Green Communities
Greening Canada – one community at a
time
Over the
past decade, non-profit community-based organizations called Green Communities
– a Canadian innovation – have developed a successful model for delivering
programs and services that benefit the environment, economy, and quality of
life.
Today,
the Green Communities Association (GCA) has about 40 member organizations in all
regions of Canada. These energetic and committed organizations engage their
local citizens in activities that:
·
conserve
resources (energy, water, waste)
·
prevent
pollution and reduce emissions that cause climate change and smog
·
protect
greenspace and natural ecological processes
The
Green Communities Association and its member organizations are helping Canadians
take practical steps toward achieving an environmentally sustainable economy and
society.
Green Communities get results
Green
Communities deliver an amazing variety of programs that address a full range of
environmental concerns.
Our
residential programs include
·
Green Home
Visits that address energy and other environmental priorities, including waste
reduction, water conservation, and pollution prevention (over 120,000 delivered
to date)
·
EnerGuide for
Houses, an advanced home energy advice and rating system developed by Natural
Resources Canada
· Low-income retrofit programs and activities to improve First Nations housing stock.
Our
water conservation programs include:
·
large-scale
toilet change-out programs that help to reduce infrastructure costs
·
low-flow
showerhead installations
·
promotion of
low-water yard and garden maintenance
·
rainbarrel
distribution
Our
waste reduction programs include:
·
composter and
blue box distribution, demonstration, and education
·
textiles
recycling
·
pumpkin and
Christmas tree collections
·
promotion of
re-use
Our
pollution prevention programs include:
·
Yellowfish Road
programs to avoid stormwater contamination
·
promotion/distribution
of non toxic cleaners
·
downspout
disconnect to divert rain water from sanitary sewers
·
promotion of
responsible household hazardous waste management
Our
greenspace programs include:
·
green garden
visits that help homeowners adopt ecological practices
·
demonstration
ecology gardens and composting sites
·
stream and
shoreline rehabilitation
·
community-wide
clean-up campaigns
·
pesticide
reduction campaigns
Our
transportation programs include:
·
Active and Safe
Routes to School, which generates health and social benefits as well as
environmental gains by getting children out of their parents’ cars and back on
the street
·
commuter
challenges that reduce automobile use
·
car emissions
clinics and activities that promote proper car maintenance
·
bus promotion
(e.g., On the Buses, which introduces school children to the city bus system and
the benefits of public transit)
The Green Community model
Green
Communities are community-based – each member organization is separately
incorporated, with its own board of directors, budget, and professional staff.
Each selects programs to address local needs, priorities, and
opportunities.
Each
Green Community is also responsible for securing its own resources.
Revenue sources are diverse, including fee-for-service relationships with
governments and utilities, grants, and customer fees.
Green Communities mobilize and leverage resources by establishing
partnerships, locally and beyond.
Our
programs are based on an approach known as community-based social marketing.
CBSM identifies and addresses the barriers to environmentally responsible
behaviour change. Rather than simply urging people to act, we address their
realworld concerns and motivations, and their needs for practical information
and assistance. We engage with
people in a personal and direct manner, and work to transform community norms.
In
keeping with the principles of community-based social marketing, our climate
change programs emphasize personal action steps, however small, that lay the
foundation for greater interest in the issue and further action.
Partnerships – the key to our success
Green
Communities form partnerships with all sectors of the community.
In particular, our member organizations have developed an impressive
range of partnerships with their municipalities.
We work with municipal governments to achieve shared objectives,
including waste reduction, pollution prevention, climate action, sustainable
landscaping, and transportation demand management.
Green Communities are often the delivery agent of choice for
environment-related responsibilities of various government departments.
We also
work extensively with energy utilities (gas, electric) to manage energy demand,
and with water utilities to conserve water.
Senior
levels of government increasingly recognize the unique capacity of Green
Communities to meet their needs for program delivery. Since 1997, Natural Resources Canada has contracted with
Green Communities to deliver EnerGuide for Houses.
Today, the Green Communities Association is a leading EGH delivery agent
measured in terms of sales, our commitment to program objectives, and our
contribution to the development of EGH as an energy-saving tool.
The GCA has developed an EGH-based incentive program that is being
considered for nation-wide implementation as part of the federal government’s
climate change action program.
The
Ontario government has signed a million-dollar contract with the GCA to deliver
a province-wide well stewardship program directed at private well owners.
Objectives include regular well water testing, pollution prevention to
keep contaminants out of wells, maintenance and upgrading of the physical
condition of wells, and de-commissioning of abandoned wells.
Our innovative program, which is already being considered for adoption by
at least one other province, includes home visits by trained Water Guides.
Cooperating nationally through the GCA
Since
1995, Green Communities have worked together through their umbrella group, the
Green Communities Association. The
GCA is guided by a dynamic national board of directors. Head office is in
Peterborough, Ontario.
The GCA
strengthens local action by facilitating information-sharing and co-operation.
Members can replicate and build on each others successes instead of
re-inventing the wheel. Resources
and delivery strategies are shared.
The GCA
supports organizational development and capacity building. Training and
resources are provided to improve local budgeting, planning, management, and
governance. Support is extended to
new Green Communities-in-formation.
The GCA
has also developed a powerful joint program model in which program development
and support are centrally coordinated, while program delivery is local.
For
example, our Pesticide Free Naturally campaign was developed for the GCA by our
Thunder Bay member and implemented in 34 communities across the country.
The GCA provided Pesticide Free kits, training, and ongoing program
support. A GCA member in Quebec
translated the materials into French and secured substantial backing from the
Quebec government for a province-wide program.
Our B.C. members developed their own version of the materials, including
information specific to the B.C. climate.
Other
major joint programs in development include Dock Talk (shoreline protection for
waterfront residents), and a national Low-Income Energy Efficiency Program
(LIEEP).
The
GCA’s joint program model provides partners such as the federal government
with one-window access to program delivery in multiple communities. The GCA
coordinates contractual liaison and reporting, combining the benefits of
community-based delivery with the convenience of a single point of contact.
Where we are headed
Green
Communities have their origins in the kitchen table volunteer groups of the 70s
and 80s that cleaned trash out of stream beds, picked up litter, planted trees,
and operated Saturday morning recycling depots. In the 90s, an exciting new
model emerged of environmental service delivery organizations with paid staff,
professional management, non-profit incorporation, boards of directors, budgets,
and plans.
By the
mid-90s, Green Communities across Ontario had united under the GCA banner and
approached then federal environment minister Christine Stewart about developing
a closer relationship with her department and the federal government.
We were advised, sensibly, that we needed to become a Canada-wide.
Working with Environment Canada’s EcoAction office, we pursued a highly
successful “national initiative;” today, we have about 40 members (and
climbing) in every region of the country. And we are renewing efforts to develop
a closer and more mature relationship with the federal government based on
longer-term program funding (similar to our relationship with NRCan for
EnerGuide for Houses delivery) rather than short-term project funding.
Our
strategic objectives include:
·
continued
growth in membership throughout Canada
·
continued
development in the capacity of our members to sustain themselves, deliver
effective programs, and measure outcomes
·
continued
growth in our exciting joint program model to embrace new programs, new
partnerships, and ever-increasing results.
Green
Communities have become a major force for the greening of Canada, working for
environmental progress household-by-household, community-by-community. We enter
our second decade prepared to rise to the challenge of true environmental
sustainability, including the major task of achieving compliance with the Kyoto
accord.
Green
Communities – an idea whose time has come.
Contact:
Clifford
Maynes, Executive Director
Green Communities Association
Box 928 Peterborough, ON K9J 7A5
vx: (705) 745-7479
fx: (705) 745-7294
cmaynes@gca.ca
http://www.gca.ca
GCA Members list
Listed alphabetically by home community, November 2002
BATHURST,
N.B. Bathurst
Sustainable Development (pending GCA Board approval)
CALGARY.
Clean
Calgary Association,
www.cleancalgary.com.
CHARLOTTETOWN.
Enviro
Home Visit Program,
www.isn.net/~network.
COLLINGWOOD.
Environment
Network of Collingwood,www.environmentnetwork.org.
EDMONTON.
Green
Communities Edmonton Association.
ELORA-GUELPH-KITCHENER-WATERLOO.
Elora Centre for Environmental Excellence, www.ecee.on.ca.
HALIFAX.
Clean
Nova Scotia, www.clean.ns.ca.
HAMILTON.
Green
Venture,
www.greenventure.on.ca
KINGSTON.
Hearthmakers
Energy Cooperative,
www.hearthmakers.com.
KITCHENER.
World
Wide Opportunities for Women.
LANARK-LEEDS.
Lanark
& Leeds Green Community.
MONTREAL. Équiterre,
www.equiterre.qc.ca..
NANAIMO.
Green
Communities Nanaimo,
www.island.net/~grnhome
NEWFOUNDLAND
AND LABRADOR. Conservation Corps of Newfoundland and Labrador,
www.conservationcorps.nf.ca. Offices in Corner Brook, Gander, and St. John.
NIAGARA
FALLS. Community
Education Group.
NORTH
BAY. Greening
Nipissing (pending
GCA Board approval)
OTTAWA. EnviroCentre,
www.envirocentre.ca.
PEMBROKE.
Ottawa
River Institute.
PERTH
COUNTY. Perth
County Greenworks
PERTH. ecoPerth,
www.ecoperth.on.ca.
PETERBOROUGH.
Peterborough
Green-Up,
www.greenup.on.ca.
QUEBEC CITY. Vivre
en Ville, www.vivreenville.org.
SALMON
ARM. Green
Shuswap,
www.sunwave.net/green.
SAULT STE. MARIE. Clean
North,
www.cleannorth.org.
ST. BRUNO. Nature-Action
Québec. www.nature-action.qc.ca.
SUDBURY.
Eco-Action
Sudbury,
www.sudburyroundtable.com.
SYDNEY. ACAP
Cape Breton,
www.acapcb.ns.ca.
THUNDER
BAY. EcoSuperior,
www.ecosuperior.com.
TORONTO.
Greenest
City,
www.greenestcity.org.
TORONTO.
North
Toronto Green Community, www.ntgc.ca
TORONTO.
South
Riverdale Community Health Centre.
TORONTO.
Toronto
Environmental Alliance, www.torontoenvironment.org.
TORONTO.
Green$aver,
www.greensaver.org.
VICTORIA.
City
Green,
www.citygreen.ca.
WALKERTON.
Walkerton
Healthy Community Initiative.
WINNIPEG.
Resource
Conservation Manitoba, www.resourceconservation.mb.ca.
WINNIPEG.
Manitoba
Eco-Network,
www.web.ca/men.
WOLFVILLE.
Going
Green,
www.going-green.ns.ca.
YELLOWKNIFE.
Arctic
Energy Alliance,
www.aea.nt.ca
YORK REGION. Windfall Eco-Works, www.windfallecoworks.com.
