tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-649359669821935142024-03-05T01:12:54.674-08:00SustainabilityJayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08989087266537875893noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64935966982193514.post-82482580603128206082010-03-11T12:23:00.000-08:002010-03-11T12:38:34.981-08:00The diffusion of innovation & Kotter’s Process<div align="left"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';font-size:12;" >In today’s class we discussed and went over two different processes to innovate people. The two processes were The Diffusion of Innovation method and Leading Change Kotter’s Eight Step Process. Both of theseprocesses are significantly the same and have the same end goal in mind to be reached. </span></div><div align="left"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';font-size:12;" ><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></span></div><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none" class="MsoNormal" align="left"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';font-size:12;" >The following is a illustration displaying the different sections involved in the diffusion of innovation method.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';font-size:12;" >The diffusion of innovation<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 422px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 159px; CURSOR: hand" border="0" alt="" src="http://techticker.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/diffusionofinnovation.png" /> <p align="center"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-: minor-fareastfont-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:8;" ><a href="http://vmmba.com/images/111658-104310/DiffusionOfInnovation_2.png">http://vmmba.com/images/111658-104310/DiffusionOfInnovation_2.png</a></span></p><p align="left"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';font-size:12;" >The first 3 sections of this method are known as the innovators of the world. The first section in this method involves the innovators which make up 2.5% of the overall population. The innovators are people that are very well educated, knowledgeable, have multiple sources of information to help support their ideas and are not afraid to take risks in order to make their idea flourish. Section two is the Early Adopters that make up 13.5% of the overall population. The early adopters are people that are very respectable, opinion leaders, and like to try out new ideas but in a carefully planned out manner. The third section is the Early Majority section which involves 34% of the total overall population. This section showcases people that are respectable opinion leaders that serve as role models such as celebrities and are well known and respected by peers. The back section of this method is people that are known as bandwagon jumpers. The forth section in this method is the Late Majority people which also make up 34% of the overall population. This group of people consists of people that are skeptical, will use new ideas or products only when the majority of the population does. The last section in this method is the Laggards which make up 16% of the overall population. The people in this section are people that enjoy interacting with their peers and seldom hold positions of opinions over people that are leaders.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none" class="MsoNormal" align="left"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';font-size:12;" ><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"></span>The Leading Change Kotter’s Eight Step Process is essentially the same as the Diffusion of Innovation method, but it goes through eight different steps to reach the goal of change. The eight steps that are used to reach this goal are:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" align="left"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:12;" ><span style="mso-list: Ignore">1.<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';font-size:12;" >Establish and/or reflect a sense of urgency<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" align="left"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:12;" ><span style="mso-list: Ignore">2.<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';font-size:12;" >Create guiding coalition<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" align="left"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:12;" ><span style="mso-list: Ignore">3.<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';font-size:12;" >Develop a vision and strategy<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" align="left"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:12;" ><span style="mso-list: Ignore">4.<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';font-size:12;" >Communicate for understanding and buy in<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" align="left"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:12;" ><span style="mso-list: Ignore">5.<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';font-size:12;" >Empower broad based action<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" align="left"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:12;" ><span style="mso-list: Ignore">6.<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';font-size:12;" >Produce short term wins<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" align="left"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-: minor-latinfont-family:Calibri;" ><span style="mso-list: Ignore"><span style="font-family:Calibri;">7.</span><span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';font-size:12;" >Consolidate gains and produce more change/don’t let up </span></p><p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" align="left"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:12;" ><span style="mso-list: Ignore">8.<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';font-size:12;" >Anchor new approaches in the culture/create new culture<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none" class="MsoNormal" align="left"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';font-size:12;" >These eight steps are needed in order to implement change and establish a well known program. 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A Wiki is basically a website that you can create and put on the internet and virtually anybody can go onto your Wiki site and edit and save whatever they please. In the end you have the last say of it the information others posted is adequate and reasonable for your website. We got introduced to doing Wiki’s as our project that we are presenting to the town of Colwood will be placed on a Wiki site and presented. The project that we are working on I mentioned in the previous post. There are two main tools that we have used in order to give the project a good structure. The first method that our group chose to work with was a website called tools of change (<a href="http://www.toolsofchange.com/"><span style="COLOR: purple">www.toolsofchange.com</span></a>) this website was very helpful in the starting stages of piecing the project together. It sets up a nice layout and gave us a good idea of where we were heading with setting our objectives, developing partners, how to inform people properly, targeting the right audience, and choosing the right tools of change. Our group filled out these stages of the process, but realized in the end it was not the right approach for our project. The second tool that we used was called ADDIE. This stands for Analysis, Design, Develop, Implementation, and Evaluate. This approach seemed very easy and well laid out for our project. It is a very straight forward tool, the first step in the process is figuring out the analysis of the project by discovering what the real problem is. The second step is to design and to formulate processes. The thirds step is to develop the project and formulate the processes. The forth step is to implement the processes that you have developed. The fifth step is to evaluate the project by means of observations, intentions and suveys to see what happened and how successful the project was. My portion of the project entails working on the development steps of the ADDIE model, I will be looking at ways to make the project design details come to life. In this process of development I will be using a GPS system to map all of the trails around the Royal Roads University campus, enter the data into the computer and create a map of the trails. I will also be looking at grading the grade changes and elevations of the trails and rating them easy, moderate, or hard. I will also be looking at designing signs, names of trails, and walk the trails looking for historical facts that can be pointed out. The final part I will be looking at will be policies to see the possibilities of implementing lights and signs along the pathways to make it accessible to walk at night time. Through creating the development part of this project the team will be able to implement our trail map, and increase the amount of citizens that utilize the Royal Roads University trails. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></span></p>Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08989087266537875893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64935966982193514.post-55007747386799294362010-03-02T19:00:00.000-08:002010-03-02T19:01:00.521-08:00Community Based Social Marketing<p style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">In today class Dr. Rick Kool talked about the concept of Community Based Social Marketing. This is a concept of reaching the community, not just by feeding them information for change, but for actually engaging the community in a systematic application of marketing way along with other concepts and techniques to achieve specific behavioral goals for a social good. Social marketing is a great concept, but with any outreach to a community there are advantages and disadvantages that need to be dealt with. The advantages of doing social marketing in a community are that it is most effective when it activates people, it targets those in the community that care and are ready for a change, it’s a strategic and requires efficient use of resource, and its integrate and works on the installment plan. Social marketing is not just another advertisement as a clever slogan or message is portrayed strategically so that it reaches everyone throughout the community. To strategically plan out your concept, you must first know who your audience is and put them at the center of ever decision that is made. Show that audience some action, don’t just walk the walk, but talk the talk. If someone is willing to change their behavior or accept a new one there must be an exchange by you making an offer that is appealing to them. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">The making of a new concept is sometimes hard to start and there are ten important questions that must be asked in the initial stages. The ten questions to a successful plan are as follows:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">1.<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">What is the social and environmental problems that need to be addressed<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">2.<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">What actions can be taken to address these problems properly<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">3.<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Address who your audience is and how you are asking them to take action<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">4.<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">What kind of exchange does the audience want for adopting the new behavior<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">5.<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">How will you make the audience believe what you are offering is real and true<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">6.<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Who is your competition and what are they offering opposed to your concept<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">7.<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">What is the best time and place to reach and intrigue your audience <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">8.<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">How often and from who does the concept have to be presented<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">9.<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">How can I integrate the audience to influence their behavior<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">10.<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Do I have the resources needed to create this concept alone; and if not, where can I find useful partners<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">After these ten questions have been answered thoroughly, taking every situation into mind, then the planning for your community campaign can be started. The 5 steps of constructing a meaningful campaign are to identifying barriers and benefits such as literature, focus groups, community surveys, stakeholder meetings and by doing market research. The second step is to develop a strategy plan by selecting tools to address these barriers by making commitments, introducing incentives, and by persuasion. The third step is to run a pilot test, evaluate it and adapt to make it work. Pilot projects are they way of taking your strategies to the real world and testing them by measuring your results, evaluating the end result and adjusting to improve the project. The forth step is to implement your project by just doing it, you need to be committed, use prompts to remind your audience, use social norms, provide incentives, scope our your competition and strive to be better than the competition, and make your concept convenient and easy. The fifth and final step is to continuously monitor your concept and adapt it for any necessary changes. If all of these questions and steps are strictly followed and laid out properly, the concept that you are trying to portray to the community should be accepted and succeed. <?xml:namespace prefix = w ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" /><w:sdt id="23516704" citation="t"><span style="mso-no-proof: yes">(Kool, 2010)</span></w:Sdt><o:p></o:p></span></p><w:sdt id="23516705" docpartunique="t" docparttype="Bibliographies" sdtdocpart="t"><h1 style="MARGIN: 24pt 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="color:#365f91;"><span style="font-family:Cambria;"></span></span></span> </h1><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoBibliography"><span style="mso-no-proof: yes"><span style="font-family:Calibri;">Kool, D. R. (2010, February 25). Community Based Social Marketing. Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p></w:Sdt>Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08989087266537875893noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64935966982193514.post-44283828682577339862010-02-28T09:51:00.001-08:002010-02-28T09:51:55.044-08:00Open Space<p style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">In today’s class when did an exercise that was new to me called “Open Space”. This was done in order to create groups of people that think alike or are very passionate about a certain project that they would like to see done in the community of Colwood. The open space concept is a way to get people’s brains flowing and tries not to limit people’s creativity. Everyone had to write an idea that they would like to see put in place in Colwood to help the community become carbon neutral on a piece of paper and hang it up. Then the idea was to read all the different idea’s and projects and determine which ones were of interest to you and then to sign up for those projects. I signed up for the project about making a map of all of the trails on the Royal Roads University campus as there isn’t really one made yet. This will be done by either walking the trails with a GPS system and inputting the data in to Arc GIS and making our own map, or hopefully using existing layers. The map will consist of all of the trails on the RRU campus as well as the length of the trails, difficulty ratings, signs on the trail, signs pointing out certain species of trees, and lights so that people can also use the paths at night. Our team has also talked about going out into the community and asking people if they think it would be a good idea to have this map, just to get a general idea of how useful it will be. When I first moved out to Victoria to go to school at RRU, the first thing that I wanted was a map of all the trails on the campus so I could go for jogs and bike rides and discovered that they didn’t even have one. This will be a very useful tool to have for new students and people that live in the community as it is a beautiful place to walk, jog, and bike. The project will then be presented to the mayor of Colwood and hopefully handed out at local food stores, gyms and RRU. By making a map of all the trials I believe that it is a step in the right direction of becoming a carbon neutral community. The concept of open space was a very good concept as it allowed everybody to voice their thoughts and allowed people to work on projects that they were interested in and passionate about instead of being told what to work on. I really think this was a positive and great way of doing these projects as it is a very neutral process that had no limitations.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></span></p>Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08989087266537875893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64935966982193514.post-40085570057404019212010-02-27T20:32:00.000-08:002010-02-27T20:33:31.388-08:00Resilience and Food Security<p style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">This week’s presenters were Gene Miller who spoke on climate change, Jennifer Girard who spoke about community geared towards sustainability, and Cindy Moyer who develops arts and environmental awareness in Colwood. Gene miller spoke about the cost of late stage capitalism and how it has affected our resilience, the other two speakers talked about local food security in Colwood. Community resilience is pretty much determined by local food security. Jennifer talked about programs that she has put together in the community of Colwood that involve local food security. The programs that she talked about were gardening universe project, gardens in motion, fruit tree project, and food guide. The gardening universe project is for people that want to grow food in their backyard, get seeds, plants and a mentor to help them map out there backyard and get a start. It encourages people to grow their own food and if they need help there are people that will come and teach them how to properly grow their own food. The gardens in motion is exactly what it sounds like, it is a flat bed trailer with plant boxes and beds on it and it tours around communities and shows people how to get more in touch with the cycles of life. The fruit tree project was a new concept to me and a great idea, it involves volunteers going to people’s houses that have fruit trees in their years and picking the fruit for the owners and then also being able to take some fruit themselves which is then donated to the food bank. The food guide project is pretty normal in more communities; it is pretty much a farmers market where local farmers sell their locally grown food. Cindy Moyer works for the town of Colwood and is trying to make a change for local food security, she develops arts and environmental awareness in the Colwood community. She is currently part of the mayor’s task force; they are currently working on a plan to produce green maps which point out the recreational parks and green spaces in the Colwood area. She also talked about how important local food is and ways to promote such as the tomato challenge that took place last year between the mayor of Colwood and the president of Royal Roads University. At this event both the mayor and president were given locally grown tomatoes and had to come up with their best dish. This in turn helped promote the idea of growing local food and keeping it in the community. I will sign off with this; I would beat the mayor or the president of RRU any day with my amazing cooking skills. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></span></p>Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08989087266537875893noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64935966982193514.post-40690349553532299622010-02-27T20:31:00.000-08:002010-02-27T20:32:21.807-08:00Community Energy Planning<p style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">The presenters this week were Laura Porcher, Manager of Partnership Development and Todd Litman, from Sustainable Transportation Integrated Solutions, who discussed energy planning and sustainable transportation. The presenters both talked about ideas of planning and smart growth for communities. This idea has been discussed a lot throughout the sustainability class and it is basically just planning around the infrastructure that is already built and utilizing it more efficiently. The discussion of more mixed land use was also a main topic, with of course the main idea of sustainability being the end target. Laura talked about the energy side of sustainability and how it can make a community for efficient and productive with saving energy. A quote from Laura that I really like was “whatever we build will be here after fossil fuels” which is very true, so the proper planning of communities infrastructure and street layout is very crucial. When looking at the design of a community it is important a key idea would be to follow the considerations of the Quality Urban Energy Systems of Tomorrow (QUEST) program which points out many characteristics to utilize to achieve a well thought-out community. Under this program they point out the idea of encouraging mixed use higher density urban development, reduce energy input required for a given level of service, match the type of energy with its use, manage surplus heat across applications and sectors, convert waster into energy, integrate onsite renewable sources of energy, and optimize grid energy use to increase the overall system and to help ensure reliability. When trying to save energy it is important to encourage energy efficient land use planning, improve energy efficiency of buildings, increase transportation efficiency, diversity the energy supply, educate and engage residents and businesses, and demonstrate local government leadership. Todd discussed the ideas geared towards transportation and was really encouraging people to ride bikes more frequently and put a big emphasis on working with the infrastructure that is already in place and improving it to make it more efficient to people that are biking or walking to places. The idea of working from home was also one that intrigued me, with the wide use of computers and the internet in today’s world I believe it would be a great idea for people to work from home instead of driving half hour to downtown Victoria just to do work on their computer there. This would be a huge was to help decrease traffic congestion and carbon emissions being put in the air. As we are always making small changes to improve society and make a more sustainable world, the decision that you make on a daily basis to drive or bike is important. As this helps in decreasing emissions put in to our beloved atmosphere and in the end hurts our environment. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></span></p>Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08989087266537875893noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64935966982193514.post-31853938452706825692010-02-01T16:55:00.000-08:002010-02-01T16:56:31.785-08:00The Future of Colwood<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Colwood is a community on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. This morning we had Mayor Dave Saunders & Councilor Judith Cullington come in and talk to us about the community and where it stands now, and where it is going. It is a community where most of the people in our cohort at Royal Roads University live. Colwood consist of about 15,000 people which are primarily residents, consisting of around 6,000 homes. Colwood is a growing community that is estimated to reach a population of 32,000 people by 2028. The community of Colwood inhabits lots of endangered species such as the Garry Oak tree, which is one of the biggest endangered species in North America and the sharp tailed snake. There are many historical sites that reside in Colwood such as Fort Rod Hill, Fisgard lighthouse, and Hatley Castle at Royal Roads University. Colwood is home to the Esquimalt and songhees first nations. The municipality in Colwood relies on three main components before decisions can be finalized. The three crucial levels that ideas have to go through before they are pass are the community, administrative staff, and the mayor and councilors. The future vision of the municipality of Colwood is to be energy positive, carbon neutral, water smart, and a green learning city. This is the first I have ever heard about green learning and it intrigued me, Robert Bateman a famous artist has donated many of his paintings to Royal Roads University. A Robert Bateman centre is going to be build on the campus and will be a living building for a greener place. Robert Bateman thinks that by building this center that in his eyes it will help change one student’s way of thinking at a time. The mayor of Colwood took that saying into consideration and went one step higher and wants to change once city at a time. A green learning city for RRU learners would be great as we would have real life classrooms. Visitors from around the region and around the world could come and see demonstrations of new technologies. Businesses are encouraged to setup demonstrations of innovative technologies and this would help provide jobs for residence and support local businesses. The municipality of Colwood has many projects underway towards a transition town or a more sustainable community. The mayor stated this morning that over the last 2 years there has been a substantial change throughout the town of Colwood and it is only getting better. Recently the community of Colwood purchased a smaller truck that runs on only electricity and has replaced one of their regular trucks. They are hoping that they can replace the whole fleet of regular trucks with the electric ones. Colwood knows where they want to be and to get to this destination they are going to or already have implemented a smart growth with mixed uses in high density nodes in several places in the city, supporting transit services, recovering resources from wasters, fiber optics throughout the community and a Colwood community place. Colwood has an award winning Overall Community Plan (OCP). The next step in the transition of Colwood is to attract new businesses such as an eco-village where local foods, art, and culture can be displayed as people live in a living area that feels like a resort or vacation destination. The Royal Bay area is a huge potential place for a good development area for eco friendly establishments like this and Colwood would also like to implement a high tech business park to try to keep the people that live in Colwood staying in Colwood and working from their homes instead of commuting into Victoria everyday for their jobs. I believe that all of these changes and programs that the community of Colwood is implementing and promoting is a good start to a better transition for the community.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></span></p>Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08989087266537875893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64935966982193514.post-20577829419532329292010-01-22T20:35:00.000-08:002010-01-22T20:36:53.007-08:00Community Research and Engagement<p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt 0.25in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Community research and community engagement go hand in hand when trying to figure out what certain communities need and don’t need to become a more sustainable community. I think that community research has to be conducted prior to and during the process of community engagement. With community research you must do research that matters and makes sense by first figuring out what the community’s needs are and who, what and why the community needs these things. To form a strong backbone structure of the research of the community it is very important to find things such as local knowledge, partners, and groups to find out as much knowledge as you can about the community and get feedback on what needs to be done. After the research aspect is done, then I believe is when you can actually start planning and engaging in the community to implement different changes to better the community. The two major aspects that are needed in doing this are a good strategy and an ethical way of approaching the community and using proper tools and techniques to achieve the set goals. In class today we broke out into 3 different groups and came up with 3 different ways to keep communities interested in perusing different ways to make a community greener. Lots of new idea’s came up that I have never heard of before and was actually somewhat interested in such as a “welcome wagon”. A welcome wagon is for people that are new to the community and have just moved there and it is a way of promoting and introducing them to a greener community. This is done by going to meet the new people and brining them pamphlets, newsletters, maps, and other useful material that can show them where they can buy local products from farmers, eat at local restaurants that use local products, farmers market dates and times, ways to get involved in the community, where and how the transit systems work and it helps with engaging youth and elders as well. A few of the other example were to provide first time transit rides to help promote riding the bus instead of driving, as Colwood has a poor website a good idea would be to improve the local website to assist with anything people in the community might be interested about, have bulletin boards, newsletters and news papers throughout the community to inform people of events taking place, public meetings, online surveys, open house events and informal gatherings and events as a community group outreach. Implementing all of these ideas would be a key start for a turn in the right direction of a greener community. I know that not everyone in a community is going to be on board with the idea, but if you change the mind of at least one person and get them to ride a bus instead of drive, they will start passing on their knowledge and hopefully change the minds of 2 people. It is hard to change a whole community quickly, but the impact you make on one person could change the whole community over time and help in making a stronger and greener community. Now I ask, what will you do to help start the movement?<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></span></p>Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08989087266537875893noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64935966982193514.post-40880126383592051272010-01-14T18:51:00.000-08:002010-01-14T19:10:16.062-08:00Transition Community Vs Citta Slow Community<span style="color:#ffffff;"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'font-family:'Times New Roman';" >A transition community is exactly what it sounds like; it is a community where people who are part of that community want to make a change for a more sustainable community. The first part to achieving this goal is to gather together a group of motivated individuals with the same concerns, and ask them, how our community can better ourselves to respond to peak oil and climate change. This group is the initial stage of starting a transition community. The following steps must be followed for best results of seeing a smooth transition. Step 1 is to make it real, this mean make everyone in the group realize the important of their day to day actions that can impact how a community can work together. Step 2 is to work with special interest groups such as local governments and municipalities and try to get them on board as well to make stricter policies and laws. Step 3 is include everyone in the community from youth to elders, if everyone in the community feels important they will feel like they’re word as just as important as anyone else’s. Step 4 is to attend to inner and outer transition groups to seek others opinions and ideas to have a different view on how to carry out tasks. Step 5 is build and holds positive visions for the future, which is best said by staying positive and stick to the goals at hand no matter what. Step 6 is let it go where it wants to go, this means implementing such things as using bike trails more frequently, planting more trees, and hold local farmers markets. The municipality of Colwood in Victoria, B.C. where I reside, is not presently a community that is starting to make a transition that I am aware of. Through working with the municipality of Colwood in the upcoming months of our sustainability class I am hoping that our cohort can make a change for the better and provide Colwood with an initial plan to start making a transition to be sustainable. <img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 224px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 80px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5426797085556285666" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTKKdL1DftuY13ytOjfP6mWmGf6F1tngBXWjNphcbBkWjbCN33Sx9m9upMB2xSIE3bdzlannyLSUePBU8O4mm1VU_tee_dN7CneeMfJTW-b5XGHYzI9TvprNzXXkjk15_xt-FyUEB4Zw/s320/TransitionNetwork-Logo-Web-Small.jpg" />Citta slow community is a concept that I have never heard of or been aware of until a presentation that I witnessed today, that was actually very interesting.</span> <span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'font-family:'Times New Roman';" >Citta slow is essentially a way for a community to be self sustainable, by means of living on foods and materials that are grown locally by farmers or made locally by individuals. A citta slow community, is a community that has stricter regulations about building policies, codes, and what kind of establishments can be built such as not allowing big companies or fast food restaurants such as Costco’s, Wal-Marts, Macdonald’s and Tim Horton’s to be established. These communities strictly want to run on local products only. The idea is to take the community back in time and try to establish everything that was native to the land before the community was made. This includes native species of trees, grasses, fish, animals, and plants. As I am a resident of Colwood, I am not aware of my community trying to implement anything like this, but an example we learnt of today was the community of Cowichan on Vancouver Island. A local farmer of this community opened a bakery in town. Lots of people from this community supported this farmers business because it was all locally grown and they were on board for supporting local products. Another local dairy farmer saw that the community was supporting the local food a lot and thought to himself, why sell my cheese on my farm when I can open up my own cheese shop beside the bakery, due to the community coming together and supporting the locals. To me, this shows how a community can come together and make a difference on a smaller scale, and hopefully other communities can cease the opportunity and make a difference by becoming a more sustainable community. Both of these different ways of approaching change in a community are great ideas and I hope that when we work with the municipality of Colwood that our cohort can help implement a start to a more sustainable community.</span></span><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 163px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 115px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5426797807550817778" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOK1RWPd72lcMS0WijfB6s2r9Lrce8Kt5KCmOnU1cWY-ZsWms_Dymn5mqSjDENz98BW4LMl_8PUaDZaL7pr0K2LY_XqNhj1hQIQtwMsmu6JPvnly0m9hCPddxUlp9vid1n63dqap0Inw/s320/cittaslow100x75-1.jpg" /><br /><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; MARGIN: 12pt 0in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%;font-family:'Comic Sans MS';" ><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></span></p>Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08989087266537875893noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64935966982193514.post-28661488524211868952009-12-08T22:59:00.001-08:002009-12-08T22:59:56.878-08:00Hope or despair?Reading Page 305 -351 “Geography of Hope” by Chris Turner<br /><br />Hope or despair…. that is the questions. When it comes to these two words, and relating them to sustainability, I am on both sides of the fence. I am very hopeful for sustainable development now and in the long term, but I feel in the short term sustainable development will not be implemented into our society sufficiently or quickly which puts me on the side of despair.<br /><br />With these different opinions that I have, I believe that change will occur and hope that it does and try to make a difference everyday with all aspects of my life. Only being one person in such a vast world it is hard to make a difference and this is what leads me to despair which is defined as a state in which all hope is lost or absent. A change in our basic way of living and producing products must change in order for sustainability to fully take charge. With being in a society of people with such a vast array of knowledge and experience, we are noticing day by day of new ways that we are harming our world. Instead of sustainable development sounding like a priority we need it just to be a way of life. This would help drastically towards long term thinking and will likely no happen anytime soon, considering the current situation. I believe when the world starts to actually see major crisis’s and disasters start affecting each family, something will be done to save the world, but it will be too late in my eyes.<br /><br />After taking this sustainability class and reading the book the “Geography of Hope” by Chris turner it has truly opened my eyes to many vast aspects that I have never realized are going on and makes me want to tell others so that we can make a change before disaster occurs. In today’s world I hear so much talk about making a change for a better world and cleaner environment, but it makes me wonder how much of this is actually happening and not just being spoken. Chris Turner outlines many different types of positive change in his book that makes me hopeful, we just need people today to implement these aspects and turn the idea into reality. In order for all countries and people make a change in the world for a more sustainable world we need to implement change now. Don’t get me wrong, I see lots of people and companies making changes for the better which is a step in the right direction, but it also takes a long time to get more people on board. If we start getting more governments on board and implement stricter laws or set goals it will help in this process. We need governments to try and accept all of these external environmental impacts into their economic assessments and start to show some plans for long term thinking.<br /><br />I understand that this is all a bit farfetched, but I do see a change in the world slowly happening right before my eyes. Things such as plastic bags not being used anymore which helps eliminate garbage in our landfills and in the oceans. It might be a small step to this major problem of ours, but every little change for the better will help in preserving the amazing world we live in today and will ensure that our children will have good healthy lives as well.Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08989087266537875893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64935966982193514.post-13430941181903873942009-12-08T22:57:00.000-08:002009-12-08T22:58:43.897-08:00My stuff and consumption habitsThis week’s blog post is on “My stuff and consumption habits” and a reading of the sermon by William Mcdonough titled “The design, ecology ethics and the making of things”. After reading the sermon by William Mcdonough it showed me that when many products are manufactured they do not necessarily reflect sustainability. This is why companies have to start looking at and taking the quote “cradle to cradle” in to mind so that the materials and energy that is taken from the earth to produce their products is then returned in one form or another, so that anything that is taken from the earth can be given back or put back without any harm to the environment. If companies can stick to this, then it would help eliminate potential problems such as creating extra sewage or emitting green house gases.<br /><br />Every day, every hour, every second companies come out with new and improved products that influence society today. I am not going to lie, I am pretty influenced by new technologies and product as I am very good with using these new technologies and they interest me. When a new product comes out, I am never the one that is there first to buy it, I usually wait for a year so that all the bugs and errors can be fixed and the price drops and then I usually buy the product after I do research and really want it. The thing wrong with this is big box stores such as Wal-Mart’s, Superstores, and Costco’s produce the cheapest product and prices to the buyer to buy and everything works all fine and dandy for the first while but usually breaks after a year. Then it just has to be thrown away and people go right back to that big box stores and purchase the same thing over and over. This creates massive amounts of unneeded garbage going to the landfills, and is a never ending cycle. This is especially true with electronics as there has not yet been much of a recycling program set up for these products so our landfills just keep piling up. I have realized that after moving out to Victoria B.C and living on my own as a student big box stores like this appeal to me a lot more because as a student I am on a very tight budget and therefore usually go to the Wal-marts and superstores to save my money. If I wasn’t going to school and had a steady good income I would probably care a little bit more of what I am buying and do extra research on it to see what I am getting out of the product I am purchasing. I know that I am just one person in a world of many people, but for the most part the people I talk to do exactly the same thing. After class today, it opened my eyes; I had no idea of all the things that go on behind closed doors. I am defiantly going to start checking into and researching products a lot more before I make purchases so I can help in the process of helping with sustainability. I know this is just a small step in making a big change but I will do what I must. If we want a big change to our environment we need a huge shift to happen, which is not very likely, unless we do it a community at a time and influence others to do the same. In the time of a recession, I don’t see this happening very quickly as everyone is always looking for the best bang for their buck.<br /><br />ReferenceMcDonough, William. (1993). A Centennial Sermon: Design, Ecology, Ethics and the Making of Things.Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08989087266537875893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64935966982193514.post-10080444693296023432009-12-08T22:55:00.000-08:002009-12-08T22:57:31.441-08:00Synthesis of presentationsAfter the 9 groups presented their presentations of the different chapters of “Geography of Hope” by Chris Turner, we are suppose to write a blog wrapping all of this fantastic information in to a summary of all the presentation. The presentation topics were energy, transportation, urban planning, green buildings, international development, smart design, making change, economics, and sustainable communities. Although, all these topics are different there was a lot of overlapping in the ideas presented towards sustainability. The main points that I will be touching on are power, housing, transportation, design, urban sustainability, and economics and how they are all related to sustainability. <br /><br />In the book “Geography of Hope” by Chris Turner, each chapter heading refers to different ways to become more sustainability and goes over different aspects and environments and explains ways to improve on the living in these places or what to do if you are starting from scratch. I’m going to dive into these ideas and summarize them so that we get a better understanding of what we have to do to be more sustainable to make for a more efficient world. The next six topics are the main topics that we must focus on as a community, city, province, or even country to make a major impact today.<br /><br />Power is a crucial part in the starting process of being more efficient. I never realized it till my power went out the other day how much humans now a day’s rely on power for everyday living. When our power went out for 2 days we felt like we couldn’t function properly, we had no internet, TV, microwave, or lights. It was awful, but it made me realize how bored or screwed the world would be without power. To help in conserving power we need to come up with alternative energy sources, a few of the alternate energy sources mentioned in the presentations were mainly solar panels and wind farms. These are great idea’s and are starting to get used more and more places which I hope is a step in the right direction.<br /><br /><br />Transportation is a huge part of society today; we need transportation of some sort to get from place to place in our everyday lives. With all the different ways to get around, it is hard to steer away for the fastest and easier way of getting around, the automobile, the automobile is a major contributor to green house gases and as we learnt in the presentations there are many other modes of transportation which are not harmful to the environment at all and are starting to be implemented and encouraged more. The use of buses, carpooling, biking, and walking are starting to be used more by everyday people. The galloping goose trail is a good example of how different ways of transportation are being encouraged. A case study that our group presented was on a building in Sidney B.C. that was LEED certified. The way that this business encouraged more environmentally friendly modes of transportation are that they had a parking lot for the employees with only 15 parking stalls for 65 employees. This encourages car pooling or taking other ways of transportation. They also supplied a car that run strictly on electricity to people that need a vehicle, the business is also on a main bus route, which encourages bus transportation.<br /><br />Housing/Design – when starting with the design of a new building or house it is important to try to make a building or community that provides its own energy and wastewater treatment plant. A local example that was shown in the presentations was Dockside Green, this is a new community of condos that is pretty well self sufficient. Dockside green creates its own energy and has their own water treatment plant. Each of the units is equip with monitors that tell the tenant exactly how much energy or water they are consuming at any point in time. Dock side green is platinum LEED certified and always striving to get better. The use of “Green Roofs” was also mentioned a number of times, green roofs are roofs that have vegetation growing on them to help in the cooling and heating of the buildings by natural occurrences. I believe that green roofs will be seen more and more throughout the world in the next number of years.<br /><br />Urban sustainability is important because it the backbone to making a community come together and working as a team towards a sustainable community. Urban planning helps keep money within the community and helps with the design of sustainable living in mind. Some things that were mentioned in the presentations for urban planning were to build everything that is needed within a community as best as possible so everyone can support the businesses within the community and not have to venture out of the community to get supplies, this also helps in the transportation aspect as people would not have to travel far places to get what they want or need.<br /><br />Economics is starting to be a new line to achieve when it comes to building a new building, improving the efficiency of an existing building or just want to continuously improve. As Royal Roads, Dockside Green and other major organizations here about all the different models, they want to strive to be the best so people will see they are trying to do better and thus might get more credit and sales. It also helps in the social aspects of the reputation of the business or building. Bigger businesses might be more know to do this to help improve sales but letting the community know that they are the greenest business but still give you the best product, lots of big businesses just to this so they look better.<br /><br />All of these topics and examples encourage sustainability or a sustainable environment in some way or another through alternative ways of approaching regular everyday topics such as power, transportation, and development, urban planning and economics. The different ideas are a good start towards more sustainable solutions and hopefully more great ideas are still on the horizon.Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08989087266537875893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64935966982193514.post-37583964374236708812009-12-08T22:42:00.000-08:002009-12-08T22:55:37.349-08:00Sustainable Design A Little Closer to Home<div><div><a href="http://www.archiplanet.org/w/images/thumb/4/47/B)SE-elevation.jpg/800px-B)SE-elevation.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 461px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 268px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.archiplanet.org/w/images/thumb/4/47/B%29SE-elevation.jpg/800px-B%29SE-elevation.jpg" border="0" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Today were presented with listening to a variety of different presentations on sustainability. My group was given the privilege of presenting on “Smart Design”. The presentation went well and we talked about two different case studies about smart design, one from the book “Geography of Hope” and a local case study. After researching and finding information on the local case study which was the “Gulf Islands National Park Reserve Operations Center” in Sidney, B.C. it caught my attention and made me super interested. This building has been designed to be very efficient and LEED certified. LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system that promotes Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. The “Gulf Islands National Park Operations Center” is a first of its kind that I have seen with my own two eyes that blows me away. This three story building located on the water front of Tsehum Harbour houses many remarkable features for sustainability in conserving water, saving energy, materials and resources, sustainable site, and indoor environmental quality. This outstanding building is Platinum LEED certified, which is one of the highest certifications that can be achieved. The innovative features that this building has are as follows:</div><div> </div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5413125750650811266" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 206px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRTcLFmd9ubKbs0neUzMMIZJmss8kNHdzAVxlPJbQQBkVJrDkpe_d0GxNzSG6-H8SQoRnKDlfeJ57JPEWQdh67onoO5rN0fqW-diBYDIQGaNdbY1Y6J2ppzSYVIjIZ2GlZFYer1b6bQA/s320/building_isometric.gif" border="0" /><strong>Site considerations:</strong><br />• Close to public transit system<br />• Limited Parking - 15 parking spaces for 60 employees to encourage carpooling or other ways or transportation to help decrease carbon emissions.<br />• Native Garden - was designed with drought resistant plant species which do not require irrigation<br /><br /><strong>Conserving Water:</strong><br />• Rainfall Collection - Rainfall is collected on the roof and drains into a storage tank underneath the building. The rain water that is collected is then used in the bathrooms for the duel flushing toilets and for use in the marine operations area for washing equipment. Surplus rainwater passes through a sediment and oil separator before being discharged into the ocean.<br />• Permeable parking lot - which would consist of paving blocks or cobble stones to help water infiltrate back into the ground so that there is no stagnate water pooling on the surface.<br /><br /><strong>Saving Energy:</strong><br />• Windows and skylights - for natural lighting, the building is designed so that natural light shines in on every work station in the building.<br />Heating and cooling system - The only heat source for the building is the ocean. Ocean water is piped to a heat exchanger and heat pump system, Heat is then extracted from the water and transferred by the heat exchanger to the buildings heating system and to a domestic hot water tank. </div><div> </div><div><div></div><div></div><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5413125148616183490" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 261px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkXJcFgE7K0CdOxKJ1_NZ3CwhD5QGy9EjOAEiaHFXM5ZpuaGIxbNZhphpybLnhL7Ws7y95MLZ7-t9MkshdyiU2Uk0RUwYcld26FSsYouUNN3ovNc93ei_kysAenliqijyOyKp3FCQIfw/s320/GIWEB215_e.gif" border="0" /></div></div><br /><p><strong>Indoor Environmental Quality:</strong> Natural ventilation, and each employees working spaces have a thermostat to control the temperature in that space and have access to open the windows for a breath of fresh air. </p><p><br />Overall, the “Gulf Islands National Park Operations Center” was build and designed with sustainability of all aspects in mind. The development and design, has a cradle-to-cradle mentality in mind for the site, with using environmentally friendly building materials and supplies and incorporating efficiency of water and energy into their building design, they all contribute to a cleaner and greener environment. The limited parking spaces for the mass amounts of employees and the close proximity to the bus routes has helped in carpooling and promoting greener solutions. This design and development of this building is a great example of sustainability within a community and business area and will be a new standard or leader for when future developments are in the planning stages, these considerations should be taken into mind to help in a more sustainable world.</p><p> </p>Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08989087266537875893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64935966982193514.post-18028242293713290522009-11-28T20:24:00.000-08:002009-11-28T20:27:40.130-08:00My Social Capital and what affects it<div>The basic principal behind social capital is that investment in social relations will yield expected returns in many different places such as, the community, economy, and politics. Individual people interact and engage in social networking bonds, and trust which creates expected returns which in turn profit the community of those individuals. With all of this social networking going on it helps build a stronger and better community and thus there is more social capital within the community and therefore the community function better. After watching a few videos on social capital it was shown that communities with higher social capital tend to be a more desirable place to live. This is also show because the level of the community’s education and learning is higher, kids are skinnier and more active, there is less poverty, crimes rates tend to be lower, and there is a higher tolerance for gender.<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5409377212685182690" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqz0_XfUWyfgkeKogu8BIytKXXxcqnXFyKWRLs07Ugp0QXPwtPY2yaEwZKPnGyfKhjiOoLp4ru0Ivq0ftCsoCu5ROBTE7_qsL4eO0YZqGvo4amVllc-cRPrwXwSQs1nXPuAn2fvVOgvg/s320/my+social+capital.bmp" border="0" /></div><br />My social capital includes various networks that I am connected to and in some way or another they all affect each other. The networks that I am currently connected to would be school, family, and friends for the most part. With being connected to these networks I feel that I benefit from them, but they also benefit from me as well in some way. There can be positive and negatives with being connected to these networks. I have found that since I have been going to school and working really hard with tests, homework, and studying all the time that it puts a negative outcome on my relationship with my family and friends because I am always busy focusing on school. That is why it is best to find a balance between school and personal time. School might negatively affect my relationship with friends and family, but if my friends and family understand the circumstances I am under. They can act as a positive influence on me by showing support and helping me through the program so I can have a successful outcome.<br />When I look at my social capital I find that on a personal smaller level that I can appreciate social capital more through my family and friends because they can relate to what I am doing and what is important to me. At the same time on a larger scale there are things out of my control that impact my social capital and might not be noticed or appreciated by me and in turn might contribute to how the community I live in functions and lives.Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08989087266537875893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64935966982193514.post-46282241866149015672009-11-28T20:17:00.000-08:002009-11-28T20:24:05.904-08:00Royal Roads University Sustainability Plan<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5409375912209847570" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 215px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl-nT719c2U7W_IGL_qN-3w1TXPamW64GNMJ256g63ylToC8KwthzdJ1FnZN1xI6CWtshgOkV4AyBe_E9rPxM4oR54p6icSCPtVIGju0mdw5XcDB_I9UgFASkZXP0LYyhMYiUhHJgT0g/s320/rr.bmp" border="0" />I go to Royal Roads University in Victoria B.C. and therefore we had to do a blog on the sustainability plan of Royal Roads University. I am not going to lie and beat around the bush, I have not read the Royal Roads University Sustainability Plan but will have to in order to make this blog post accurate. We had various speakers/employees of Royal Roads come and talk to us about where Royal Roads is on sustainability now, where they want to be, and a vision on how to get there.<br />According to the Royal Roads University Sustainability Plan, the university’s policy has had sustainability implemented since It opened in 1995. Many policies that have to do with sustainability have been made and passed throughout the years such as: Environmental Stewardship Policy and a sustainability plan. The university also has set many goals in addition to these policies. The main focus of the university at the moment is to become carbon neutral by 2010; this is because in B.C. all of the Public services need to become carbon neutral by this time.<br />According to Mr. Steve Grundy of Royal Roads University, the university’s goals and plans for the future are to become Grid positive or “off grid” by 2018. A big part of reaching this goal that is being implemented today is the preservation of using less energy. The university’s computer labs have energy star computers which help save energy, and they also are programmed to self turnoff or sleep at night. In order to reach their goal by 2018 many other plans need to be implemented, for this goal to be reached the university must introduce different sources of energy, heat and water. One idea that was broght up was the use of burning the methane gas that is produced by we organic waste to heat the campus buildings and being self sufficient.<br />The part about the university that impresses me, it the wonderful recycling program that is put in place. It consists of, compost, bottles, plastic, paper, juice boxes almost everything is being recycled. The supervisor of the janitorial staff talked to us about the recycling program and how they accumulated $11,000 in five years by recycling bottles alone. This money is then used to implement more recycling bins and also gets donated to The United Way Charity. Some of the janitorial staff were allergic to cleaning with chemicals and now use a micro-fiber cloth and water which actually works better. The micro-fiber cloth can then be washed and re-used up to 50 times which eliminates the amount of paper towel going in the garbage. In 2003 the janitorial staff came up with the idea to start using compostable paper towels in the bathrooms. By doing this the janitorial staff realized that they were eliminating 10 tons of paper towel going to the garbage per year, which is now recycled. The cafeteria at the university is also putting in their two cents about a sustainable campus by having a recycling program as well. The cafeteria’s plates, coffee cups, coffee sleeves, cutlery and plastics are made of a compostable corn material which helps eliminate unneeded wastes going to the landfill as these items can be composted.<br />The Royal Roads University Sustainability Plan is in full effect and is going to expand and excel through the upcoming years. The university is well aware of the changes that need to be made to meet these goals and by making small changes will reach their goal of being grid positive by 2018.<br /><br /><br />Reference<br />Royal Roads University Sustainability Plan, December 2008.<br /><a href="http://www.royalroads.ca/NR/rdonlyres/E50DE048-206F-433A-AD1D-9EAEF">http://www.royalroads.ca/NR/rdonlyres/E50DE048-206F-433A-AD1D-9EAEF</a> 6B4F4A7/0/SUSTAINABILITYPLAN4.pdf<br /><div></div>Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08989087266537875893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64935966982193514.post-59766796379874265782009-11-28T20:11:00.000-08:002009-11-28T20:17:17.679-08:00How can I tell what is sustainable?<div>From my previous blog posts I ranted about what sustainability was and the cost of climate change. Now the question in the back of my mind is how can I tell what is sustainable in the world today. When deciding if something is sustainable or not, I think of the bigger picture, the future and the non-renewable natural resources. As non-renewable resources are used up, more energy is required to extract these resources, which in turn would create greater and greater release of emissions for less use of the resource being extracted. What I mean by this is all or most cars run on fossil fuels, which are non-renewable natural resources, one day they will eventually depleted and be gone forever. This is why we have to find a way to make a change now, before it’s too late. </div><br /><div><br />The reading for this blog post from the book “Geography of Hope” by Chris turner talked about a small Danish Island of approximately 4,400 people are pretty much running on self sufficient energy. This means that they are utilizing all of the natural energy that is produced by the sun. This community is using energy sources such as wind power, wood chips, and solar straw. For this community to sufficiently run and come together as one in the beginning had to all have the same idea and feeling of having a community of self sufficient energy. These changes had to take place in order to create a paradigm shift in the energy production on a community scale. This evolution of how a small community can come together and make major changes for a stable environment represents a shift towards a more fully functioning system. Each and every individual had to strive and commitment in order to help eliminate greenhouse gas emissions, which in turn helps in cost savings. When you combined all of these factors together, it makes for a very stable environment.</div><br /><div><br />When we talked about what sustainable in class a good example was brought up about a company which looks at the energy and materials that is need to satisfy the production of their products, while also taking into account the waste that they are producing to do so, and trying to find a way to reuse this waste that was created to help in the process of producing their products needed. This would be classified as a closed system because the company is trying to take care of the waste produced internally and reducing the need of bringing materials in from an outside source. </div><br /><div><br />The most interesting part that I learnt in class was “Bio-mimicry”, which is the replication of ecosystems in the design of human infrastructure. What this means is the way society is building things today they take into account the animals in nature. An example of this was the speed train that was designed after examining and looking at a certain bird that can dive into water and not even make a splash. A speed/bullet train was formed and designed to the same degree of the birds beak to help lessen the wind resistance.</div><div> </div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5409374596376738578" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 266px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieGKyUGjwv0BWIDt2VZA_SrY302cpDnPzFifz4qTLSxtPE9JOeOOLhneEGGczslO491dxzGdwm7BWCY33MEbrzhhnAYLy106j-rAKeJTBiRbGQnx1PdPyI1Jag1ISRCM0iivzbRHdtNA/s320/Picture1.png" border="0" /> <div>In order to justify what is sustainable and what isn’t sustainable, the environment that we live in as humans needs to be re-examined. What is sustainable in the world today might not be sustainable in the future. What is sustainable to one person probably is not sustainable to another, so as a community on a lower lever we all need to try to get together to make a difference and a more sustainable future for others.<br /><br />ReferencesTurner, C. (2007). The geography of hope: a tour of the world we need. Toronto: Random House.</div>Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08989087266537875893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64935966982193514.post-60981177382207076322009-11-02T22:56:00.000-08:002009-11-02T23:05:47.451-08:00Climate Change: The Cost of Inaction<div>How do we get all of the countries on board to help eliminate or reduce all of the harmful emissions and damage that we are doing to our world. This is nearly or almost nearly impossible, a large global plan should be put into effect in order to tackle climate change. The Stern Report claims that a global effort which can span the next 10-20 years will have a large effect on the rate of climate change occurring. The only way I feel that something to this magnitude will happen is when a world disaster disrupts and affects everyone in the world. If something this big happened I believe that it would possibly push all the world leaders to want to make a difference and get on board on saving the world. I know this thought is farfetched and unbelievable, but I believe if we could all just work together the world would be a better place. </div><br /><div><br />I have always been interested in a more sustainable development plan in our world. Since starting this class of sustainable development with Chris Ling, it has finally fully opened up my eyes to all of the different aspects and ways that we as humans, help in destroying our own planet in our everyday lives. There was so much new information presented to me in today’s class relating to air pollution, food, forests, water, ecological footprint, and loss of biodiversity. I have never realized how sever our actions would be. In the last few years, I have always tried to make a difference in my adventures and have always thought about what I can do as an individual to help in lessening environmental impacts. I have now been recycling, everything that I can for the last few years to cut back on wastes going to the landfill. After sorting through waste and breaking the different wastes into categories at my previous school. I realized how much of the things that go to the landfill can actually be recycled and how not many people were recycling and therefore our landfills are growing rapidly. Just recently I have purchased a bike to help cut down on my fuel emissions and air pollution that my car would put out every day on my way to school and back. </div><br /><div><br />The main point from today’s lecture that really got my mind racing was that every year the United States and Europe top priorities for the most part are spending billions of dollars on things like ice cream (11 billion), pet foods (17 billion), cosmetics (8 billion), and perfumes (12 billion). They should stop spending all this money on things that are more of a want then a need. They should cut back on some of these not so important necessities and should focus some of that spending money on helping people in less fortunate countries for a lot less of the cost. To help give everyone in the world the basic necessities to live, it would only cost 40 billion dollars instead of 48 billion on the previously mentioned things. I don’t know how I can personally make a difference in this matter but, I can start by looking at all of the different parties, and vote for the party that I believe has the right budget for helping the less fortunate out and vote for that party at election time.<br /><br /><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 241px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399769203519156210" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrDM2b2_7yIYnqRvy7K6BYoBH_u5rIxJriy9G9xS1pYbjSuQ5RNE43c6i6ZEJAAHslNx0oynoGELGjIHxJmAv17LTP3j3vGdiJKFRtlOTo_h-mS-O0RGy_kCbQWdPPQqd2HFKUNm5IXQ/s320/untitled.bmp" /><br />I am going to be stating some other interesting facts that I have learned today and found very interesting and have inspired me to do some more in depth research and reading. If we keep living in the world we live today at the same rate and pace we are living at we are destine for some major changes in our future. If change is not implemented soon, the minor things will slowly start to escalate. The history of things such as the forests around the world shows that over time things slowly diminish if the problem is not solved. The amount of forests that use to cover the land was 50%, since the 90’s; 9.4 million hectares of forest were lost. If the sea level rises 1m due to climate change over 40 million Bangladeshis will be without homes. 1m doesn’t seem like a lot, but look at the massive change it could make if it happened. Canadians consume the most amount of water per day per person at 350L; this statement amazed me as a Canadian myself. I would defiantly cut back on water uses to help save a child, or to give a village water for a day. What will you give up to help make a change in the world today? </div>Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08989087266537875893noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64935966982193514.post-50442089340885779732009-10-12T20:16:00.000-07:002009-10-12T20:38:03.441-07:00What is Sustainable Development?The definition of sustainable development is best put in these words: “Meeting the needs of today’s population without harming the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”<br /><br />An example of sustainable development is:<br /><br />The people in the forestry industry cut down trees everyday to make various products such as wood and paper. To sustain the trees I feel that the forestry industry has to plant seeds or plant trees after they are done clear cutting a section of land, so that the trees that they cut down can grow back and therefore, be used again in the future.<br /><br />Sustainable development to me is renewing the resources that we are using on an everyday basis, to help further our children in the future. This can be accomplished by using natural sources for energy instead of oil and diesel, finding different ways of transportation, and how to use electricity effectively.<br /><br />In the world today, many industries rely solely on oil and diesel products. These two energy sources are a main cause of carbon emissions that lead to the green house gas effect.<br /><br />I believe that if we implement more renewable energy sources that occur naturally we will have a more sustainable environment. These natural energy sources never run out, and help to decrease many of the emissions that are destroying our environment. With the many natural energy sources that we have such as the sun, wind, and water we could produce mass amounts of energy without contributing carbon emissions. The sun can be used to give energy to solar panels which in turn could be turned into electricity or it could also be used to heat up water. The wind is a natural source that is all over the world at any given time, the use of wind turbines can produce mass amounts of energy to help in powering entire cities, communities or towns. The use of water can be used by dams; large amounts of water are forced through turbines which are connected to generators that produce electricity.<br /><br />Fossil fuels such as gas and diesel are not a very efficient way for sustainability in our world today; they may be a good source of energy in today’s world but are slowly destroying our ozone layer over time. These fossil fuels also take a long time to reform and once they are used up they cannot be replaced or replenished. The process of making these energy sources uses up a lot of energy itself and emits large amounts of green house gases that are depleting the ozone layer. A few examples, that we can exhibit in today’s society would be to use public transportation such as buses, trains, cycling, walking or even bio-fuels in our vehicles to help cut out the emissions going into the atmosphere. The demand for fossil fuels can also be reduced by programs such as: recycling glass bottles, plastic containers, paper and plastic bags. These processes have made a huge impact, not only on producing new materials but also in eliminating the capacity of garbage in our landfills. As I have been growing up and in the last few years, society has been making a huge transfer on improving such things to save our environment. Many grocery stores have stopped giving away plastic bags and now make you buy other bags that are reusable. New ideas like LED light bulbs, cuts the use of electricity substantially compared to a normal light bulb. If we don’t take care of the problem at hand now, it will only keep getting worse and make it harder for our children in the future to resolve the issues that our society has made. The question now is what will you do today to help change the world for the future?Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08989087266537875893noreply@blogger.com0