Dialogues and Readings

Charter of Rights and Responsibilities for the Environment
Dr. Ann Dale, May 1994
This Flash based video outlines these 13 principles accompanied with related images from nature. An newer version of an interactive map of the Charter of Rights and Responsibilities can be accessed by clicking on the link in the left-hand menu.

Dr. Carolyn J. Lukensmeyer is the founder and president of AmericaSpeaks. Most recently, Dr. Lukensmeyer was a central figure in the design and production of Listening to the City, a 21st Century Town Meeting where citizens gathered to consider plans for the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan after September 11.

Alternative energy blog - news, views and strong opinions on alternate energy resources including wind power, solar power, wave power, geothermal & other renewable energy sources + news on other energy issues including peak oil, strong hybrid cars [PHEVs], hydrogen fuel cells, "clean" coal & nuclear power.

Canada West Foundation today released Breaking New Ground: Urban Residential Development and the Environment. This report outlines the environmental costs of typical forms of residential development, highlights the potential economic and environmental benefits of alternative, ”green” community designs, identifies problems with current public policy, and provides recommendations on how to enhance residential development policy and better address long-term environmental costs.

Craik Sustainable Living Project The Town and the Rural Municipality of Craik,Saskatchewan propose to embark on a joint long-term project in search of ways of living that address the is sue of sustainability and rural revitalization through physical demonstration of viable solutions.

Envision Sustainability Tools Inc., is a leader in sustainability visioning and planning solutions for metropolitan regions and corporations around the globe. Envision develops QUEST, a software tool that increases the capacity of individuals and organizations to inform decisions, engage stakeholders and build support for long term, strategic plans.An article appearing in the Vancouver Sun is here.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) has been the national voice of municipal government since 1901. FCM is dedicated to improving the quality of life in all communities by promoting strong, effective and accountable municipal government.

Canada Research Chair in Community-Based Resource Management
Dr. Fikret Berkes, has spent some 25 years researching the conditions under which the “tragedy of the commons” may be avoided. He has been studying community-based management systems in Canada and abroad to determine which factors are important for sustainability.

A Fund for Social Economic Business The Réseau d'investissement social du Québec is a non-profit-making venture capital fund whose mission is to provide financing to partnership businesses.Collective entrepreneurship, resulting from the cooperative movement and the community, is becoming an important link in the economic development of Québec.In the present socio-economic context, all participants have the social responsibility to favour the development of that sector.

The Gateway to Infrastructure Research is a key tool for improving knowledge about infrastructure, and we hope that the Gateway will help to further define Infrastructure Canada as a unique and dynamic focal point for infrastructure research. 

Greater Vancouver may be on its way to becoming a sprawling, polluted area with much of the region’s farmland and green space turned into paved suburbs, roads jammed with angry commuters, the air foul and the economy stagnant.It’s a risk we face if we make the wrong decisions as the region’s population grows by a million over the next three decades.

Global Distribution of Poverty

The iiSBE Skills Registry contains skills profiles for individual and organizational members of iiSBE. The information is contained in a database and is related to all aspects of sustainable building, with search parameters that were carefully worked out for our other database, the Sustainable Building Information System (SBIS).

Pacific Marine Analysis and Research Association
The Pacific Marine Analysis and Research Association (PacMARA) was created to provide government, First Nations, businesses, NGOs and community groups with the information they need to take an ecosystem-based approach to marine decisions in BC.

Project for Public Places
PPS is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating and sustaining public places that build communities. We provide technical assistance, education, and research through programs in parks, plazas and central squares; buildings and civic architecture; transportation; and public markets. Since our founding in 1975, we have worked in over 1,500 communities in the United States and around the world.

The Opte Project was created to visually represent the global Internet generated within a single day by a single computer. The data represented and collected here serves a multitude of purposes: Modeling the Internet, analyzing wasted IP space, IP space distribution, detecting the result of natural disasters, weather, war, and esthetics/art.

Rocky Mountain Institute
Rocky Mountain Institute is an entrepreneurial nonprofit organization that fosters the efficient and restorative use of resources to make the world secure, just, prosperous, and life-sustaining. We do this by inspiring business, civil society, and government to design integrative solutions that create true wealth.

Sierra Club of Canada, BC Chapter
At their core, environmental issues are rarely about the environment; more often they arise from interactions between human society and the natural world. For this reason, working with communities and individuals to achieve sustainable modes of living is one of the BC Chapter's key priorities.

Trudeau Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies
Beyond GDP: Enabling democracy with better measures of social well-being.
In this inaugural paper of the Trudeau Centre's Kiessling Papers, Karen Frecker, a graduate of the Trudeau Centre and a specialist in energy policy, tackles the problem of developing meaningful, comprehensive and rigorous measures of social well-being.

What's Stopping Sustainability? (Jennie Lynn Moore)
Examining the barriers to implementing Clouds of Change. Despite understanding the need to become sustainable, and knowing some of the actions required to reach this end, barriers exist that prevent individuals, and society, from adopting actions that support sustainability.