Canada Collection By Roots Launch Party

Roots flagship store was buzzing with excitement last night for the launch of the Canada Collection By Roots!

The Canada Collection By Roots is the collaboration between three Canadian organizations: Roots, MasterCard Canada and Right To Play. Learn more.

Pictured above at last night's event is: Roots Co-Founder Michael Budman (wearing the Village Bag Roots Canada in Tribe Leather), Founder of Right To Play Johann Olav Koss (wearing the Men's Fredricton Sweater), President of MasterCard Canada Kevin Stanton (wearing the Men's Fredricton Sweater), Ambassador of Right To Play Adam van Koeverden (wearing the Men's Montreal Polo) and Roots Co-Founder Don Green (wearing a classic Roots Vintage Awards Jacket). 

 
 

 

 

 

View the full Canada Collection By Roots online or in-store.

Learn more about Right To Play.

Learn more about MasterCard Canada.

Be sure to keep checking the Roots Facebook page for more event photos!

Presenting the Canada Collection by Roots®

Today's a big day here at Roots! Roots and MasterCard Canada have teamed up to present the Canada Collection by Roots® in support of the Canadian-based international humanitarian organization Right To Play.

When you purchase an item from the Canada Collection by Roots® , a portion of the proceeds will be donated to Right To Play.

This holiday season, we are encouraging you to make a donation to support Right To Play. Your donation will support programs which use the power of sport and play to change lives and create safer and healthier societies in the most disadvantaged regions of the world. Right To Play trains local coaches and community leaders who work with almost 700,000 children every week to develop basic life skills, teach conflict resolution and improve health. You can make a donation at righttoplay.ca.

Blog Action Day 2009 - Climate Change

Today is Blog Action 2009 and the theme is Climate Change. So here's a few things to get you thinking about climate change.

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE
Planet Green has pulled together a short quiz to test your knowledge on climate change and science. Take the quiz, share with friends, compare your scores.

Start Now

READ A BOOK
Sleeping Naked is Green: How an Eco-Cynic Unplugged Her Fridge, Sold Her Car, and Found Love in 366 Days by Canadian journalist and blogger Vanessa Farquharson.

From the Publisher: "Farquharson takes on the intense personal challenge of making one green change to her lifestyle every single day for a year to ultimately figure out what's doable and what's too hardcore.

Vanessa goes to the extremes of selling her car, unplugging the fridge, and washing her hair with vinegar, but she also does easy things like switching to an all-natural lip balm. All the while, she is forced to reflect on what it truly means to be green.

Whether confronting her environmental hypocrisy or figuring out the best place in her living room for a compost bin full of worms and rotting cabbage, Vanessa writes about her foray into the green world with self-deprecating, humorous, and accessible insight. This isn't a how-to book of tips, it's not about being eco-chic; it's an honest look at what happens when an average girl throws herself into the murkiest depths of the green movement."

Pick it up

GET CRAFTY
Lindsay Coulter, the David Suzuki Foundation's Queen of Green, shows you how to make a brighter -- as in smarter and better -- candle; one without the paraffin and other potentially toxic ingredients.

WRITE A STORY
The United Nations Foundation is giving you the opportunity to share what you'll miss most due to the effects of climate change - whether it's people, places or things.

Share your thoughts and read what others had to say. 

START A COMPOST
Building a compost pile is a great way to recycle organic waste (like food, weeds, wood products, animal waste, etc.) that are normally thrown away and left unused into fertile garden fertilizer. Watch this video and learn how to make your own compost pile.

It's Time to Make a Difference

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and it's time to make a difference.

In support of Rethink Breast Cancer Roots has released two special edition watches, Athletic Mai Thia Breast Cancer Watch and Ladies Moonstone Breast Cancer Watch.

10% of the proceeds from these watches will be donated to Rethink Breast Cancer

Thank you for your support!

Localicious = Yummylicous

Earlier this week I received an email from WWF Canada announcing their Localicious event. Personally anything to do with good food, I'm in! But good (local) food and great cause meant that I needed to know more. 

So here's the scoop:

From October 2 - 18, 2009 a select group of restaurants across Canada will be preparing local and sustainable food dishes. Partial proceeds from every Localicious meal served will be donated to WWF Canada's conservation work. All you have to do is eat and enjoy!

Visit WWF's Living Plant Community to choose your city, pick your restaurant and invite your friends. 

But don't stop there.

WWF has pulled together some solid information to help you understand what the local movement is all about. My favourite feature is the comparison between two identical meals and the total kilometers each ingredient travelled to get there. You'll also learn where to shop and what to look for when shopping.

Image courtesy of Dana Harrison, wellpreserved.ca

If you can't make it out, no worries. You can go local in your very own kitchen! Try the recipe for New Potato and Niagara Gold Melt with Pickled Beets supplied to WWF for this event from chef Jamie Kennedy of the Gilead Café in Toronto and invite your friends over. Your belly, friends and environment will all thank you for it!

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Hard to imagine that a bottle of pop could become something so different... and yet, here it is.

Roots launched a new backpack collection this year that is made from 51% recycled pop bottles. You have 3 backpacks to choose from and 1 lunch bag:

• Undergrad Sport Backpack
• Utility Backpack
• Mini Sport Backpack
• Utility Lunchbox

Great looking bags, functional, durable and environmentally friendly. Perfect!

Roots Cares at the TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup

Recently Roots staff from stores, our leather factory, distribution centre and offices participated in the TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup. Hundreds of team members picked up garbage from shorelines across Canada.

Roots Co-founder, Don Green, Dr. Jane Goodall, local politicians, members of Roots & Shoots and others participated at one of the many locations across Canada. Take a look at the following video from the site near the Humber River in Toronto.

Learn why environmentalism and activism is important to Roots by listening to Don Green's complete speech at the event.

To learn more about the TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup that is supported by TD Friends of the Environment and the Vancouver Aquarium.
click here.

Roots Teams up with Right to Play Canada

Right To Play is an international humanitarian organization that uses sport and play programs to improve health, develop life skills, and foster peace for children and communities in some of the most disadvantaged areas of the world. Working in both the humanitarian and development context, Right To Play trains local community leaders as Coaches to deliver its programs in countries affected by war, poverty, and disease in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and South America.

How You can Help

We are offering you the opportunity to help this wonderful organization by purchasing a Right to Play 16 month calendar (Sept. '09 - Dec. '10). This beautiful calendar features pictures, stories and quotes from some of Canada's most influential athletes and sport personalities such as Haley Wickenheiser, Adam van Koeverden and Beckie Scott.

Pick up your calendar today and help support Right to Play!

Visit the Right to Play Canada to learn more.

Why we need the Walrus

We're adding our voice in support of Canadian culture. We think magazines, movies, music and culture are an important part of life in any country. We hope everyone will take the time to take the time to check out local and national titles as well as the large international names we all know.

Watch the video with Margaret Atwood, Geddy Lee, Broken Social Scene and more show their support for The Walrus or better yet visit their website, www.walrusmagazine.com.

Why We Need The Walrus from The Walrus Magazine on Vimeo.

Roots Green: the 100 Mile Diet, Could You Do it?

Imagine only buying and eating food from within a 100 mile radius of where you live. Sound easy? Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon will tell you otherwise. They recounted their experiences, including motivations and challenges, on restricting their diet for one year to include only foods grown within 100 miles of their residence in their book "The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating."

In 2005, Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon began a one-year experiment in local eating. Their 100-Mile Diet struck a deeper chord than anyone could have predicted, inspiring thousands of individuals, and even whole communities, to change the way they eat. Locally raised and produced food has been called “the new organic" — better tasting, better for the environment, better for local economies, and better for your health. From reviving the family farm to reconnecting with the seasons, the local foods movement is turning good eating into a revolution.

 

While the concept of only eating locally grown food is not new, the book coincided with the emerging popularity of the locavore: someone who eats food grown or produced locally or within a certain radius such as 50, 100, or 150 miles. The locavore movement encourages consumers to buy from farmers’ markets or even to produce their own food, with the argument that fresh, local products are more nutritious and taste better.

Locally grown food is an environmentally friendly means of obtaining food, since supermarkets that import their food use more fossil fuels and non-renewable resources.movement and farmer's markets. Media outlets in North America examined the feasibility of only eating food produced locally, local food-themed events, and locavore groups. Some restaurants and caterers offered 100-mile menus. Some farmers, gardeners, or regional food producers began offering subscription services to deliver produce or urban farming or gardening services. The 100-mile diet spawned many variations to allow for various circumstances and motivations. Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon now host the show "100 Mile Challenge" on the Food Network. Do you think you and your family could try the 100 Mile Diet?

Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_food

http://100milediet.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_mile_diet

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How to...Start Your Own Organic Garden

100 Mile Meal Planner

An Interview with Alisa and James