Well the nice weather has certainly made the gardening season feel a lot closer.
And there are certainly lots of places to garden in Toronto.
Close to home, check out the UofT agriculture project that is growing on the st. george campus, that includes various plots around Hart House!
And CityFarmer is a great blog to stay up to date with urban agriculture projects across the continent (and beyond).
Other people have discussed the benefits of urban agriculture at length : including toronto's own Wayne Roberts. I am excited by the prospect of the growing season around UofT for a number of reasons including:
1) the satisfaction of growing food and the delicious taste of tomatoes right off the vine
2) the ability to form fun and friendly communities in gardens
3) the ability to use the gardens as tools for learning (student and faculty research, workshops, speaker series)
4) starting to re-imagine the built environment. (like this vertical farm)!!
Happy planting. . . !
April 5, 2010
Well the nice weather has certainly made the gardening season feel a lot closer.
And there are certainly lots of places to garden in Toronto.
Close to home, check out the UofT agriculture project that is growing on the st. george campus, that includes various plots around Hart House!
And CityFarmer is a great blog to stay up to date with urban agriculture projects across the continent (and beyond).
Other people have discussed the benefits of urban agriculture at length : including toronto's own Wayne Roberts. I am excited by the prospect of the growing season around UofT for a number of reasons including:
1) the satisfaction of growing food and the delicious taste of tomatoes right off the vine
2) the ability to form fun and friendly communities in gardens
3) the ability to use the gardens as tools for learning (student and faculty research, workshops, speaker series)
4) starting to re-imagine the built environment. (like this vertical farm)!!
Happy planting. . . !
March 25, 2010
How to be an environmental activist..
I've been asked by Prof Miriam Diamond to give a brief lecture in her undergraduate class around environmental activism. . I thought these insights would make a good post.. so here, we, go.
First, what constitutes environmental activism? Dreadlocks and Megaphones? Sure. Protests have been at the forefront of environmental action for decades. But I think we are moving to a time where activism can be done equally effectively while wearing ty-die as wearing a button down and tie. While we still have a need for traditional 'activists' to shake up the status quo, we also need 'activists' to 'inflitrate' academia, business, NGOs, and governments. A few stories….
A few years ago greenpeace launched a campaign against KLEENEX for their practices of clearcutting the boreal forest. Using their trademark creative activism Greenpeace brought this issue to the forefront of public attention (and Kimberley Clark took a hit in the marketplace). Fast forward to august 2009, greenpeace and kimberley clark jointly hold a press conference where they agree to historic measures to protect the boreal forest….. This story shows that activists, consumers, and business working together was needed to take a 180.
Another of my favorite examples is Ray Anderson, the CEO of Interface carpet (one of the largest carpet manufacturers in the world). Speaking in his soothing accent from Atlanta, Georgia. This TED talk explains his transition from 'plunderer' to one of the greenest CEOs in the USA.
It is also interesting to note that the catalyst for Anderson was a book by paul hawkens called the ecology of commerce that discusses how business is both the culparate in environmental degredation, but also has the ability to affect positive change. An author affects a businessman.
Check out the city of Toronto's webpage on environment to see how governments (and especially local governments) can be environmental actors/activists on climate change.
And finally, professors and academia have a role to play. From Miriam Diamond who self-identifies as someone whose research is meant to produce changes in the realm of environmental chemistry and toxic reduction (via policy and public education), to John Robinsong whose building at UBC is helping catalyze the green building revolution, these professors see their role as advocates for the public good.
So bottom line- there is no one type of 'environmental activist'. Instead there a myriad of ways to engage in positive environmental action: name any career path and there is a "environementally good" and "environmentall bad" way to undertake ones job. It matters less what you do, its how you do it.
March 15, 2010
It was certainly an interesting week in 'sustainability' at UofT last week. First we had the environmental justice and sustainaiblity unconference. Lots of interesting people from all wakes of the university talking about different aspects of sustainaiblity, from social networking to building energy intensity.
Friday was the sustainable energy fair where I checked out some neat exhibitors - people promoting "talking plugs' , segway rides (not quite sure how this is more sustainable than walking on 2 feet, but am willing to hear arguments), musicians whose amps are powered by humans on bicycles, and other showcases of lab groups and companies peddling their wares.
Also I never knew how many profs at UofT self-identify as being involved in the 'environment'- you can search for yourself at ECOlink. And feel free to 'wiki' about it at the new UofT sustainability WIKI . One of the profs doing environment work is miriam diamond, who is accepting summer research positions on urban agriculture (check it out here: for 2nd year students only though. . . )
Around NA there are two other campuses that recently implemented 'sustainability student fees- in Texas and Illinois. also berkeley is the latest school to join an online-carpooling program called zimride http://www.zimride.com/ . Looking into bringing these initiatives up here to canada. Lots of work to do . . .
March 8, 2010
Another interesting week in the world of campus sustainability..
UBC announced the creation of a new Sustainability Institute that will be a central hub for all work on campus related to sustainability. It will be housed at the Center for Integrated Research on Sustainability building . I saw the director, John Robinson, give a talk in UofT in the fall about the building: its really mind-boggling. Not only is he minimizing the environmental footprint of the building, it is actually better for the environment for this building to exist… allow me to explain: the building captures waste heat from a neighbour building so the energy bill of the university will actually decrease. In addition, the rain-water capture system has a filtration component that returns water at a better water quality than the rain that falls. This building is restorative!! Quite amazing.
Things on the horizon for hart house include looking at solar thermal (similar to the new panels at the athletic centre ). Solar thermal is when heat from the sun is used to pre-heat water, in this case water that is going to the showers and/or the pool. We are also starting to look at solar PV possibilities - PV panels are the ones that generate electricity.
March 1, 2010 A "Green" Career path - Who would have thought
In my role as sustainability coordinator at Hart House, people often ask me what it is I do?! Well I am a bit of a ‘jack of all trades’ --my work crosses the disciplines of engineering, behaviour psychology, finance, marketing, event planning and beyond. So how does one prepare for future careers in sustainability? Here are a few tips:
1) Be a generalist: one of the most important skill-sets of a sustainability coordinator is the ability to work with people across a variety of disciplines. You don’t need to be a mechanical engineer and understand the inner-workings of the heating system, but you need to know enough to be able to communicate with that engineer. Ditto, you don’t need to be a chartered accountant, but you need to know the basic language of budgets. Most importantly, you need to be able to amalgamate knowledge from various fields into a realistic and workable plan.
2) Make connections: many of the tools we need to push us into a more sustainable world already exist. There is no need to re-invent the wheel. As a sustainability coordinator, you will save a lot of time and mental power by searching out resources that can support you. A few I refer to often are www.aashe.org (The association for the advancement of sustainability in higher education), the sustainability office at UofT www.sustainability.utoronto.ca), the department of facilities and services (http://www.fs.utoronto.ca/sustainability.htm). Sometimes I also check out what’s happening at other school like Harvard (http://green.harvard.edu/ ) or UBC (http://www.sustain.ubc.ca/ ).
3) Sustainability isn’t just about the environment: the working definition I use is that sustainability is where the spheres of the environment, social/culture, and finance/economics intersect. Don’t neglect the latter two spheres!
So, bottom line- there is not really a set ‘curriculum’ that will prepare you up for a career in sustainability planning. While being comfortable with environmental issues, engineering, and/or business is certainly a bonus, equally important is what skills you posses outside of academia: the willingness to learn and cross the boundaries of tradition disciplines, to bring people together, to amalgamate knowledge, and to put a plan into action. If you think you’re up to the task, don’t be afraid to walk into someone’s office and present them with a case on why their organization needs a sustainability coordinator, and why that person should be you!
By David Berliner
Check out the city of Toronto's webpage on 