“A Better Period Experience!”

This is what The DivaCup promises their buyers.

Before we dive deeper into my thoughts about The DivaCup, let me give you a brief overview of what this product is. According to The DivaCup website, this product is “a sustainable, easy-to-use, cost effective and eco-friendly menstrual cup”. Instead of using tampons or pads, you simply insert this menstrual cup into the vaginal opening. Then, you can just continue on with your daily activities without needing to worry about leakage or having to change your period product. This cup is made of silicone, and must be emptied, washed and reinserted at least twice a day. Rinse, reinsert, and repeat for your period cycle!

To my fellow female classmates, let’s have a chat about our “time of the month”. Do you love it? Hate it? Dread it? Embrace it? However you feel about it, I’m sure we all feel the same way about 1 thing – these feminine hygiene products are way too pricey to sustain!

An article by Chatelaine explores how much Canadian women spend on tampons and pads each year. According to their survey, a Canadian woman spends an average of $65.82 (before tax) per year on period products. Though these feminine hygiene products have been GST-free since July 1, 2015, it is clear that this price is still causing a dent in our wallets.

And in comes The DivaCup. Taking into consideration the sustainability aspect of this product as well as the price concerns of other feminine hygiene goods, I find The DivaCup to be a wonderful alternative.

Sustainability Aspect
The environmental impact of tampons and pads is much higher than the one of The DivaCup’s silicon menstrual cup. Disposable menstrual products require hundreds of years to biodegrade, especially if they have plastic packaging.

Pricing Aspect
This product is sold at Walmart for $37.97 – almost half the price of how much an average Canadian woman spends annually on period products. The DivaCup website mentions that a general guideline to follow is to replace the product once a year. However, depending on the consumer, it could last even longer.

If you were to ask me, this product is definitely worth a try (or at least worth you to do a quick Google search and learn more about)!

I have a special (kind of useless) talent: I can taste the difference between different bottled water brands. I can take one sip of water and tell you if it’s purified or natural spring water, and whether it’s from Nestlé Pure Life, Aquafina, Dasani, or any other well-known bottled water brand. That being said, it’s quite evident that I buy a lot of bottled water.

Before you label me as someone who doesn’t live a sustainable lifestyle, let me explain to you why I often drink bottled water. For the first half of my life, I lived in Hong Kong. Due to the lack of regulation in water quality, I was always raised to never drink water from the tap. In 2015, it was even revealed that the drinking water from a public housing estate in Hong Kong had lead levels that were three times higher than the World Health Organization’s recommended level.

Growing up with the belief that tap water is unsafe, I have had a hard time adjusting to the fact that I can drink BC’s tap water. Though I’ve been living here for over 10 years, if you were to ask me to drink BC’s tap water, I would still be reluctant to. It was on my recent trip to Kenya did my perception of tap water change.

This summer, I had the opportunity to travel to Nairobi, Kenya. Kenya has a water and sanitation crisis, and we were strictly told to never drink water from the tap. Even if we were to wash our vegetables, we had to add a powdered water purifier to make sure the water was disinfected and safe. If we accidentally drank some unsanitary water, we would run the risk of getting Cholera, an intestinal infection.

Due to the water crisis, we all made sure to boil our water well before drinking. This means waking up a little bit earlier every day to boil water, wait for it to cool, then pour into our bottles. This may not seem like a big deal, but if you shared one kettle with 5 other girls, this could add up to 15 minutes to our daily routines. Because of this, I have grown an entirely new appreciation for the convenience and safety we have with BC’s clean tap water.

Among many other important lessons I’ve learned through my trip this summer, I realized how fortunate we are to have the luxury of drinking tap water here in BC. If you were to ask me now, I would be more than happy to gulp down tap water instead of bottled water!

“Would you like a paper receipt or an e-receipt?”

In my previous post, I mentioned that I recently purchased the Ecocube. When the cashier was ringing me up, she asked me a simple question: whether I would like a paper receipt, or to have the receipt emailed to me. Considering that I was buying an eco-friendly product, I automatically chose the second option. After all, it seems quite hypocritical to ask for a paper receipt after making a sustainable purchase.

Little did I know that this question would have affected my decisions for the rest of the day. Continuing with my shopping spree, I made a few more purchases in other stores. However, I found myself telling cashiers that I didn’t need plastic bags at check-out and requesting for e-receipts. I ended up stuffing all of my purchases into my backpack. Yes, it got heavy, but that’s better than carrying several plastic bags around the mall and creating waste.

I am normally someone who values convenience, and wouldn’t turn down a plastic bag. Though I know it’s not the most eco-friendly thing to do, I always make sure I reuse the plastic bags – whether that is using it as a garbage bag or to store my other belongings.

So… what suddenly made me act this way?

I asked myself the same question. To be completely honest, I think I was reluctant to want paper receipts and bags because I thought it would contradict my first purchase: the Ecocube. I started the day making a choice to support a green business, and that created a ripple effect in the rest of my decisions for the day.

As I become more interested in the topic of sustainability and learn more about different green initiatives and businesses, I actively remind myself to live a more sustainable lifestyle. I know this change will be a process and won’t happen overnight, but I am hopeful that after every passing day, I will be making more educated decisions in my daily life!

Emi’s blog post, “Vancouver, let’s take a step back” struck a chord with me. In her post, Emi points out that though Vancouver is taking strides in becoming one of the most sustainable cities in the world, there are issues that may be overlooked as the city focusses on the 2020 Greenest City Plan. As Vancouver transforms into a becoming a greener city, we can expect that the average Vancouverite would reap great benefits. After all, who doesn’t love the idea of the city planting 150,000 more trees, or the concept of creating zero waste? On top of that, we are to expect more job opportunities as green businesses develop and mature.

Everything sounds great for the average Vancouverite. But what about other people in the community who are less fortunate? A 2017 report by the BC Non-Profit Housing Association shows that homelessness in Vancouver has increased by 30% since 2014. These individuals face challenges that are far different from the average citizen. As shown below, a high percentage of survey respondents reveal that they deal with conditions such as addiction, mental illnesses, and physical disabilities – all while living in shelters and not having a home of their own.

Upon reading this report, I wonder how much Vancouver’s 2020 plan benefits the city’s less fortunate. I would imagine for these individuals to benefit greater from having more access to health and social services than from the results of green initiatives. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for Vancouver’s plan to become one of the greenest cities in the world by 2020. But at the same time, I’m skeptical of whether this plan addresses the needs of the minority also. I only hope that with the implementation of Vancouver’s 2020 plan, for there to also be a ripple effect on making a social impact on less fortunate individuals.

My friend recently went on a trip to London, and told me about this “cool, new, green hotel.” I had no idea what she was talking about. Originally imagining a hotel fully painted in green and filled with trees and plants, I was appalled when I found that she was, in fact, talking about an eco-friendly green hotel.

Qbic London is a hotel that prides on their sustainable operations – from offering sustainable toiletries to guests to their housekeeping process, to even giving guests access to free transportation.

The soaps they use are from a company called Stop-The-Water-While-Using-Me. These packaging acts as a gentle reminder to visitors to reduce water usage as they’re washing their hands or taking a shower.

Something else Qbic offers is that if visitors choose to not need housekeeping, which requires energy and water, they are rewarded with a free drink at the bar. Also, their mattresses are made from renewable, sustainable sources – guaranteeing an eco-friendly experience for their visitors.

Nowadays, it is inevitable for companies to take green initiatives and be sustainable. Looking at the Fairmont Waterfront, the hotel takes several green hotel initiatives, such as having their own rooftop herb garden and having a pollinator to provide a habitat for bees native to BC. Likewise, Marriott Hotel participates in supporting the preservation of the Amazon Rainforest, and also has solar panels installed in some of their hotels.

But if you were to ask me, I think Qbic is different than other hotel chains because being sustainable is incorporated into their values. Though it is wonderful that there is a growing trend to start sustainable initiatives within a business (like what previously mentioned hotels are doing), in my opinion, these initiatives are mostly seen as Corporate Social Responsibility projects. This means the company’s main focus is still in generating profit, and simply has green initiatives on the side for CSR.

However, Qbic’s values are strongly tied to being sustainable and minimizing our environmental footprints, while being a profit-generating business. This is clearly shown through their operations. They acknowledge that daily operations of a hotel, such as housekeeping and transportation services, use up a lot of water and utilities. Instead of continuing on with these operations and simply having a green initiative on the side, they’ve decided to tackle the issue and give solutions. Therefore, they offer free bikes for guests to get around, and directly reward visitors if they choose to save energy and not ask for their rooms to be serviced. Overall, I think Qbic is setting a good example for hotels and living spaces to follow!