P.E.D.A.L. Across the Americas is two things:
1. The fun part: It’s an adventure!
We, a group of cyclists, are bicycling 16,000 km (that’s 10,000 miles) from Canada to Costa Rica. We started out at the Onaen Sustainable Housing Project in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, and we’re screeching to a sweaty halt at the Durika Biological Reserve in Buenos Aires, Puntarenas province, Costa Rica.
To follow the adventure and spy on our photos and personal musings, feel free to leaf through the JOURNAL.
Why biking? Well, for starters, it doesn’t use gasoline. To us, that’s as good a reason as any. It’s also fun! Ever raced down a pass through the Rocky Mountains, coasting for two hours straight while the world stretches out beneath you? We wouldn’t trade that for power steering or heated seats any day.
But there’s a bigger reason to bike. Keep on reading!
2. The important part: It’s about real-life sustainable living — and how you can take part!
Now here’s the real reason you should care: our bike route is actually a connect-the-dots between “sustainability models” – households, communities, and organizations that are doing an extra-super job of showing what real-life sustainable living looks like right now.
Thanks why we’re biking. No other means of transportation gets us so up close and personal with the people who make sustainability a reality. Biking a few thousand kilometres helps show that we’re serious about this stuff, and as a result we get to learn from some truly amazing and innovative people. Some of these sustainability models are a bit off the beaten track, while others are right in under our noses. Biking takes us to these places in a healthy, Earth-friendly way.
We spend a week or so with each model to learn just how, exactly, they manage to live sustainably. We focus on getting hands-on experience with each model’s most successful, effective, and interesting technologies/skills/ideas for sustainable living. All the while, we’re thinking: What can we — as individuals and a society — take from these lessons? Which lessons can truly make a difference in each of our day-to-day lives? Let’s go beyond just changing lightbulbs and recycling, but let’s keep life fun, too. And then we really go to work.
Armed with their experience and our first-hand impressions, we create “Tools” for sustainable living — how-to guides, articles, videos, and interviews designed for you, me, and everyone else who’s interested in “getting their green on” but would like some straightforward, practical information and inspiration. These “Tools” are in your sustainability TOOLKIT! (And, fortunately for you, this toolkit is probably more organized than the one out in your garage.)
That’s it in a nutshell, really.
Step 1: We bike to places where people live sustainably.
Step 2: We learn about real-deal sustainable living.
Step 3: We turn our learning into “Tools” for you to use in your own life: check out your sustainability TOOLKIT!
Step 4: We do it all over again from Step 1!
