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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - With Earth Week upon us, some people are thinking about ways to live a greener, more sustainable lifestyle.

Suzette Montreuil is a member of Alternatives North, a "social justice coalition" that tackles a wide range of issues, from women's rights, to labour rights and the environment.

Kells Bissell waters his mom's lettuce plants. Growing your own vegetables helps cut carbon emissions, as a lot of fuel is burnt shipping them up here. - Tim Edwards/NNSL photo

Montreuil has nine ideas to help people go green:

1. Political action to get governments to make investments and make legislation and regulations that put people and the environment ahead of markets - by way of talking to your MLAs and to city councilors.

"If you think it stops at your own house - we don't think we can go far enough with just individual lifestyle changes, we need to make societal changes," said Montreuil.

2. Buy recycled goods - the thrift store, second-hand shops - to "ensure a turnover of used goods, as opposed to just throwing them away."

3. Try planting your own garden, rather than buying from stores that ship all their food up North.

4. Try to buy locally produced goods like fish or wild meat, or locally grown vegetables.

This, as well as being an alternative to buying from stores that ship up their food, also supports the community.

5. Buy fruits and vegetables that are in season - "Apples (for example) are something we buy all year, and it uses a lot more energy to bring them up here when they are in off-season, especially when you're bringing them up from somewhere more south than the U.S.," said Montreuil.

6. "Another thing that is sort of a more Alternatives North idea is a local exchange and trading system, so it's looking at exchanging maybe child-care for painting a deck (for example)," said Montreuil.

"You list the things that you are able to offer to a community and you trade them between whoever participates in the trading system."

7. Explore options for decreasing how much energy it takes to run your house.

Such things as solar panels and wind turbines are becoming more and more readily available, as well as new more energy efficient appliances and lights.

8. Keep electrical items shut off when not in use - lights, televisions, computers, etc.

9. And then there's some really obvious things - walking and biking more, taking public transit and carpooling.