[greenon-l] We Conserve -- Add Your Voice!

[Conservation Council of Ontario]

Green On.
The Online Newsletter of the Conservation Council of Ontario
see www.greenontario.org for the online version and to subscribe or unsubscribe

Editor:  Chris Winter, Executive Director

Note:  The Green On. listserve is currently being used to promote our We 
Conserve Initiative
Please see www.weconserve.ca for details.


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In this issue...

1.  Announcing We Conserve
2.  July 5th Launch a great success
3.  Discussion Question:  A Movement in Transition: Is environmentalism 
dead, or is it evolving?


Announcing We Conserve
Welcome to the consultation phase around We Conserve, a new initiative to 
build a united conservation movement in Ontario.  We think the time is 
right to take the conservation movement to the next level or organization 
and public engagement.  We have strong public and political support, we 
have a wealth of expertise and programs within the NGO sector, and recent 
events (particularly around electricity demand and smog days) continue to 
reinforce the need for an aggressive and united conservation campaign in 
Ontario.

We're ready to take our movement to the next level.  But we want your 
support and advice.

www.weconserve.ca is now live and ready to receive your comments on how we 
in Ontario can build a united conservation movement.

Over the next few weeks we will be sending out a new discussion question 
each week and asking for your comments.

If your group would like to arrange a meeting to discuss We Conserve in 
detail, please contact me directly at cco at web.ca.



July 5th Launch a great success
Over 100 people turned out for our reception to launch the consultation 
phase of We Conserve.  Our thanks to all who came -- our colleagues and 
special guests.

Donna Cansfield,  MPP Etobicoke Centre and Chair of the Conservation Action 
Team, pledged her government's continued support for conservation and 
highlighted work that has been done recently with groups like Reduce the 
Juice in Shelburne http://powerupenergy.ca/.  (Editor's note:  I was at the 
launch for Reduce the Juice and it's an excellent example of 
community-based public outreach.)

Helen Burstyn, Chair of the Ontario Trillium Foundation, expressed the 
Foundation's support for We Conserve and the important role 
non-governmental organizations can play in creating a culture of conservation.

Other comments and expressions of support came from Ontario's Chief 
Energy  Conservation Officer, Peter Love, who noted the need to work 
together to promote and the leadership role that groups like the Clean Air 
Foundation (www.cleanairfoundation.org) are already playing in engaging the 
public conservation; Ontario's Environment Commissioner, Gord Miller, who 
stressed the importance of getting the conservation message out there again 
and again so that it becomes part of the common lexicon; and Pollution 
Probe's Executive Director, Ken Ogilvie, who was pleased to see we had 
identified increased funding for the movement  as a priority.

Our thanks to everyone who made the evening possible,  and especially to 
The Beer Store for donating the refreshments!


A Movement in Transition
(this is the first of a regular series of articles and question for 
discussion. The full series is posted on www.weconserve.ca, where you can 
also contribute to the discussion)


Key questions:  Where is our movement going?
How do we make conservation a pervasive social value?  How important is it 
to create a united conservation movement?


  The Evolution of Environmentalism
Environmentalism is not dead, at least not in Ontario, it is 
evolving.  Over the past fifteen years it has been quietly morphing into a 
formidable force for social change.

All through the 1990s, after the World Commission on Environment and 
Development gave high level support to integrating environmental values 
into our economy and society, our movement has been adapting to meet the 
demand.  Our challenge now is to unite all these organizations as part of a 
well-funded and coordinated social movement.

 From our roots to our future.
Conservation in Ontario is a century old movement, with some constancies, 
several distinct periods in our evolution, and continual reinvention.  It 
is timeless, slowly evolving, and rapidly changing.

Conservation is timeless, because it has always represented our society's 
desire to minimize our ecological footprint, to live sustainably and in 
harmony with nature.  The expression of conservation values has evolved 
over time adapting from being primarily a rural concept of nature and 
natural resources to incorporate modern environmental values and concerns, 
such as waste reduction, pollution prevention, climate change reduction, 
urban design and energy conservation.

  The conservation movement has evolved as well over the past century, most 
noticably with the rise of environmentalism in the 1970s and the 
sustainable development movement of the 1980s.

One of the largely unnoticed changes in the movement, however, occurred in 
the early 1990s with the advent of a new breed of organization dedicated to 
providing conservation services to the public.  Green Communities 
(<http://www.gca.ca/>www.gca.ca) were launched in municipalities across 
Ontario with provincial seed funding and they have now blossomed into a 
highly successful national network of local organizations and a lead agent 
in delivering the federal Energuide for Homes program.  Evergreen 
(<http://www.evergreen.ca/>www.evergreen.ca) and Autoshare 
(<http://www.autoshare.ca/>www.autoshare.ca) are two other examples of 
organizations and social venture companies that were launched in the 1990s 
to provide the public and communities with conservation services.

We are changing, evolving one organization and one project at a time.

If you look closely at Ontarios conservation movement, you will find that 
there are now hundreds of groups that are providing solutions to 
environmental issues, from protecting natural areas, reducing consumption, 
and eliminating waste and pollution.  Be it Earth Day Canada, the Clean Air 
Foundation, the Clean Air Partnership, the Ontario Sustainable Energy 
Association, Ecosource Mississauga, EcoPerth, or the Caledon Countryside 
Alliance, we are becoming a solutions-based movement.  The background paper 
prepared for the November 25th 2004 Conservation Summit lists hundreds of 
these groups and projects. 
(<http://www.greenontario.org/summit/>www.greenontario.org/summit/).

The majority of these organizations were founded in the 1990s.  For this 
reason, I would argue that the 1990s marked the beginning of the latest 
transformation for the conservation movement. We may not have noticed it, 
given the dominance of downsizing and downloading environmental programs 
during that decade.  In spite of the recent debate around The Death of 
Environmentalism, (see <http://www.grist.org/>www.grist.org) our movement 
has already begun to adapt.  We need to acknowledge this transition and 
embrace it.

Its time to create a social movement for conservation
We are not unique.  If you look at other social movements civil rights and 
feminism for example you can track a period of protests and 
consciousness-raising followed by a period of integration.  Once the public 
and the political and industrial leaders have accepted your cause, then 
comes the challenge of integrating your values into society

All nuances and differences notwithstanding, conservation is now at that 
transition point.  We have gained widespread public, corporate and 
political acceptance.  We now need to work on integrating our values and 
solutions into our society and economy.

This is the need that We Conserve addresses the transition of conservation 
into a social movement.  It does this in three ways:
    * coordinating our efforts
    * providing the products and services that people, companies, and 
municipalities need to become better conservers
    * raising public awareness and commitment through social marketing and 
individual campaigns.

For a variety of reasons, we are presented with a unique opportunity to 
make the transition a reality.  The blackout of August 2003 restored 
conservation as a priority.  Other issues, such as smog, climate change and 
urban sprawl are reinforcing the desire for change. We have a supportive 
government at the provincial level and the public is calling for action and 
solutions.  And most important, we have the depth of leadership and 
expertise in Ontarios non-governmental organizations and a widespread 
network of community groups and volunteers.

I believe we have the depth, the experience, and the support necessary to 
make the transition to a coordinated, well-funded social movement.  And if 
we cant do it now, then when?

What do you think?
Is the timing right?  We made recycling commonplace in the 1980s. Can we do 
it again for energy conservation? What about other conservation issues, 
such as pollution prevention, local and organic food, or alternatives to 
sprawl?  What opportunities do you see for making conservation the cultural 
norm before scarcity and pollution forces it upon us?

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