My vision of a sustainable community looks like one who's actions positively impact the earth and contribute to solving climate change. Some of these could include composting, improvement of recycling centers, pedestrian friendly neighbourhoods (for walking and biking to various places with ease). I believe that a lot would need to be changed in order for such vision to become reality, but primarily having politicians in local and provincial positions truly care about climate issues and making change.

I think one of the main environnemental impacts of my daily life is energy consumption. This aspect should be shifted to a source of renewable energy; I would absolutely love being able to live in an energy-efficient home where all the energy that is used comes from renewables and green energies. For the moment though, I think the money we spend for my energy consumption could be placed elsewhere if it were better managed - it could be placed away into a bank account and serve for later, wether it's for travels, buying a pet or even making a switch to green energy for my home. 

Personally, spending more time outdoors really helps enhance my connection and sense of belonging to nature. The more I go outside, the more little details and little things I notice. I feel more aware of my environnement - weather, amount of light present, space available around me - and I feel more alive. It feels as though I am more in sync with nature, as though I am one with it. It also makes me appreciate the feeling of freedom within me when I am outside; whenever I am constricted to the indoors afterwards, I always feel a little bit boxed in, as if I'm missing space or air. It feels a little stuffy. 

I've noticed a lot of beautiful nature around me every time I went for a walk outside. Wether it was the green grass or some beautiful crocus and daffodils, there was always something alive and thriving around me. I also saw a lot of animals (mostly birds) who always seem to enjoy life as they pass me by. I've really enjoyed being surrounded by nature and breathing in the fresh air while also feeling the sun on my skin. I think the infrastructure changes would be to make houses and buildings look better; architects could take the time to create infrastructure that not only uses reusable energy, but also looks good, like it's a part of nature. If buildings blended in a little more with the surrounding environment and nature, I think it could make my walks and time spent outside even better. 

I think ensuring that we have good public transit is  absolutely key to reduce the environmental impact of transportation. In Quebec, transportation is one of the biggest contributors to our carbon emissions. In order to help switch to the more ecological public transit and reduce these emissions, I think we need to create a culture of public transit. In North America, cars, particularly unecological ones, tend to be viewed as status symbols. If we can boast about taking public transit and start a cultural shift towards public transit, while simultaneously advocating for the necessary infrastructure, we would be able to considerably reduce emissions.

We are putting so much gas and waste into our environments and this can easily be fixed if production is stopped and the usage of these plastics is lowered but it’s a lot more of a behavioural change so it’s hard to control it

I think that what motivates me the most is the land and energy that we lose when we waste food. We’re losing land very fast due to the cattle and milk sectors so it’s important to use and reuse what we have instead of wasting.

I had never heard the term before spending time doing a little bit of research on it. I believe that one of the biggest advantages of it is that it minimizes deforestation, which is a horrible thing for the environment.

As I lean more about environmental challenges we face, I see the world around me more preciously and am more aware of its fragility. I am living my day-to-day life as mindfully as I can, trying to help the environment. I fear that too few people do the same, I can only hope my actions make a tiny difference in the world.