After chatting with staff about the spa’s commitment to the environment, I took the opportunity to check out what the facility had to offer first hand. Sorry, I’ve got no pictures for you as (I should have known, of course) the spa has strict rules against phones and cameras on site.

I was quite impressed! While the spa lost a few points for handing out bottled water to guests and two clean towels each, I was very impressed by their floor to ceiling windows for all natural lighting during the day and their dim indoor lighting and bright outdoor solar lighting at night.

Their brochures were all packed to the brim with informatiton on recycled paper, the toilets were all low flush and used greywater, and all of the steam rooms and saunas were run on timers as to not unnecessarily waste energy and electricity.

Everywhere you looked their were bins seperated into waste, paper, plastic, and food (for composting) — all done in very tasteful ways to incorporate it into the theme of the spa.

A lot of the spa was outdoors using nature instead of building facilites — like the hammocks and chair swings — all of which were tethered to trees instead of having a separate building for those who wish to lounge.

An outdoor fireplace stood in the middle of the outdoor pool area instead of a wasteful electric fireplace like I’ve seen in so many other public buildings.

And to top off everything, there were rainwater collection barrels scattered throughout the lot — a great use of all that space! They use the rainwater that’s collected to water the plants. Perfect.

Before this experiment I would have never noticed any of these things, I’m sure — but I’m glad I did. I’m definitely becoming more eco-concious and am certainly aware now that in a facility like that, if there’s no attempt at sustainable development and operation, it could easily be a hugely wasteful place! I was glad to see Le Nordik make such a great effort to not only be as eco-friendly as possible, but to make sure that their clients aware of these efforts, too.

Kudos, Le Nordik!

On a personal note, I highly recommend spending a day at this place — it’s beautiful! And there’s nothing like a steam bath and then a jump in a 4 degree (celcius) water fall to make you feel… alive (and so, socold)!

Today while in Chelsea, Quebec on a top secret mission, I’m scheduled to visit the nice folks at Le Nordik Nature Spa and sit down and chat about their promise to act responsibly towards the environment through ‘eco-friendly actions’.

Here are some of their eco commitments:

• Recuperation of all recyclable material for reuse
• Recycling of paper, plastic and other materials
• Recycling of waste water to be reused in flushing systems
• Energy and electricity management with timers and software systems
• Recuperation of rain water to be used for watering the plants
• Printing on recycled paper for certain documents
• Use of renewable energy

And soon they’ve promised that they will be composting of plant and natural based waste and using geothermy throughout each of their buildings.

I’m hoping to talk to them about what motivated them to make this commitment to the environment and sustainable development as well as, of course, checking out what their facilities look like! I’ve never been there and I’m glad that’s about to change. And maybe we’ll become great friends! I could really use some good friends with a spa, heh. I’m looking forward to meeting you and chatting about your top notch eco-friendly spa, Le Nordik!

I’ll be trying out mobile blogging on location again so stay tuned for pictures and tidbits from my sit down with Le Nordik!

So why eat organic foods anyway? Why are they better than your average grocery store fare? Well, for one, organic foods are foods that aren’t covered in chemicals such as insecticides, herbicides, fungicides and fertilizers. I, for example, am violently allergic to a lot of preservatives and a lot of these spray chemicals trigger the same reaction: sore stomach, headache, nausea, blurred vision, cold sweat… I could go on. And it can be a bad scene for those who aren’t even allergic to any chemicals, too!

Plenty of EPA-approved pesticides were approved a long time ago –before research linked these chemicals to cancer and other debilitating diseases. Currently the EPA considers 60% of all herbicides, a whopping 90% of all fungicides and 30% of all insecticides to be potentially carcinogenic.

Taste is an individual matter, but many gourmet chefs are choosing to use organic foods in the recipes, due to the superior flavour and quality of these products. A growing number of consumers — including yours truly as part of my attempt to go green — are also claiming that organic food tastes better.

I mean, doesn’t it make sense to you that foods grown naturally in well-balanced soils and ripened by the big, happy summer sun will be healthier and tastier than products raised on a diet of smelly, wildlife and bug-killing chemicals? Then they’re sprayed with preservatives that allow them to sit for months in storage (I could make a really easy movie star joke here, but I’ll leave that one along). What are these chemicals and preservatives doing to your insides? Do you think it’s possible that they’re strong enough to kill pests, make plants grow faster/bigger, and last for weeks on a shelf without having a negative affect on your insides? I don’t know first hand, but I’m sceptical at best.

Try organic food for yourself and see what you think — is it tastier? Does it smell better? Check out the ‘Organic Recipe Friday’ section and try out some of the recipes. I guarantee you’ll find some that you love!

Drop me a line and let me know!

Putting pesicides on your lawn is bad because… pesticides are bad, right? I’ve known this for a long time because I remember seeing a ‘Keep off the Lawn!” pesticides warning on a neighbours lawn and asking my mother about it. All she could tell me, really, was that pesticides were poison. I remember being quite confused as to how pesticides could hurt me but not the plants/grass. Well, here’s some interesting little bit sized facts about lawn pesticides:

• Children who live in homes where lawn pesticides are used are twice as likely to develop brain cancer than children with pesticide-free yards. (via)
• People who work with pesticides (including pesticides used on lawns and in gardens) have an increased risk of fertility problems, such as an increase in spontaneous abortion and miscarriage as well as increased risk of having a baby with birth defects (such as cleft lip and palate, spina bifida, limb anomalies). (via)
• Workers exposed over a long period to pesticides have shown problems with information (ie. confusion) and have increased risk of developing Parkinson’s Disease.(via)
• In the womb and into early infancy is linked to increased risks of some cancers (particularly leukemia, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and neuroblastoma) and birth defects. (via)

So if all these terrible things are possible with pesticide use, why on earth do people use them? Is having a healthy lawn worth all the poison and risk?

Stay tuned to BambiGoesGreen for tips on how to keep your lawn healthy and happy naturally!

A hydrogen car uses hydrogen as its onboard fuel for motive power. Wikipedia tells me that the power plants of such vehicles convert the chemical energy of hydrogen to torque (or mechanical energy) in one of two methods: combustion, or electrochemical conversion in a fuel-cell:

• In hydrogen internal combustion engine vehicles, the hydrogen is combusted in engines in fundamentally the same method as traditional internal combustion engine vehicles.
• In fuel-cell conversion, the hydrogen is reacted with oxygen to produce water and electricity, the latter being used to power an electric traction motor.

It goes on to say that hydrogen is one of two natural elements that combine to make water — oh hey, something I knew! Thank you, bio-chem! What you may not know, however, is that hydrogen is not an energy source itself, but an energy carrier because it takes a great deal of energy to extract it from water.

After reading about Jesse James looking to beat the landspeed record with a hydrogen-burning car, I wanted to look into what dangers may be lurking with such a feat.

Here’s what I came up with (with some help, of course):

The show spots on tv aren’t really saying much about the car that Jesse will be using and there’s not much info about it online, so it’s hard to know how it will compare to what’s already been done.

The current land speed record for a hydrogen-powered vehicle is 286.476 mph (461.038 km/h) set by Ohio State University’s Buckeye Bullet 2, which achieved a “flying-mile” speed of 280.007 mph (450.628 km/h) at the Bonneville Salt Flats in August 2008. For production-style vehicles, the current record for a hydrogen-powered vehicle is 333.38 km/h (207.2 mph) set by a prototype Ford Fusion Hydrogen 999 Fuel Cell Race Car at Bonneville Salt Flats in Wendover, Utah in August 2007. It was accompanied by a large compressed oxygen tank to increase power. Jesse James is going to have to beat 333.38 km/h!

But what we really want to know, of course, is how dangerous is this stunt? I mean, they bill all of his stunts as being super dangerous and death-defying. Well, I’m no rocket scientist — err at least not a hydrogen-powered rocket scientist — so I searched and came up with a great site for you, my readers. Here’s all you’d ever need to learn about hydrogen!

H2 and You

Read, learn, and enjoy! It took me a few times through, but I think I’ve got the general idea.

No more will I let my brain make the connection between the hydrogen and the Hindenburg (whose shell was basically covered with solid rocket fuel, incidentally). More on that? Right here.

Hydrogen has the ability to help us improve the environment, reduce fuel imports and create green jobs. Why do you think so many companies are pursuing it? Because they already understand the great things it can do.

Today is clearly planter day! When the weather’s right and I can sit on my balcony for my morning coffee, I swear — plants are all I think of. Weird, huh? I just have one of those really great balconies that I can grow things on brilliantly.

The above video, made by the genius folks at Urban Organic Gardener, shows us how to build an upside down herb planter. Cool, eh?

I’m gonna try this out myself! My balcony doesn’t have one of these yet…

Want to bring the great outdoors to the great indoors? Well, now you can… in style. Tokyo based product designer Chiaki Murata of Metaphys has designed these really neat looking stackable white mod grass planters. You can stack or hang these planters or use them as cool conversation pieces on your coffee table.

“The Metaphys products are designed with the common idea and they are consistent with the idea even though different companies produce the products: the idea is that all the creative process should start from “observation.” By observing things, you have the perspectives of the second and the third persons, and thereby you can avoid being subjective. It represents “a discipline that explores the basic principle of all existences.” What we think is necessary is really necessary for everyday life? One of our missions is to examine how important the existence of a product is in this world of the excessive production.”

[via]

To go alongside yesterday’s “Top 5: Saving energy can save you money” post, here are four awesome ways to save money by saving water! Let me tell you, as much as I love nice, long hot showers — I love saving money more, don’t you?

1. Take shorter showers to reduce water use. This will lower your water and heating bills too.
2. Install a low-flow showerhead. They don’t cost much, and the water and energy savings can quickly pay back your investment.
3. Make sure you have a faucet aerator on each faucet. These inexpensive appliances conserve heat and water, while keeping water pressure high.
4. Plant drought-tolerant native plants in your garden. Many plants need minimal watering. Find out which occur naturally in your area.

Try these out for yourself! Have something you’d like to add to this list? Leave me a comment!