Building the studio: Sustainability over Convenience

To care for the earth is to care for ourselves. Throughout the creation of City & Soul, we have placed sustainability over convenience and have chosen small local businesses over large corporations. Here’s how:

1) Recycling & Reusing: 

• During demolition we recycled all of the old steel framing. We reused the insulation from the previous walls and sold/donated what was left over. 

• Our studio bolsters were made by Love Your Mat, a Canadian company that creates yoga props from recycled/discontinued textiles.

• The rest of our yoga props have been reused from previous studios.

• Our business cards are made from recycled paper.

2) Local:

All our tradespeople are from small, local companies who have used local & sustainable materials/practices wherever possible. For example, our front desk, studio barn door, and benches were crafted from sustainably sourced local wood by local woodworkers.

3) Hempcrete:

Our yoga studio, Soul Studio, is made from Hempcrete. Hempcrete is a bio-fibre building material made from the waste product of the hemp stock. Hemp is a low impact crop that sequesters carbon from the atmosphere. To learn more about Hempcrete & the company who made and installed our walls (8th Fire Innovations) click here.

4) Flooring: 

• the floor in the yoga studio is made from a renewable resource: cork. Cork flooring is harvested from the bark of cork oak trees. The tree is not permanently damaged, as the bark grows back after approximately ten years. The same crop of trees can be used to produce cork over and over again.

• The flooring in the offices, hallway, and front entrance are LVT made from a mineral composite of 85% limestone. These floors do not contain PVC, Plasticizers, Phthalates or Chloro-Chemicals.

• The tile in our washroom contains recycled materials. To learn more about the company's green manufacturing, click here. 

5) Vendors:

Anything sold in-store is made by a local artisan and upholds our values of health & sustainability. As we operate, we are committed to using sustainable practices like eliminating single-use items wherever possible, using cleaning products that are safe for the earth, and supporting local.