March 2012

Community News Archive

A case study on Canada's first solar-powered community, Drake Landing, has recently been released through the Partner for Climate Protection program, a climate change initiative created through partnership between the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives.

Drake Landing is a community within the Okotoks, an Albertan town located approximately 50 kilometers south of Calgary.  The Town of Okotoks adopted a sustainable community plan in 1998 aimed at reducing energy expenditure and enhancing the community's environmental and economic sustainablity.  The plan encouraged exploration of renewable energy resources, and this exploration incited the development of Drake Landing.  Harbouring 52 residences, Drake Landing is equipped with a solar-powered district heating system that collects energy through approximately 800 solar panels.  This approach to community heating using solar energy is novel, innovative and sustainable, and Drake Landing is now regarded as model for what could be a larger scale development.

Other case studies produced by the Partner for Climate Protection program are available on their webpage.

In honour of International Women's Day, Women Suffrage and Beyond, a new website on social justice and gendre equality, has been launched by a research team based out of the University of British Columbia.  Women Suffrage and Beyond aims to educate and engage the public in making the connections between the vote, democracy, and social justice.  While centred on women and gendre discrimination issues, the site deliberatley takes an intersectional approach to its messaging and analysis to exhibit the complexity of discrimination and achieving social justice.  Women Suffrage and Beyond invites contributions of posts (500 words or less) and teaching materials; visit the website for more details on how to participate in this project.

The Canadian Green Health Care Digest provides the lastest in news and initiatives in green health care, and will inform you on the latest developments in the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care's projects and activities. You can subscribe to this publication free of charge by contacting Jin Park at Jin@greenhealthcare.ca.  To browse through previous issues of this publication, you can visit Canadian Green Health Care Digest archives.

Giving farmers the tools to fight famine is an article recently published in Embassy Magazine that discusses how climate change adaptation strategies can combat socio-economic issues such as poverty and famine.  A rapidly shifting climate has altered many local environments making them inhospitable for traditional agriculture practices, and attempting to grow foods in the same fashion done by previous generations can lead to low crop yields.  Communities that rely on agriculture for their livelihood and sustenance are dramatically affected by the famine and poverty that ensues from poor crops.  This is a particularly severe issue in rural, farming-based communities of Africa, and the noted article details work that has been done by Canadian NGOs involving the sharing of climate change resistant agricultural technologies to farming communities of Africa, particularly in Ghana.  Food production from these technologies increases to as high as 60% of the original yield, which, not only increases the health of the farming community being aided, but also benefits the communities and countries agricultural products are exported to. The work done by these NGOs is an excellent example of how climate change adaptation work can have a direct benefit on community health, people's quality of life and the global economy.

With global opportunities for clean technologies growing exponentially, Canadian companies, financiers, entrepreneurs, post-secondary institutions and more are tapping into the emerging cleantech market.

- Globe and Mail, February 27, 2012.

 

The Globe and Mail has released an information feature on sustainable technology development in Canada.  This piece covers many different topics of sustainability, and Community Research Connections program head, Professor Ann Dale, contributed her insights based on CRC research on how cities can develop in a sustainable manner. The full article series can be downloaded here.