2008 is almost here!  If you are hoping to make a greener lifestyle part of the plan for the New Year, here are some fun ways to achieve your goals:

• A plastic bag takes about 1000 years to dissolve, and the average Ontarian uses about 200 of them each year!  Switch to inexpensive, reusable shopping bags made from recycled plastic bottles - sold by retailers such as Loblaws and Sobeys.
• Did you buy a new TV on Boxing Day? Hope it was Sharp's Aquos flat-screen TV, made with environmentally friendly technology and using about 40% less energy than plasma TVs.
• Will you be celebrating with wine on New Year's Eve?  Be sure to check out an organic winery, where the grapes will be grown without pesticides, herbicides, fungicides or chemic fertilizers and are hand picked.  Try www.frogpondfarm.ca
• Are you a clothes horse?  There are so many options today for ethical clothing that you don't have to spend a bundle on an exclusive designer.  For denim lovers, Levi's jas just come out with an organic cotton line called ECO which also uses recycled materials and natural indigo dyes.

Happy New Year to you, from the Julie Kinnear Team.