Green Calgary

Healthy Homes Advisors

Lynn MacCallum - Program Assistant

Lynn moved here from Vancouver in 2009, and came to us through the Healthy Homes volunteer program. She’s a big believer in giving back to her community and has volunteered with organizations such as the David Suzuki Foundation, Projecting Change Film Festival, and Green Drinks to name a few.

She has a background in fashion design and consulting, but most recently worked in sales and marketing with SkyFire Energy and Sedmek, solar installers and distribution companies here in Calgary. With a certificate in Environmental Management through the University of Calgary under her belt, Lynn is now considering a certificate in Permaculture Design and covering every square inch of her patio with a garden. When not tending her plants, you’ll find her hiking in the mountains with her husband Paul.

 The “game changing” moment for Lynn came when her brother-in-law showed her a copy of the CancerSmart Consumer Guide published by the Labour Environmental Alliance Society www.leas.ca. She read this guide cover to cover, then bought copies for all her family and friends. She had never read anything as informative or thought provoking as this guide, and it changed they way she looked at the everyday products in her home and their impacts on the world around her.

The “Eco-Win” Lynn is most proud of is canning her own food. She and her husband have canned hundreds of jars of fruit, and pickled bushels of vegetables. Nothing tastes better than homemade pickles or peaches!

 Lynn’s “Eco-Sin” is a doozey. With family in Vancouver, Scotland, and New Zealand, spending time with them means getting on a plane. Skype certainly helps!

 

Lauren Mangion - Advisor

What was your environmental inspiration moment?
My journey was more of a gradual one. Growing up, we spent lots of our family time playing in our river valley in Edmonton and vacationing in Jasper and on Vancouver Island. We were an active family- mountain biking, hiking, running, rollerblading, and camping are some of the activities that stand out from my childhood. I think all that time in beautiful natural areas really provided a foundation for the environmental awareness I now consider to be part of who I am.

I knew I wanted to dedicate my life’s work to exploring what it means to build healthier relationships with each other and the natural world through years of travel in developing countries like Myanmar, India, Laos and Cambodia. I realized how consumptive the North American lifestyle is, and that this is one of our biggest challenges- to scale back on all the things we currently define as needs, and work on making life more meaningful and fulfilling with less “stuff”,  therefore reducing our demand on our planet.

Eco-sin
I don’t shower on a daily basis, but when I do they are hot and probably a little longer than they should be!

Eco-win
My partner, stepkids and myself live in NW Calgary in our 700 square foot house where we attempt every year to grow a flourishing garden (this is our year I’m sure!), have bees, a cob oven that we often open up to community pizza parties. We do our best to keep life simple and meaningful.  Friends of mine have a wonderful mantra, “Less life stuff, more life style”, and this is an ethic we run everything by in my household. 

 

 

Chantal Eves -Advisor

Amanda Brownlie-Program Manager