Woonerf is Dutch for “living yard.” One in Montreal has turned an island of asphalt into a pedestrian-friendly green space. It has also sparked concern about making the area unaffordable.

The other day the wheels came off and I went from being a globe-trotting, planet-saving impact investor to being a small ship on a dark sea, a barely visible presence.

Construction of a new University of Montreal science campus in one of Canada's poorest neighbourhoods is putting a squeeze on housing as 10,000 students and workers are expected to flood the area.

Can the earth be saved one fountain pen at a time? It is, admittedly, a ridiculous question. Fountain pens are, themselves, kind of ridiculous – at least as measured by how quick people are to hurl ridicule upon them.Yet, in an age when the ecologically conscious are supposed to be reducing, reusing and recycling, the fountain pen is the perfectly green alternative to disposable pens.