Eco-Innovators: Sustainability in Atlantic Canada by Chris Benjamin

Atlantic Canada's Sustainability Innovators, a new book from Halifax author Chris Benjamin, profiles some of the region's most innovative and forward-thinking leaders in sustainability. These entrepreneurs and educators, activists and agitators, farmers and fishers have all made measurable contributions both in their respective fields of interest and in motivating others to make change.

In the book, we meet Kim Thompson, a strawbale builder and consultant, who has recently brought her building experience to a renovation of an older house in downtown Halifax. Then there's Edwin Theriault, who bought a bale of clothing back in 1971 and launched Frenchy's, a chain of seventy-six used-clothing stores that has become an East Coast institution.

Edwin doesn't consider himself an environmentalist at all, but over the years his business has kept countless tonnes of material out of landfills.

Also profiled are Speerville Flour Mill and Olivier Soaps in New Brunswick, Sean Gallagher of Local Source in Halifax, David and Edith Ling of Fair Acre Farm on PEI, and Jim Meaney of Cansolair solar heat air exchangers in Newfoundland, among many others.

With ten chapters on matters like reducing consumption, greening the home, sustainable eating, dressing, transportation, and vacationing, the book is an important look into the lives of Atlantic Canadians committed to creating viable green options in our region.

Chris Benjamin is a freelance journalist, fiction writer, CBC News web writer/editor and a columnist for The Coast. He is the author of the critically-acclaimed novel, Drive-by Saviours (longlisted for a 2011 ReLit Award and Canada Reads 2011). In 2006/2007 he worked as a journalist in Ghana. He was a finalist for the 2010 Fusion Go Sustainability Award and shared an honourable mention in the 2009 National Magazine Awards.

Chris has also written for The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Chronicle Herald, VoicePrint Canada, This Magazine, Now Magazine, Canadian Dimension, Descant, Arts East, East Coast Kitchen Party, Third Person Press, Nashwaak Review, Pottersfield Press, Rattling Books, The Society, University of Waterloo Press, Z Magazine, Briarpatch Magazine, Coastlands, Progress Magazine, Rural Delivery and many others.

www.chrisbenjaminwriting.com
http://twitter.com/benjaminwrites

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Entertainment

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• Eco-Innovators
• sustainability
• Atlantic Canada
• Nova Scotia
• Newfoundland
• Prince Edward Island
• Chris Benjamin
• new books
• Canada
• Green Economy
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• Sustainable Prosperity
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[solidago2]

These are encouraging examples of innovations that derive more from attitudes than from expertise. Thanks!