Sustainable Toronto & Monitoring for Sustainability: A GRA’s perspective

1. Sustainable Toronto & Monitoring for Sustainability: A GRA’s perspective Alexis Morgan – CEW/YCAS May 16th, 2002.

2. Summary of the statusof MFS • Achieved primary goals! • Website is functional & has been successfully used for multiple sites (construction ongoing). • GTA School groups have participated in program (Community groups are underway). • Program has expanded to a regional level (GTA, Peterborough & Niagara). • Publications are in peer review.

3. Outcomes/Benefits • PUBLICATIONS/PRESENTATIONS • Publication of “Defining Sustainability, Sustainable Development and Sustainable Communities: A working paper for the Sustainable Toronto Project” (w/ Daniella Molnar) • Submission of “Environmental Monitoring, Community Action and the Role of the Universities: The Case of Citizens’ Environment Watch to Environmental Management (w/ Beth Savan and Chris Gore) • Presentation of “Monitoring for Sustainability: Linking communitites, biodiversity & ecosystem health with an online-GIS” in Washington, DC at a ISEH/UNEP/WHO/IUCN sponsored conference

4. Outcomes/Benefits (cont’d) • PROGRAM DELIVERIES • Development of “An introduction to Geographic Information Systems: Monitoring for Sustainability” teaching module for school/community groups.

5. Outcomes/Benefits (cont’d) • EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES • Attendance at “Community Partnerships for Sustainability Workshop Utilizing Geomatics, 2002” – April 3, 2002. • Attendance at “Partnering for Sustainability” conference – April 8 & 9, 2002. Toronto, ON. • Attendance at “Healthy Ecosystems, Healthy People: Linkages between ecosystem health, human health and biodiversity” – June 5 – 11th, 2002. Washington, DC.

6. Reflections… • Sustainability is a long term, ethical principle. • Partnerships represent powerful tools in harnessing inertia for a goal. • HOWEVER, goal perception, funding sources, & timelines are major considerations in selecting partners and maintaining effective partnerships. • Effective communication is key in maintaining focus & relationship. • It always feels like you can do more than you can…and there is always more to be done…

7. Reflections… • SUMMARY OF GRA EXPERIENCE • Excellent opportunities to get involved in program delivery & get outreach/teaching experience. • Good educational & networking opportunities from conferences and other project related activities. • Excellent opportunities to be involved with the creation of presentations & publications. • Good chance to test the waters with an ENGO while still in school.

8. Challenges (GRA) • Time commitments of graduate school. • Lack of/fuzzy definition of specific tasks and deliverables at times. • Difficulty in straddling two institutions.

9. Challenges (Project) • Goals & timelines • Partner goals (each slightly different) • Project timeline vs. funding timelinevs. ecological timeline • Long term issues • Funding (who will pay?) • Organization (who will run?) • Control (who will provide database storage?)

10. Opportunities • My opinion – NOT MFS • The opportunities for cross-project collaborations and linkages are HUGE, but the present funding/time/organizational structure all pose obstacles. • Examples of possible linkages to other ST projects • (1) Seeds of our City: simply mapping the sites of food share gardens. • (3) Ontario Communities Right to Know Initiative: posting information off of our site and/or including surface water data.

11. Opportunities (cont’d) • Linkages (cont’d) • (4) Promoting Education & Awareness of the Links between Health and the Environment: mapping human health (census data?), biological indicator health and human health, lichen data & air quality. • (5) Professional Development for Sustainable Learning: development of a module for a LSF Institute. • (6) Building the Management Capacity of the Environmental Non-Profit Sector: Mapping/listing local groups that could act in partnerships.

12. Opportunities (cont’d) • Linkages (cont’d) • (7) Understanding Shifts in Canadian Environmental Governance: posting data on the site of historical trends as they relate to decisions in governance. • (8) Building Effective Leadership: Mapping green spaces and those areas that use pesticides vs. those that don’t. • (9) Sustainability Tool-kit for Governance: link Monitoring for Sustainability & Sustainable Toronto with other municipal efforts (e.g. Vital Signs) and develop the website into a tool to inform local governance decisions.

13. Recommendations for Year 3 • Recommendations related to my project: • Improve functionality of spatial data (GIS) element of database by incorporating additional “sustainability” aspects of the database. • Further integrate curriculum aspects into GIS module. • Discuss website interface with end-users. • Make long term decisions about the project (underway)

14. Recommendations for Year 3 • Recommendations related to Sustainable Toronto: • Provide incoming GRAs with specific tasks/ envisioned goals • Improve linkages with Business sector • Improve communication/collaboration with other efforts going on in the GTA • Improve publicity of the project to the public (especially in the GTA) • CONSIDER THE LONG TERM GOALS OF EACH PROJECT. WHERE ARE THESE PROJECTS GOING AFTER YEAR 3? And how do we get there? • Keep up the good work!

15. CONCLUSION • Sustainable Toronto needs to think sustainably (about itself). • Combine social (the public) with economic (business partners) and environment (current partners) to provide an ethicalLONG TERM vision for both itself AND Toronto as a whole.