Comments on: Five things I learned in Copenhagen

By: Sarah Oliver

Sarah Oliver — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 11:59:47 +0000

I’m in Australia right now and they even have the two two flush toilets – mostly due to water shortages, but I think people sometimes people forget that it takes energy to pump water and, if I’m not mistaken, more energy than necessary because some of the water systems in Canada are in disrepair (Torotno for sure). Japan uses water that was used for hand washing to flush toilets – now that’s smart.

We do need legislation on simple things like toilets. If we can make more fuel efficient cars we can definitely make more water efficient toilets!

By: James O'Grady

James O'Grady — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 21:40:32 +0000

American flags? That’s crazy! :)

Interesting reading about your trip and what transpired.

By: Erich Jacoby-Hawkins

Erich Jacoby-Hawkins — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 02:20:14 +0000

I attended my elderly grandmother’s Xmas get-together at a suite at the Fairmont Royal York. I was pleased to notice that the hotel featured real mugs and spoons instead of styrofoam & stir sticks with their in-room coffee maker, as I have seen at many a cheap motel.

One always assumes that posh hotels are more wasteful, but in this case they were more reusable and less disposable. I guess part of it is because in Canada, it’s more expensive to pay someone to clean something than to buy disposable and throw it out. We need tax shifting to fix this, clean things up, and create more jobs.

By: John Ogilvie

John Ogilvie — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 03:06:03 +0000

As an engineer, I totally love techno-fixes such as a master power switch on a room.

We need to redefine civilized living as living in a way that minimizes our environmental footprint.

By: RT

RT — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:08:35 +0000

“My hotel room has a ‘master switch’ by the door that lets me turn off all the power in the room before I leave.”

In other European cities the hotel room forces you to turn off all power before you leave. When you enter you have to put the key in a slot just inside the door to be able to turn the lights on, tv etc. When you leave you must take the key out of the slot, which means it is impossible to waste any energy while you are out. This was in Portugal about 6 years ago.

As for deposit and cup return, I remember this being normal in Canada in the 1970s and early 80s with various bottled drinks. We really have gone backwards as a society and such solutions are so painfully simple, there are a million of them, and they don’t require the transfer of billions of dollars between countries. They are free solutions, they simply must be legislated ie: you cannot be in business if you do not have these things in place, which benefits both businesses and society by their implementation.