I worked with the Community Energy Association to help complete their BC Climate Leaders Playbook. The Playbook contains solutions for zero-carbon communities. The Community Energy Association has compiled best practice solutions for achieving what they call The Big Moves. These are plans for zero-emission transportation, buildings, and what we do with waste.
The Community Energy Association is a non-profit advisory organization who do consultations for solutions for community climate resilience. I had the pleasure of working with Robyn Webb as our community partner alongside other great students in my Sustainable Cities class at UVic.
Our cohort of students helped to research examples of best practices related to compact and complete communities. I researched best practices for dense forms of development. My case studies were on the Missing Middle Initiative in Victoria, BC, and Accessory Dwelling Units in Smithers, BC. I created two infographics for each case study.
I’m incredibly grateful to have gotten to be a part of this project. As a student, I often feel helpless when thinking about what our collective futures will look like as a result of climate change. I’m glad to have been able to use my skills in research and writing to create a body of work that policymakers will see.
I ran into challenges with synthesizing the information in the time frame of my course. This project really challenged me in how I work collaboratively. Even though each student was split into their own case studies, I wanted to uphold the quality of work.
It is special to be in a community that is trying to look for solutions. In the CEL workshop that I took on self-care, being able to listen to others speak about environmental grief and burnout was incredibly validating. I tried to keep in mind while working on this project that there are countless others who are also trying to do the work the best way that they can.