It’s not a holiday get together at this time of year without a time-honoured tradition: the Secret Santa Gift Exchange. While we enjoy the act of giving, we had to come to terms with an inconvenient truth about these kinds of exchanges: many of us seldom keep our Secret Santa gifts. We believe that something as wonderful as the act of giving a gift shouldn’t come at the expense of the planet, so we started thinking about how we could iterate and improve upon this classic activity so that it aligns with our mission to make the world better, and came up with a solution.
For this year’s Secret Santa, Sparx is going sustainable all the way! All the gifts we’re giving are good not just for bringing a smile to our co-workers faces, but better for the environment too.
Here’s how we reimagined Secret Santa to be more sustainable. We hope our experience will inspire you to jingle bell rock the boat for your own exchange!
We kicked off our process by setting some ground rules. First off, participants must only choose gifts that will either produce minimal to zero waste or will enable recipients to live more sustainably. Secondly, the gifts must fall within a budget of $20.
To ensure everyone could be involved, we selected a date and provided ways for gifters to mail their gifts, if unable to attend in-person. Then we set up our exchange on Elfster, a platform that allowed us to randomly and anonymously select our gift recipients in a totally paperless way. The platform also has a feature for making wishlists – a great way to ensure we pick gifts that are not only good for the environment, but will bring real personal value to our recipients.
Finding Mission-Aligned Gifts
While it might sound difficult to track down sustainable gifts for $20 or less, our research revealed a whole workshop’s worth of options.
Compiling a few categories of eco-friendly items, such as items that replace single-use products, gifts made from recycled materials, items using recycled or recyclable packaging, and non-perishable goods, we launched our search.
We checked what was available at Vancouver-based eco-friendly shops, as well as products from Canadian vendors operating in both online and offline formats, and came up with a plethora of great ideas.
Leveraging this research, wishlists took shape and gift planning gained focus.
Green Gifts for $20 or Less
Here are some of the sustainable gifts we found for under $20.
Imperial Earl Grey Tea: All-natural and packaged in fully compostable bags and a recyclable box. Price: $14.85
Yukon Soap – Thieves of the Gold Rush Soap: Soaps from this Indigenous-owned and operated company are wrapped in eco-friendly packaging and made from all-natural and hand-grown ingredients. Price: $12
Lush – Secret Santa Gift Set: Giftwrapped in 100% recycled packaging, this Secret Santa-themed bath set is eco-friendly. Price: $15
Stojo – Jr. Bottle: Collapsible and made from safe silicone, this reusable bottle can be carried anywhere for sustainable hydration on the go. Price: $17
Bamboo Bottle Brush: This zero-waste brush is a great companion for reusable cups and bottles. Price: $9
Ecomended – Telescoping Stainless Steel Straws: Travel-sized and made from stainless steel, these plastic-free environmentally-friendly straws come with a carabiner and a telescoping cleaner. Price: $11
Non-toxic glass cleaner: Made in Canada, packaged in a recyclable glass bottle, and all-natural. Price: $12.50
Package it all up in a sustainable way – using a recyclable box or tin, recycled wrapping paper, or a wooden trinket box – and you have a perfect, low-waste, eco-friendly gift.
Sparx Can Help You Get on Santa’s “Eco-friendly” List
Donning a green santa hat this year? If your organization is working to make a positive difference throughout and beyond this holiday season, the experts at Sparx can help amplify your impact and share your purpose-driven initiatives. Contact us for a free consultation.
These days, being called a tree hugger is aspirational, not disparaging. To protect our planet for generations to come, we need so-called tree huggers to save our forests to capture CO2 and foster biodiversity. But when it comes to conservation, we need to make sure we’re not missing the forest for the trees.
Project Learning Tree (PLT) has been a leading environmental education program for nearly 50 years. We spoke with Jessica Kaknevicius, Vice President of Education, about PLT’s educational and career-driven resources, as well as their diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging initiatives.
A GIS analyst performing fieldwork in Frederick Arm, BC.
Tell us about Project Learning Tree’s mission.
Project Learning Tree is committed to advancing forest literacy and environmental education. In 2018, we launched our career pathways programming, and initially focused on providing valuable work experiences for young professionals.
We’re an initiative of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) which is dedicated to promoting sustainability through forest-focused collaborations. SFI is an independent, non-profit organization that collaborates with its diverse network to provide solutions to local and global sustainability challenges. We accomplish our work through four pillars — standards, conservation, community, and education — to achieve our vision of a world that values and benefits from sustainably-managed forests.
What inspired you/your founders to start your organization?
Project Learning Tree was launched in the US in the mid-1970s with the goal of developing an effective environmental education program. In 2017, SFI took on PLT and expanded it to Canada, with the goal of increasing its impact on educators and youth and exploring the opportunities to grow green career paths.
Today, Project Learning Tree is one of the most widely used preK-12 environmental education programs in the United States and abroad, and it has expanded its programs and resources to include career pathways and forest literacy. PLT provides educators, parents, and community leaders with peer-reviewed, award-winning curriculum support materials to engage students in learning about the environment. It promotes forest literacy so that people acquire the tools and knowledge they need to keep our forests sustainable over the long term while continuing to benefit from them. Project Learning Tree also helps build a diverse and resilient forest and conservation workforce through our skills development resources, mentorship programs, and high-value work experiences.
What were some of the challenges you/your founders encountered?
Like many organizations, we had to pivot several of our programs because of COVID-19. Prior to this, most of our programs and content were delivered in person. In fact, our first PLT Green Mentor cohort launched right at the beginning of the pandemic, and we had to adapt to deliver it completely virtually.
We recognize the benefit of having an in-person, local connection to make it relevant for communities on the ground. However, we quickly realized the benefits of going virtual and using webinars and online resources. With virtual programs, we can reach more people, no matter their location.
Students from Hardy School in Washington, DC learn how to monitor a forest’s condition.
What do you consider to be Project Learning Tree’s biggest success?
Our scale and reach of the work we have achieved.
Since 1976, Project Learning Tree has reached 145 million students and trained 765,000 educators to help students learn how to think, not what to think about complex environmental issues. Then, as previously mentioned, we launched our career pathways programming in 2018, which initially focused on providing valuable work experiences for young professionals. Now, we’ve supported over 400 employers and helped place over 6,000 young adults into green jobs including over 900 Indigenous youth from more than 100 different Indigenous communities in Canada.
What makes Project Learning Tree unique?
Project Learning Tree is able to have a significant impact because of the scale and reach of our diverse network. Be it through SFI-certified organizations, educators, Indigenous communities, youth, conservation organizations, and more, we are able to reach a variety of audiences and find collaboration opportunities to co-create positive change and advance nature-based solutions.
How do you feel your organization makes the world better?
We believe that sustainably-managed forests are critical to our collective future. From climate change to water quality to biodiversity, well-managed forests provide viable solutions to many of the world’s most important sustainability challenges. We advance sustainability and nature-based solutions through forest-focused collaborations, specifically promoting forest literacy.
As well, we provide educators, parents, and community leaders with educational resources to help develop students’ awareness, knowledge, and appreciation of the environment; build their skills and ability to make informed decisions; and encourage them to take personal responsibility for sustaining the environment and our quality of life that depends on it.
Through these resources, we engage diverse youth in learning about exciting and rewarding green career pathways that support nature-based solutions for a more sustainable planet. As they get older and begin considering possible jobs, they can explore our skills development resources, grow their network with our mentorship programs, and potentially land their first work experience.
Mentees and mentors posing for a group photo during the 2022 SFI/PLT Annual Conference.
Tell us about Project Learning Tree‘s goals.
Project Learning Tree’s goal is to advance environmental literacy, stewardship, and career pathways using trees and forests as windows to the world.
Are there any upcoming initiatives or projects you’d like to share?
SFI and PLT are working in partnership with Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences (MANRRS) to ensure greater opportunities for rewarding careers in the forest and conservation sector for young Black Americans. This will include skills training resources and a mentorship program, as well as Black Faces in Green Spaces: The Journeys of Black Professionals in Green Careers, which tells the stories of Black Americans who have taken this career path and have advice and resources to share. You can learn more here and sign up to be the first to hear about the guide’s release!
What do you most want people to know about your organization?
Project Learning Tree aims to develop a lifetime of learning to create a forest-literate society. It’s critical that we learn and value the benefits that sustainably-managed forests have on the environment, our communities, and the economy. Educators, parents, and community leaders can use PLT resources to build forest literacy while engaging students and growing the next generation of environmental stewards. Plus, as youth grow up, they may be inspired to pursue a green career pathway and will have the resources and support to get there.
Project Learning Tree’s lifetime of learning helps grow future forest and conservation leaders and ensures our forests are kept sustainable over the long term.
Activity sheets and supplies needed to conduct Project Learning Tree’s monitoring forest condition worksheets.
How can people help or contribute to Project Learning Tree’s mission?
Get involved with one of our programs! Learn more about Project Learning Tree in your own region: attend a PLT training session for educators, hire a green jobs youth, become a mentor or encourage a young professional to sign up to become a mentee, and/or access great resources to get your family and friends outdoors. We also accept donations to Canadian and US programs.
Picking up fresh produce for a nice at-home meal or eating at a favourite restaurant is many people’s go-to self-care in our ever-topsy-turvy world. As the meals go in our bellies, it can often be forgotten how much food waste happens behind the scenes — food waste that has a huge environmental impact and is a dig at our growing food insecure divide.
FoodMesh is helping the food industry change the course of food waste — literally — to ensure it doesn’t end up in landfills and, instead, helps to feed those who are food insecure in Canada. We spoke with Jessica Regan, Co-Founder and CEO, about FoodMesh’s journey, tangible successes, and upcoming plans.
Food Stash Foundation in Vancouver is one of the charitable organizations FoodMesh partners with to redistribute retailers’ unsalable food to people in need. They use the food donations they pick up from retailers to create rescued food boxes, stock a community fridge, and host a rescued food market — all designed to make it as easy as possible for people in Metro Vancouver to access nutritious food in an affordable way. Here a member of the team is pictured after some of their pickups.
Tell us about FoodMesh’s mission.
FoodMesh is dedicated to helping organizations reduce their food waste.
Our professional food recovery services help businesses divert the food they are unable to sell away from waste streams and ensure it is put to its highest end use, feeding people first, then animals.
We do this primarily through our managed food diversion service where we match retailers to a diverse network of charitable organizations and farmers in order to redistribute their unsold food by rescuing it quickly and efficiently. As well, we measure the volume of food the retailer is diverting, so they can track their progress against their food waste reduction goals and share the social and environmental impact of their donations with the public.
What inspired you/your founders to start your organization?
The journey began in late 2015 after I, along with our other co-founder, came across photos of beautiful edible produce headed to the landfill because it was too ripe for retail. Unable to shake these images, we started to investigate the root causes and scale of the food-waste problem.
We discovered that more than half of the food produced in Canada is not eaten, according to research done by Second Harvest and Value Chain Management International. Food is often wasted because it is easier and cheaper for businesses to pay to have their overstock, close-to-expiry, aesthetically-imperfect, and mislabelled food sent to landfills than to find an alternative use for it. Meanwhile, one in eight Canadians lacks reliable access to affordable and nutritious food, according to Community Food Centres Canada.
We also learned that food waste is hurting our planet. With 8-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions created as a direct result of lost and wasted food around the world, it is one of the leading causes of global warming, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
That’s when the original idea for FoodMesh was born — to make it as beneficial, convenient, and cost-effective as possible for businesses to divert the maximum volume of their unsalable food away from waste streams for the sake of the people and health of our planet.
What were some of the challenges you/your founders encountered?
While many businesses have the desire to do the right thing, they are producing an enormous amount of waste and finding alternatives costly.
We are lucky to work with some outstanding retailers that are committed to reducing their food waste and have employed us to help them ensure that the maximum volume of their unsalable food is being redistributed to people who need it so that it doesn’t end up in the landfill.
These retailers are seeing some significant gains from their hard work. For example, one of our customers has reduced its waste-related greenhouse gas emissions seven-fold since it started diverting its unsold food to charitable organizations.
We are encouraged to see an increasing number of businesses, both in Canada and around the world, publicly committing to reducing and reporting on their food waste. This means there is a growing need for data on the volume of food they divert away from waste streams, as well as the services to help them do it.
We are currently in the process of developing new software that will make it as easy as possible for businesses to collect, aggregate, and visualize data on their waste practices — not just food but for all their waste streams. The idea for this software is to equip businesses with a true picture of the waste they generate in real time, so they can take necessary action to reduce it. Stay tuned for more information on this initiative!
A Better Life Foundation has a dedicated food recovery chef, Eileen Stanley, who turns the food donation she receives from local retailers into restaurant quality meals, to share with around 25 local outreach organizations that support mothers and their children, seniors, Indigenous groups, and street-entrenched youth residing in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
What do you consider to be FoodMesh’s biggest success?
We are extremely proud of the fact that through our managed food diversion service, the retailers we work with rescue the equivalent of more than 1 million meals every month to our charity partners to help offset some of their operational costs.
With one in eight Canadians reportedly food insecure (a number that only stands to rise with the rising costs of living), it is extremely heartening to know that we are not only helping businesses keep huge volumes of their unsold food out of landfills, but we are supporting the organizations that are working hard to put food onto the plates of people who really need it. This means a great deal to us.
One of our customers has reduced its waste-related greenhouse gas emissions seven-fold since it started diverting its unsold food to charitable organizations.
What makes FoodMesh unique?
We are excited to see a growing number of organizations that are working toward the same mission as FoodMesh, to waste less and feed more; it’s this ecosystem of food waste warriors working together that will help make the change we want to see. What we think makes FoodMesh unique in that ecosystem is that we have the head of a business and the heart of a charity.
We offer professional food recovery services that provide our customers with a commercial guarantee that we will help them reach their food waste reduction goals.
As well as serving the food waste reduction needs of our customers, we ensure the rescued food is diverted to where it is most needed — meaning only organizations with a social impact have access to the edible food being donated. We have also built a revenue-sharing component into our service so that the organizations receiving the food donations also receive a financial stipend for the pick-ups they make in an effort to help offset some of the operational costs associated with collecting and sorting the food donations. This also helps us ensure that we are receiving regular data recording of their donations for better traceability.
We are not driven by making a profit out of food waste; we are driven by our mission to eliminate food waste. This means our job is to make it as attractive and viable for everyone involved to play their part.
Our diverse network comprises more than 2,000 organizations across Western Canada, which means we are uniquely positioned to help businesses redistribute the maximum volume of their surplus food to where it’s needed most, quickly and efficiently.
While some supermarket food may have aesthetic imperfections that render it unsalable, it’s often still perfectly edible. Fresh produce, like that pictured here, is included in the 1,000 food hampers that City Reach Care Society distributes to families, seniors and other individuals in their local communities every week.
How do you feel your organization makes the world better?
Because we track all the food that the organizations we work with are diverting, we know quantifiably how our organization makes the world better.
Since 2017, the organizations we work with have collectively diverted 18,876,288 kg of food, which is the equivalent of 27,398,463 meals or approximately 1 million meals each month. In keeping this food out of the landfill, we have also saved 48,494,671 kg of CO2e emissions from entering the atmosphere as of July 31, 2022.
It’s the knowledge of this that gets the team really excited about the work we do.
Tell us about FoodMesh’s goals.
Our vision is to build a platform that digitally connects the entire food supply chain so that we can eliminate avoidable waste and create new value.
Right now, we’re focused on the retail sector, but our goal is to extend our reach across the entire supply chain.
When food is past its best for human consumption, it is shared with farmers to feed their animals. Save-On-Foods at Park & Tilford in North Vancouver donates the fresh produce food that it can no longer sell and is not appropriate to donate to its charity partner to feed Maplewood Farm’s 76 animals, including horses and ponies, cows, sheep, ducks, guinea pigs, rabbits, and goats. Pictured here, from left to right: Selina Merrick, Supervisor of Maplewood Farm, and Bruce Currie, Energy and Sustainability Manager of Save-On-Foods.
Are there any upcoming initiatives or projects you’d like to share?
We are really excited to be in the midst of a three-year project to build a Metro Vancouver food recovery network. With Metro Vancouver’s support, we are raising awareness of food waste amongst local businesses and encouraging them to join the network, so we can help them connect with organizations to recover their unsold food, so they don’t have to dispose of it.
Any organization — whether they have a surplus of food or have a use for a surplus of food — is invited to join the network. We will connect them to a service that best meets their needs. If FoodMesh’s services can’t help them, we will draw on our extensive network to try to connect them to an organization that can.
What do you most want people to know about your organization?
Our work focuses on helping businesses reduce their waste headed to landfills by diverting it to higher-end uses, ensuring edible food goes to the organizations that can put it onto the plates of people who need it most.
But reducing food waste isn’t just the right thing to do for the people and health of our planet, it makes good business sense also. Research shows that for every dollar a business invests in reducing their food waste, they save $14, according to the World Resources Institute. We want everybody to think critically about the waste they are generating and the steps they can take to eliminate it — either in their work or in their daily lives.
How can people help or contribute to FoodMesh’s mission?
Of the 58% of food lost or wasted in Canada, 21% is happening inside our homes, according to Second Harvest and Value Chain Management International. Love Food Hate Waste Canada is an outstanding resource that provides information, resources, and practical tips to help us eliminate food waste in our homes, including everything from how best to store food for maximum life to how to use up leftovers.
As well, we can work together to hold our service providers accountable for their wasteful practices. Wherever you buy your food, whether it’s a supermarket or restaurant, ask them what they are doing with their unsold/leftover food. How are they keeping it out of waste streams? Do they have processes in place to ensure it is all being diverted, or just some of it? Only when consumers demand change will it happen.
From Canada to Copenhagen, food waste is a pressing issue around the world. The need to improve how we minimize, dispose of, and reuse food is a key piece to sustainability and managing increasing food costs. So, together, let’s save some cheddar — literally and figuratively.
Too Good To Go started to combat the global food waste problem and saw the opportunity for businesses and individuals to save money at the same time. We spoke with Sarah Soteroff, PR Manager, about how this Copenhagen-headquartered organization has expanded to 17 countries (and growing).
Friends enjoying the contents of their Too Good To Go Surprise Bag on a hot summer day.
Tell us about Too Good To Go’s mission.
Too Good To Go is a social impact company with a goal to end food waste globally.
What inspired you/your founders to start your organization?
Too Good To Go was founded in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2016. Our Founders were dissatisfied with the amount of waste being thrown away at every level of the food industry — at home, grocery stores, and restaurants — and believed there must be a better way to save food, money, and the planet.
What were some of the challenges you/your founders encountered?
Like any start-up, getting capital to fund the operation was the first big challenge. As well, it was initially challenging to spread the word to consumers to use our service — which started as a webpage and eventually evolved into an app — while simultaneously getting businesses on board to ensure consumers have a high selection of options when they use our service.
What do you consider to be Too Good To Go‘s biggest success?
To date, globally, we have saved 144 million meals from going to waste in 17 countries, with more than 168,000 partners. These numbers are staggering; they tell us that food waste occurs at every level and in every country, and that there is an appetite (pun intended!) for this type of business to connect food sellers with consumers, as shown with 64 million users of our app and 163 million of our surprise bags sold to-date globally. It also tells us that people are actively concerned with lowering their personal footprints and that sustainability doesn’t have to mean a sacrifice.
In Canada, we have surpassed the 800,000 meals saved milestone in less than a year. We launched in seven markets and surrounding areas, and we have signed more than 3,000 partners — and we’re just getting started!
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What makes Too Good To Go unique?
We are a registered B Corp; our status has just been renewed, and this means we are held to the highest sustainability standards. However, we recognize that food waste isn’t just a sustainability issue — it’s also a monetary one. We provide a mechanism for businesses to make money off their surplus food while also doing something great for the environment. At the same time, we help consumers save money on necessities, the costs of which we know are always rising, and, yet, have to be purchased. We provide a win-win-win model for everyone along our journey.
How do you feel your organization makes the world better?
Whatever small impact we’re making we are tremendously proud of. By spreading the message of eliminating food waste, we hope to give people across the world the tools to make small changes at home, grocery shopping, and dining out that will have massive global impacts. Eliminating food waste starts at the local level and doesn’t require huge changes to your lifestyle or spending — in fact, you may even save money! We love the planet and want it to last longer, which is why we need to eliminate waste at every level.
Tell us about Too Good To Go’s goals.
Three simple words: end food waste!
Are there any upcoming initiatives or projects you’d like to share?
We celebrated our one-year anniversary in Canada in July and are celebrating our one-year anniversary in Vancouver in September, which happens to coincide with the UN’s International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste (IDAFLW). We encourage everyone to make September 29 a day of zero food waste across Canada. It can be as simple as not throwing out a brown banana, and instead, freezing it for smoothies or making a baked good out of it!
The Too Good To Go app, available for download in the App or Google Play Store.
What do you most want people to know about your organization?
Ending food waste is possible; it’s achievable and necessary.
How can people help or contribute to Too Good To Go’s mission?
Download our app Too Good To Go in the App or Google Play store and start saving delicious food and money from local businesses today. If you’re a food business, sign up today and start making money off your surplus food waste!
