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Building Sustainable Communities

Hello, We are in the process of forming the SaskRCE Working Group on Building Sustainable Communities.

The formation of the Working Group was approved by the SaskRCE Facilitation Group in November 2008. Attached is the presentation made to the SaskRCE Facilitation Group in January 2009 on the general plan for the Working Group.

The purpose of the Working Group is to provide a forum for individuals and organizations interested in supporting the development of community sustainability plans and projects that contribute to building sustainable communities. This includes education, research, and action oriented projects. The projects will be primarily targeted at either sustainable living (consuming with a purpose) or sustainable development (building with a purpose).

Anyone interested in being a member of the Working Group is welcome. We are hoping to form a core team of members who are willing to commit to volunteering at least 2-4 hours a month to support Working Group projects.

Projects will generally fall under one of the building blocks for Community Sustainability:

1. Sustainability Education and Learning

2. Community Sustainability Planning and Action

3. Health and Wellness

4. Housing Development

5. Food Security (local food and healthy eating)

6. Energy Efficiency and Renewables

7. Waste Reduction and Recycling

8. Water and Sewage

9. Transportation Planning and Traffic Management

10. Land Use and Urban Form

11. Greening the Community

12. Atmospheric Change and Quality

13. Municipal regulations and bylaws

As a cross theme Working Group, our intent is to support the existing Working Groups and their projects when appropriate and to ensure that we are not duplicating projects.

When we hold our first formal teleconference in late March, an important agenda item will be to select a few high priority projects to support in the next 12 months. Candidates include:

1. Developing a working framework for Building Sustainable Communities

2. Developing an evaluation, measurement and verification framework for sustainbility projects

3. Identifying available best practice Sustainable Community Planning education and training

4. Creating a Sustainable Building Centre of Excellance for Very Cold Climates

5. Creating prototypes for 12-month greenhouse production

6. Forming a Community Sustainability Planning support team

Let me know before the meeting if you have any other candidate projects.

Please email me if you are interested in participating in the teleconfernce later in the month and whether you are interested in becoming a core team member of the Working Group. The organizing teleconference will be scheduled in the late afternoon and will last approximately 60 minutes. After the organizing meeting, the core team will initiate working teleconferences and live meetings to move individual projects forward. We plan to hold one status update meeting per month to communicate project progress and solicit feedback from Working Group members and other interested people.

Doug Morrison dmorrison@advantage.coop (306) 734-5112

Community Education Workshop, Regina, September 25, 2010

Submitted by RogerPetry on Wed, 2010-09-01 11:10

BEYOND THE BUZZWORDS: PUTTING COMMUNITY SCHOOLS INTO ACTION
Saturday, Sept. 25
9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
St. Mary’s Anglican Church
3337 15th Ave., Regina

A community-organized workshop and strategy session. Free of charge.
Childcare provided. Continental breakfast and lunch included.

Facilitated by Dr. Rick Hesch, Aboriginal Education and Anti-Racism in
Education Consultant

With presentations by:
- Maureen Johns, Executive Director, First Nations, Métis & Community
Education Branch
- Delphine Melchert, Executive Director, Saskatchewan Community Schools
Association
- Michael Tymchak, Director, The Saskatchewan Instructional Development
and Research Unit at the Faculty of Education, University of Regina
- Kim Weiss, Director, Prairie Sky School

Saskatchewan has a policy that encourages all schools to function as
community schools. But what does this mean?  How can we put community
voices at the forefront of school planning? What is community-based
education? Have community schools lived up to their original intent? If
not, why not? How can we ensure our schools genuinely respond to
community needs and aspirations?

Details and online registration at http://www.realrenewal.org

All welcome. Education faculty and students encouraged to attend.

"5 Years of Regional Centres of Expertise on ESD" Publication Available Online

Submitted by RogerPetry on Fri, 2010-08-20 10:21

Dear RCE Members,

The United Nations University in May of this year released its publication "5 Years of Regional Centres of Expertise on ESD". This publication documents the first 5 years of RCE activity, including activities by continent. A map of the 75 RCEs existing at the time of publication is also included. I am pleased to announce that this publication is now available online at:

http://www.ias.unu.edu/resource_centre/5%20years%20of%20RCEs.pdf

The document has many photos including those from RCE Saskatchewan. Thank you to those who contributed. RCE Saskatchewan is also mentioned at various points. You can also get a good overview of the other RCEs in our network. Feel free to share this link with others in your organization and in our ESD community. The global RCE community has much to celebrate and this book is indicative of that work.--Roger

Photos from 5th International RCE Conference Posted

Submitted by RogerPetry on Fri, 2010-08-13 16:39

Photos from the 5th International RCE Conference in Curitiba, Brazil, from May 18 to 20, 2010, have now been posted in the image galleries. You can go to the "Resources" tab and then "image galleries" or you use the following link:

http://www.saskrce.ca/category/image-galleries/5th-int-rce-conference-cu...

Thank you to Lyle Benko for providing these photos for posting.--Roger

Invitation to contribute to the World Sustainable Development Teach-In Day

Submitted by RogerPetry on Wed, 2010-08-04 15:30

Dear All,

Forwarded please find the e-mail below from Prof. Walter Leal of RCE Hamburg regarding the World Sustainable Development Teach-In Day. If you are interested in contributing to the event, please contact him for further information. 

Warm regards,

Sachiko

The Global RCE Service Centre

**********************forwarded e-mail***********************

Dear RCE Colleagues,

The World Sustainable Development Teach-In Day will be held on the 3rd December 2010, being co-organised by RCE Hamburg. It will be the largest initiative on sustainability education ever organised, and participants from over 50 countries will take advantage of this unique event

I would like to invite interested RCEs to contribute towards the event, by preparing a power point presentation on one of the topics of the conference, which can be seen:  http://world-sustainability-day.net/en.html

Accepted presentations will, subject to a review, be put on-line during the event and will showcase your work to a wide audience. Expressions of interest to contribute to the event, initially outlining the title of the envisaged input and the author(s) of the work to be submitted, should be sent to us at: beids@beids.de. You will then get a feed-back and a template which you can use for your presentation.

Finally, the authors who want to, may submit a paper about the topic, which may be published in the book "World Trends on Education for Sustainable Development" which will be published in 2011 as part of the award-winning book series "Environmental Education, Communication and Sustainability" .

Established in 1996 and with over 30 ground-breaking volumes published to date, this is the world´s longest running book series on the topic. Please indicate if you want to contribute to it, so that we can send you the template for papers.

Rgds,

Walter Leal

P.S. Let other people know about it!

----

Prof. Walter Leal (BSc, PhD, DSc, DPhil, DEd, DL, DLitt) Senior Professor & Head of the Research and Transfer Centre "Applications of Life Sciences"

Hamburg University of Applied Sciences

Seeds – A musical fund-raiser for the North Central community gardens.

Submitted by Glenn Sutter on Thu, 2010-07-29 17:17

Hi RCE folks!

 

I wanted to let you know about a sustainability fund-raising project I've been involved in.

 

Seeds is a live album that was recorded at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum on April 22nd, 2010 to mark the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day.  It features original, sustainability-themed folk music by me and Brett Dolter, backed up by drummer/guitarist Jordan Fieseler, bassist Michael Paul and the Ooo La La singers (Anna Rose, Samra Sahlu, and Deb Tuchelt).  There is also a touching rendition of the traditional Hush Little Baby, beautifully performed by Anna Rose, with revised lyrics about helping kids connect with nature.  Proceeds from the first pressing of the album are being donated to the Community Gardens of North Central Regina, a shining example of social, economic, and environmental sustainability.  The album can be purchased for $15 plus postage from the North Central Community Association (www.nccaregina.ca) or by sending a cheque (made out to me) to 26 Bole Place, Regina, S4S 3W7.

 

Cheers!

 

Glenn Sutter