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Sustainability Business Management Program - A Certificate Series - June 27-29, 2008 Past Courses and Workshops:
 I-SEA intends to sponsor, co-sponsor, and host various sustainability gatherings, both on Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada, and elsewhere in the region. The Institute is currently seeking institutional and individual partners to develop and offer a sustainability curriculum that would include the following courses: Sustainability Principles; Sustainability Policies; Sustainability Practices; and Sustainability Performance. These courses would be offered in both online and residency formats, and, in the latter case, would have a practical field experience in the Gulf Islands, BC region. Certificates of completion would be offered to students who successfully complete this series of courses. In addition, the Institute intends on offering concentrated workshops on these and related topics, such as sustainability reporting, and on organizing Sustainability Business events.
Over the last several years the Green Accommodations program at the Chamber, with the assistance of the GW students, has progressed to the point where this year the Chamber is ready to formalize it and launch it to all of the B&B’s on the island, approximately 85. Last year GW students tested the audit checklist with the 10 B&B’s in the pilot program. The year before, the students help develop the extensive checklist. This year the project would most likely focus on how to launch the Green Accommodations to the rest of the B&B’s through some marketing research (survey’s) and plan. A phone call with Peter and Tanya would quickly clarify the project goals. Several years of student reports are available as background.
On June 16th, there will be a large all-day event called the Transportation Options Fair, that will feature transportation alternatives; hybrid cars, bio-diesel, electric bikes, etc. The Energy Strategy has released a detailed Salt Spring Island Energy Plan that details many options for the island. One is the development of alternative transportation systems. This project would provide research on other small communities and how they have implemented bus, ride, walk services in villages, and or on islands. On island, during the fair, the students would interview island residents in strategic locations to determine how they travel, and specifically how they traveled to the event. The output would be a presentation on this research and recommendations on the data. Last year’s reports by students are available as background.
To address the transportation needs of the residents of a new village affordable housing project called the Murakami Gardens project, in a more affordable and environmentally sustainable fashion, the project proposes the development, funding, and implementation of a Car-Share program. While there are several models of this type of program in other communities, the project needs to evaluate those models and develop one that meets the needs of the project’s residents. We envision this program as a pilot project that could be expanded to an island-wide offering once developed. Project sponsor has been contacted and is anxious to get started. Many local reports are available on Affordable Housing on the island.
http://www.thestandens.ca/I-SEA/ There are several existing local funding agencies on the island including the SSI Monetary Fund which has created our local Salt Spring Island currency, and the Salt Spring Foundation. They serve as either lending agencies (providing low or no-cost loans) or granting agencies. In addition, there are conventional banks and credit unions. However, there are new approaches to community banking (micro-credit is one) that could be successful on the island given the proactive stance of the various agencies. Students will initially research and investigate the advantages, disadvantages, successes and failures or other unconventional island or community based lending and granting systems. Facilitate discussions on existing programs and the introduction of potential new, innovative and untested opportunities and investigate the option of the creation of a new organization body and structure
PARC is responsible for all parks on island and all recreational facilities (http://www.crd.bc.ca/ssiparc/). The Mouat’s Park, in downtown Ganges was handed over the PARC years ago from the Provincial Park Service. It was a great campground but PARC, due to maintenance costs, changed it into a public park. It is now about 30 acres of old-growth, with many trails and a Frisbee Golf Course. Last year an outdoor stage was erected for Shakespeare in the Park (a great success). The temporary stage was removed, after some problems with the responsible theater group, the Graffiti Theater who wanted the stage to remain. This event brought up many concerns about the long-term use of this very beautiful, central and expensive property. The students would look into options for use of the park by working with PARC on a resident survey and help determine what if ecological impact assessment might necessary.
Salt Spring Village Resort, the large resort sitting on Bullock Lake, about 2 miles from town, has created much controversy on the island because many islanders view it as too large and too damaging. In order to minimize environmental impacts, Suzanne Ambers was hired to implement a ‘green’ spa and last year students worked with her to determine what type of ‘green’ spa would be best, and how to market it. This year Suzanne is getting ready to open and would like help on further understanding the green spa industry and what best practices could be applied to the Village Resort. An EMS or environmental plan would be ideal for the spa. The student report from last year is available.
In the fall of 2007 Salt Spring Island will get its first radio station. This will be a critical part of any sustainable management plan for the island. I-SEA has been asked to provide the program management for all sustainable reporting during a daily ‘Sustainable Salt Spring’ show. I-SEA has a CBC reporter on board to assist with the programming, but research is needed into other small community, activist oriented radio stations; what makes them successful, what programs are recommended, how are funds raised, etc. The outcome of this research will directly be applied to I-SEA.
Conduct a feasibility study for a small research lab to support students and residents studying business, society and the environmental challenges facing Salt Spring. Equipment will include GIS and mapping software to support development of, and community access to, important environmental data and indicators. As well as some type of radio and recording equipment for radio and TV content development. I-SEA wants to become a key spot to access and use data for local planning, i.e. harbor management, green growth, new zoning, or energy management. With this complete resource, community capacity building can be accelerated and applied quickly.
Help expand the Green Pilgrim’s Guide to include other islands, and assist Mrs. Guiled with a marketing strategy to sell more to tourists on-island and through local B&B’s. This Guide is an excellent resource for visitors that help them understand the history of the island and sensitive ecosystems they should respect. It also provides great information on where to go and what to see in an environmental sense. Her moto is that visitors should tread lightly on the Earth, and Salt Spring.
There is a lot of fear of tourists by residents on Salt Spring, that they will overwhelm the island as the Olympics arrive and the new Gulf Islands National Park takes off. In 2006, I-SEA held a series of round-tables on tourism to understand the community’s orientation to tourism (not so good) and eco-tourism or sustainable tourism (positive). There was resounding agreement to find a way to attract tourists that were interested in coming to the island to learn. Learn how to farm more responsibly, take courses in sustainable management, permaculture and community gardening, eco-adventures like kayaking or taking interpretive walks with local experts. This project would work with the Chamber and I-SEA to develop an outline of a tourism management plan using current knowledge and recent research. Many reports on Eco-Tourism are available for the region and on the island.
http://www.solidsaltspring.com/ SOLID was formed 7 years ago by two locals, Gary McNutt and Andrea Palframan, who now live in Lesotho half of each year. The started the program to provide direct aid to Lesotho from Salt Spring residents. It has been quite successful, with many residents and organizations donating money to fund lifestyle and health improvement projects in Lesotho; building nursery’s, schools, funding small businesses, helping hospitals, etc. Rob Wiltzen has been the SOLID Director for about 1.5 years and will be the client to help get the ‘word out’ on Salt Spring in a more effective way, and find local partnering organizations, like I-SEA to strengthen their mandate. The outcome will be a draft Social Marketing Plan. A partial student report is available.
In January of 2007, I-SEA opened a new 1000 square foot office in downtown Ganges. Please see www.i-sea.org for more information and pictures. There has been tremendous interest and support in the community for this new organization, NGO. I-SEA has a 5 year financial plan, that is on-target, but there still needs to be developed an overall Strategic Plan. The output of this project would be to find out what other small community Sustainability Centers or Institutes have done in BC and in the western US to become a stable, successful, useful resource to residents. Much information is available for review, and interviews can easily be set up with partners. Several past student reports are also available.
http://www.saltspringseeds.com/index.htm Dan Jason heads this organization and has a seed sanctuary NGO that he would love to see grow. His dream is for Salt Spring to become a model community for saving local seed stocks and preserving our future diversity of food in a changing climate. He has many projects on the go and many needs. The focus of this project could be mulit-faceted and include creating a strategic business plan for the Seed Sanctuary, including finding interns to help his dream come true, as well as placing his seeds in a more prominent position among local farmers and overcoming some resistance to using his seeds. Margery has met with Dan and he is very receptive to assistance from the students. In addition, a community gardening program is underway that could strengthen Dan’s goal and help the community use his seeds more. This would be in partnership with the Salt Spring Community Services.
Research is being down now to determine what local builders and contractors need and want in training. An education plan is needed for 2007/2008 to train local builders and contractors in response to the growing demand for green buildings. Several BC and Canada, plus US, green building programs are available for residential and commercial buildings, but there remains no central training or certification process like the Green Advantage - http://www.greenadvantage.org/ Perhaps there are other models that could be applied to Salt Spring Island and a pilot training program launched during the week of June 15th. There is support for this from the island’s Conservancy and the Energy Strategy. Many reports and research are available. Other Sustainability Projects being planned for 2007/2008
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