Recently I went through my closet and pulled out some work boots I never use and some not-so-badly used dress shirts and slacks. I wondered if there was a place in town where clothing like this could go, sort of like Dress For Success, but for men.

Last night was such a moving and soul-shifting night for me.

Now that summer is really here, I gotta change my behaviour and hit all the farmer's markets I can. If I can't eat locally in the summer in Vancouver, when the heck can I?

I just came across this amazingly astutue and funny video. It's an inspiring look at what keeps our continent running... coal. A must-watch.

I've been thinking long and hard about an organization that I'd want $1,000 to go to. Now, in some ways this is just an intellectual exercise for me, because I'm a Vancity employee and therefore ineligible for this contest. But perhaps someone else wants to endorse this organization.

One of the things that's really opened my eyes since starting at Vancity is how money can create change in people's lives. For those in our community who aren't in a position to save, helping them start to build assets is crucial to break cycles of poverty and homelessness.

I came across this great video - a mashup of An Inconvenient Truth and Malphunktion. Check it out...

I'm fairly green, I think. Try not to consume too much,we own a Prius, I mostly walk to work. But we have never composted before. I can't quite say why.

We were in Seattle over the holiday and they have mandatory recycling, which is amazing. They also have a city-wide yard and food waste pick-up program. This floored me.

I don't like to be someone who leaves a mess for other people to clean up. And that's what this is all about. I get a good price for a certail product, and the reason it's so cheap is because it's shipped halfway around the world in polluting ships, made by poorly paid workers in countries with limited environmental regulations.

By thinking more about where and how the things we buy are made, we can make sure that, whenever possible, the cost of those products include all the externalities that other governments and communities have to pay for.

What is going on in Sydney Australia? They are an Olympic city (Summer too, not the puny Winter Games), they're on the water, they have lots of immigration, a jewel of a city. Sounds like Vancouver.

But their housing bubble exploded all over the place. Now, combined with crazy levels of personal debt, they have a new category of 'pay-later poor'.

Hi all,

I thought I'd post about a free event Vancity is hosting about Human Rights on Thursday, October 26, 2006 at 7:30pm at the Italian Cultural Centre.

As author of more than 20 books, dynamic presenter Michael Parenti speaks on how culture is not always a neutral phenomenon and is often an instrument of social control and contested power. How do human rights figure in cultural struggles? And why should we think of human rights as a global phenomenon? Mr. Parenti will also speak on how globalization is threatening local sources of production and self-sufficiency, and how we should expand the concept of human rights to include environmental sustainability.