to make sacrifices and do what's right.
At the Green Living Show I saw that there are a ton of ways to be green without sacrificing anything. The truth is, these days it's not hard to be green. Every day I discover things that make it easier. If you didn't make it this year be sure to come by next year and see all of the things that you could be doing greener that you probably haven't even thought of.
