Walkingthetalk Newsletter #32

Submitted by wttcoordinator on Tue, 2009-08-11 19:37.

Welcome to walkingthetalk newsletter #32! This newsletter is a short monthly collection of recent member postings on the walkingthetalk website to give you an idea of what's new. Please feel free to share this newsletter with others. Note that not everything that is posted on the website makes it into the newsletter, so don't forget to visit the site often. While you are there, you may want to make some new connections, let others in the network know what you're working on, and post an event or resource that you wish to publicize widely as our network membership continues to grow. This newsletter goes out to the current 670+ walkingthetalk members across BC and beyond!

If you're not a walkingthetalk network member but are interested in sustainability education in BC, feel free to go to the site and become a member by creating an account.

Recent news:

We are proud to announce the recent publication of “Taking Action: British Columbia's Universities and Colleges Respond to the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets Act” a report produced for the BC Working Group and Network on SustainabilityEducation.

British Columbia’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets Act (GGRTAor the Act) puts into law the GHG reduction commitments made in the province’s Climate Action Plan and sets a progressive path to find solutions to climate change. Enacted in November 2007, GGRTA requires that core government and all Public Sector Organizations (PSOs) be carbon neutral beginning in 2010. This new policy direction will have profound impacts on how colleges and universities operate. A truly sustainable institution is one in which conservation is embedded into all aspects of the institution including curriculum, strategic planning, purchasing, and the day to day behaviour of students, staff and faculty.

We undertook this study to find out how, one year after the introduction of the Act, post secondary institutions were responding—what actions they have taken and what challenges they are facing. This study builds on the work done in an earlier report titled "Taking Stock: Report on Sustainability in Universities and Colleges in BC" (Owens & Moore, 2008) which found that colleges and universities in BC face substantial barriers to achieving sustainability including bureaucratic inertia, lack of funding, and lack of awareness and communication. These barriers are even more pressing now that a timeline has been set in law for changing how post secondary institutions operate.

This research will contribute to British Columbia’s Climate Action strategy by clarifying the requirements and structure of the Act, drawing attention to the challenges that post secondary institutions will face in implementing the Act, and inspiring greater collaboration and sharing of best practices.

Shared resources:

Upcoming events

Slow Food Cycling Tours - Aug 22 & 23, 2009

Slow Food is a non-profit, member-supported organization that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast-food, fast-life, and the disappearance of local food traditions. The Slow Food Cycle Tours contribute to a culinary culture, helping to raise awareness about food production and providing a link between farmers and food consumers in a unique and fun-filled way.

(read more...)

Web resources

Climate Solutions Network

The PICS Climate Solutions Network has been designed to facilitate communication and collaboration among researchers, scientists, policy-makers and other stakeholders in the area of climate change. It will alsoenable climate change researchers to connect with experts in other fields, in order to address the interdisciplinary nature of climate change research and to harness the intellectual resources of experts within British Columbia and beyond. This database provides access to key contacts across academia, government, the scientific community, and the private and non-profit sectors that are collectively engaged in activities related to the four main functionsof the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions:

  • Understanding the patterns and magnitude of climate change;
  • Evaluating the physical, economic and social implications;
  • Assessing options and developing solutions;
  • and Communicating climate change issues to government, industry and the general public.
Sector-specific postings:
K-12 education
The ELE Curriculum Maps has been developed to help teachers turn theory into practice for environmental learning by connecting learning outcomes across K-12 curricula with elements of the ELE Guide. Teachers adept at integrating the environment and sustainability into their practice are often well aware of these curriculum links, while others may find the connections less obvious. These maps help to show us where the connections already exist, and how we might further incorporate environmental themes into our teaching and learning.

With the release of the ELE Guide and Curriculum Maps, educators in BC have a stronger foundation on which to base their teaching around the environment and sustainability.

(read more...)

Higher education

The Canadian Network for Environmental Education and Communication (EECOM) - 2010 Annual National Conference

Simon Fraser University-Burnaby, British Columbia on May 19-22, 2010

Diversity, sustainability and environment: Exploring cultural and practical diversity for environmental learning

Call for Submissions - Deadline November 1st, 2009

What is planned for the EECOM 2010 conference is a focus on the diversity present within the field of environmental learning, both culturally and practically. We therefore encourage high quality, collaborative proposals which celebrate diversity in perspectives, methods and/or cultural contexts for the 2010 conference. Proposal and abstract submission are now available online (send proposals to eecom@sfu.ca). Deadline November 1st, 2009.

(read more...)

Non-formal education

The T'Sou-ke Smart Energy Group

The T’Sou-ke Smart Energy Group (T’SEG) has been created with the purpose of educating the T’Sou-ke community about the importance of low impact sustainable energy, through the use of culture, traditional values and historical means of communication.

(read more...)

Profile:

We regularly post a bio (with permission) of a walkingthetalk member to introduce you to some of your colleagues in sustainability.

This month's profile
Janny Ke
Born in China, I moved to Canada with my mother when I was 12. Lucky me, growing up in Zhuhai, then a relatively unpolluted Chinese city adorned with greens and mountains that daydreams by the swish-swash of the Pacific - a luxury that most urban dwellers in Asia don't have. The collage of my childhood and adolescence -- music, painting, playwriting, travels, opulence, poverty, science, random excursions to the remaining patches of wilderness -- gives me discoveries and inspirations that piqued me to look at sustainability differently.

Complex problems of today demand innovations that involve the synergistic power of people from many different walks of life. For example, to realistically reduce car reliance and thus GHG emissions, we need better infrastructure and policies to ensure cyclist safety, street security, and efficient public transportation. Scientists and artists need to work together to educate everyday people about the sciences of current environmental problems and technological solutions, to investigate the the social impact of scientific innovations, and to determine how to best convince people toward a truly sustainable society. Founded in 2006, the NOW! Organization is dedicated to bridging people from diverse backgrounds to sculpt creative, holistic solutions toward social, economic, and environmental sustainability. Run entirely by youth volunteers, the NOW! team implements innovative and grassroots programs to inspire youth, pique ideas and discussions, and spark action.

One such program is the annual Act NOW! National Playwriting Competition, Canada's first-ever playwriting competition on sustainability organized by youth for youth. Now in its second year, this grassroots initiative hopes to engage young people across the nation to learn, evaluate, innovate -- and of course, act -- with a splash of creativity. Youth and the community could be involved by organizing the competition, writing the plays, performing the winning plays, and seeing the plays, reminding current and future decision makers to take into account the voices and concerns of people from diverse cultural and professional backgrounds. The 2009-2010 competition is open to writers ages 14 - 26; full competition details will be officially announced in September. Winning plays will be performed by local theatre troupes to an estimated audience of 10,000 and aired on Sustainability TV. NOW: N__ O__ W__? We’ve long given up the quest for its acronym. “NOW!” it remains, bold and daring, demanding action this second.If you would like more information or if you would like to get involved, please visit (http://www.now-org.com/) or email info@now-org.com!

Site tips:

Finding out about other network members 

To find out more about a member who has made a particular post, once you are logged in, simply click on the user name that follows "submitted by" at the top of their post, and read their profile.  (view more tips...)

 

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