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Newsletter Newsletter #2 - March 2008 Spring is here, and we are getting all geared up with many exciting projects and fun-raisers planned! Here is a brief update on I-SEA’s upcoming activities! Green Drinks – March 20th, Thursday at 5pm-8pm, Harbour House hotel, in the restaurant. Appetizers provided. Come and share a beverage and discuss sustainability topics with friends. Featured: New Sustainability Releases – books for review and discussion.
Who Should Attend: Professionals undecided about a graduate career or a new direction in the burgeoning sustainability field. Professionals interested in greening their work, workplace, or career. Benefits: Become an influencer with the skills needed to succeed, or just the confidence to try a new career. Live the experience of practicing what you learn on Salt Spring island, a hub of sustainability activity. Produce a sustainability project portfolio for career advancement. Establish a new network of partners. Join 1000’s of successful eco-preneurs!
Thank you to everyone for all of your support. We have now been open for over 1 year in the 1000 square foot space at 124 Lower Ganges Rd. and we could not have done it without all of you! If you would like to become a Friend of I-SEA please visit Friends of I-SEA and sign-up. Margery Moore
Newsletter #1 Welcome to I-SEA This is our first I-SEA Newsletter! We hope it informs you about I-SEA and will give you some ideas about how you might collaborate with us. Many organizations and residents of the Gulf Islands have contacted us by phone, by email or by dropping by the Center and expressed their support for what I-SEA is doing. We thank you, and look forward to working with all of you in the future to advance sustainability. Come Visit Our New Center @ 124 Lower Ganges Road In January, the Salt Spring Institute for Sustainability Education & Action (I-SEA) relocated within Ganges and redesigned a space in the heart of the village which has become, in less than 2 months, a place where Islanders and others have met, learned, discussed, and acted upon a variety of important sustainability issues. Since we opened our Center’s doors in January, our success has been due in large part to the outpouring of interest, time, money and goodwill from the community to make our world a better place to live. We believe it can be done here and around the globe. We are staking our future on it! The open access and increasing use of the I-SEA Center has spawned and accelerated many new partnerships and innovative ideas. Our goal is to continue to make progress toward achieving the overall vision of connecting us all in advancing the long-term reality of sustainability, here on the island, and beyond. I-SEA intends to organize and encourage more formal and informal gatherings that explore, inform, and inspire its many valued collaborators and students to strive for an even greater level and scope of sustainability education and action. Please drop by during our Center hours, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10am to 2pm. We have received many donations that will go toward building local capacity on the island; launching the free-workshop series; continuing our Green MBA and Sustainability Best Practices certificate series; promoting non-profits on the island and the great work they do; expanding the Center hours and tools to include new books, research tools, maps, and software; and, the development of a ‘research lab’ where residents, visitors, students, and experts can find the information they need about environmental, social and economic sustainability. We are here for you, come talk to us, tell us what you need! Sustainability Best Practices Workshop – March 13th Sustainability perspectives, profiles, and policies were the topics addressed by I-SEA facilitators Mark Starik and Margery Moore and a full house of active community members representing different Island organizations and interests. Through a series of exercises and interactive discussion, workshop participants became more familiar with sustainability concepts and practices and designed their own sustainability policies. Feedback from the participants will be used to tailor the workshop to Island individuals and organizations, including businesses. Our next workshop will likely be offered in late May. I-SEA Fundraiser with Ian Tamblyn On March 18th, I-SEA had its first fundraiser with Ottawa folksinger Ian Tamblyn (www.tamblyn.com), at ArtSpring. Ian was just wonderful and very humorous and an excellent evening of music was enjoyed by more than 120 people. Before the music started, an organic reception as held, along with a silent auction including items from over 75 local businesses, artists, weavers, jewellers, painters, photographers, message therapists, art consultants, Green B&B owners, permaculture experts, kayaking outfitters, on and on. The evening was an overwhelming show of support for sustainability on the island! A Robert Bateman original etching of the 'Black-tailed Deer' fetched the highest bid, and the item that garnered the most feverish bidding was a pie from Jana's Bake Shop! The artists and businesses of this community give so much to these events, and I-SEA is very grateful for their generosity, which allowed us to raise over $5,000!! Imagine Salt Spring Island: Planning for the Future Speaker Series With the support of many local volunteers, including Jean Gelwicks and Maxine Leichter, and the generous support of an anonymous donor, the Islands Trust and the Real Estate Foundation I-SEA sponsored the FREE “Imagine Salt Spring Island: Planning for the Future (A Speaker Series)” that has run since January and ends this April 19th with Guy Dauncey (7:30pm, Community Gospel). All of the events were well attended by the general public and Official Community Plan (OCP) Review Focus Group members. In January over 150 people came out to hear Sebastian Moffatt , who talked extensively about the need to do long range planning for the future, and the need to create plans that are flexible so they can be adapted as circumstances change in the future. In February, Elisa Campbell, Director of Design Centre of Sustainability at the University came to the island to speak about sustainability principles and showed over 100 people in the audience how to apply green community planning principles for better growth patterns in village centers. Just 2 weeks ago, March 15th, Deborah Curran, a land use lawyer and consultant, gave an impressive detailed presentation filled with candor on the legal tools that are available within the Trust area to protect open space, farmland and natural areas. Most of the speakers met with Islands Trust planning staff the next day, and with OCP Focus Group members at I-SEA one-on-one to ask specific questions and get immediate feedback. The whole series has been a wonderful success. We are very grateful to the many volunteers and financial sponsors for making this happen. DVD’s of all speakers will be available at I-SEA in May for loan. Upcoming Events:
For more information, please contact us at 537-4400 and check-out all our updates and photos at: Margery and Mark thank I-SEA’s 3 other current (and co-founding) Board members, Marion Pape of the Earth Festival Society, Peter Allan of the Chamber of Commerce (both of whom are I-SEA co-Vice Presidents), and Brenda Guiled, all of Salt Spring Island, for their dedication, vision, and support. Other members of the Gulf Islands sustainability community are welcome to join us in any of several capacities by e-mailing us at sustain@saltspring.com or call 250-537-4400 (I-SEA, 124 Lower Ganges Road, Salt Spring Island, BC, V2K 2S8 Canada). |
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