Young people care deeply about sustainability. That’s why in September of 2009, 180 university and college students from across Canada assembled in Guelph, Canada. These outstanding people were selected from over 900 applicants to attend IMPACT! The Co-operators Youth Conference for Sustainability Leadership – an event designed to excite, empower and equip young people with the tools and knowledge they need to be catalysts for greater sustainability.  Before they set foot at the University of Guelph campus, they had already spent 25 hours during the summer researching the current sustainability practices in one organization of their choosing, as well as taking a sustainability e-learning course developed by The Natural Step. During the conference, students discussed current sustainability practices with each other and the experts from industry and academia who were guiding them. They critiqued current practices and developed new ideas to move organizations ahead.

To capture the students’ findings, the Research Network for Business Sustainability produced The New Normal: Sustainable Practices Your Future Employees Will Demand. The report presents many of the students’ ideas on issues from climate change and pollution to employees, community and consumers; to poverty and human rights. It is organized by sector, including: insurance and financial services, manufacturing, retail, municipal services, food systems, energy production, information and communications technologies, and hospitality and tourism. www.nbs.net/new_normal

Other conference outcomes are being measured one, three, six and twelve months after the conference. Regular blog posts provide updates on these outcomes and visit the IMPACT! Fund Page to find out about more about our grant recipients and their current projects.

February 25th: Anouk Bertner, International Communications Director, The Natural Step
March 16th: David Suzuki, Founder, David Suzuki Foundation

The 180 Impact Alumni will receive registration and participation instructions shortly.  A recording of the live event will be posted later on this site so anyone with an interest in sustainability can benefit from this extension of the conference.

Impact! alumni may access the link for the matching program on the Alumni Forum under the Announcements heading.

All told, the total carbon footprint for the conference was 132 metric tonnes of CO2:

Air travel = 114 tonnes
Rail= 5 tonnes
Meals = 3 tonnes
Hotel rooms and meeting space = 10 tons

To minimize the event’s ecological footprint, The Co-operators set aside funds to purchase carbon offsets and asked participants to direct the funds to one of these four Canadian organizations that provide solid offset strategies.

29% of offsets were directed to Tree Canada which uses all their funds to plant trees in Canada. The simple act of planting a tree is one of the most beneficial things that can be done for the environment and for your community.

24% of offsets went to Carbonzero’s OMHM Energy Efficiency Project  which provides energy efficiency retrofits for social housing in Montreal, Quebec. This project has been certified to: 

• Replace inefficient gas boilers in heating systems with new efficient units employing heating control.
• Build new energy efficient piping systems and switch heat generation systems from natural gas to electricity.
• Install solar heating units and retrofit buildings with heat recovery from domestic wastewater.

31% of participants chose Planetair, a Canadian organization that works on International projects. Including:

• Micro Hydropower Plant in Indonesia
• Mad’Eole – First Wind Energy Plant in Madagascar
• Solar and Efficient Stoves in Southwest Madagascar
• Efficient Stove and Briquetting Project in India
• Wind Farm Yuntag in Turkey

16% of carbon offsets went to Offsetters’  Seabird Island Indian Band Office Project – Based in Agassiz, BC, this nonprofit society provides support for people with disabilities and their families. The Band Office is committed to the guidance and provision of high quality services for the community. A ground source heat pump system was installed to reduce energy consumption and long-term operating costs.

Ground source heat pumps convert renewable heat stored below the earth’s surface into usable energy. An antifreeze solution circulates through underground piping, picking up the natural heat of the earth, which is then extracted by the heat pump and converted into energy which can be used to heat or cool a building and provide preheated water.

When planning your next event, will you calculate your carbon footprint, seek to minimize it and purchase carbon offsets?

The projects range from urban beekeeping to education programs, from green jobs to banning plastic bags, from low-tech tap water at local events to high-tech barcodes for food products. The students have identified critical issues and have taken decisive action.

The $50,000 Co-operators Foundation – Impact! Fund was created to engage past participants of Impact! The Co-operators Youth Conference for Sustainability Leadership. Held for the first time in September 2009, the event gathered nearly 200 university and college students representing all areas of study from across Canada and provided a forum to develop timely solutions to pressing sustainability issues. Inspired by sustainability leaders like Dr.David Suzuki, guided by sectoral experts from industry and academia, and through vast and diverse networks, students developed practical solutions and practices to effect change long after the conference. The Co-operators Foundation – Impact! Fund is a source of seed money to enable them to be catalysts for change.

“We have always maintained that what happens after the pre-conference research and after the Impact! conference is what is most important,” said Barbara Turley-McIntyre, conference Chair and  The Co-operators Director of Sustainability. “The conference excited, empowered and equipped almost 200 young people to go out there and have an Impact! We intend to support and measure that as the year progresses.”

Stay tuned to find out more about the selected projects and the people behind them.

This video takes you behind the scenes of Impact! The Co-operators Youth Conference for Sustainability Leadership. See for yourself the philosophy, energy and commitment that fuels  the event that gathered 180 young Canadians from 50 universities and 10 colleges nationally. With excerpts from David Suzuki’s frank and inspiring key-note address to interviews with participants and tons of beautiful conference images and insights, this brief video gives you a real sense of what excited, inspired and equipped these young people to be catalysts for change.

David Suzuki himself wrote: “It was a wonderful event and I really am blown away. All my thanks and best wishes for the follow up with these youngsters. I have great hopes for them and if I helped in some small way, I am delighted.”

Take a moment now to add inspiration to your day.

Hey everyone,
A chapter of an organization I am with is hosting a conference in May and one of the focuses is on sustainability. What steps were taken in Impact! to keep the conference as sustainable as possible?- Ijaz

Jeannie Shore, Chair of the conference Logistics Committee and The Co-operators Manager, Member & Co-operative Relations, provided this blueprint for planning a sustainable event.

From a logistics perspective, we have some general rules that we follow when planning our corporate events at The Co-operators.  These include such things:

1. Examine the use of paper for information to the participants.  If they are going to print whatever you send, it is more sustainable for you to print it on 100% recycled paper and double-sided, as the participants likely will use regular paper and single sided.  Otherwise use web-based communication whenever possible (both before and after the meeting).
2. Insist on all condiments (ie. sugar, cream, jam, butter etc.) and snacks (granola bars) be served in bulk.  We usually have the hotel supply home baking instead of bought snacks. This saves a lot of waste in packaging and is cheaper too.  We also don’t allow plastic water bottles … we use jugs and glasses or give out water bottles.  Juice is another thing, as there is waste if a jug only has one glass out of it and they have to throw it out.
3. Quantities of food are carefully determined so there is minimal waste. Some hotels have a program to donate unused food but it isn’t universal yet.
4. Look at the location of the event and try to choose somewhere that is central to the majority of the participants to reduce the need to travel. Encourage travellers to travel at the same time to allow for car pooling.
   For Impact! The Co-operators Youth Conference for Sustainability Leaderhip, we were not able to arrange car-pooling due to insurance reasons but we did encourage it for those who travelled in cars and there are websites that assist with this. The speakers may be able to speak via videoteleconference or webex to save travel.
5. If people are staying in a hotel, provide a list of sustainable practices for the hotel including that they have a recycling program and don’t wash sheets/towels every day.
6. The menu should be local, fair trade and organic.  We also try to have co-op choices as we are a co-op. This is easy when it comes to dairy as there are lots of dairy co-ops.
7. We also look at using co-ops and sustainable companies if we have giveaways.  We have used Mountain Equipment Co-op in the past for the bottles and other items and I’ve listed the ones for Impact in the next section.
8. We arrange for a donation to local charities to contribute socially to the community in which we meet.  This is usually a raffle that the participants join in.  We choose a really small, grassroots organization that would benefit from even a small donation.  We have also given an amount per participant to local environmental charities to offset the carbon footprint.  We choose one each for air, water and earth.  Again we choose small projects that would benefit from a couple of hundred dollars.

This IMPACT conference allowed us to use some new suppliers:

•  Me to We Responsible Style for shirts & scarves
•  Bio-Badge for biodegradable badge holders
• Universal Links sourced our notebooks for us (100% recycled content and Canadian made)

As well, specific to this IMPACT event:

• Almost all meals were vegetarian, a more sustainable choice
• Local produce and foods used by U of G Hospitality in meals
• White boards and black boards instead of flipcharts
• Included all necessary information for the meeting in booklet with nametag
• All printed material was on 100% recycled, wind-powered, FSC stock and was recycled at end of event
• Badgeholders will be reused at future event … even though they are biodegradeable
• Minimal shipping of materials as event was held close to our head office
• Used rail for as many travellers in Ontario and Quebec as possible to avoid unnecessary flights
• Timed arrivals to be shuttled together to Guelph from airport and train station in Toronto (only two buses from Union Station to Guelph needed, only one for return)
• Biodiesel buses for transport to River Run Centre
• Posting video and podcasts allowed others to experience the conference without travelling to it

In many cases, these little things don’t cost more money or can even save money.  They take a little time and effort … and be sure to tell your participants so they take it away and start to do it themselves too!   Just the fact that you asked us is a compliment to our event.

Jeannie

Ijaz isn’t the only one who has complimented the sustainability of Impact! The Co-operators Youth Conference for Sustainability Leadership. During the post-conference evaluation, Tom Ewart, Manager of the Network for Business Sustainability said: “It’s probably the most sustainable event I’ve been to.” Chad Park, Sustainability Advisor at The Natural Step Canada also agreed.

This month I will…

• Have a brainstorming dinner with my friends and colleagues using 100% local ingredients. We will discuss this conference and what we can do as a collective force and hopefully get more friends thinking about the environment and social sustainability. – Catlan
• Learn more about issues facing my community. Collaborate with existing municipal/local initiatives. Take an inventory of my personal:co2 footprint, water consumption, garbage output and take steps to cut them in two. – Ryan
• Take the David Suzuki Foundation’s Nature Challenge.- Dave
• Attend Power Shift Conference in Ottawa. Bring ideas learned and discussed at this conference back to McGill and the Montreal community to put into action. Use Network developed to enhance “green Business Week” at McGill that I am organizing. – David

This year, I will…

• Help universities across Canada make their campuses ban the sale of bottled water as I did with the University of Winnipeg by providing them with info and support. I will work with my student association to continue campaigns regarding water, poverty and sustainability. – Stephanie
• Build a PhD project that will not only help share knowledge about ecological issues but will also engage with stakeholders and help. Write letters to MPs, etc. about green labelling and community sustainability. Write editorials. Live more sustainably- consistently recycle and compost. – Anne
• Will host a program at a local elementary school that provides children with an entrepreneurial opportunity to raise money for an NGO focusing on sustainability. A pilot project to be developed in years to come. – Katrina
• Use the networking and valuable contracts I gained from Impact! and contribute to a national dialogue on Water entrification and hypoxia.  This project is a film showcasing those issues, and the networking and contacts I’ve made here will allow me to distribute it and learn about other similar projects and organize film screenings and discussions with business, society and political leaders. – Stephen