Partnerships can create greater synergy, engender more action and the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. The NET is exploring a partnership with the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care Coalition and Gardening for Biodiversity. Our dream is to build a greening revolution across Canada to regenerate biodiversity for the health of our communities.
Greening Hospitals. Bringing the forest to patients
Healthcare institutions can lead the way in combating climate change and biodiversity loss, enhancing well-being by re-wilding their facilities with trees, shrubs, pollinator plants, and natural grasses. These green initiatives create carbon sinks, restore biodiversity, and offer patients and staff restorative spaces to (re)connect with nature. Over the past two years, the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care and its partners have planted 2,400 trees across 20+ sites in collaboration with tree charities like Tree for Life. The Canadian Health Care Forests initiative expands on this vision, incorporating traditional and native plants to establish diverse, thriving greenspaces at hospitals, long-term care facilities, and other health sites.
Greening Legislatures—Victoria, British Columbia
In December 2023, a British Columbia Youth Parliament (BCYP) bill was passed to re-envision the Victoria Legislature grounds as a model of sustainable design. Eco-engineered features including rooftop beehives, rainwater collection, naturalized lawns, and the reintroduction of native plant species to encourage habitat rehabilitation and ecosystem re-wilding were proposed. Youth Members of Parliament debated the bill, then voted strongly in favour for a Green Legislature in Victoria.
BCYP’s recommendation for the sustainable landscape redesign of the Victoria Legislature was shared with provincial leaders. However, BC youth need support from Canadians to make this ecological vision a reality.
The objective of the Victoria Legislature re-design is to demonstrate BC’s commitment to innovative nature-based solutions and inspire Canadians to explore creative green options for our built-environments. And why stop at the Victoria Legislature? There are 14 Canadian legislative buildings and grounds across the country. Imagine the impact of Greening Legislatures from coast to coast to coast!
The Greening Legislatures Initiative is dedicated to re-envisioning Canadian Legislatures as demonstration projects for sustainable design and practices and innovative ecological engineering. Provincial youth parliaments, environmental clubs, and young climate activists across Canada are invited to join forces with BC youth and join the Greening Legislatures Initiative. Contact. Finnegan Brown, fbrown@westshore.brookes.org
Gardening for Biodiversity
The National Environmental Trust (the NET) is partnering with the Ecological Design Lab on their National Bylaws for Biodiversity along with Nature Canada and FLAP Canada, to develop all new Gardening for Biodiversity resources. This initiative serves as a collaborative repository, bringing together valuable tools and reputable resources from our organizations, in one accessible collection, designed to help Canadians across the country naturalize their lawns to protect and regenerate biodiversity. A number of booklets have now been developed, and we hope to begin actively blogging and answering questions from Canadians on steps to be taken, once additional funding has been identified, www.oursafetynet.org
Community Garden (Source: Steve Adams from Unsplash)