Vancouver Island University Re-energizes Sustainability Charter

The Powell River Sustainability Charter Project is to be restructured via a steering committee that will be established in the coming weeks. In the interim, VIU has taken the initiative to engage a committee member to assemble and integrate all the material that has been generated to date to create a draft charter statement.
Arlette Raaen, Principal of the Powell River Campus says, “I feel it is a very worthy monetary contribution that VIU can make at this time. As a partner in the project, VIU is pleased to contribute these resources.”
The project started with the Community Forum held in January, and will include the youth forum input as well as the volunteer committee suggestions that came forward. “There has been a lot of good work that has been generated from the committee. With the commitment, urgency and passion that we have seen from members of the community, we must continue by taking these next steps,” Raaen states.
As the steering committee gets up and running in the coming weeks, the compilation of community information will be prepared for the review of the steering committee. From there, the draft charter will be brought back to the community. “We will be working towards the next community forum at which we hope to finalize the direction of the charter on sustainability,” Raaen says.
Communities elsewhere in British Columbia have already established sustainability practices. Whistler, for example, is a community that is committed to following sustainability practices and has been following the Natural Step Format since 2002 and keeps community members up-to-date on its website: “The Natural Step is a framework that enables communities and businesses to move toward sustainability using a strategic methodological approach. The Natural Step helps organizations to make smart, strategic decisions that will take them toward environmental, economic and social sustainability.”
Readers can download the toolkit available from this program and see for themselves how they rate in their own contribution to the sustainability system at www.naturalstep.ca and how they can contribute to the next community forum.
Visit the City of Powell River web site for more information.