Feeling the Heat in Toronto the Better

We are in the middle of a heat wave here in Toronto. Before the day is finished, the humidex will have us awash in the sweat of 43 degrees Celsius. For a winter person like me, the summer is nothing more than the nasty price tag that must be paid to get back to the halcyon days of minus readings on the thermometer.
Of course, days like today put a real strain on the power grid, with everyone cranking up their AC. Among the extreme heat and smog warnings being issued, there are also appeals being issued to use less - less AC, less appliances, less cars - anything you can do to help. That leads us to the laundromat at 2240 Queen Street East.
The Beach Solar Laundromat, here in Toronto, is run by Alex Winch, a man on a mission. Winch is after energy efficiency through business and building design. That's why there are solar panels in the laundromat's roof. If you have to catch up on your washing today and you live anywhere near the Beach Solar (think TTC!), load up a laundry bag and head over there. You'll get your chore done without heating up your own domicile and without putting extra strain on the power grid. One nice surprise you'll find is that your load will cost you less to do than at regular coin laundromats. Another surprise you'll find is the natural gas powered dryer. Alternatives, alternatives!
If you don't live near enough for a trip to the Beach Solar to be practical, just take a trip to your keyboard. Take a coffee with you 'cause you're going to want to spend a little time reading. From the Beach Solar site, you can mosey over to the "Toronto the Better Directory". Here you'll find businesses listed by the following categories.

1. Community: businesses aimed at excluded or inadequately served sections of the community
2. Consumer: businesses that seek to educate consumers and offer them economic participation in business benefits
3. Environment: businesses that seek to actively support environmental improvement in their business operations
4. Worker: businesses that seek to provide workers with right to participate in business management and economic benefits
5. Services: businesses that specialize in services to the types of businesses in the above categories

Actually, by the time you've finished investigating this site, you're likely to need another cup of coffee.If you're not downing fair trade, you can find a business to provide you with same so you never have to brew anything but fair trade ever again.
If you're the intrepid type who hates to quit a site until you've seen it all, you'll need to get the midnight oil burning, because the "Better Cities Networking" link could take a lot of your time. This directory will keep you in the know about better businesses in Montreal, Vancouver, and Winnipeg. You'll also find this challenge -

Want to do something similar in your own community?

We'd be happy to help. One of our goals is to develop a network of progressive business community sites, so that it wouldn't matter where we travel we can always find the kinds of goods and services we want to support.

Send us an email at postmaster@torontothebetter.net to start the conversation. And if you've already done something, let us know about it; we'd be happy to link to your site.

I clicked on the networking link to the Montreal site and that took me to "ehtiquette.ca:The Responsible Consumer Network". I found that you can sign up there for a newsletter that promises to be pithy, and spend some time browsing through their "What's Hot", among other things.
Bringing me right back full circle to the heat wave that started this whole entry and my lament over the seasonal dearth of freezing cold, there were two archive titles there that caught my eye; "Beating the Winter Blues" and "Ethical Christmas List". If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go and investigate those two while I pretend it's still the best season of the year.