Home | Content

Sustainable Infrastructure

Saskatchewan is characterized by extreme temperature variations from winter to summer and other extreme climatic conditions. This creates challenges for sustainable and efficient building design, especially one's that conserve energy. At the same time, the Saskatchewan prairies face significant water challenges and infrastructure costs associated with these water issues. Good housing is also central to people's well-being, their sense of belonging within a community, and their ability to sustain a livelihood. With the cold climate, Saskatchewan people must spend a considerable amount of time indoors creating a greater need for healthy homes and buildings.

Feeling at home in the prairie region in ways that economically provide for a high quality of life can help stem rural to urban migration and migration out of the province a historic challenge of the region. Buildings on the prairies have not traditionally been highly customized to local conditions nor make use of local materials. Education about what buildings and building materials are sustainable and how to build sustainably on the prairies creates livelihood opportunities in the region. Rural communities are also facing deteriorating infrastructure, especially water infrastructure, over the next 10 to 15 years that can be addressed by sustainable infrastructure initiatives. It also affords opportunities for cities to create more affordable housing and revitalized neighbourhoods. If communities are to become sustainable, citizens collectively need to be educated about the full life-cycle costs of their public and private infrastructure as opposed to merely upfront costs.

Summer Institute on "Place and Critical Eco Pedagogies", July 24-Aug 9, U of S (Saskatoon)

Submitted by RogerPetry on Wed, 2010-06-02 12:09

Summer Institute on "Place and Critical Eco Pedagogies"

The two below courses, offered in combination as a Summer Institute from July 24-August 9, 2010 may be of interest to undergraduate and graduate students and practitioners in a range of disciplines, such as Native Studies, Geography, Environmental Studies, Community Health, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Biology, and others. Please distribute to others that may be interested. There is $200 fee for the summer institute in addition to regular course tuition.

EFDT 498.3: Place and Critical Eco Pedagogies: Urban Education (Saskatoon-based)

Dates:  July, 24-29, 2010

This course focuses on how urban experiential and community-based learning can contribute to both personal and educational decolonization and reinhabitation in relation to social and ecological justice issues in a Saskatchewan context. Participants will be introduced to critical eco pedagogical theories and practices, with a particular focus on urban issues and spaces such as Aboriginal and settler youth cultures and orientations to place and environmental issues, environmental justice and racism, schoolyard greening and urban gardening, and various other facets of community-based learning and engagement. The course will include students reading, developing an urban critical eco pedagogy photo essay, and creating and experiencing a range of urban learning experiences with an aim of being better able to incorporate urban and community-based education into their educational practices. This course is intended to be taken with, and is a pre-requisite for, EFDT 498.3, Place and Critical Eco Pedagogies: Outdoor Education.

EFDT 498.3: Place and Critical Eco Pedagogies: Outdoor Education (River-based)

Dates:  August 4-9, 2010 

This course focuses on how outdoor experiential and place-based learning can contribute to both personal and educational decolonization and reinhabitation in relation to social and ecological justice issues in a Saskatchewan context. This course builds on the frameworks for experiential and place-based learning developed in Urban Education pre-requisite course, and extends them to consider unique issues and opportunities that arise in outdoor education environments. The course covers topics such as trip preparation and group travel, exploring the five senses in learning, using art and poetry in ecological learning, decolonizing place and the historical site visits, the history of Aboriginal and settler peoples in the course area, natural history and species identification, nature sketching, framing and debriefing effective solo experiences, and connecting place-based learning to the curricular content areas. The course will include students reading, articulating their own working theory of critical eco pedagogy, and creating and experiencing a range of outdoor learning experiences with an aim of being better able to incorporate outdoor education into their educational practices. Pre-requisite is EFDT 498.3, Place and Critical Eco Pedagogies: Urban Education.

For more information, contact:Marcia McKenzie or ScottThompson at marcia.mckenzie@usask.ca & thompsons@spsd.sk.ca;
To register, contact edfdt.gradsecretary@usask.ca or (306) 966- 7514

Presentations of the 5th International RCE Conference Now Available

Submitted by RogerPetry on Tue, 2010-06-01 13:15

Please see the note below from the UN University office regarding availability of presentations made at the 5th International RCE Conference held in Curitiba, Brazil, from May 18-20, 2010.--Roger

Dear colleagues,

The presentations of the Fifth International RCE Conference, held on 18-20 May 2010, are now online at www.ias.unu.edu/efsd/rceconference2010.

Please let me know if you spot any errors.

Thank you,

Sampreethi Aipanjiguly

Communications Coordinator

ESD Programme, UNU-IAS

Local Video Conference for Continental Meeting of RCEs in the Americas (May 18, Regina)

Submitted by RogerPetry on Fri, 2010-05-14 10:31

Dear Members and Supporters of RCE Saskatchewan,

A portion of the upcoming 5th International RCE Conference in Curitiba, Brazil, is dedicated to a Continental Meeting of RCEs in the Americas. I am pleased to announce that thanks to the Video Conference Service of Environment Canada we have been able to arrange a local venue for RCE Saskatchewan members and supporters to participate by video conference in the meeting. The following are the meeting details:

Date: Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Time: 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m (Saskatchewan time)

Location: Room 186.1, Education Building, University of Regina (see attached map)

In addition to representatives of RCEs in the Americas in Curitiba and our Regina venue, we will also being having participation from sites in Vancouver (RCE British Columbia North Cascades), RCE Montréal, and RCE Greater Sudbury.

You will find attached both the meeting agenda (in English and French) along with the minutes from the RCE of the Americas meeting held last year in Montreal.

I look forward to your participation in this exciting event.

Best wishes,

Roger Petry, Co-coordinator, RCE Saskatchewan

 

Craik Solar Fair Trade Show call-out

Submitted by KarenMcIver on Tue, 2010-05-11 14:45

Hello,

I am helping to organize the Craik Solar Fair this summer, June 19-20, and
was hoping that someone from your organization would be interested in
having a table in our trade show area. Tables are $200, but organizations
that do not have a budget for this sort of thing are encouraged to make
other arrangements by contacting Shirley <eade@sasktel.net>.

Although we call it a solar fair, the topics we are interested in are
diverse, with past trade show participants from organizations such as
Oxfam as well as commercial vendors of alternative energy technology.

There is also a Green Drinks kick-off event for the solar fair on the
evening of June 18 to which you are welcome to attend. This will be held
at the Craik Eco-Centre, with Glenn Sutter providing musical
entertainment.

We hope to hear from you soon. There is limited space in the trade show
area. We also hope you can help promote this event through your contacts.
Registration is now open for participants. Visit our website
www.craikecovillage.com for more information.

The registration forms are at:

http://www.craikecovillage.com/education_solarfair2010.html

Thank you for your time, and looking forward to seeing you this summer.

Paul Stinson

Sustainable Production and Consumption RCE Presentation at UN: Live Webcast

Submitted by RogerPetry on Sun, 2010-05-09 23:07

Hello Everyone,

Just a quick note that I, along with other RCE representatives will be presenting at a learning event as part of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD18) at the UN in New York this Monday on the topic of sustainable consumption and production. The UNU webcast will take place on Monday, May 10, from 8:00 to 11:00 a.m. (Saskatchewan time) at the following link:

http://www.ony.unu.edu/webcast/

--Roger