Working With Community

2010 | Green Plan
From December 2009 - May 2010, Sustainable Halton Hills (under P.O.W.E.R. | Protect Our Water & Environmental Resources) is coordinating a number of Green Plan initiatives with the Town of Halton Hills - Office of Sustainability. There are a number of people working collaboratively to make this work happen. Below is a brief list. If you are interested in learning more or would like to contribute to these initiatives e-mail us at: info@sustainablehaltonhills.ca

Green Plan Initiatives
Develop a strategy to introduce the Eco-Mentor program to all Halton Hills schools.

Prepare an inventory of all Town schools to determine their eco-school status. Provide a profile of the eco-school program and of various sustainability initiatives implemented by local schools.

Assist Town in developing plans for a community sustainability fair.

Develop ‘green’ or ‘sustainable’ business profiles and a report on local best practices for promotional purposes (e.g. handouts, website).

Develop and deliver a series of workshops targeting the local business community with the goal of engaging it in sustainability matters.

In collaboration with the Chamber and the two BIAs, prepare an ‘advisory’ report regarding the possibility of holding a year-round farmers’ market.

Report on the feasibility of implementing a voluntary local carbon offset program for drive-throughs and other businesses with the objective of dedicating the collected funds for local sustainable initiatives (e.g. towards local tree planting).

Identify local streets or neighbourhoods in Acton and Georgetown that can potentially be piloted as ‘Water Efficient Streets’ within Halton Hills. The goal would be to facilitate community social marketing around water conservation.

In collaboration with the Town, establish and program a demonstration local food garden on Town Hall grounds (or at another appropriate location) with the goal of encouraging sustainable local food production.

Report on the barriers, strategies, mechanisms and steps needed to implement “living fences” throughout the Town as a means of reducing road salt application and snow plowing on roadways. In addition, potentially identify local farms to implement the “living fences” on a pilot basis, followed by a wider rollout.

In collaboration with the Town, engage Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI) to pilot ICLEI’s international Water Programme in Canada via a partnership with the Town of Halton
Hills.

Develop and deliver a community-wide anti-idling education/awareness campaign.  In addition, explore the feasibility of partnering with community groups and others to identify an ‘idle free street(s)’ or ‘neighbourhood(s)’ within Halton Hills – with the objective of promoting community awareness about the importance of not idling.

Assist the Town in developing an interactive web-based ‘Sustainability Map’ which will show and profile the location of local ‘sustainable’ businesses.

In cooperation with the Town Environmental Advisory Committee, prepare a strategy to expand the Town’s annual Earth Day celebrations.

2009 | Education, Awareness and Collaboration
Our office space at the Centre for Sustainability, Partnership & Innovation, became a hub of activity for meetings, discussions and dialogue around sustainability. Between Aug 2008 - Aug 2009 the Centre hosted over 50 meetings/workshops with over 200 people in attendance!

Halton Hills Chamber of Commerce – Business & Industry
Small and medium sized independent businesses in Halton Hills are a terrific source of entrepreneurial energy, spirit and innovation. In the area of sustainability, local businesses can play a leading role in modelling sustainable behaviour. Sustainable Halton Hills is committed to working collaboratively with businesses and the Halton Hills Chamber of Commerce to make businsess a key player around community sustainability.
 
Our local Halton Hills Chamber of Commerce is taking a lead in Halton Hills, by helping the Town of Halton Hills deliver on many recommendations enshrined in the Town of Halton Hills Green Plan. As a way to work collaboratively with the Chamber, Christine Upton, Coordinator of Sustainable Halton Hills played an important role as chair on the Chamber’s Green Business Task Group which set out to implement key recommendations in the Green Plan – such as developing a Economic Sustainability Position Paper, Green Business Pledge and Green Business Award.
 
Practically Green Solutions
In addition to working with the Halton Hills Chamber of Commerce, Sustainable Halton Hills also mentored local resident and Queen's University student Emily Dimytosh during a summer work project entitled Practically Green Solutions. The project was made possible through the support of The National Mentoring Program, Molson's Canada, P.O.W.E.R., Sustainable Halton Hills and the Halton Hills Chamber of Commerce.

In the summer of 2009, Emily worked with small to medium sized business and organizations in Halton Hills around greening their operations. Emily, who started Club Green at Christ the King High School, worked to assess businesses on their sustainability/conservation initiatives, identified potential barriers and then created action plans so that businesses can move to the next level. Education and awareness became a large part of the work Emily completed. Below is a list of her accomplishments:
 
Designed marketing materials and maintained a website (www.practicallygreen.ca) to recruit over 50 businesses into the Practically Green Program.
 
Created a suite of indicators to assess the environmental impacts of a business and used the suite to assess the environmental practices of 52 businesses.
 
Designed action plans for improvement for each business assessed.
 
Hosted 8 workshops for businesses, including home-based organizations that focused on sustainability such as green procurement, energy conservation rebates etc.
 
Facilitated in 3 workshops for children's camps to educate campers on importance of energy conservation.
 
Recruited 10 organizations in the Town of Halton Hills’ Count Me In Challenge, resulting in a ninth overall placing in the Provincial competition.
 
Filmed three environmental video segments to be aired on COGECO TV highlighting opportunities for home/businesses to go green.
 
Signed up the first 5 signatories (and counting!) for the Halton Hills Green Business Pledge.
 
Established the first EcoBoard in the EcoBoard network to distribute environmental information to the public through unused wall space within local businesses.
 
Became a trained Environmental Management System practitioner and used training to design a self-declared compliant ISO 14001 Environmental Management System for a client in Milton, Ontario.
 
Spearheaded the Hang Out Campaign to encourage the use of clotheslines and an awareness of the Halton Hills Green Plan by establishing four clotheslines throughout Town of Halton Hills' facilities.
 
Continued to action recommendations within the Halton Hills Green Plan.

Sustainable Halton & Water Conservation – Local Government (Halton Region)
We work collaboratively with Halton Region Politicians and Councillors on sustainable development and water conservation initiatives. Halton Hills is slated for more growth in the coming years as mandated by Ontario’s Places To Grow legislation which creates many land use pressures namely our; natural heritage systems, agricultural lands and ground water systems. Sustainable Halton Hills has participated in public meetings and made comments around proposed growth in Halton Hills.

Specialist High Skills Major | Environment (Grades 11-12 Youth)We are working collaboratively with Gord Swanson who is heading up the Environment - Specialist High Skills Major Program for Grades 11-12. This program is of key importance in our community as it is designed to create the environmental leaders of tomorrow. We look forward to the future growth of this program and hope to directly engage Environment students in hands-on and theoretical work through Sustainable Halton Hills. For more information see: Specialist High Skills Major Program - Environment | Earth Program

 
2008 | Learning & Understanding Our Community's Needs
With Sustainable Halton Hills now up and running (operating out of the Centre for Sustainability, Pratnership & Innovation) the goal became to identify understand key community groups working in Halton Hills, their goals and needs within our community and how we might be able to work together on sustainability.

We established key relationships with our local government - the Town of Halton Hills, particularly working closely with the newly established Office of Sustainability.

We became more aware of the health and social needs of our community through our involvement with Links2Care. Links2Care works in a number of keys areas that include:Children Services, Youth Services, Seniors & Adults with Disabilities, Community Support for Adults and Employment Resources. Visit: http://www.links2care.ca/overview.php for list of their services. Youth at risk, in Halton Hills, is a particular area of concern that we are working on to help find solutions within our community. 

Links
P.O.W.E.R.
Town of Halton Hills
Town of Halton Hills - Office of Sustainability
Links2Care
Halton Hills Chamber of Commerce
Practically Green Solutions
Halton Hills Cultural Symposium & Rountable
Halton Environmental Network
Specialist High Skills Major Program - Environment | Earth Program