Open Space

Recently in our sustainability and community relations class we were given the opportunity to participate in an open space workshop in order to generate ideas for the overall goal of “What can I do to help Colwood” become more carbon neutral. This ultimately aided the class in brainstorming a number of ideas and concepts to help produce individual team wikis/presentations for the Colwood council.

The group that I eventually reached to becoming a member of revolved around improving the trail system at the Royal Roads campus and inevitably promoting the opportunity for users to bike/walk/jog these trails. It initially involved incorporating all the bike paths in the Colwood municipality but our group felt that the focus on Royal Roads Campus would be of more interest. The Royal Roads campus is a large part of Colwood and is largely shaded by the fact that the trails are not openly exposed to residents and visitors. Our group felt that the generation of a map using GPS and ArcGIS would provide the necessary resources for people to thoroughly enjoy this campus for all it has to offer. Signage was also an issue as we felt that the existing trail map was confusing and the fact that the trails have none in place. We also felt that perhaps a survey of Colwood residents would provide the data necessary to see how willing the community would be to these ideas and perhaps be the encouragement for taking this idea from paper to actual reality. In my mind, Royal Roads is a largely untapped sustainable resource and hopefully with our groups vision we can encourage people to enjoy the campus without the need to generate carbon emissions.

I felt that the open space workshop was a very valuable tool which opened up the creativity in individuals and help connect classmates with similar interests. The open space workshop allowed our class to freely move around as they please between all of the carbon neutral ideas that were generated. The two foot approach gave everybody the freedom to leave and enter groups as they please. In the end, the groups that were left were based on by chance and similar interests. The open space environment opened up the imagination of our cohort and in the end produced a number of ideas that can hopefully become implemented within the municipality of Colwood. The open space workshop I feel was very appropriate and perhaps the best tool that could have been used for this purpose. There were no limitations and nobody was held back from their ideas. Open space can be applied to a variety of situations and I feel that this example that took place within our cohort further exclaims that this can work and should be applied to other team building exercises. In conclusion, each individual idea was thoroughly discussed and changed throughout the 3 hour block of time that we were allowed to work on this. In the end of this, a refined and polished set of concepts existed which included each members individual thoughts.

Climate Change & Local Food

Today in class we received presentations from Gene Miller, Jennifer Gerard, and Cindy Moyer to continue with our sustainability and community’s class. Gene brought a harsher outlook on climate change, sustainability and what we can expect. Personally it seemed surreal in a way; to hear negativity about these concepts whereas all the other presenters we have been exposed to seem to praise their own ideals into this big concept of sustainability. According to Gene, a full scale apocalypse is sitting at our doorsteps. Capitalism has created a situation where full scale growth is occurring at all levels of production, industry and resource use. These unsustainable practices have brought forward a scenario that people think we can escape from which is climate change. However, there is such a divided line between climate change and society that creates a never ending cycle for our planet. Some think climate change will not happen whereas others exclaim the presence of it. It has left our world in an unusual balance that seems like disaster will occur far before proper action has commenced. This disaster threshold will sneak upon us and will cause very drastic changes in which we may not have the ability to adapt to. A quote that Gene said sums climate change very appropriately; “The metabolism of our economy is on a collision course with the metabolism of our planet”. I don’t think it could be stated any better than this. Approximately 2 centuries of population and industrial expansion are causing major changes that our planet has never been exposed to before. Ecosystems are being disrupted and the exponential extraction of non-renewable resources has created a hell on earth for civilization. We are truly living up to another quote that Gene said which is “borrowing our planet from our grandchildren”.

Now to stray away from going on a rant about the doom and gloom scenario that Gene instilled upon us, we were then introduced to Jennifer Gerard. Jennifer is a representative for the West Shore Harvest group that resides on Vancouver Island. She brought another take to the food aspect and shared the techniques and methods that have been introduced by her group to communities. Initially, she shared a video with us regarding local foods and commercially produced food which motivated us to produce a “mind map” which we have been exposed to before as a cohort, but the topic to brainstorm was food security. Our class came up with a lot of different ideas on food security and they expanded from concepts such as government subsidizing, competition, and going local. I felt that this exercise was fitting and got us thinking with the proper mindset relating to her topic which revolved around locally produced food.

Jennifer’s organization brings forward many projects that are being introduced to the public in order to create a sense of connectedness with food as well as promote the concept of practicing in local foodstuffs. One concept was the gardening universe project that teaches individuals the concepts of being able to grow food in their backyard, provide the necessary supplies and act as a mentor to the person. Gardens in motion consists of a flatbed trailer that has housed on it many planters and displays showing local goods which travels to various events in the West Shore. This provides an interaction between communities as well as between children and food. The hands on contact and communication allow conversations to develop resulting in a connectedness between individuals. The fruit tree project allows community members that have fruit trees in their backyard to supply and provide the excess of them to local food banks. They also have a publication of a food guide that shows local markets, eateries, and restaurants that support locally produced food.

The last presenter was Cindy Moyer, whom works actively with the mayor of Colwood in order to develop food events with environmental awareness and community interaction in mind. The events that she explained I thought were great, not just for the food but the community involvement as well. One good example was the go local tomato challenge where community members are challenged to grow their own tomatoes and participate in a cook off. This was not just a competition between people to see who could grow the biggest tomato but it was much more. It involved various organizations around the municipality of Colwood such as Royal Roads University and Island culinary chefs. This event created a connection between the community at every level. By allowing members to interact with one another around the idea of locally produced food, this creates a hub of community awareness. Another example within an example I guess you could say was the cob oven used for the food challenges. This oven was created by a wide array of multi-generation groups, community members and first nations citizens. It benefitted the community because it housed an environment in which all entities of Colwood were allowed to interact with one another. Even just the simplicity of creating an object can create friendships and positivity that can further dissipate into the community. I like the idea of incorporating food and community which can be very beneficial in developing relationships to reach a common goal. Perhaps that these ideals with community interaction can be applied with and expand onto other concepts such as transportation, emissions, and energy use. If these principles can be adapted then possibly the goal of becoming carbon neutral for Colwood can become an evident reality.

Community Energy Association & Sustainable Transport

To continue with sustainability and communities class we recieved a presentation from Laura Porcher whom is the manager for partnership development with the Community Energy Association (CEA). We also had a presentation from Todd Litman for the concept of sustainable transportation. The Community Energy Association was founded by the province of BC and is strongly linked to many other companies such as BC Hydro, transit and many other associations. I feel that the linkages with these companies are beneficial in order to fully implement their ideas into the communities. This revolves around making efficient and smart decisions with building and infrastructure design with regards to energy use and the release of emissions. The fact that at 2 degrees of temperature change can lead to the 30% loss of lifeforms is astonishing. Such statistics like this is influencing the government of BC to make cut back on carbon emissions. Such an example is to reduce emissions by 33% below the 2007 levels by 2020. In order to accomplish these tasks, there must be a connection between communities, energy and sustainability. The CEA has encouraged the CRD to make energy wise and conscious decisions in the areas of land use planning, energy efficiency of buildings, transportation efficiency and to diversify their energy supply. There needs to be engagement of residents and businesses in order to fully get these ideas from being an idea to actual reality. A concept that Laura shared was QUEST (Quality Urban Energy Systems of Tomorrow). Some ideas that seem very promising with QUEST is managing heat from applications and turn that into energy for further use. This can be accomplished by taking heat given off from processes, collecting it and using it to heat another building or to heat water. In order for this to accomplish and become reality there needs to be a public engagement process to get the community involved and excited about this concept. Local government will need to undertake social marketing tactics in order to build a culture that supports change from this energy hungry and wasteful society that seems to exist today. The public should be informed about the demands for change, become actively engaged in the process and allowed to collaborate with others.

The pillars of Community energy and Emissions planning involve land use, transportation, buildings, infrastructure and energy supply. Land use planning should involve a focused density of mixed use buildings. Mixed use buildings consist of both residential and commercial residents. These buildings encourage reducing the need to rely on a vehicle to drive to the store to buy goods. The land use planning should encourage transit and protect green space/agricultural land reserves. Transportation should be energy efficient and support rail, cycling, walking and using alternative fuels. Buildings can be either looked at from refurbishing an existing one or in the design of a new one. An example is district heating where one heat source provides the energy for a number of buildings. Existing buildings can become retrofitted with efficient energy products such as fixtures and lighting. Also establishing a green roof on a building can provide as an insulator in the winter and a cooling agent in the summer which saves on energy costs. The energy supply should have renewable resources and the idea of waste energy utilization imbedded in its design.

Many communities in BC have put forward energy and emissions procedures forward. Some examples are Whistler which has put forward waste heat district heating for the Olympics and Squamish has its own community energy action plan. There is a solar ready bylaw in Dawson Creek so that any new buildings have to be able to convert to solar power. Kelowna has a smart transit plan and Langford is a leed neighborhood. These are just a few examples of the communities in BC whom have put forward their own contributions to smart energy hopefully will influence others into doing the same.

The other speaker for the class was Todd Litman who presented on sustainable transportation. Todd made a lot of good points such as what do we view as paradise. Society today generates happiness by wealth, which can be presented by such material items like a nice car. Increased happiness by their material items is an economic trap. A good example that Todd shared was that when someone in a neighborhood buys a nice car naturally his/her neighbors will want to buy a nice car as well. These material things are basically a status symbol and people do not put the considerations into actually making energy wise decisions for green transportation.

There needs to be a paradigm shift in the growth and development for expanding and doing more improvement for transportation. Communities can fulfill the need for physical movement and accessibility in the creation of pedestrian friendly neighborhoods. Sidewalks can be curved to promote walkability and the use of wheeled luggage for pedestrians. This seems farfetched but the simplicity of this can promote walking and energy efficient transportation. There is a large transportation problem that exists today as it is creates a large amount of costs to a number of different areas. Traffic congestion leads to an excessive release of pollutants into the atmosphere and stress on the drivers. Road construction is expensive and ultimately costs consumers money through their taxes. Roads are also not very pedestrian friendly as there is limited space for walking and biking to occur. These problems need to be all taken into consideration with energy efficient transport and they are all a key component into the problem that vehicles are causing.

Todd created a good argument for transportation and the need for more sustainable transportation. However some of the concepts seem very distant and the general population is not going to sacrifice driving. Don’t get me wrong, cycling and promoting physical activity while reducing the impact on the environment is a good thing. But to fully not rely on a vehicle is a very hard task for most of the general population. I do know it is possible as many from our class do not have a vehicle and cycle everywhere. However how will this case be won with a busy mother of 3 kids whom has to juggle work, taking the children to activities, and all that comes with parenting. Is it safe to say that she will bike them around or put them all on a bus in order to save the environment? I think that society nowadays think for themselves and do what is most efficient for them. So therefore there will continue to be vehicles on the road. I think that the real push should be for alternative energy sources for vehicles, but I don’t see this happening for a long time. I feel that the reliance on fossil fuels has become a part of everyday life and in order to change this we must continue to educate the public. As with all the sustainability issues existing today, there needs to be the continual exposure to the concerns and what needs to be done to combat them. Then there may be hope with a change commencing on the community level.