Greenest City Camp
Register for camp here: http://greenestcitycamp.eventbrite.com/
Time for Camp in March!
Remember summer camp? Crafts and projects and meeting lots of new people? Well, Saturday, March 5th is Greenest City Camp, a full-day of learning, connecting and finding allies and collaborators to make Vancouver the Greenest City in the world by 2020.
This is your chance to connect with Vancouver residents and organizations that are passionate about making this a green city and find out how we can move forward together. It's about finding people, and the resources, to do what you always wanted to do like:
- Making your voice heard by coming out to speak at a Council meeting
- Organizing your neighbourhood to take over your laneway to create a garden
- Working with your local Business Improvement Association to reduce waste
Residents of Vancouver are passionate about greening the city. We plant community gardens. We walk and ride our bikes to work. We take transit. We purchase healthy green products. We compost. We recycle. We support local businesses. Camp is about linking the actions we are already taking to the ten Greenest City goals in order to build momentum for change. The City can do some things like build bike lanes, provide curbside composting and plant trees on city land but the real impact comes when everyone in Vancouver is part of this story.
The day will be an “unconference” which means that all of the participants -that's you! - jointly create the agenda and lead discussions, talk about projects and find solutions. We provide the space, some background information, the coffee, the cookies and some fun. Then turn it over to you!
It's a lot of chaos, a lot of connection, a lot of fun and will result in a lot of action. You will also have the opportunity to meet folks from the City, learn about the draft Action Plans, and help fine tune and prioritize actions before they go to City Council.
And by the end of the day, everyone should leave with concrete ideas and action items on how they fit into the map of making Vancouver the Greenest City by 2020.
We’re already doing a lot, now it’s time to take it to the next level.
We hope you can make it!
Register here: http://greenestcitycamp.eventbrite.com/
Have a potential session topic? Add it to the wiki: http://greenestcitycamp.wikispaces.com/
And to help get you ready for camp, we've scheduled a pre-camp webinar.
Learn. Connect. Take Action.
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charging $25 PLUS a $2.49 fee
charging $25 PLUS a $2.49 fee for people to attend and contribute their time to helping the city do its job better, is a big fail.
and please don't tell me that for "low-income people" there can be exceptions. this is not about the money. this is about the spirit with which The City is conducting itself, the value it places on the people who make up Vancouver, The City's obvious lack of willingness to pay for the ideas and time of its residents.
The City is a business, like any other. And if in my business, I was having trouble adapting for change and needed to gather the best minds to help me brainstorm a way forward, those people would be called consultants, and I would pay them.
Why should residents have to pay The City of Vancouver, for the privilege of contributing to our own city?
This is about engagement. this is about doing things differently. with all the buildings the city has access to I am sure it could find a free or low cost place to host this event, and judging by all the new parking meters alone the city has sprouting up all over the place, i am betting that a truly creative mind could have found a way to even spring for lunch.
you are asking people to give up a day with their families to give you ideas on how to do YOUR JOBS. there should be a $25 honorarium for those that show up... and maybe even a catered lunch.
i won't be attending this.
and come on. get creative, City of Vancouver.
Why we charged for Camp
Just wanted to step in here and explain why we decided to charge for camp.
We’ve been experimental throughout this process, and some experiments have been more successful than others -- that has been the risk we’ve been willing to take in the spirit of being innovative.
When planning the unconference, we had recommendations from people who have organized similar events that charging this type of cost would help get more accurate numbers. It creates more of a commitment that people will show up and helps us make sure we haven’t overshot our catering (we hate to see food go to waste!).
We’ve hosted over 50 free events throughout the greenest city consultation process – most of which have sold out. From our experience anywhere from 20-50% of people who said they were coming do not show up on the actual day, taking away spots from people who would have come if it wasn’t full.
So the fee was not attempted to create a barrier, but to have more of a commitment that people will be present to have these conversations. We want to have a broad section of the community together and that is why we have a “no one turned away for lack of funds” policy. And all the money collected is going towards cost recovery.
So with all that being said, we’re getting some really clear feedback about the impression that we’re leaving on people. We’re in conversation on how to remedy this. This is the kind of dialogue that is really important as the City works with the community to achieve the greenest city goals.
So thanks for raising this as a flag.
I too agree with
I too agree with ChangeHappens - I too was hesitant to pay for the unconference. Not because I cannot afford it but because I feel that the spirit and energy of a free conference where we are all working together for a brighter future would be much better. You could have given us the option of a $25 lunch or to bring our own brown bag lunch.
I believe many great, enthusiastic people will not attend this unconference because of the fee who otherwise would have gladly signed up.
Zero Waste Kitchen, Bathroom, Cleaning Cupboard & Parties
3 years ago (March 4th 2008) our Kitsilano house along with the contents for a family of four was destroyed in a fire. Luckily nobody was harmed and we had good insurance coverage. I was on maternity leave with my one year old daughter and took on the challenge of working closely with the insurance company, City Hall building & permits, house design, contractor & sub trades and replacing all of our contents.
This was an opportunity to try to build a house and replace our contents in as environmentally friendly a way as possible. We entered the 2010 Green Building Challenge with Lighthouse Sustainability Centre http://www.sustainablebuildingcentre.com/sites/default/files/lh-2010-brossard.pdf as an unassisted project. We tried to follow their guidelines on energy efficiency, water conservation and waste diversion as much as possible.
At each stage in the rebuild I would seek out the most sustainable options and analyze the pros and cons of implementing them. Beauty and heritage was also important. I spent many hours on Craigslist finding out where local houses were being demolished so that we could reclaim as much material as possible. This is a list of local reclaimed items we incorporated all from different sources:
We saved as much old building material as was feasible and gave away some that we did not need (e.g. old chimney bricks). During excavation we saved any stones to build stone walls in the garden and broken concrete pavers made our new patio and pathway. The fir windows are FSC compliant and incorporate low e and are argon filled. Low or zero VOC paints and glues where used. We tried to implement a gray water system but at this time there is no support for this in Vancouver. For the house contents I purchased mostly 2nd hand, consignment & thrift shop. We bought all new appliances.
High on my list for our new home was for it to be toxic free and zero waste (including vastly reducing the contents of the blue box, blue bag and yellow bag). I have achieved the toxic free part with regards to toiletries and cleaning products. The zero waste is an on-going challenge. As suggested by Lighthouse Sustainability Centre I began taking photographs of our garbage & recycling about 2 years ago. I discovered our garbage was mostly dry plastic food packaging and food scraps. This really opened my eyes to what was being sent to the landfill or incinerator. It also didn’t make a lot of sense to be putting beautiful glass jars & bottles in the blue box to be crushed. Even the recyclable plastic containers such as shampoo and cleaning supplies seemed to be so wasteful in the production, removal and melting down as far as toxins and energy use are concerned.
I began to create a ‘transparent’ kitchen, cleaning cupboard and bathroom with all the accompanying products in glass jars or bottles. Unfortunately, today my green home ends at the front door as there is little supply for this economy except for Avalon Dairy’s glass bottle return and a few stores that sell bulk ‘organic’ dried foods within walking distance and bringing my own containers to fill with under the counter items such as olives, salads etc.
I have approached the following local organizations regarding providing their organic food products in returnable/refillable glass jars or bottles or other sustainable ‘refillable’ containers (e.g. not single use plastics, glass etc.)
As a busy mom who will most likely be joining the workforce again in September I would love to have the following available to me in order to continue my challenge to be a zero waste household:
Community Store – a shop where local organic farmers, producers and brewers can sell their zero waste goods. This would also incorporate a sterilizing area where returned containers could be cleaned and returned to the local producer for refill.
Kitchen
Bathroom
Cleaning
Brewery
Lending room
This endeavour would require funding initially by charitable foundations, City of Vancouver, Local businesses but over time it will become a self sustaining business as it grows in popularity. It would need to be in a high residential area to encourage walking e.g. the vacant KFC building at Broadway/Larch.