Eco-Vlog

Canadian company Taiga Motors, the creators of the world’s first electric snowmobiles, makes yet another splash in the luxury electric vehicle world with Orca , their first electric personal watercraft. Featuring full carbon fiber hull construction, the luxury jet ski forgoes gasoline in favor of a 23kWh battery that provides energy for up to two hours and can be charged by a regular outlet, standard automotive chargers and DC fast charging. The high-performance electric jet ski will also be fitted with a color integrated digital display for intelligent connectivity via built-in GPS mapping, LTE, wifi and bluetooth. Unveiled on Toronto’s waterfront earlier this month, Taiga Motors’ Orca measures 9.5 feet in length, 3.9 feet in width and 3 feet in height. The personal watercraft clocks in at just under 600 pounds ready to drive and up to 180 horsepower available with instant torque — one of the highest power to weight ratios in the industry, says the firm. Orca also boasts impressive...

The next time you are craving tea , choose the paper teabag or loose-leaf tea in a reusable infuser — just steer clear of the plastic teabag. Why? A recent McGill University study found that just one plastic teabag can leach billions of microplastic particles into your beverage. Professor Nathalie Tufenkji, of the McGill University Chemical Engineering Department, was surprised to find that premium teabags, made of plastic , were offered at her local Canadian coffee shop. For research purposes, she then asked graduate student Laura Hernandez to purchase several plastic teabags from a number of different brands. Next, the research duo collaboratively ran tests and analyses in the laboratory to discover the amount of microplastics being released after steeping the teabag. Related: Have your plastic and eat it, too — average American ingests 50,000 microplastic particles a year Results alarmingly showed that as many as 11.6 billion microplastic particles and 3.1 billion nano-sized par...

Europe’s endemic trees are threatened by extinction, states a recent International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) assessment on biodiversity. The unfortunate decline is due to the combination of three paramount factors: problematic invasive species , unsustainable deforestation from logging and wood harvesting and urban development. According to the IUCN’s European Red List , there are 454 native European tree species, of which 265 species are found nowhere else on the planet except in continental Europe, and 252 species are found only in the 28 European Union (EU) member-states. Of these, 168 species (or 42 percent) are regionally threatened with extinction. Related: Ireland will plant 440 million trees in 20 years Circumstances adversely affecting European trees include changes in forest and woodland management. More poignant is the significance of ecosystem modification, as in the case of forest fire, land abandonment, agricultural encroachment, livestock farming and eve...

“I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person.” ~Walt Whitman Empathy is the ability to put yourself in another’s experience and understand with depth the gravity of their situation. In general, I believe the world needs more empathy. But I’ve learned over the course of my twenty-nine years that sometimes being a highly empathetic person is incredibly painful. And sometimes too much of a good thing is a bad thing. Hearing stories of the pain that people experience can be extra painful when your mind tries to carry their pain around with you. Empathy is healthy when it’s useful and helps a wounded person feel understood, validated, or release their pain. But it’s unhealthy when you carry it with you as if it is your own. Feeling sorrow for someone who is suffering is part of our humanity and connection to each other. Carrying the sorrow as if it belongs to you ends up feeling traumatizing and can cause us to disconnect from others. I’ve always s...

As we sit at MeeT in Gastown eating sweet-chili cauliflower, Hannah Enkerlin tells me she thinks vegetarians are more evolved people than omnivores, more in touch with animals and environmental health. My guide on Vancouver Food Tour co-founded this vegan tour in 2017, after an explosion of new local vegan businesses. She’s excited to show off some of the best vegan food the city has to offer and to share vegan fun facts with tourists. For example, the world has entirely too many methane -producing cows headed for dinner plates and that the term “veganism” was coined in 1944 by a British gent named Donald Watson. Vancouver Food Tour’s most popular offering is the Gastown Tasting Tour. Despite the recent uptick in vegan consciousness, the company gets far fewer bookings and participants on the vegan tour. Enkerlin’s average Gastown Tasting Tour routinely gets up to 30 participants. For the vegan tour, eight’s a crowd. But the company is committed to offering it and will even conduc...

Acquiring and retaining customers for a business is difficult, but that’s never going to happen if a business can’t hold onto dedicated employees who want to be there. Imagine that your talent recruiter has spent weeks, possibly even months tracking down and interviewing the right candidates, then after they finally accept your job offer, they quit just two months later. Ouch. That’s a lot of wasted time and money. On average, companies spend over $4,000 hiring for a new position, and without an effective employee onboarding process, that money can go to waste. Before we dive into how to build an employee onboarding strategy that will prevent your business’ new hires from jumping ship, let’s first lay out what onboarding is. You might think it’s simply a few hours of new employee orientation, but it’s actually a lot more and should weave in the company’s values, culture, and people, along with all that new hire paperwork. Here’s why your business should place a top priority on building...

If the hustle and bustle of every day life getting to you, perhaps it’s time for a little escape to paradise? Located in a hardy tropical forest in a remote area of Bali, the Hideout Falcon is an all-bamboo retreat with a massive pitched roof and floor-to-ceiling glass windows, all designed to help guests immerse themselves in the idyllic tropical landscape. And if the serene sustainable retreat isn’t enough to calm your nerves, the home, which was designed by Studio WNA , comes with an immense wooden deck with plenty of seating for when you’re not soaking your worries away in the large outdoor stone bathtub. The Hideout Falcon is one of three all-bamboo retreats offered by Hideout Bali. At just 538 square feet, the one-room Falcon definitely has a compact interior space. But this lack of interior space is completely by design so that the guests can truly take in the fresh air and nature of one of Bali’s most pristine forests. Related: Gorgeous bamboo hall welcomes visitors to ...

With every advancement in technology, there has been a decline in something else. It's a tough pill to swallow, but it's the price we pay for convenience. To really show that, let's take a walk down memory lane. How many times have you forgotten certain items? Or how about that person's name from work? How about your own cell phone number? While these are all minor inconveniences, all these things have one thing in common: they rely on our ability to memorize things . Now, you could argue that's what contact lists and grocery lists are for but, that's the point here. You're using your phone for that rather than a powerful technique: a memory palace . There's nothing wrong with using technology, but it comes at a price and like many others, they're noticing it's hard to remember certain things -- places, dates, specific items, and more. Thankfully, this tried and true method has stood the test of time. It is immensely powerful in unlocking memorie...

At some point in our lives, we’ll question whether we are successful. But what is success, and can you really pave your road to success without knowing what you’re striving for? The reality is, success means different things to different people. For many, it’s financial wealth and freedom. As an entrepreneur, I’m able to choose where and when I work as well as whom I work with—that’s what’s really important to me. But to others, success might be working in a career that brings joy, ensures the bills are paid, and guarantees security. It’s essential that you don’t compare where you are now to others because that’s not what success looks like. Think about this: You can be a multi-millionaire and miserable. If you’re working 16-hour a day, never see your family, and can’t remember what it feels like to take a vacation, are you really successful? Personally, my road to success took too long. I spent way too many years trying to scale my first startup. I wasted thousands of dollars on adver...

When you want to keep a building footprint small, sometimes the only way to go is up. The Red Tower tiny retreat is a 10 foot by 10 foot tower that feels much larger than its tight square footage thanks to a vertical design and its vast surroundings of remote wilderness in Ontario. With a spacious outdoor deck to enjoy, the glamping retreat is the perfect location for anyone looking to enjoy all that nature has to offer. The bright red tiny house is located in the town of Castleton, less than an hour from Belleville, Ontario. Surrounded by lush forest, the tower sits on a small hill with a large outdoor deck, which serves as the main living area for the retreat. Related: Energy-efficient ‘tiny tower’ home is organized like a full-scale skyscraper Inside the tower, the living space is compact but spacious enough for two guests. The interior is lined with wooden flooring and walls, giving the space a warm, cabin feel . On the first floor, guests can take advantage of a comfortabl...

In a move that would make both hybrid and electric car manufacturers see dollar signs, Minnesota announced a new proposal that will require auto manufacturers that sell within the state to deliver more hybrid cars and electric vehicles (EVs) to comply with its new low- and zero-emission initiative. The measure places the Gopher State alongside 13 other states that have implemented clean vehicle emissions standards. The standards will take a minimum of 18 months for roll-out, due to the rule-making process set by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA).  Thus, the “Land of 10,000 Lakes” is expected to see more hybrid and electric cars in sales lots starting around the 2023 model year. This roll-out will also allow time for the state to beef up its investments in more public electric-charging stations, while similarly brokering anticipated alternative energy deals with the likes of none other than Tesla, as the latter ramps up its nationwide plant acquisition plans. Related...

Scientists from Iowa State University (ISU) recently unveiled a natural alternative to synthetic clothing pigment. This natural alternative is sourced from brewed coffee grounds. The research team , spearheaded by ISU Assistant Professor Chunhui Xiang and graduate student Changhyun “Lyon” Nam, found a possible alternative via repurposed coffee grounds. Rather than adding to landfill density and single-use waste, brewed coffee grounds can instead be transformed into another high-value resource. Related: Blue dye could be the next key to harnessing renewable energy Brewed coffee grounds are feasible because 100 million Americans drink coffee daily, meaning there is an adequate supply of coffee grounds that can be upcycled and diverted away from landfills. Shades of brown can be extracted from the coffee grounds, then bound to various textiles and fabrics. Of course, there remain the quandaries of fading and of replicating consistent hues. While the use of pigment fixative helps to ...

We hope you like the products we recommend. Just so you are aware, Freshome may collect a share of sales from the links on this page.  Shopping for the best home insurance policy on your own isn’t a simple or fun process. It is, however, something that everyone needs to safeguard their home. For that reason, we wanted to show you how to pick the best home insurance and the most important things to consider when searching for a provider and policy. After compiling research from dozens of reviews and independent-rating agencies, as well as interviewing an agent with more than 15 years of experience, we found that there’s no one-size-fits-all option. The one national company that separates itself from the other big dogs in the pack is Amica Mutual, which ranks highest in the homeowners insurance segment for an 18th consecutive year by J.D. Power. With something as individualized and geographical as home insurance, selecting a sole winner seemed impractical, so we decided to menti...