History
From ClimateNetworkWiki
The Campus Climate Network is only a year old, but has accomplished a lot in such a short time:
Contents |
The Beginning
On July 8th, 2007, 14 students from 5 universities, colleges and institutions in BC came together at a Strategizing Session to figure out how to connect our schools.
Several joint goals and objectives were identified:
- to establish tangible mechanisms for collaboration
- to identify schools who would like to collaborate with a provincial network
- to learn what other schools are doing on climate change
- to provide opportunities for engagement with the common energy network
- to develop a framework for a 2007/2008 provincial climate change campaign
- to begin planning for an October Provincial Network Conference
And the Campus Climate Network was formed.
United Voices, Collective Action
Over the next several months the formative work of the Network occurred. Much of the initial networking was undertaken by the Sierra Youth Coalition and Common Energy.
At the 9th Annual Sustainable Campuses Conference put on by the Sierra Youth Coalition in September of 2007, the BC Campus Climate Network formed working groups in the following areas: Outreach, Collective Action and Political Lobbying, Information Sharing, and Governance Structure. Check out theSYC Regional Strategizing Minutes.
On October 28th, 2007, the BC Campus Climate Summit brought students together from 7 campuses across the province, and momentum began to build through each of the working groups. We decided that our major campaign would be moving institutes to Going Beyond Climate-Neutral. Check out the minutes Campus Climate Summit
The collective action working created a think piece which we circulated to the Climate Action Secretariat, the Ministry of Advanced Education, and the opposition. Leading up the Sustainable Campuses Conference at TRU, we had a series of meetings with government.
We were approached by the Climate Action Secretariat who wanted to have a meeting with youth to plan the strategy for engaging youth in the climate action plan. They wanted to organize a Youth Dialogue on Climate Action, which would bring together youth and the premier to talk about climate change. This was during a period of significant provincial action on climate change: Bill 44 mandated public sector institutions to go carbon neutral, the carbon tax was introducted, and the youth livesmart challenge.
At the same time, the UBC- SO had been working to launch the Get Evolved, Be Involved Campaign. The teaser campaign was designed to raise awareness about a series of roundtables UBC was hosting to build their collaborative beyond climate neutral plan, and to get people to participate. It focused on getting people to take responsibility for their own actions, and to ladder that commitment up to get involved with larger projects.
BC Hydro, a long time partner with the UBC-SO on numerous projects, became interested in Get Evolved as a potential provincial project for getting youth engaged in climate action. At the UBC SEEDS conference, several network members met to discuss the possibility of launching Get Evolved provincially.
The first BC Sustainable Campuses Conference
In February of 2008, the Campus Climate Network, the Sierra Youth Coalition, and TRU Eco partnered to organize the first BC Sustainable Campuses Conference. The conference was hosted in Kamloops to illustrate the Networks commitment to working with campuses outside the lower mainland. While the Kamloops conference was 1 out of 5 happening across the country, our conference marked a very significant moment in our history. We were joined by almost 100 students from 13 campuses, 4 high schools, and 5 ENGO’s. There would have been more if not for the avalanches that had blocked 2 out of 3 roads to Kamloops.
The conference began with a presentation with a representative from the Climate Action Secretariat, who told us about the government initiatives, and the initial plans for a Youth Summit on Climate Change. We were also joined by Jessica Wong, from BC Hydro and several members of admin and faculty from around the province.
At the conference, we decided to pursue launching the Get Evolved project provincially. UBC, TRU and UVIC expressed interest in piloting the project, and both Hydro and the Secretariat were eager to be involved.
Partnerships and proposals
In late February, representatives from the Campus Climate Network met with the Ministry of Advanced Education. They were very excited by our work, and donated us the service of BC Campus to help us develop our online presence. Paul Stacey and Sylvia Currie of BCcampus have been working with the wiki working group to set up an online community.
Our developing relationships with government paid off in big way when we were asked to submit a funding proposal to the Climate Action Secretariat for Get Evolved. Through the series of edits, we committed to developing a strong presence in Northern BC. We also agreed to change the name of the program. After the series of edits to the proposal, the Climate Action Secretariat sponsored the project for $96,800. Hydro also came on board as a funding partner, supporting us with $50,000.
The relationship between SYC, Common Energy and the UBC-SO was formalized in an MOU that states that they have the primary responsibility to oversee the development on the project. Though the project partners are responsible at the end of the day for the success of the project, the campus members of the Campus Climate Network are the core of this organization, and direct the project and our mission.
Going Beyond….
With no name for our project, and a huge goal in front of us, we had a lot of work to do. In May, the Network had another Summit, which brought us together to pick a name, and to flesh out our game plan.
Go Beyond was the name that was choosen for the project. It speaks to our core mission, which is to move BC beyond just carbon neutrality, but to a place where we are contributing more to the solutions for climate change then we are doing to cause it.
We also developed our main strategies, which are:
- Capacity Building: Increasing the ability of students and youth organizations to do this work by providing relevant skills training, accessible toolkits, and mentorship
- Beyond Climate-neutral Planning: Creating space for youth to lead their institutions in collaboratively planning a low-carbon future.
- Transformative Education: Working to establish curriculum that is engaging, community-oriented, and creates regional climate change solutions in all spheres
- Go Beyond Challenges: Offering easily adaptable projects for campus organizations that would like to directly reduce carbon emissions while engaging their community
