Introduction
projections will result in an annual production of 82,750 tonnes of CO2e in 2038. Food Insecurity: Canadians are facing higher levels of food insecurity due to a combination of factors including rising food prices, climate change, poor soil health, declining incomes, a looming global recession, etc. Without intervention, one of the ways in which our community will continue to feel climate change impacts is a declining availability, accessibility, and affordability of food. For example, Vancouver Island only has sufficient food supply for three days if supply were disrupted by a climatic event. Social Disconnection: Climate change and food insecurity have exacerbated a rising social isolation in our communities. Climate change can induce “eco-grief,” or feelings of anger and despair over the climate, which can lead to an individuals self-isolating due to a sense of helplessness and inability to express complexity. Food insecurity can lead to feelings of stigmatization and an inability to participate fully in a social life. Social isolation has significant implications for our happiness and community resilience. We are facing rapidly intensifying challenges characterized by increasingly severe implications, and in parallel, our ability to respond to those challenges as an effective and coherent collective is becoming increasingly impaired.
projections will result in an annual production of 82,750 tonnes of CO2e in 2038.
2.
Food Insecurity: Canadians are facing higher levels of food insecurity due to a combination of factors including rising food prices, climate change, poor soil health, declining incomes, a looming global recession, etc. Without intervention, one of the ways in which our community will continue to feel the impacts of climate change is a declining availability, accessibility, and affordability of food. For example, Vancouver Island only has sufficient food stores for three days if supply were disrupted by a climatic event.
The Compost Education Centre provides environmental education to individuals, community groups, and educators with a focus on hands-on regenerative soil practices. Our environmental education leads to “environmental literacy,” or an improved understanding of climate science, environmental dynamics, sustainable practices, and the ethical dimensions of environmental changes. Through our education, people understand how composting is integral to cost-effective gardening practices, reduces waste and greenhouse gas emissions, aids food growing in our region, and has a positive impact on community health and resilience. Our work strengthens community and climate resilience, stewards the region’s land and nutrient cycles, reduces organic waste disposed of in the Hartland Landfill and the region, and strengthens food security and sovereignty.
3.
Challenges
We address our region’s interwoven challenges of climate change, food insecurity, and social disconnection.
Climate Change: Our region contributes significantly to climate change through food. The majority of food we consume is grown with chemical inputs that are produced through a carbon-intensive process, there is runoff of nutrients from agricultural land into waterways that increases greenhouse gas emissions from aquatic ecosystems, and organic waste produces methane when it is disposed of in the landfill. When we think of our regional food system, it is part of a linear economic model that has both inputs and outputs that contribute significantly to global climate change and eutrophication. Worldwide, food and agriculture are responsible for 78% of global eutrophication, and more locally, the Capital Regional District sends 67 kg of organic waste per capita per year to the landfil which at current population
1.
Approach
These three challenges are interconnected and are key threads in our region’s experience of the global polycrisis. To address these challenges, we are holding ourselves accountable for the interwoven outcomes of: transferring knowledge through an approach that results in an increased sense of belonging and purpose in the community as well as empowerment and changed waste management behaviors.
78% of global eutrophication
Capital Regional District sends 67 kg of organic waste
Glossary Term
- Connections: We create connections through a place-based educational approach consisting of a unique focus on hands-on regenerative soil practices, a learning process that emphasizes equity and access, and a reciprocal relationship with land. Since 1992, the CEC has cared for and been cared for by teaching gardens, learning resource centre, and natural building classroom located on unceded and occupied Coast Salish territories (specifically, the ancestral lands of the Lekwugen nations of the Songhees and Xwsepsum peoples) at 1216 North Park St in Victoria, BC. Through decades of layered and community-based relationships, ecological learnings and practices, and deep anti-oppression values, the place has become a community magnet that cultivates greater connectivity to local contexts, cultures, and environments. The CEC has extended those connections by stewarding other urban gardens, embedding place-based approaches in all our educational programming, and supporting other people in creating reciprocal relationships with the land in their respective contexts.
- Education: The content of our environmental educational programming promotes circular economy in our local food systems, zero waste principles, and the first 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle) of the pollution prevention hierarchy. 97% of CRD survey respondents perceived CEC resources to be effective in improving waste reduction knowledges. Through our education, people understand how composting is integral to cost-effective and healthy gardening practices, reduces waste and greenhouse gas emissions, aids food growing in our region, and has a positive impactn communities’ health and resiliency.
- Behaviors: People who feel connected are more likely to act. Environmental challenges can feel insurmountable, but the CEC empowers people by showing them how they can contribute to solutions in small but meaningful ways. As a community, we could divert organic waste (up to 23% of incoming waste to the landfill) through composting, reduce associated greenhouse gas emissions
and upstream ecological damage from eutrophication and agriculture’s chemical inputs, use compost in local food production to enhance regional food security, and enhance community resilience. It is through individuals changing how they operate at the small scale that we shape larger patterns of human systems.
- Connections: We create connections through a place-based educational approach consisting of a unique focus on hands-on regenerative soil practices, a learning process that emphasizes equity and access, and a reciprocal relationship with land. Since 1992, the CEC has cared for and been cared for by teaching gardens, learning resource centre, and natural building classroom located on unceded and occupied Coast Salish territories (specifically, the ancestral lands of the Lekwugen nations of the Songhees and Xwsepsum peoples) at 1216 North Park St in Victoria, BC. Through decades of layered and community-based relationships, ecological learnings and practices, and deep anti-oppression values, the place has become a community magnet that cultivates greater connectivity to local contexts, cultures, and environments. The CEC has extended those connections by stewarding other urban gardens, embedding place-based approaches in all our educational programming, and supporting other people in creating reciprocal relationships with the land in their respective contexts.
Our education, behavior change, and empowerment activities have an impact on individuals that aggregates into impacts on communities, systems, and policies.
Our Goals & Impact Statement
Over the next three years, the CEC will strengthen community resilience and stewardship of Greater Victoria’s land and nutrient cycles through a place-based educational approach consisting of a unique focus on hands-on regenerative soil practices, a learning process that emphasizes equity and access, and a reciprocal relationship with land. Through these approaches, we will achieve the following impact: - Teaching individuals about hands-on regenerative soil practices including how to reduce waste, divert waste from the landfill through composting at home or through curbside programs, and create healthy soil with compost.
- Creating connections through a membership program, volunteer opportunities, and our educational offerings.
- Empowering individuals to change their behavior and use hands-on regenerative soil practices.
- Education: The content of our environmental educational programming promotes circular economy in our local food systems, zero waste principles, and the first 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle) of the pollution prevention hierarchy. 97% of CRD survey respondents perceived CEC resources to be effective in improving waste reduction knowledge. Through our education, people understand how composting is integral to cost-effective and healthy gardening practices, reduces waste and greenhouse gas emissions, aids food growing in our region, and has a positive impact on communities’ health and resiliency.
(up to 23% of incoming waste to the landfill)
Glossary Term
Theory of change
Immediate Outcomes (1-3 years)
- Spark awareness and inspiration in Greater
Victoria children, youth, and adults.
- Work with educators and community partners to improve their knowledge, capacity, and confidence.
- Transform our members and volunteers into pollinators.
Who we engage
Partners & Levers
Intermediate Outcomes (3-5 years)
Methods We Use
Education
Transfer knowledge with an approach that results in an increased sense of belonging and purpose in the community, empowerment, and changed waste management behaviors.
Ultimate Impact
Research
Members
Greater Victoria residents steward the region’s land and nutrient cycles, which contributes to waste reduction, healthy soil regeneration, local food sovereignty/security, and community and climate resilience.
Stewardship
Volunteers
Resources
Educators
Longterm Outcomes
Strengthened community resilience, deepened stewardship of the region’s land and nutrient cycles, reduction of organic waste disposed of at the Hartland Landfill and in th Capital Regional District, and strengthened food security and sovereignty.
Greater Victoria Residents
Legend
Click to Learn More
Glossary Term
to combat climate change. Climate action and social connection: our approach is focused on empowering residents to develop soil stewardship skills and inspiring others to act. Climate resilience: the ability to anticipate, prepare for, and respond to hazardous events, trends, or disturbances related to climate change.Community expert: subject matter experts who facilitate workshops or are sought out for their knowledge on a certain topic. These people show a commitment to lifelong learning and keeping information available to all members of the community regardless of their learning level. Community resilience: the ability to anticipate, prepare for, and respond to hazardous events, trends, or disturbances related to climate. Divert organic waste: ensuring that materials that readily decompose in stewarded compost piles and are of plant or animal origin (e.g. food scraps, yard waste, animal manures, paper products, leaves, woody debris) are composted rather than end up in the landfill. “We are diverting organic wastes from landfill when we compost our kitchen scraps.” Empowerment and changed waste management behaviors: we will see our community growing more food, diverting organic waste from the landfill through onsite composting and/or using curbside services, and inspiring their peers to compost and grow food as well. Education: we provide teaching and
Glossary
programming about hands-on regenerative soil practices through workshops and community outreach events. Equity & access: we integrate an accessible and adaptable learn-by-doing approach in all that we do. We pursue our work through an anti-oppression and decolonial lens. Eutrophication: a process in which nutrients accumulate in a body of water (e.g. through runoff of fertilizer from agricultural applications), resulting in an increased growth of aquatic organisms that deplete oxygen with significant environmental, economic, and health effects.Food insecurity: insufficient and unstable availability of food in the present and future. Food sovereignty: the ability of peoples to access healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods as well as their right to define their own food and agriculture systems. Hands-on regenerative soil practices: activities that can be done at the individual level to restore soil and ecosystem health, address inequity, and leave our land, waters, and climate in better shape for future generations. Examples of hands-on regenerative soil practices include at-home composting, sustainable food growing, and pollinator care in boulevard gardens, community gardens, and on balconies. Healing City Soils Partners: the CEC partners with Professor Matt Dodd at Royal Roads University (RRU), an annual cohort of RRU BSc in Environmental Science students, program creator and adviser Dr. Danielle Stevenson,
Carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e): a measure of the effect of different greenhouse gases (GHGs) on the climate. By converting different emissions to the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide (CO2), their impacts can be compared. Chemical inputs: since the Green Revolution, the use of chemical inputs like pesticides and mineral fertilizers (instead of organic amendments like compost) has played a crucial role in enhancing crop yields and improving food security. However, excessive use of chemical inputs has harmed soil health, destabilized the global biogeochemical flows of nitrogen and phosphorous, increased emissions of greenhouse gas emissions, and resulted in pervasive environmental pollution with risks to biodiversity. Circular economy: in contrast to the linear economy, the circular economy is a system where materials – instead of becoming waste -- are regenerated through processes like maintenance, reuse, refurbishment, remanufacture, recycling, and composting. Circular economy establishes a paradigm that couples economic wellbeing with environmental sustainability, and it is based on three principles: 1) eliminate waste and pollution, 2) circulate products and materials, and 3) regenerate nature. Climate action: strategies, policies, and initiatives aimed at reducing greenhouse gas gas emissions, transitioning to low-carbon and renewable energy sources, enhancing climate resilience, and promoting sustainable practices
Carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e): a measure of the effect of different greenhouse gases (GHGs) on the climate. By converting different emissions to the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide (CO2), their impacts can be compared.
Eutrophication: a process in which nutrients accumulate in a body of water (e.g. through runoff of fertilizer from agricultural applications), resulting in an increased growth of aquatic organisms that deplete oxygen with significant environmental, economic, and health effects.
Chemical inputs: since the Green Revolution, the use of chemical inputs like pesticides and mineral fertilizers (instead of organic amendments like compost) has played a crucial role in enhancing crop yields and improving food security. However, excessive use of chemical inputs has harmed soil health, destabilized the global biogeochemical flows of nitrogen and phosphorous, increased emissions of greenhouse gas emissions, and resulted in pervasive environmental pollution with risks to biodiversity.
Circular economy: in contrast to the linear economy, the circular economy is a system where materials – instead of becoming waste -- are regenerated through processes like maintenance, reuse, refurbishment, remanufacture, recycling, and composting. Circular economy establishes a paradigm that couples economic wellbeing with environmental sustainability, and it is based on three principles: 1) eliminate waste and pollution, 2) circulate products and materials, and 3) regenerate nature.
PEPAKEN HAUTW, and CRD residents. The CEC is responsible for administering and managing the program, Professor Matt Dodd provides scientific and technical oversight to the program and to the students, the RRU students perform the bioremediation research, Dr. Danielle Stevenson provides additional advice and expertise, PEPAKEN HAUTW are key stakeholders as they manage the land where the bioremediation research occurs, and CRD residents perform "citizen science" in taking and sending in soil samples. Local consumption: prioritization of regionally produced food, energy and other goods and services with the aim of a low ecological impact and a decrease in the demand for new items to be created/ shipped to our region (e.g. buying produce from a local farm stand or farmers market).Linear economic model: the traditional economic model characterized by a “take, make, waste” approach where raw materials are extracted to make products that are used and then discarded as a waste. There’s a unidirectional flower of resources that poses significant challenges to the environment and contributes to the depletion of natural resources. Organic waste diversion: materials that readily decompose in stewarded compost piles and are of plant or animal origin (e.g. food scraps, yard waste, animal manures, paper products, leaves, woody debris). Diversion of these organic materials include ensuring that these items end up in composition stream, rather than in landfill. “We are diverting organic wastes from landfill when we compost our kitchen scraps.” In the region. organic waste accounts for 16.7% of the overall garbage stream.
Partners & Levers: individuals and organizations that the CEC collaborates with in an ongoing and significant way to mutual benefit. They include community experts, municipal governments, the regional government, funders, donors, schools, school districts, post-secondary institutions, food security networks, Healing City Soils partners, and waste haulers. Place-based educational approach: a an approach to teaching where the location of teaching is intentional and relevant to the topic Polycrisis: refers to a situation characterized by multiple and interconnected crises that converge and amplify each other. Our world consists of interconnecting systems, and we are currently facing a larger disequilibrium. Pollinators: over the next 1-3 years, our members and volunteers will increase their ability to be an ambassador for hands-on regenerative soil practices. We will see them in relationship, collaboration, and increased engagement with their communities. Our pollinators will support community resilience.Pollution prevention hierarchy: the pollution prevention hierarchy provides a decision-making framework for prioritizing actions. The 5Rs of the pollution prevention hierarchy are reduce, reuse, recycle, recovery, and residuals management. Reciprocal relationship with land: the ongoing exchange of teachings between humans, non-humans, and the land. This practiced is fueled through curiosity, openness, and humility.Research: we pursue heavy metal soil bioremediation research, provide free soil
heavy metal testing to growers and gatherers, prioritize ongoing professional development for staff and volunteers, and seek out opportunities to further public understanding on the importance and value of composting and waste reduction. Resources: we provide retail services, a hotline, a virtual soil quality map, tools (including factsheets, books, etc.), urban growing and gathering spaces, and a demonstration site and teaching garden.Stewardship: we steward community gardens, a demonstration site and teaching garden, a boulevard garden network, and community orchards.Stewardship of the region’s land and nutrient cycles: the collective action that seeks to improve the health and productivity of the soil by facilitating the return of beneficial nutrients in a form available to local plant life.Transfer knowledge: everyone we work with will have an increased understanding of hands-on regenerative soil practices. We will ensure that there is ongoing reciprocal learning between CEC staff, pollinators, and community.Warm & welcoming education: our educational approach is based on recognizing curiosity in ourselves and in our community; incorporating laughter, play, and a sense of awe in all that we do; growing roots in community; and grounding our work in natural cycles. Zero waste: is an ambitious goal to guide continual improvements to the waste management system. Closing system loops, and conservation of all resources by means of responsible production, consumption, refusal, repair, reuse, and recovery of products,
Polycrisis: refers to a situation characterized by multiple and interconnected crises that converge and amplify each other. Our world consists of interconnecting systems, and we are currently facing a larger disequilibrium.
Linear economic model: the traditional economic model characterized by a “take, make, waste” approach where raw materials are extracted to make products that are used and then discarded as a waste. There’s a unidirectional flower of resources that poses significant challenges to the environment and contributes to the depletion of natural resources.
Pollution prevention hierarchy: the pollution prevention hierarchy provides a decision-making framework for prioritizing actions. The 5Rs of the pollution prevention hierarchy are reduce, reuse, recycle, recovery, and residuals management.
Zero waste: is an ambitious goal to guide continual improvements to the waste management system. Closing system loops, and conservation of all resources by means of responsible production, consumption, refusal, repair, reuse, and recovery of products,
packaging, and materials without burning and with no discharges to land, water, or air that threaten the environment or human health.
Resources
- Retail services
- Hotline
- Virtual soil map
- Tools (factsheets, books, etc.)
- Urban growing & gathering spaces
- Demonstration site & teaching gardens
Warm & Welcoming Education
- Recognize curiosity in ourselves and in our community
- Incorporate laughter, play, and a sense of awe
- Grow roots in community and ground our work in natural cycles
Climate Action & Social Connection
Focus on empowering residents to develop soil stewardship skills and inspire others to act.
Partners & Levers
- Community Experts
- Municipal Governments
- Capital Regional District
- Funders & Donors
- School & School Districts
- Post-Secondary Institutions
- Food Security Networks
- Healing City Soils Partners
- Waste Haulers
Stewardship
- Community gardens
- Demonstration site
- Boulevard garden network
- Community orchards
Research
- Heavy metal soil bioremediation research
- Free heavy metal soil testing
- Ongoing professional development
Equity & Access
- Accessible and adaptable learn-by-doing approach
- Anti-oppression and decolonial work
Education
- Teaching & programming about hands-on regenerative soil practices
- Community outreach events
2025 Theory of Change
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Transcript
Introduction
projections will result in an annual production of 82,750 tonnes of CO2e in 2038. Food Insecurity: Canadians are facing higher levels of food insecurity due to a combination of factors including rising food prices, climate change, poor soil health, declining incomes, a looming global recession, etc. Without intervention, one of the ways in which our community will continue to feel climate change impacts is a declining availability, accessibility, and affordability of food. For example, Vancouver Island only has sufficient food supply for three days if supply were disrupted by a climatic event. Social Disconnection: Climate change and food insecurity have exacerbated a rising social isolation in our communities. Climate change can induce “eco-grief,” or feelings of anger and despair over the climate, which can lead to an individuals self-isolating due to a sense of helplessness and inability to express complexity. Food insecurity can lead to feelings of stigmatization and an inability to participate fully in a social life. Social isolation has significant implications for our happiness and community resilience. We are facing rapidly intensifying challenges characterized by increasingly severe implications, and in parallel, our ability to respond to those challenges as an effective and coherent collective is becoming increasingly impaired.
projections will result in an annual production of 82,750 tonnes of CO2e in 2038.
2.
Food Insecurity: Canadians are facing higher levels of food insecurity due to a combination of factors including rising food prices, climate change, poor soil health, declining incomes, a looming global recession, etc. Without intervention, one of the ways in which our community will continue to feel the impacts of climate change is a declining availability, accessibility, and affordability of food. For example, Vancouver Island only has sufficient food stores for three days if supply were disrupted by a climatic event.
The Compost Education Centre provides environmental education to individuals, community groups, and educators with a focus on hands-on regenerative soil practices. Our environmental education leads to “environmental literacy,” or an improved understanding of climate science, environmental dynamics, sustainable practices, and the ethical dimensions of environmental changes. Through our education, people understand how composting is integral to cost-effective gardening practices, reduces waste and greenhouse gas emissions, aids food growing in our region, and has a positive impact on community health and resilience. Our work strengthens community and climate resilience, stewards the region’s land and nutrient cycles, reduces organic waste disposed of in the Hartland Landfill and the region, and strengthens food security and sovereignty.
3.
Challenges
We address our region’s interwoven challenges of climate change, food insecurity, and social disconnection.
Climate Change: Our region contributes significantly to climate change through food. The majority of food we consume is grown with chemical inputs that are produced through a carbon-intensive process, there is runoff of nutrients from agricultural land into waterways that increases greenhouse gas emissions from aquatic ecosystems, and organic waste produces methane when it is disposed of in the landfill. When we think of our regional food system, it is part of a linear economic model that has both inputs and outputs that contribute significantly to global climate change and eutrophication. Worldwide, food and agriculture are responsible for 78% of global eutrophication, and more locally, the Capital Regional District sends 67 kg of organic waste per capita per year to the landfil which at current population
1.
Approach
These three challenges are interconnected and are key threads in our region’s experience of the global polycrisis. To address these challenges, we are holding ourselves accountable for the interwoven outcomes of: transferring knowledge through an approach that results in an increased sense of belonging and purpose in the community as well as empowerment and changed waste management behaviors.
78% of global eutrophication
Capital Regional District sends 67 kg of organic waste
Glossary Term
and upstream ecological damage from eutrophication and agriculture’s chemical inputs, use compost in local food production to enhance regional food security, and enhance community resilience. It is through individuals changing how they operate at the small scale that we shape larger patterns of human systems.
Our education, behavior change, and empowerment activities have an impact on individuals that aggregates into impacts on communities, systems, and policies.
Our Goals & Impact Statement
Over the next three years, the CEC will strengthen community resilience and stewardship of Greater Victoria’s land and nutrient cycles through a place-based educational approach consisting of a unique focus on hands-on regenerative soil practices, a learning process that emphasizes equity and access, and a reciprocal relationship with land. Through these approaches, we will achieve the following impact:- Teaching individuals about hands-on regenerative soil practices including how to reduce waste, divert waste from the landfill through composting at home or through curbside programs, and create healthy soil with compost.
- Creating connections through a membership program, volunteer opportunities, and our educational offerings.
- Empowering individuals to change their behavior and use hands-on regenerative soil practices.
(up to 23% of incoming waste to the landfill)
Glossary Term
Theory of change
Immediate Outcomes (1-3 years)
- Spark awareness and inspiration in Greater
Victoria children, youth, and adults.Who we engage
Partners & Levers
Intermediate Outcomes (3-5 years)
Methods We Use
Education
Transfer knowledge with an approach that results in an increased sense of belonging and purpose in the community, empowerment, and changed waste management behaviors.
Ultimate Impact
Research
Members
Greater Victoria residents steward the region’s land and nutrient cycles, which contributes to waste reduction, healthy soil regeneration, local food sovereignty/security, and community and climate resilience.
Stewardship
Volunteers
Resources
Educators
Longterm Outcomes
Strengthened community resilience, deepened stewardship of the region’s land and nutrient cycles, reduction of organic waste disposed of at the Hartland Landfill and in th Capital Regional District, and strengthened food security and sovereignty.
Greater Victoria Residents
Legend
Click to Learn More
Glossary Term
to combat climate change. Climate action and social connection: our approach is focused on empowering residents to develop soil stewardship skills and inspiring others to act. Climate resilience: the ability to anticipate, prepare for, and respond to hazardous events, trends, or disturbances related to climate change.Community expert: subject matter experts who facilitate workshops or are sought out for their knowledge on a certain topic. These people show a commitment to lifelong learning and keeping information available to all members of the community regardless of their learning level. Community resilience: the ability to anticipate, prepare for, and respond to hazardous events, trends, or disturbances related to climate. Divert organic waste: ensuring that materials that readily decompose in stewarded compost piles and are of plant or animal origin (e.g. food scraps, yard waste, animal manures, paper products, leaves, woody debris) are composted rather than end up in the landfill. “We are diverting organic wastes from landfill when we compost our kitchen scraps.” Empowerment and changed waste management behaviors: we will see our community growing more food, diverting organic waste from the landfill through onsite composting and/or using curbside services, and inspiring their peers to compost and grow food as well. Education: we provide teaching and
Glossary
programming about hands-on regenerative soil practices through workshops and community outreach events. Equity & access: we integrate an accessible and adaptable learn-by-doing approach in all that we do. We pursue our work through an anti-oppression and decolonial lens. Eutrophication: a process in which nutrients accumulate in a body of water (e.g. through runoff of fertilizer from agricultural applications), resulting in an increased growth of aquatic organisms that deplete oxygen with significant environmental, economic, and health effects.Food insecurity: insufficient and unstable availability of food in the present and future. Food sovereignty: the ability of peoples to access healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods as well as their right to define their own food and agriculture systems. Hands-on regenerative soil practices: activities that can be done at the individual level to restore soil and ecosystem health, address inequity, and leave our land, waters, and climate in better shape for future generations. Examples of hands-on regenerative soil practices include at-home composting, sustainable food growing, and pollinator care in boulevard gardens, community gardens, and on balconies. Healing City Soils Partners: the CEC partners with Professor Matt Dodd at Royal Roads University (RRU), an annual cohort of RRU BSc in Environmental Science students, program creator and adviser Dr. Danielle Stevenson,
Carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e): a measure of the effect of different greenhouse gases (GHGs) on the climate. By converting different emissions to the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide (CO2), their impacts can be compared. Chemical inputs: since the Green Revolution, the use of chemical inputs like pesticides and mineral fertilizers (instead of organic amendments like compost) has played a crucial role in enhancing crop yields and improving food security. However, excessive use of chemical inputs has harmed soil health, destabilized the global biogeochemical flows of nitrogen and phosphorous, increased emissions of greenhouse gas emissions, and resulted in pervasive environmental pollution with risks to biodiversity. Circular economy: in contrast to the linear economy, the circular economy is a system where materials – instead of becoming waste -- are regenerated through processes like maintenance, reuse, refurbishment, remanufacture, recycling, and composting. Circular economy establishes a paradigm that couples economic wellbeing with environmental sustainability, and it is based on three principles: 1) eliminate waste and pollution, 2) circulate products and materials, and 3) regenerate nature. Climate action: strategies, policies, and initiatives aimed at reducing greenhouse gas gas emissions, transitioning to low-carbon and renewable energy sources, enhancing climate resilience, and promoting sustainable practices
Carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e): a measure of the effect of different greenhouse gases (GHGs) on the climate. By converting different emissions to the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide (CO2), their impacts can be compared.
Eutrophication: a process in which nutrients accumulate in a body of water (e.g. through runoff of fertilizer from agricultural applications), resulting in an increased growth of aquatic organisms that deplete oxygen with significant environmental, economic, and health effects.
Chemical inputs: since the Green Revolution, the use of chemical inputs like pesticides and mineral fertilizers (instead of organic amendments like compost) has played a crucial role in enhancing crop yields and improving food security. However, excessive use of chemical inputs has harmed soil health, destabilized the global biogeochemical flows of nitrogen and phosphorous, increased emissions of greenhouse gas emissions, and resulted in pervasive environmental pollution with risks to biodiversity.
Circular economy: in contrast to the linear economy, the circular economy is a system where materials – instead of becoming waste -- are regenerated through processes like maintenance, reuse, refurbishment, remanufacture, recycling, and composting. Circular economy establishes a paradigm that couples economic wellbeing with environmental sustainability, and it is based on three principles: 1) eliminate waste and pollution, 2) circulate products and materials, and 3) regenerate nature.
PEPAKEN HAUTW, and CRD residents. The CEC is responsible for administering and managing the program, Professor Matt Dodd provides scientific and technical oversight to the program and to the students, the RRU students perform the bioremediation research, Dr. Danielle Stevenson provides additional advice and expertise, PEPAKEN HAUTW are key stakeholders as they manage the land where the bioremediation research occurs, and CRD residents perform "citizen science" in taking and sending in soil samples. Local consumption: prioritization of regionally produced food, energy and other goods and services with the aim of a low ecological impact and a decrease in the demand for new items to be created/ shipped to our region (e.g. buying produce from a local farm stand or farmers market).Linear economic model: the traditional economic model characterized by a “take, make, waste” approach where raw materials are extracted to make products that are used and then discarded as a waste. There’s a unidirectional flower of resources that poses significant challenges to the environment and contributes to the depletion of natural resources. Organic waste diversion: materials that readily decompose in stewarded compost piles and are of plant or animal origin (e.g. food scraps, yard waste, animal manures, paper products, leaves, woody debris). Diversion of these organic materials include ensuring that these items end up in composition stream, rather than in landfill. “We are diverting organic wastes from landfill when we compost our kitchen scraps.” In the region. organic waste accounts for 16.7% of the overall garbage stream.
Partners & Levers: individuals and organizations that the CEC collaborates with in an ongoing and significant way to mutual benefit. They include community experts, municipal governments, the regional government, funders, donors, schools, school districts, post-secondary institutions, food security networks, Healing City Soils partners, and waste haulers. Place-based educational approach: a an approach to teaching where the location of teaching is intentional and relevant to the topic Polycrisis: refers to a situation characterized by multiple and interconnected crises that converge and amplify each other. Our world consists of interconnecting systems, and we are currently facing a larger disequilibrium. Pollinators: over the next 1-3 years, our members and volunteers will increase their ability to be an ambassador for hands-on regenerative soil practices. We will see them in relationship, collaboration, and increased engagement with their communities. Our pollinators will support community resilience.Pollution prevention hierarchy: the pollution prevention hierarchy provides a decision-making framework for prioritizing actions. The 5Rs of the pollution prevention hierarchy are reduce, reuse, recycle, recovery, and residuals management. Reciprocal relationship with land: the ongoing exchange of teachings between humans, non-humans, and the land. This practiced is fueled through curiosity, openness, and humility.Research: we pursue heavy metal soil bioremediation research, provide free soil
heavy metal testing to growers and gatherers, prioritize ongoing professional development for staff and volunteers, and seek out opportunities to further public understanding on the importance and value of composting and waste reduction. Resources: we provide retail services, a hotline, a virtual soil quality map, tools (including factsheets, books, etc.), urban growing and gathering spaces, and a demonstration site and teaching garden.Stewardship: we steward community gardens, a demonstration site and teaching garden, a boulevard garden network, and community orchards.Stewardship of the region’s land and nutrient cycles: the collective action that seeks to improve the health and productivity of the soil by facilitating the return of beneficial nutrients in a form available to local plant life.Transfer knowledge: everyone we work with will have an increased understanding of hands-on regenerative soil practices. We will ensure that there is ongoing reciprocal learning between CEC staff, pollinators, and community.Warm & welcoming education: our educational approach is based on recognizing curiosity in ourselves and in our community; incorporating laughter, play, and a sense of awe in all that we do; growing roots in community; and grounding our work in natural cycles. Zero waste: is an ambitious goal to guide continual improvements to the waste management system. Closing system loops, and conservation of all resources by means of responsible production, consumption, refusal, repair, reuse, and recovery of products,
Polycrisis: refers to a situation characterized by multiple and interconnected crises that converge and amplify each other. Our world consists of interconnecting systems, and we are currently facing a larger disequilibrium.
Linear economic model: the traditional economic model characterized by a “take, make, waste” approach where raw materials are extracted to make products that are used and then discarded as a waste. There’s a unidirectional flower of resources that poses significant challenges to the environment and contributes to the depletion of natural resources.
Pollution prevention hierarchy: the pollution prevention hierarchy provides a decision-making framework for prioritizing actions. The 5Rs of the pollution prevention hierarchy are reduce, reuse, recycle, recovery, and residuals management.
Zero waste: is an ambitious goal to guide continual improvements to the waste management system. Closing system loops, and conservation of all resources by means of responsible production, consumption, refusal, repair, reuse, and recovery of products,
packaging, and materials without burning and with no discharges to land, water, or air that threaten the environment or human health.
Resources
Warm & Welcoming Education
Climate Action & Social Connection
Focus on empowering residents to develop soil stewardship skills and inspire others to act.
Partners & Levers
Stewardship
Research
Equity & Access
Education