Finalists announced for the 2011 Green Toronto Awards

The 2011 Green Toronto Awards

The City of Toronto and Green Living Enterprises are pleased to announce the finalists for the 2011 Green Toronto Awards. Toronto's environmental awards of excellence recognize the individuals, organizations and companies helping to lead the way to a cleaner, greener city.

"We are very proud of these Torontonians for their commitment to our environment, and for demonstrating their dedication in so many innovative ways. They are our partners in a greener Toronto," said Councillor Norm Kelly (Ward 40 Scarborough-Agincourt), Chair of the City's Parks and Environment Committee.

Local youth, residents, businesses and organizations are among the 30 finalists a panel of judges selected from more than 150 nominations. New award categories this year include Green Home and Green Business.

Each winner receives an award to recognize their efforts to Green our communities and $5,000 to further their work on the environment or to donate to an environmental charity of their choice, courtesy of a variety of award sponsors.

The 2011 finalists

GREEN BUSINESS (new) - Green Circle Salons; LoyaltyOne; Woodbine Entertainment Group. The Green Business Award recognizes a business that is demonstrating excellence in green practices, strategies or products. Award sponsor: Capital One

GREEN HOME (new) - Anthony Ketchum; John Tabone; Lynn Brandy. The Green Home Award recognizes Toronto residents who are leading change by greening their home.

COMMUNITY PROJECT - Afri-Can FoodBasket; Auriel Haynes, Malvern Action for Neighbourhood Change; The Green Awakening Network, Toronto United Church Council. The Community Project Award acknowledges the leadership of Torontonians engaged in greening our communities. Award sponsor: Loblaw Companies Limited

LOCAL FOOD - Wally Seccombe, Everdale Environmental Learning Centre; The Healthy Butcher; Toronto Beekeepers Co-operative. The Local Food Award recognizes leadership in creating, managing and promoting local food. Award sponsor: ING Direct

ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS - A Greener Toronto TV Series; Toronto Vegetarian Association; TREC Education. The Environmental Awareness Award recognizes leadership in environmental education through a variety of media as well as environmentally-themed arts and cultural events. Award sponsor: Toronto Hydro

ENERGY CONSERVATION - Nitta Gelatin Canada Inc.; Planet Traveler; Social Housing Services Crop, GLOBE Inc. The Energy Conservation Award recognizes leadership in improving operation or production processes that reduce consumption.

GREEN DESIGN - architectesAlliance; Leon’s Furniture Ltd., Leon’s at the Roundhouse; Modrobes Inc. The Green Design Award rewards leadership in infrastructure, architecture or industrial design which complies with the principles of sustainability. Award sponsor: Enbridge Gas Distribution

LEADERSHIP - Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, CivicAction; Greening Greater Toronto; Not Far from the Tree. The Leadership Award recognizes an individual, organization or company for going above and beyond the norm in helping to transform our environment. Award sponsor: Toronto Community Foundation

WATER EFFICIENCY - Citizens for a Safe Environment for Toronto Foundation Inc. and Schollen & Company Inc.; Kraft Canada Inc., East York Bakery; Sustainability Team, Kraft Lakeshore Bakery. The Water Efficiency Award recognizes efforts to reduce and sustainably manage water use and promote water conservation. Award sponsor: Toronto Water

YOUTH LEADERSHIP - Dovercourt Junior Public School; Fariha Raham; Youth Mentors, Greenest City. The Youth Award recognizes young people (18 years of age and under) for their leadership on green projects. Award sponsor: TD Friends of the Environment

More information about the Green Toronto Awards is available at their website.

Live Green Toronto is a City of Toronto program that offers residents and businesses a one-stop website with tips, tools and resources to green their lives; grants to green our neighbourhoods; and community animators to inspire community action. Live Green Toronto is a component of the City's Climate Change Action Plan which targets an 80 per cent reduction in Toronto's greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. For more information, visit Live Green Toronto.

Green Living Enterprises is a pioneer and leader in developing social and environmental marketing programs that keep consumers and clients at the forefront of the green agenda. Green Living Enterprises is a full-service, one-stop solution for green marketing, product and program development, custom publishing, and event management. Green Living Enterprises, an authentically green company, also includes Greenlivingonline.com and The Green Living Show, North America's largest green consumer show, dedicated to easy and workable solutions for leading a sustainable lifestyle. For more information, visit the Toronto Green Living show.

Toronto is Canada's largest city and sixth largest government, and home to a diverse population of about 2.6 million people. Toronto's government is dedicated to delivering customer service excellence, creating a transparent and accountable government, reducing the size and cost of government and building a transportation city. For information on non-emergency City services, Toronto residents, businesses and visitors can dial 311, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Save the Trees

Save the Trees, originally uploaded by JustbeFRANK.

This is just one Personal Cause Poster created as part of an assignment for the Designers in the Classroom Series sponsored by the Design Exchange in Toronto. Funded by the Ontario Arts Council and TD Bank Financial Group. This poster is one of 18 produced by the kids in Ms Karen Hughesgrade 2/3 class at Orde Street Public School in Toronto. This one was created by Aziz A, a Grade 3 Student in the class.

You can see the rest of these at the Design Exchange as part of the Toronto International Festival of Design ( TIFD ) from January 14 -20, 2010 or by checking in at the Flickr Gallery link provided here...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/frank_photography_project_gallery/

Get Ready to Celebrate...

Its time to re-connect with local food.

Preparations are underway for the worldwide celebration of Slow Food’s 20th anniversary and ‘Eating Locally’ on Terra Madre Day this December 10. With just a few weeks until the big day, people from all corners of the world are planning a wide range of actitivites and events which will be as diverse and unique as the communities holding them - from a shared dinner under an elephant at the Tolouse Natural history museum in France, to a community folk festival in Bangladesh, and a fish canning party in the USA. 

People from all over the world will be celebrating.

Slow Food convivia, Terra Madre food communities and all people supportive of the slow food movement and its ideals are invited to organize an event, however small or symbolic, in your local area.

By taking this opportunity with passion and inclusiveness, we can achieve one of the largest collective occasions celebrating food diversity ever achieved on a global scale.

A global revolution can only grow from local roots, and together our community actions will help build opposition to the misguided approach of agribusiness.

We invite you to let loose your creativity and make December 10 a memorable day, encouraging and supporting sustainable food in your corner of the world. It will give us all a boost and renewed pride in what we are doing locally, while knowing that we are part of a world network for change.

If you would like to join this global celebration, the Terra Madre Day website can help you get going to organize an event of your own. Download the Information for Organizers guide for a full overview, event ideas, tips on promoting your activities, FAQs and more. In addition, there are range of graphic materials and designs available here, including the Terra Madre Day logo and world map, posters, banners, postcards, pins etc. 


At FRANK, we think its a great idea whose time has come and encourage you to celebrate in any way that works for you. If you can not organize an event but still want to participate, find out what's happening in your neighborhood and get out there on December 10.

New York designer Ji Lee has launched a project to collect photographs of logos that show the former World Trade Center in a New York skyline.

Lee publishes the photos on the project website; anyone can contribute by uploading their own images.

Looks like a lot of logos had to be re-designed after 911 to reflect New York's new corporate identity. If things have changed or circumstances have otherwise evolved around your business, your logo may be in need of an update too. To refresh your branding, or get a revised corporate ID or new logo designed for your business, perhaps you should talk to FRANK. Its something we do quite well.

On the Aesthetics of Wind Farms

Al lot is being said these days about finding alternate sources of energy so that we can redeem ourselves from our addiction to fossil fuel and begin the process of reversing global climate change. The benefits to our environment and the future of our children is clear. The part that makes it so difficult, is that it is either cost prohibitive for most (putting solar panels on your roof still a very expensive proposition), environmentally unpopular (nuclear is clean and efficient, but what about all that waste and the inherent risk?) or rather unsightly as in the case of wind power.

Like solar, wind power if produced in any kind of distributable scale, involves a massively expensive investment up front, but also like Solar, the power generated thereafter by the wind is practically free. A major bone of contention from the little guy is, before we can agree that this is a viable source of energy, we need to figure out where to put all of those wind farms. Anyone who has seen the wind farms south of Owen Sound ON, or travelled through Europe, the North Eastern United States or parts of California knows that these wind farms almost always end up in massive clusters that are almost always in or very near somebody's back yard. Depending on which side of the fence you are on, this can be a giant boon for the environment or a giant pain in the ass for those affected by unsightly views.

While I personally think that the technology is cool, and they are pretty sleek examples of modern design and engineering and impressive pieces of technology, not everybody agrees that they are artful engineering at its finest, or beautiful to look at, especially if they are positioned in our own back yards.

What is beauty and how does it relate to ecology? A look at contrasting aesthetic intuitions about wind farms reveals a paradigm shift in how we understand beauty. Our sense of the nature of beauty cannot be separated from our sense of the beauty of nature. If this is of interest to you, then you might want to read an article in the design observer, written by Justin Good, Ph.D. in Philosophy from Boston University...

Read on...

If you are a fan of graphic design, you might be interested in the work we do at FRANK Ideas and Execution.

D'OH !!!

The long-awaited movie version of The Simpsons is scheduled to hit cinemas in summer 2007!!!

Read on...

YVR06 : Canada on Rails

Where: BCIT Downtown Campus, Vancouver, BC Canada
When: April 13th & 14th 2006

Canada on Rails will host 15 speakers from around the world in Vancouver, Canada to speak on everything to do with the hugely succesful Ruby on Rails framework.

YVR06 is the first every Ruby on Rails conference in the world, showcasing keynote speakers as - David Hanssson, creator of Ruby on Rails; Thomas Fuchs, creator of script.aculo.us; Dave Astels, author of Jolt Award winning "Test-driven Development: A Practical Guide"; David Black, Ph.D., future author of "Ruby for Rails: Ruby techniques for Rails developers"; Joe O'Brien, an agile developer with ThoughtWorks; James Adams, Ph.D., creator of the highly successful Engines framework for Ruby on Rails.

Visit...

Andy Warhol - Supernova: Stars, Deaths and Disasters 1962 - 1964

Where: Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO)
When: July 08, 2006 to October 22, 2006

David Cronenberg collaborates with the AGO on this pop culture guru's exhibition

Find out more...

Superbowl Commercials

This isn't high culture but there are some good commercials:
Super Bowl XL has passed (Go, Steelers!), but you can still watch all those great, funny and weird ads right here.
Check them out...

Here's a good one to get started with:

Culture.ca

Here's a good resource site for info on Canadian Culture:

Culture.ca — explore, find, share the creativity and diversity of Canadian culture on-line.

Check it out

Artword Theatre is About to Bite the Dust

The Portland Street building known as Artword Theatre is about to bite the dust, making way for a condo. Its final production, The Gambler, runs to Feb. 19. It's adapted from a Dostoevsky novel by Ronald Weihs, artistic director of Artword (the company). He and managing director Judith Sandiford created the 150-seat mainspace and 60-seat studio theatre in 1999, in a former clothing factory.

Visit...