Sasha on the Street

Autonomy. Mastery. Purpose. “Autonomy: The urge to direct our own lives. Mastery: the desire to get better and better at something that matters. Purpose: the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves. … If you want engagement, self-direction is best. ” This TED talk by Dan Pink is [...]

Greenroads. GreenLITES. CEEQUAL. These are all sustainable highway tools already in place and there are even more in development. What this hopefully means is that in the future our roads, highways and bridges will have a context sensitive design that meets the three pillars of sustainability; social, economic and environmental factors. Different government agencies are [...]

Someone sent me a link to the US GHG Inventory report for 2011. Here are a couple of highlights from my favourite chapter, Trends in Greenhouse Gas Emissions: “a year with increased consumption of goods and services, low fuel prices, severe summer and winter weather conditions, nuclear plant closures, and lower precipitation feeding hydroelectric dams, [...]

“We are a society that drives to the gym to run on the treadmill” Yesterday a friend of mine at work ran a session on how the built environment influences our physical activity regimes, based on a Transportation Research Board Report from 2005. The premise of his presentation is that the world is becoming less [...]

We will open doors for you. Say ‘Good Morning,’ ‘Hello’ and ‘Goodbye.’ We smile at you on the street for no other reason than to pass off a positive attitude. We are country known for our world-peace keeping efforts. People immigrate here for a chance at a better life… Canada has been known as one [...]

Just before I left for vacation I decided to take a big leap and write my LEED AP exam for New Construction and Major Renovations. I signed up for the exam about 10days before I wrote it and spent all my free time preparing for the exam. Thanks to a very supportive bf, a knowledgeable [...]

I’ve been traveling for the last two weeks, getting away from the hectic life of the city – work, magazine, running, school – to spend a few weeks in the alps preparing for the up and coming ski season. Zermatt is known for it’s view of the Matterhorn, an iconic mountain the Alps, it’s cheese [...]

My friend Marni got me thinking the other day about how people sometimes rely on fast-food. According to Marni “Everyday eating can be simple and delicious,” and I couldn’t agree more. I often get asked when I have to put my lunch together, when I have time to keep the fridge stocked with fresh foods [...]

Ok I haven’t posted in about 10 days but I’ve taken on a new project, which is occupying a lot of my time. My new project – volunteer editor for a membership publication (I’ll release what it is called when my first publication is released). Our membership demographic is weighted to those who are ‘older’ [...]

The federal government is working towards meeting the Kyoto protocol. Under this accord, the idea is to reduce the amount of garbage that is ending up in our landfills. How do we do this? By recycling, by composting, by purchasing things in smaller packages and just by consuming less. Sort your garbage. Break out the [...]