Donor makes indelible mark on York Region environment

By Rosemary Park

Thousands of years ago, glaciers retreating in the York Region area left behind the Oak Ridges Moraine, and major headwaters flowing south to Lake Ontario, or north to Lake Simcoe.

Six years ago, the establishment of York Region Community Foundation resulted in Ernie Crossland, his wife Jean, and their children creating the first environmental scholarship for high school students living in communities beside Lake Simcoe. The scholarship is especially unique as it funds students for every year of their undergraduate study of environmental issues.

In 2011, we had our first university graduates, with others following behind.

As a farmer, prior Town of Newmarket Citizen of the Year, and environmentalist, Ernie believes in the future – in keeping Lake Simcoe healthy, and our young adults obtaining the knowledge and skills to protect our planet in their own way.

Thank you Ernie, Jean and family!

Rosemary Park is founding Chair of the York Region Community Foundation.

Central Okanagan residents support action on water issues, according to Vital Signs

By Cheryl Miller

In the Central Okanagan’s 2011 VitalSigns® report card issued by the Central Okanagan Foundation, our community gave itself a grade of B- in the issue area Environment.

The perception that the Okanagan is blessed with an abundance of fresh water has led many to think that we have an endless supply and we don’t have to worry about conserving, says Corinne Jackson, communications and research coordinator with the Okanagan Basin Water Board (OKBW).

But with population growth and climate change, altering behavior is a must.

Cheryl Miller, Grants Manager at Central Okanagan Foundation

“Our research has found that in the Okanagan basin, outdoor irrigation accounts for almost 25 per cent of our water use. And the only reason we have green lawns is because of how much water we use. It’s not natural to the area. The only desert in all of Canada is in our watershed,” Corinne explains.

About 18 months ago, the OKWB launched Okanagan WaterWise, an education and public outreach program to increase awareness among valley residents about water issues in the Okanagan and to bring residents of the Okanagan valley together with the understanding that our water source is connected — we all share the same resource.

According to the Vital Signs report, community members believe in the importance of conserving our water, as well as improving curbside recycling and implementing curbside compost pickup.

Peter Rotheisler, with the Regional District of Central Okanagan’s waste reduction office, says the residential recycling program has been operating in the Central Okanagan since July 2000 and each year the program has seen higher volumes of materials collected.

In 2011, 50 per cent of all curbside waste (including recycling and yard waste) collected in the Central Okanagan was diverted from the landfill. However, the most recent survey done by the Regional District of Central Okanagan found 37 per cent of the residential garbage currently sent to the landfill is recyclable.

So what’s next? The waste reduction office recently initiated a study looking at how Okanagan residents manage kitchen waste. Rotheisler says other municipalities, including Vancouver, have started pilot programs to deal with kitchen waste and, depending on the results of the study, it’s something that could be considered in two to three years.

Cheryl Miller is Grants Manager with Central Okanagan Foundation 

Building a Green Generation: Vancouver Foundation program kick-starts youth environmental projects

By Dorothy Bartoszewski

Wendy Szeto was a bit skeptical about the idea of planter boxes popping up on her boulevard in Vancouver’s leafy Dunbar neighbourhood. “At first, we didn’t think we would participate in the project,” she says. “But we decided to give it a try. And we are so glad!”

Szeto lives on the same block as 14-year-old Michelle Marcus, who is shy and soft-spoken, but a keen environmentalist. She really wanted to start a community garden, but didn’t have access to any land. So she dreamed of growing food in planter boxes on the generous boulevards of her street.

Michelle Marcus with seedlings for Generation Green Boulevard Veg!

Then she heard of Vancouver Foundation’s Generation Green Awards. The project offered young people, aged 6-24, cash awards for projects that would “green” their neighbourhood. Vancouver Foundation wanted to celebrate Vancouver’s 125th birthday and support the city’s goal of becoming the world’s “Greenest City.” They also wanted to empower a generation of community leaders.

Marcus’ “Boulevard Veg!” project was one of 19 chosen. As soon as they were made, her neighbours snapped up the planter boxes. A few months later, the planters were overflowing with cucumbers, carrots, broccoli, beets, beans, peas and potatoes.

For Szeto, who came from Hong Kong 30 years ago, growing her own food was a revelation. “I never knew you could grow your own food in the city. But it was so easy! We grew beans and green onions. They taste so good!” she says.

“We got to know our neighbours too, because you are out on the street to water the plants, and harvest, and your neighbours are out there too, and you have something to talk about. Before, I didn’t know my neighbours’ names. Now I know all my neighbours. It’s been a multi-purpose project.”

Marcus, too, is thrilled: “Everyone was amazed at what we could grow! I’ve seen lots of people taking walks and looking at the signs. I wanted to bring people together and teach them about the environment and growing food, and it really worked.”

Across Vancouver, 18 other youth projects were greening their own patches of the city. Other awards funded solar-powered panels at a school, alternatives to shark-fin soup, First Nations ethno-cultural gardens and a plethora of innovative projects.

In fact, Vancouver Foundation was so inspired by the results of the Generation Green projects that last month, president and CEO Faye Wightman announced the continuation of the program in 2012.

To see the 19 projects and learn more about Vancouver Foundation’s Generation Green program, click here 

Dorothy Bartoszewski is Communications Coordinator with Vancouver Foundation

Amazing support, response, feedback for Powell River’s first Vital Signs

By Jan Gisborne

We in the Powell River Community Foundation in BC were astonished by the positive reaction to our very first Vital Signs report this fall.

We kicked off the project this summer by conducting a community survey, and that quickly became one of the highlights of our effort. With a total of 685 surveys completed, from a total population of 20,000, we have high confidence the survey ratings truly reflect our community.

In addition to the Vital Signs research areas, we also added a twist: the survey had room for suggestions and feedback on 14 issues, to give us new insights about the community we live in. We received an outpouring of constructive comments in all of the report areas – quality of life, strengthening the local economy, the environment, safety and security, and so on. The enthusiasm, commitment and quality of the responses was simply amazing.

We hope and expect that community groups and elected officials will use the survey and the suggestions to develop innovative ideas to help build a stronger community. We did not expect the immediate reaction we got from local businesses. They have told us that they find the information incredibly useful to assist them in strategic planning for future business decisions and, of course, to guide their charitable giving.

This Vital Signs report has special importance for us, because it puts the spotlight on the Powell River area. Since we are a small community, research reports often lump our data together with neighbouring areas. But Powell River is a unique community geographically, and the residents need to evaluate its specific challenges. People read the Vital Signs and say, “Here is a report that I can relate to – that speaks about what is really happening in Powell River.”

And because we are a small community, we had to line up backing well in advance to be able to proceed. The support of local governments and businesses made this report not only possible but also a great success.

It’s exciting that our Vital Signs report is helping us accomplish our mission of giving leadership to the nonprofit and charitable community.

Jan Gisborne is a member of the Board of Directors of Powell River Community Foundation

Cross-Canada tour promotes need for national and regional water policies

By Vicki Burns

I recently participated in a panel presentation entitled Northern Voices, Southern Choices, part of a 16-city tour across Canada.

Bob Sandford, the lead presenter, is the EPCOR Chair of the Canadian Partnership Initiative in support of United Nations “Water for Life” Decade. He is taking his message about water issues and our lack of attention to them in Canada from the west coast to the east coast, in hopes of stimulating action on this important subject.

Water activist Vicki Burns

Each region of Canada faces its own particular challenges when it comes to water, but one common underlying theme that needs to be dealt with is Canadians’ belief that we have an unlimited supply of clean, fresh water. The result of this belief is that we tend to take water for granted, wasting it by using too much, and degrading it by allowing lots of pollutants to get into it.

Part of Bob Sandford’s message concerns the Northwest Territories’ recently completed Northern Voices, Northern Waters strategy.

It is a very comprehensive strategy whose stated goal is “The waters of the NWT will remain clean, abundant and productive for all time.” Who could argue with the essential soundness of such a goal?

In my home province of Manitoba, we are confronted with both water-quality and water-quantity issues, which manifested this year in flooding of substantial parts of southern Manitoba, followed by droughts in some agricultural areas. Lake Winnipeg, the 10th largest freshwater lake on the planet, is now suffering some of the largest blue-green algae blooms in the world.

The most important message I hope we’ll take from Bob Sandford’s tour is that we have the opportunity now to do just what they’ve done in the NWT. We can pay serious attention to developing meaningful water policies for the nation and within each province. Let’s not waste any more time getting this done.

Vicki Burns is  an environmental advocate and educator who works with the Lake Winnipeg Watershed Project

CFC passes baton on Lake Winnipeg Watershed issues

By Betsy Martin

There was a terrific meeting in Winnipeg recently of many of the groups that are working on the challenging issues facing Lake Winnipeg, the world’s 10th largest fresh water lake.  They are figuring out how to work better together to save the Lake from further degradation and to begin to turn it around.

Community Foundations of Canada began its Foundations in the Lake Winnipeg Watershed Initiative (LWWI) five years ago and now is passing the baton to the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation, which has hired CFC’s former LWWI Coordinator Vicki Burns to head up the continued effort.

This has been one of those rare opportunities to watch philanthropy in action over a period of years. The roots of this current effort around Lake Winnipeg go all the way back to the early days of CFC’s environmental program, the brainchild of the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, and funded generously and over many years by them.

It also has its roots in a funder collaboration that Hugh Arklie from the Thomas Sill Foundation organized to provide core operating funding for the Lake Winnipeg Research Consortium, to ensure credible, independent research on lake conditions. And in a major study funded by the Winnipeg Foundation, with 22 recommendations for action. Also during this time the volunteer-led Lake Winnipeg Foundation emerged as a voice for change.

Photo of blue-green algae. Source: Lake Improvement Association

The foundations that participated in the early CFC environment program wanted to work together regionally, recognizing that environmental issues transcend community foundation boarders. We decided to focus on two things: developing a film and web resource called Choking Lake Winnipeg, produced by Jim Byrne from the University of Lethbridge, and educating and mobilizing foundations and others to “think like a watershed.”

The 25-minute documentary, for which the Calgary Foundation was the catalyst, was co-funded by seven CFs in the region and CFC. The Winnipeg Foundation arranged for a premiere showing and a several-weeks run at the IMAX Theatre in Winnipeg.  It is now available online or in DVD format for any organization that wants to host a local showing.

We also developed a toolkit for local screenings and community discussions which is available to anyone on CFC’s website.

We started the education and engagement effort with a draft LWW strategy that described the main problems in the watershed and identified three target actions to improve conditions – pollutant and nutrient reduction, water conservation and better land use planning. Vicki was frequently asked, and made, dozens and dozens of presentations to foundations, municipalities, community groups and others on these issues. She also started the H2O blog to share information.

There are now foundation-funded projects in the three target areas, and awareness of the deteriorating conditions in Lake Winnipeg is at an all-time high.

The challenge now is translating that heightened awareness into sustained, coordinated, effective action. There are many groups working on lake issues, but they are not networked and not having much impact working in isolation.

The Gordon Foundation aims to work with the Lake Winnipeg groups to maximize their capacity, minimize any duplication of effort, maximize communication and create a strong voice for the lake to push for needed policy changes. You can read more about it here.

There’s still a long way to go before we can claim victory in Lake Winnipeg, and foundations are not going to be the main actors in restoring the lake. But they’ve played a crucial role in raising awareness, getting the lake on public agendas, and now in helping the groups that are working on the ground get better networked and more effective.

Betsy Martin is Senior Advisor to Community Foundations of Canada

CIW environmental report echoes earlier findings released by CFC

By Sara Lyons

In April 2011, the Canadian Index of Wellbeing released its first Environment Domain Report. The report found that while Canada is not in the midst of an environmental crisis, key concerns include soaring greenhouse gasses, increasing waste generation and energy use, declining stocks of large fish species, and shrinking water supplies in parts of the country.

At the individual level, noted trends were that Canadians continue to be large consumers of hydrocarbon energy and of water, and we are consuming and disposing more, so much so that while recycling is increasing, it does not reduce total waste.

These findings are particularly interesting in light of the Vital Signs National Public Opinion Survey, conducted by Environics Research Group, which Community Foundations of Canada published last October as part of our Vital Signs program. We found that while we know from other research that Canadians rate the environment as a top global concern, most generally feel positively about the quality of the environment in their own community.  The vast majority of Canadians believe their local environment is either stable or improving.

Further, while nearly all Canadians feel that citizens can have at least some impact on their local environment, nearly half said that the primary reason they were not doing more was a lack of motivation and unwillingness to change their lifestyle.

What might explain this mismatch between the facts and our perceptions, motivations and actions? A couple of ideas come to mind.

First, as the Environment Domain Report notes, there are considerable gaps in environmental data. The capacity to undertake environmental monitoring has decreased over the years and is badly underfunded. In other words, Canadians don’t have the tools to be aware of local environmental degradation and threats in their own backyards.

Another, even more troubling contributor, is that those most affected by environmental concerns are the least likely to have a voice, or social and political power.  A 2008 report by PollutionWatch found a high correlation between pollution and poverty in neighbourhoods in the Great Lakes basin, home to almost a third of Canadians. Polluting industry tends to be located near low-income neighbourhoods.

We also know that local environmental conditions on Aboriginal reserves in Canada are generally abysmal. Just last month, outgoing Auditor General Sheila Fraser noted in her latest report that more than half of reserves don’t have reliably safe drinking water. So those who are the most directly affected by local environment concerns are the least likely to be in a position to lead change, have their voices heard, or take personal positive action.

Canadians who feel their local environment is doing well need to demand more monitoring to find out if this is really true, better connect their individual actions to the bigger picture and the right of all people to environmental health, and better understand that their patch of green may be under threat.

Sara Lyons is Program Director with Community Foundations of Canada, and mom to toddler Chloe

Putting Canada’s Environmental Performance on the Right Path

 

By the Hon. Roy J. Romanow

One of Canada’s foremost environmentalists, David Suzuki, once observed “I feel like we’re in a giant car heading at a brick wall at a million miles an hour. Someone’s got to say, ‘For God’s sake, put the brakes on and turn the wheel’. But everybody in the car is arguing about where they want to sit.”

A few days ago, the Canadian Index of Wellbeing released a report tracking trends inCanada’s environmental performance from 1994 to 2009. My hope is that it will empower Canadians to say, “For God’s sake, put the brakes on and turn the wheel”, because we can no longer accept – in this country or any other – the degradation stemming from our seemingly endless and unsustainable appetite for fossil fuels, water, metals and energy. The notion of limitless growth is no longer a viable economic paradigm.

Canadatoday is not a country in crisis. But there are clear warning signs of potential threats to our environment and wellbeing. Soaring greenhouse gasses (GHGs), increasing waste generation and energy use, declining stocks of large fish species, and shrinking water supplies in parts of the country – are offsetting gains like declining air pollution emission levels, good water quality, and healthy forest bird populations. Some of these trends could eventually result in poorer health, a weaker economy, lower standard of living, and diminished quality of life.

A starting point for better protecting, managing, and restoring our natural environment – now valued at more than one trillion dollars – is to recognize that it does not exist in a self-contained silo. The health of our natural environment is intricately interwoven with many other dimensions of our quality of life.

Scientists tell us that concentrations of GHG emissions (Canada’s are up 24 percent since 1990) are reaching a level not seen in thousands of years, with a trajectory for levels not seen in millions of years. Climate change is already having an impact on our economy through droughts, floods and invasive species, which have reduced crop yields and eradicated vast tracks of forests in parts of the country. The landmark Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change predicts that climate change will decrease globalGDPby up to 20 percent. 

Increased waste generation (up in every Canadian province and three times higher per capita inAlbertathanNew Brunswick) can harm community vitality (landfills are a divisive issue), and skew our time use by creating a society where people work longer hours to obtain more “stuff”. Shrinking freshwater supplies in parts of the country (down 8.5 percent inSouthern Canadaover the past 30 years) coupled with growing demand, can restrict recreation activities like fishing, boating, and use of community pools.

Declines in select species populations ripple forth in a variety of ways. One need only consider the widespread impacts on wellbeing that the cod-stock collapse had in Atlantic Canada — from living standards to community vitality.

Fortunately, we Canadians are not caught up in some form of pre-deterministic drift, rushing headlong toward an inescapable future. We have the collective capacity to shape our future, to decide which values we will embrace which visions we will pursue and which policy decisions we will enact. But preserving our natural resources and improving our environment for future generations will require more far-sighted policies and enforcement by government, better stewardship by industry, and lifestyle changes by individuals.

The CIW Network – an independent, non-partisan group of Canadian and world-leading experts now based in the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences at theUniversityofWaterloo– has put forward a number of ideas for positive change. These include: improving enforcement of environmental policy, encouraging consumers to spend their money in a way that “votes” for the type of world they would like to see, sharing ownership of resources like bicycles and cars, and becoming ecologically literate and passing that learning on to future generations.

The path towards ensuring resilient and sustainable ecosystems is ultimately a human choice. We must begin to recognize the true value of our environment through policies, pricing, and cultural attitudes. We must think about the value of natural capital not only to address environmental concerns, but to provide a stable foundation for human wellbeing in all of its dimensions. 

The Hon. Roy J. Romanow is Chair of the Canadian Index of Wellbeing Advisory Board, former Premier of Saskatchewan and former Commissioner on the Future of Health Care in Canada. The CIW’s Environment Report and supplementary paper Ideas for Positive Change are available online at www.ciw.ca.

About the Canadian Index of Wellbeing The Canadian Index of Wellbeing (CIW) is a new way of measuring wellbeing that provides unique insights into the quality of life of Canadians – overall, and in specific areas such as: living standards, health, environment, education, time use, community vitality, democratic engagement, and leisure and culture. It is produced by the CIW Network, based in the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences at the Universityof Waterloo. For more information, visit www.ciw.ca.

Canada’s environmental path worrisome, says new CIW report

Canada’s environmental path could jeopardize long-term quality of life, according to a new study released today by the Canadian Index of Wellbeing (CIW).

While the CIW Environment Report says our country is not in crisis, it also finds clear warning signs of potential threats to our environment and wellbeing.

Those include soaring greenhouse gases, increasing waste generation and energy use, declining stocks of large fish species and shrinking water supplies in parts of Canada.

These are topics Community Foundations across the country are grappling with on a daily basis. We can face a distressed future or a better quality of life, but now is the time to act. Download the full report at the CIW homepage, and have a look at a supplementary paper called Ideas for Positive Change.

 

REEP House builds community in Kitchener

By Cheryl Evans

REEP House for Sustainable Living has transformed a drafty, 105-year-old energy pig into to a state-of-the art showroom for energy and water efficient upgrades.

Located at 20 Mill Street in downtown Kitchener, REEP House provides free, hands-on tours and do-it-yourself green renovation workshops for the entire community. The website and Green Retrofit Workbook, funded in part by the Kitchener and Waterloo Community Foundation, provide a virtual connection to all things green.

With information in hand, and a growing community of supporters, REEP House demonstrates that in the long term, green renos not only save water and energy, they are also an excellent financial investment.

The Green Retrofit Workbook (GRW) is an innovative piece of software that puts all of the green retrofit decision-making information required into the hands of people on the front lines of green building. Homeowners and contractors input existing data about a home into the GRW to generate a model of its present energy and water consumption rates and associated costs.
It then allows clients to enter their renovation wish list and generates a report that calculates the cost, payback, and resource savings generated by undertaking each item on the list.

By analysing the long-term resource and cost benefits of green renovation, the software aims to inspire renovators across Canada to reduce their energy and water consumption rates by up to 90 per cent and to put thousands of dollars into people’s pockets!

REEP House was built by the community. More than 11,000 hours of labour, 85 contractors, an 11-member design committee, 13 major funders and 28 donors made the transformation possible.

REEP House now builds community. Since we opened our doors only a few short months ago, we have welcomed more than 1,000 visitors. Onsite and on the web these people connect with each other. They are inspired at REEP House and move forward to undertake exciting retrofit projects with the help of local contractors and lenders. Those people then pass on their knowledge
and spread the word about REEP House, and so the REEP House community grows.

Please feel free to book a visit with us at REEP House to use the house as it was intended, as a hands-on learning centre and community meeting place. We are now open for regular tours, workshops and also have meeting rooms available. Or drop by for a virtual visit any time!

For rates and availability please contact Cheryl Evans at info@reephouse.ca or 519-603-0323.

Cheryl Evans is REEP House Outreach Officer