Cool North Shore

As some of you know Club Fat Ass had environmental friendliness on our schedule long before it was in the news.  It's a good thing that sustainability is now part of our vocabulary and hopefully soon part of all our actions.

I realized how much of an early adopter of environmentally friendly living I was when I was invited by my neighbor JoAN to participate in the Cool North Shore.

Many of us know that climate change threatens the future health of the planet, our community and the future we’re leaving for our children. Figuring out how to respond to these concerns can be overwhelming and confusing. A diverse group of North Shore citizens called Legacy North Shore Society (www.legacynorthshore.ca), has decided we can do something powerful NOW to tackle climate change and work together to make a real difference.

They adapted the stimulating, simple and effective Low Carbon Diet model created by the Empowerment Institute (which has been used in hundreds of communities and organizations across the world) for the North Shore. They are partnering with local governments and BC Hydro to spread this across the entire North Shore over the coming year. This is a ground‐breaking opportunity for citizens and neighborhoods to make a concrete and satisfying difference on the North Shore.

Cool North Shore (which is part of Legacy North Shore) is all about building a low carbon community by engaging North Shore residents and organizations in taking action to measurably reduce our CO2 emissions. 

Our first meeting was a couple of weeks ago.  We were asked to come as a team.  JoAn, who has been involved with Legacy North Shore, invited our neighborhood to form a team.  Sandra, Heather (an almost around the corner neighbor) and myself responded.  We carpooled to the Bella Candela restaurant, whose owner sponsored the evening (good pizza and salad, btw.) and settled down. I wasn't quite sure what to expect.  Soon after David, Bryan and Charles introduced themselves and the idea behind Cool North Shore, we were asked to switch tables. Oops, I thought I was operating in the safety of a team...  After intros we were asked to reflect on our fears with regards to our environment.  The tables were covered in blank sheets of paper and we jotted down our thoughts.  Another switch, intros and more brainstorming on fears.  After the next switch we were asked to look at our hopes.  Luckily, my table mates were very hopeful that the increased visibility of the environmental issues facing us would translate into action and change on a personal, community and political level.  I sometimes have my doubts...Another switch saw us looking at what we have done on a personal level to reduce our carbon foot print.

During the last part of the evening, we rejoined our original teams and were asked to plan ahead following a plan of action laid out by the Cool North Shore folks and the "Low Carbon Diet" publication.  We committed to an immediate personal action.  Mine is to reduce my weekly clothes dryer loads by setting up a clothesline. The other action items were in preparation for a team meeting that we scheduled among the 4 of us:  Using the Low Carbon Diet booklet set a carbon reduction goal in pounds (the book was published in the US).  Complete the carbon calculator at: www.earthlab.com; read chapters 1-16. 

We were all pretty psyched at the end of the evening.  I shall report in with further updates on Cool the North Shore and my personal action items.  For now, I challenge you to take the carbon calculator at  www.earthlab.com and ponder how you personally can reduce your carbon footprint. 

Lastly, one of the next steps for our teams is to look at personal household reductions and then at involving our neighborhood and the community...I figure with Club Fat Ass I have a outdoor oriented, attentive community at my fingertips: if you are interested to participate in Cool North Shore, please let me know. They arranged a second meeting (like the one I attended)  To register, please send your name and names of your fellow attendees (North Shore residents only), with their emails, by October 13 to:  bryang@sfu.ca. Space is limited to 50 people (overflow will go to an early 2009 session).