Making Sustainable Living Fun in Mississauga

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Live Net Zero Email Service

Vicki Tran, Mississauga, Ontario (1st Prize Winner: Our Daily Lives – Food & Stuff)

In Mississauga, Vicki Tran lives with her husband Eric and their disabled dog Zilla in a semi-detached home. Despite working full time, Vicki makes daily choices that reflect a deeply held commitment to reducing consumption. Her approach to sustainable living is hands-on, creative and community-minded, covering everything from plant-based eating and foraging to repairing appliances and upcycling furniture.

Vicki won 1st Prize in the “Our Daily Lives: Food & Stuff” category of the 2025 Live Net Zero Household Challenge for showing how everyday habits around food, materials and waste can ripple outward. Her entry combined long-term dietary change, repair culture, skill-sharing and neighbourhood engagement. 

For Vicki, the work is shared. It’s about aligning values with action and modelling possibilities for others. Whether she’s removing invasive garlic mustard and turning it into food, reupholstering furniture, fixing a toaster oven at a repair café or building a Little Library from an upcycled cabinet, she demonstrates that lowering consumption can also build connection.

Vicki has followed a plant-based diet for seven years, first reducing meat, then seafood, and eventually eggs and dairy. She shares food with friends, gifts recipes and invites others to forage and cook together. 

Repair and upcycling are central to her identity: “I am aware of the consumerism culture we have and continue to question every purchase I make. I try to use what I already have, or make it if I can.” 

Vicki and Eric also entered the “How We Get Around” challenge, and their transportation habits reflect the same intentionality. In the past year, she commuted more than 7,800 kilometres by bike, saving an estimated 1,661 kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. As a household, they saved over 2,300 kilograms of CO2 by choosing walking, cycling and transit over driving. Eric commuted 281 of his days in the past year by a mode other than a car. 

Vicki encourages both personal reflection and civic action. “I choose to ride my bike as my main mode of transportation year-round because it brings me joy and I want to show others what is possible for shorter trips,” she explains. Together, she and Eric challenge assumptions about suburban mobility, while acknowledging that infrastructure and engagement matter.

Her story shows that sustainable living is not a single action, but rather a pattern of choices across food, materials, transportation and community. By repairing what breaks, sharing what she grows, riding instead of driving, and encouraging political engagement around infrastructure, Vicki demonstrates how daily life can become a form of leadership.

See Vicki’s entry on the Live Net Zero Facebook page here and her entry in the How We Get around challenge here.

 

Vicki’s entry:

Reflections from Vicki:

Below, Vicki shares why she entered, what motivated her decision and how sustainable living shows up in her daily life.

Why did you enter the Live Net Zero Household Challenge?

We entered the Household Challenge because we work as a team to discuss how we can make improvements on the lifestyle and house together to achieve a lower footprint and lead by example. We strive to align our goals for a better world with the actions we take on daily. 

What motivates your daily choices?

We try to think of everything more holistically because everything in this life is connected – people, animals and the environment. We can’t have one without the other! I don’t like waste, which makes me a bit of a hoarder since I have trouble throwing something that can be used for something else. I am unable to share everything, but I try to tread gently on this planet to reduce my consumption whenever I can.

What other sustainable actions are part of your life?

We aim at things that are more easily doable for us. In regards to home (energy, retrofits, etc.), we still try to live within our means. For example, we got a permeable driveway when we did renovations. The following year, we removed grass to replace it with native shrubs and wildflowers to support biodiversity, and in 2025 we just replaced our roof from asphalt shingles to metal. 

When things break and decisions come up, we decide based on the available funds we have to put into a project, aiming for the most sustainable option available to us. The goal is to explore sustainable energy options like solar (now that the roof is updated), and heating options since we’re due for an upgrade soon.

What would you like others to consider?

I try to tread gently on this planet because it is the only one we have and it provides us EVERYTHING we need to sustain ourselves and thrive. We mustn’t be greedy and take/use more than we need.

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