One Earth

One Earth is happy to share the results of the Advancing Sustainable Consumption and Production in North America Workshop. This workshop was a sharing and strategy session among stakeholders engaged in advancing sustainable consumption and production (SCP), including US and Canada government representatives, civil society, academia, private sector and international organizations. This meeting was organized by the North American Roundtable on Sustainable Production and Consumption (NARSPAC) in cooperation with the United Nations Environment Programme – Regional Office for North America (UNEP RONA).  It included representatives of the Global Research Forum on Sustainable Production and Consumption (GRF-SPC) from the North American region (see participant list below). The results of the meeting was shared at UNEP RONA’s North American Major Groups and Stakeholders consultation (12-13 December 2012).

Two paid sustainability internships available – deadline Monday 24 September (5pm)

One Earth is hiring two interns (30 years old and under) to work with us in Vancouver, BC, from 1 October 2012 – 15 February 2013 at the One Earth office near Olympic Village. The internship positions are for Project Officer (Rethinking the Good Life) and Project Manager (We Canada). They start on 1 October 2012 and run to 15 February 2013. For more information (including application details), visit this page.

The One Earth team was in Rio for the United Nations conference. While in Rio, One Earth Director and UBC Professor Emeritus Bill Rees and Global Footprint Network President Mathis Wackernagel were awarded the Kenneth E. Boulding Award and the Blue Planet Prize for their work co-creating the Ecological Footprint. Since, Bill Rees’ article, The Way Forward: Survival 2100, was published in the Solutions Journal. Read his article here. Bill notes key steps to be taken in the coming decades – systemic, economic – and explores how our unique human capacity can support this transition.  He writes, “Four critical intellectual and emotional qualities distinguish people from other advanced vertebrates. Humans have:

• an unequaled capacity for evidence-based reasoning and logical analysis;
• the unique ability to engage in long-term forward planning;
• the capacity to exercise moral judgment; and
• an ability to feel compassion for other individuals and other species.

…Now the question becomes, What would truly intelligent, forward-thinking, morally compassionate individuals do in response to available data, the historical record, and ongoing trends?”

One Earth Initiative submitted a petition to the Government of Canada in December 2011, which can be viewed on the Auditor General’s website. The responses have started coming back from the Government, with the first reply from Foreign Affairs and International Trade. One Earth asks about the Government of Canada’s consultation with the public and provinces in preparing its position prior to the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). One Earth also seeks clarification about Canada’s withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol, about its future plans and regulations to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, and about its reporting on reductions. One Earth asks the government about its carbon pricing plans and how it measures financial assistance to the oil and gas sector. In addition, One Earth asks whether the government intends to develop and use alternative measures, such as well-being indicators, in addition to traditional measures of economic activity, such as gross domestic product, and if it plans to integrate fair trade concerns into public procurement. The first reply is from Foreign Affairs and International Trade. Environment Canada, Finance Canada, Industry Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Public Works and Government Services Canada, Treasury Board are expected to reply in the coming month.

One Earth Executive Director, Vanessa Timmer, is Fulbrighter of the Month. You can click here for the newsletter story: http://www.fulbright.ca/alumni/alumni-news/fulbrighter-of-the-month.html.

Fulbright Canada is a bi-national, treaty-based, non-governmental, not-for-profit organization with a mandate to identify the best and brightest minds in the US and Canada, and engage them in residential academic exchange; it provides support to students, graduate students, scholars, teachers, and independent researchers through a variety of programs which are open to individuals in all academic fields with the exception of medical training. Ten years after having been a Fulbright Scholar at Harvard University (2002-2003), Vanessa is collaborating again as an associate with the Sustainability Science Program within the Kennedy School’s Centre for International Development.  She will be working with the team at Harvard on innovation and sustainability, particularly focused on global public goods.

One Earth organized the civil society consultations in preparation for Rio + 20 Earth Summit (UNCSD) 2012, with the Liu Institute for Global Studies (UBC) and the United Nations Environment Programme. The reports are available on the consultation website and were provided to the Government of Canada. One Earth was invited to do so by the Canadian Environmental Network with the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) and Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future (SF) The other Canadian hosts are: Secrétariat des organismes environnementaux du Québec, QC; Saskatchewan Environmental Society, SK; Conservation Council of New Brunswick, NB; Whale Release and Strandings, NL; Centre de droit international du développement durable, QC; Manitoba Eco-Network, MB; Sustainability Education in Nova Scotia for Everyone, NS; Alberta Environmental Network, AB; One Earth Initiative, BC; Canadian Institute for Environmental Law and Policy, ON. Find out more about the other cross-Canada consultations.

Emmanuel Prinet, Policy Director at One Earth, was invited by the Canadian Environmental Network (RCEN) on behalf of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade to participate in the official Canadian delegation to the eighteenth and nineteenth sessions of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-18/19). He was joined by a youth delegate, Stephanie Levy, who works with Evergreen in British Columbia, and who is also part of the RCEN Youth Caucus.  You can read the NGO and youth reports for the CSD-18 (May 2010), CSD-19 Intergovernmental Preparatory Meeting (March 2011), the Second Preparatory Committee for Rio+20 (PrepCom 2), and CSD-19 (May 2011) here: http://rcen.ca/public-participation/engo-and-youth-delegates-to-the-un-commission-on-sustainable-development

One Earth organized a successful side event at the UN’s 19th Commission on Sustainable Development in New York on May 9, 2011, on the topic “A North American Approach to Sustainable Consumption and Production”. The idea behind the event was to have civil society, governments and other stakeholders present their latest efforts to promote sustainable patterns of consumption and production in Canada and the United States.  Vanessa Timmer, One Earth Executive Director, facilitated the event, and Emmanuel Prinet, Policy Director, presented the North American Actor & Activity Map on Sustainable Consumption and Production (see February 22nd, 2011, news item).  Other speakers included: Holly Palen, Senior Policy Analyst, Sustainability Directorate, Environment Canada; Derry Allen, Counselor, Office of Strategic Environmental Management, Office of Policy, US EPA; Hilary French, Programme Officer, UNEP RONA, USA; and Jeffrey Barber, Executive Director, Integrative Strategies Forum.