Changemakers sharing their experiences

Changing the world, one dance at a time...

hanspetermeyer — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:26:43 -0800

Hi. My name is hanspetermeyer, and I'm a dance-aholic.

That's a good thing. Dancing keeps me physically fit. It puts me in the arms of women of all ages, shapes, and sizes. It keeps my heart and mind opening to change.

I can't reduce all things in life to what happens in the dance space - but I try. Something happens when two people dance together. It speaks volumes about how we deal with change.

I'm not naturally graceful when it comes to making or accepting change. Just ask my ex's. Nevertheless, I think I'm making progress. Dance is a big part of this. It gives me a metaphor and a practice for being a little more open, a little more flexible.

It all comes down to trust.

I'm a little afraid to leap into the void that's what most "change" feels like to me: stepping into the unknown. There's no one to lead me, no guidelines, nada to hold onto. After a few of these leaps I've become a little more trusting, more willing to follow circumstance, my heart, or whatever is driving change. Sometimes I even get excited about change because I feel the juice of creativity, of really being alive!

It's the same with dance.

I've been dancing pretty seriously now for a few years. I've got a handful of dance styles that I'm pretty comfortable with. And I'm feeling the kind of confidence that translates into big smiles on the faces of my partners. Now, not only do I want to leap into that unknown juicy place where a dance may take me, but I'm attracting dance partners who are as excited about that leap as I am. Muy cool.

Here's how I think about what I do: every dance gives me an opportunity to lead a partner into uncharted territory. As much as we know about a dance, or each other, we are "making it up as we go along." We literally step into change change change.

The shorthand is something like this: if you've accepted my invitation to waltz, foxtrot, or shake your ass to salsa then you've agreed to experimentation and play. You're joining me as we step into the abyss. You're trusting me Ð at least a little Ð to get you back to your table safely.

Once you've signed on to trust me, we will do things that'll surprise, astonish, and amaze both of us. Too cool. I know. I get to do this several times a week. It's not because I'm a flash dancer. It's because we're coming together to make something new, the dialogue between our bodies, shaped by our knowledge of dance, our sympathy with the music.

Every time I ask someone to dance, I am asking them to trust me in this creative, juicy place. A place with lots of change, lots of unpredictability.

I dance with lots of the same great dancers every week. We've already got a high degree of trust established. But even so, when I ask Rachel or Karen or Loretta to dance - even for the 100th time - I'm still asking them to trust me to be creative, and to be be safe. To be trustworthy.

Dancing is about change. It's about initiating and maintaining relationships of trust so that change is both graceful and exciting. If my partner trusts me, if I trust myself - magic happens.

As a lead, I responsibilities. I'm saying to my partner - through my movements, my confidence - that she is safe as our two bodies step into the blank space of what our dance will be, as we begin to move to a particular song in a particular dance setting. I need to be careful: full of care for my partner. I can't run her into people, walls, or chairs. I can't put her in compromising or inelegant positions. All these things happen. Sometimes they happen to me. Some lessons aren't graceful, or easy.

Some dancers are quite willing to go wherever I lead them. They're confident. They know they'll be able to move through whatever challenge or abyss I dance us into.

Others are reluctant. Hesitant. Maybe they don't know me. Maybe they don't trust themselves (particularly if they're new dancers). Maybe they just don't trust me. I need to be careful. Our first steps, our first dances even Ð these are the proving grounds for their trust in me, their willingness to embrace the uncertain, changing places that are the heart of joyful, soulful dancing.

It's exciting: how quickly trust develops on the dance floor. Without words, with just a feeling of frame, rhythm, and the sense of respect and safety. 3-4 minutes of moving together can inspire warmth, connection, willingness to play, to take risks. Smiles appear spontaneously. Eyes sparkle.

It's a model for how to do other kinds of change.

Today, faced with touch choices and changes, I try to imagine them as a dance. Do I trust myself to lead here, to follow there? Am I willing to go with music of the universe and "make it up as I go along?" Just how much creativity and uncertainty can I tolerate, can I risk, for the sake of the kind of beauty I know flows from risk-taking and trusting on the dance floor?

It's not a perfect analogy. But on the dance space I learn to trust, to be trustworthy, to respect, to take care, to be willing to take risks.

There are few givens in the life I've lived. Many, many abrupt changes. What is my capacity to move through challenging circumstances and retain my equilibrium, my connection to what is true and beautiful about who I am? I am creating my life through these choices, these changes. I want it to be rich and beautiful.

The challenge is not so different from navigating a crowded dance floor, the music fast, passionate, and me with my beloved in my arms: I want to do this with integrity, with grace - and in away that inspires trust, loving, and the opening into a beautiful future. Even if that future is just the next dance.

Change change change. cha cha cha...

Creative Expression for Spontaneous Change

Kate — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:29:28 -0700

Imagine a world in which we are connected to the true power of our deep-rooted creativity...where we take the time and space to express ourselves in spontaneous ways, in areas of our lives that are important to us. What do you think might happen?

Would all of the inauthenticities and insecurities fall away to reveal the joy of simply being? Would the distractions that engulf our everyday lives retreat and allow for daily celebration? Would we buy less, spend less, work less, worry less?

I think so. When I express myself in creative, unrestricted ways, I feel more connected to my own self, my community and the energy of the universe as a whole. Life feels more streamlined and elegant. I truly think one of the most powerful tools for change is honoring our authentic selves and expressing the gifts we naturally bring to this world in creative, unique ways.

There are a thousand ways to joyfully express oneself in the world - it could be as simple as calling a friend in need, planting a tree, writing a letter to the editor, or attending a community meeting. It's so simple - when you open up to your creativity just for the sake of it and without expectation, you feel good! And when you feel good, you help to make the world a better place by inspiring others. It's infectious.

This practice of spontaneous expression is one that I subscribe to in my work as a social documentary photographer and multimedia producer. Being a photographer in the world today is exciting. Powerful images combined with the impact of social media is bringing a whole other level of access, understanding and immediacy to stories, campaigns and issues around the world. A dramatic image truly can change our perception and alter our understanding of a subject.

My life and business have grown in the most surprising ways when I'm in my creative flow - my most interesting opportunities such as leading a photography tour to Bhutan in the Eastern Himalayas, photographing the Dalai Lama, and travelling to Liberia to photograph birthing women have arisen without much orchestrating - they are a result of being true to myself. I had to practice trust, and honour my creativity to find my voice and rhythm in the world before these opportunities could arise.

I have a confession. I don't have a business plan. I never have and never will. I am simply open to opportunities that arise and honor my intuitive feelings, and my path continues to unfold before me in the most exciting ways. And business is booming.

I am continuing to uncover that I naturally love working with women, gathering and building community, experiencing other cultures and languages, and celebrating others through authentic storytelling and photography. I am finding that I really love to paint and dance. Engaging in the things I love is a cycle of nourishment that feeds my soul and keeps me energized and motivated.

I truly believe if we all practiced listening to our intuition and honoring our subtle inner voice and creativity, in spite of long hours at work, family obligations or other distractions, step by step we would start to naturally act in rhythm with the universe and create spontaneous, joyful change in the world.

In the hopes of building on this conversation of creative change and inspiration, I'd like to pose a question to this forum. What are the fun, unique, creative ways in which you express yourself - big or small? How has this created positive change in your life or community? I trust that by sharing these creative passions, others will be inspired as well.

Jaime Kowal is a social documentary photographer, author and multimedia producer specializing in social, environmental, health and women’s stories. Clients include Condé Nast Traveler, National Geographic Adventure Magazine, The Globe and Mail, and The Vancouver Foundation. www.jaimekowal.com

September – Back to … Back to What?

Kate — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 10:19:08 -0700

For many children, back to school means back to homework and cramming, report cards and “How long is it until spring break?” For most children, school is a necessary evil; but does it have to be such a trial?

What if……

What if children couldn’t wait to go back to school? What if they were excited about their next steps in learning?

What if they knew they would be valued for who they are and what they know, and their guides listened to them and helped them follow their own interests?

What if each child had a unique learning path which they decided?

What if students helped each other and were never compared or labeled or graded?

What if they had the freedom to learn outside as well as in, and climbed trees and built hay forts, gathered eggs and ran in their natural playground with baby goats?

What if they grew their own vegetables and ran their own businesses and traveled around their community and their country?

What if they knew they could help the earth and really make a difference and really change the world?

Remarkably, there is a school which has provided these opportunities, for more than 20 years. Since 1985, one of the Lower Mainland’s well kept secrets, Roots and Wings Montessori has been preparing babies to young adults to make the changes we need in the world. How?

1. By nurturing independence. At every opportunity, they are given opportunities to do for themselves, from hanging their coats on child-height hooks, tying their shoes and pouring their own water to new readers researching their own projects and making their own learning goals, creating and selling their own products and banking the profits, choosing and caring for farm animals, planning trips and creating environmental projects in the community.

2. By ensuring daily connection with the natural world. In his book, Last Child in the Woods, Richard Louv mourns children’s “nature deficit disorder” and notes how vital it is for them to roam freely in the natural world, exploring marshes and studying beetles and gazing at clouds without anyone teaching them the names to memorize their next test. At Roots and Wings, hay is a construction material and trees are climbing frames, animals are played with and cared for, vegetables they have grown are served in the 9 – 12 year olds’ weekly hot lunch business and teens may be seen sketching or having group discussions sitting on the swings, with Mt. Baker framed in the background.

3. By preparing the environment, rather than lessons. Each classroom provides an environment rich with appropriate learning materials which stimulate children to manipulate, experiment and take risks, in order to gain the knowledge and skills that will enable them to progress.

4. By allowing each to learn at his or her own rate. Following their own passions of interest, children are engaged and enthusiastic, working without interruption until they have satisfied their desires before choosing other work. Each progresses at his or her own level, sometimes teaching and sometimes learning from peers, delighting in each others’ progress and celebrating successes together.

5. By empowering students to make a difference. From the youngest preschoolers, children make decisions that affect their classrooms or the whole school, and create projects to make a difference in their community – such as the plastic bag project in March of 2008 which made a huge impact on reduction in grocery store plastic bag use in the community; or performance of their original “Come Join our Call to Action” at the Environmental Congress in Montreal in May.

6. By practicing stillness and peace. Starting each day with a minute of silence, children learn the value of stillness and mindfulness; they may also participate in yoga or tai chi; they resolve differences at the “peace table”, where they learn harmonious conflict resolution.

7. By valuing all people. Children experience holidays and customs from all cultures, visit houses of worship from a variety of religions and learn to respect and value the richness of our differences.

What is the result of this kind of education? Students emerge as grounded, thoughtful, contributing citizens, socially competent, eager to problem solve, earth stewards working for equality, empowered to give their gifts to the world.

What if all education were like this?

Kristin Cassie

Kristin Cassie has worked on improving education for 35 years, first in the public system, then founding Roots and Wings Montessori school in 1985. A finalist for the Governor-General's award for teaching excellence and a nominee for the YWCA Women of Distinction award, her real rewards come from preparing children, from babies to adolescents, as capable ambassadors for world change and peace.

Reflections on Bologna - it's all about the Social

wazaroff — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 21:16:56 -0700

I have sat down to write this post a bunch of times, and can't seem to nail it.

I have now been back from Bologna a few weeks, and parts of it are receding into memory, but other parts are still extremely fresh and current. I have been trying to make sense of it all, but am having trouble summing it up succinctly. If someone asks me about the trip, I can either smile and say it was amazingly interesting and inspiring and then stop, or I can go on for a good ten minutes fumbling to explain what I experienced (check out parts 1 and 2 of my journey, or all my blog posts about it).

So, writing this post - in which I want to sum it all up coherently - is proving a challenge.

What I know is, it was all about the social. The connections we developed among the group of participants are strong and deep, and will serve a great purpose as we all struggle to make full sense of, and take action on, what we learned. The personal social connections made the greatest impact on me; but I also come back with a greater sense of the social fabric of our society and how it can be both fragile and incredibly enduring and forceful.

So, it's led me to think a lot about what social is.

I have struggled for a while now with my definition of the word social in contrast to the way most of my colleagues at Vancity define it.

For me, terms like social finance and the social economy refer to emerging social tools that allow people to connect in new ways to collaborate and share information and opinions. To me, the social economy means that in today's world the water cooler is suddenly global as our purchasing decisions - decisions that drive our consumption-based economy - are increasingly driven by how people connect and influence each other on blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc. A brand can be glorified by and benefit from intense word-of-mouth marketing, or get beaten up and badly bruised because of the power of social media.

Social finance means the collaborative power of sites like wesabe.com or social lending sites like CommunityLend to harness the wisdom of crowds so people can better understand how they spend and save their money. In a capitalist society, where we spend our money is how we vote with our feet and social finance tools can help us be better citizens of that society.

At Vancity, the word social doesn’t imply connecting and collaborating, but refers to the social fabric of our society. The social economy refers to the segment of the economy driven by not-for-profits and social entrepreneurs working to make our society more just, equitable and sustainable. Social finance means leveraging the tools of the financial system - such as credit - to fund projects that improve our communities (an increasingly important part of the way we do business).

I felt caught in the middle, and decided a while back to just go with the flow and adopt the Vancity terminology. It is important to me that I speak the same language as my peers and colleagues, and don’t create confusion or a bunch of unnecessarily long explanations in meetings.

Recently the light finally came on for me: we are all talking about the same thing.

In Bologna, we saw the power of the network. People are connected by their shared history and culture, and have a strong degree of trust, which enables them to work together cooperatively.

We learned a lot about reciprocity. Everywhere we went - people at co-operatives, professors in economics lectures, leaders at labour unions, presidents at not-for-profit foundations - referred to it directly or obliquely as a way of doing business.

I would describe reciprocity as delaying some details of a transaction until a later date. For example, if I have something I want to sell, I would work out the details of the deal with the buyer up front. We would negotiate the good or service being sold and the price for that good or service simultaneously, and then exchange money for the product in one transaction.

In a reciprocal economy we can agree that you want the good or service I have to offer and I will give it to you, trusting that you will give me something of equal value at a later date. Of course we do this with close friends and family all the time. I invite you for dinner at no cost, trusting that somehow you will repay me in kind. That is the very act of friendship. We don't work out a contract; we don't work out the repayment. We have the trust to let the transaction occur over an extended period of time.

Time and time again in Bologna we saw this in action. People working together without creating a contract first, because they trusted it would work out. People behaving in a way that showed they had trust and reciprocity and a network that would keep them honest in their dealings. Those connections kept them honest, because their reputations were on the line.

It occurs to me that the two definitions of social I struggle with at Vancity are actually two parts of the same equation. For people to build a more equitable society, we need trust, and a way to increase trust is to connect people, and the way people connect today is through online social tools. Social media can help people find other like-minded people, place an emphasis on reputation, and make society a little less anonymous and a little more personal.

This very site where you are reading these words is proof positive of that relationship. Three years ago Vancity saw a reason to create a community focused on change. One piece of feedback we hear all the time is that ChangeEverything.ca enables people to connect and work face to face on events and projects that have a social context. That strengthening of our social fabric leads to people working together, investing in their reputations, and creating trust and reciprocity and - in some very small way - a society in which people work together more harmoniously.

As we at Vancity investigate our vision of Redefining Wealth, I believe we need both kinds of social in play. We need to create networks enabling people to connect, collaborate and cooperate to increase trust so that we can create a more reciprocal economy in which fewer people are left out or left behind.

It's nice to know we were talking about the same thing all along. I just had to go to Italy and immerse myself in a progressive, equitable, co-operative environment to finally realize it.

ps - I am a long time ChangeEverything member, and head up the WEB (Web Engagement & Banking) Team at Vancity, meaning that I get to work with all the amazing people who bring our members Online Banking, our employees our intranet and the community ChangeEverything.ca. I am a recovered filmmaker, soon to be living in Strathcona with my wife, son and cat. You can follow me @wazaroff or at azaroff.com/blog.

Independent Collectivism

wazaroff — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:21:19 -0700

Okay, so the title is a bit of a joke. I’m not someone who makes up grand theories, but the past week and a bit in Bologna has really got me thinking about history, culture and the way we run businesses.

In part one, I wrote about why I, the Web Director at Vancity, am in Bologna. I’m here in the middle of a place full of cooperatives, working together to do business successfully and profitably, and with a strong social impact.

And it’s led me to invent something called Independent Collectivism. The history of Emilia Romagna, the area around Bologna in Northern Italy, is rich with different cultures taking over this region, and the people of this region fighting for independence. Fighting for freedom and liberation created a culture here where people’s rights are paramount. There is a strong sense of independence, of standing up for themselves, but also of recognizing the critical importance of thinking about each other, of reciprocity, of dignity. Of standing up for themselves while standing up for each other.

At home, we have to go out of our way to run ethical businesses. We have to explain why we need to focus on corporate social responsibility. It is seen as an add-on, something to be scaled back or perhaps cut in difficult economic times. It has nothing to do with the core operations of the company, which merely exists to make a profit.

But here in Bologna, the overall social fabric is woven into the business plan. People were attracted to starting cooperatives as the method of creating businesses, because people can have an ownership stake in the company and direct its future. They can ensure that the company retains and fully lives up to its values. And people here talk about values and business almost interchangeably, to the point where they sometimes don’t understand our questions around this fusion because it so fundamental they don’t see why we’d be asking such a basic, obvious question.

And so when I think about Vancity as a financial cooperative and our new vision of Redefining Wealth, this trip to Bologna has been critical to more fully appreciate that intersection where being a part of the community and making decisions that have a positive social and environmental impact also drive profitable business.

And some of these cooperatives are incredibly profitable. But because many of them are worker cooperatives, where the janitors own shares in the property management cooperative, for example, they can share in the profits, have an equal vote in the future of the company and increase their own income and dignity.

As we look to the future of British Columbia, I wonder if our history and culture is one where cooperatives can play a greater role to create businesses that are profitable and add strength to our civil society. It seems to me to be a model where business can play a role in generating wealth for more of our fellow citizens in a way that is equitable and sustainable.

My Bologna has a first name…

wazaroff — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:18:44 -0700

In a few short days, I head off to Bologna, Italy on behalf of Vancity staff and members. Needless to say, I’m pretty excited about it. But why is Vancity sending its Web Director to Italy?

Emilia Romagna, the area surrounding the city of Bologna, is a region whose economic growth and development has been driven in large part by co-operatives. Over the last 30 odd years this region has transformed itself from ranking near the bottom of Italy’s 20 regions in terms of economic performance to being at - or near - the top. It has remarkably low unemployment and poverty, as well as high voter turnout and GDP per capita. Thirty percent of the GDP in Emilia Romagna is driven directly by co-operatives. They have worker-owned co-operatives, consumer co-operatives, agricultural co-operatives and social co-operatives, meaning that many of the social services provided to residents of this area are delivered by co-operatives. At over four million residents, this area has some similarities to British Columbia, but our estimates are that only 2-3% of the GDP in BC is driven by co-operatives. Could co-operatives play a role in transforming our economy so it grows sustainably, equitably and innovatively?

Every year Vancity sends a small group of people, usually executives and some of our Board, to Bologna to learn more about successful co-operatives so we can bring that knowledge back to inform how we run our operations. As a credit union we are a financial co-operative, and the more we can learn about our co-operative roots - as well as what some of the world’s most progressive and strongest co-operatives are doing - the better we can serve our members, our staff and the community.

This year, any employee at Vancity and its subsidiaries could apply to go to Bologna, and a group of us were chosen who represent different areas of the organization and different levels of seniority. The goal is to bring what we learn back and embed it throughout the organization, so its impact can be more widespread.

For me, this trip will help align some of our new online initiatives with our co-operative principles. It is a way for me to be more conscious of our values while finding ways to innovate. I believe that this ChangeEverything.ca community is an excellent example of how the online world and co-operative ideals can come together in a compelling way.

In the coming months, we will be starting a discussion around Vancity’s new vision called Redefining Wealth, where we take our triple bottom line approach and go even farther with it, looking at everything we do through a lens of economic, social and environmental sustainability. This online community of changemakers will play a key role in refining what Redefining Wealth means.

In the meantime, I have gotten my Euros, renewed my passport, and made whatever preparations I can before I leave my family for two weeks to study wtih Stefano Zamagni, professor of co-operative economics, at the University of Bologna,.The University of Bologna is Europe’s oldest university, founded in 1088, and it is in this environment where I will be learning about how the co-operative model can help drive good business decisions, create innovation and be a pillar in a successful economy. Given our economy’s recent tailspin, this knowledge couldn’t come at a better time.

I look forward to sharing this journey with you in my next two columns. In the meantime, please leave comments with your thoughts.

William

British Columbia - Leader or Laggard: Is this province really ahead of the pack on climate change?

Christopher Hakes — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:50:29 -0700

Action on climate change faces myriad challenges, particularly under current economic conditions. Success demands aggressive target setting, accompanied by appropriate tools and approaches. The province of British Columbia is considered by many to be a leader in taking action on climate change. Indeed, in its own words, the provincial government is making climate change a “top priority.” With the only carbon tax in Canada, a designated Climate Action Secretariat, and the Pacific Carbon Trust (a Crown Corporation mandated to deliver B.C.-based greenhouse gas offsets), B.C. unquestionably stands out among Canadian provinces.

By and large, when one thinks of environmental and climate leadership, the temptation is to immediately consider the European Union as frontrunner. The E.U. took the international lead on climate change and has historically had the most progressive and aggressive policies toward greenhouse gas (GHG) regulation. When it comes to the renewable energy sector, there can be no question that Europeans are the global leaders. The E.U. also boasts the world’s largest carbon trading program, known as the Emissions Trading Scheme.

2009 is a decisive year in the international effort to address climate change, culminating with a new road map to be drawn up at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December. The current global economic situation, however, has placed the entire embryonic carbon system in flux. Even the much-vaunted Clean Development Mechanism is under threat because of low tonnage prices and falling emissions due to diminished markets.

Per capita, Canadians are the second highest emitters of greenhouse gases in the world. People often respond to this by suggesting that Canada is a large, northern country, with a population that is separated by vast distances. While geophysically accurate, in truth it is a pitiable excuse for a dismal national record on climate change. Canada signed the Kyoto Accord in 1997, and ratified this agreement in 2004. According to the conditions of this international agreement, Canada’s GHGs should have dropped by 7% below 1990 emissions. Currently, they rest about 30% above that target. As a nation, we clearly have a long way to go.

How does B.C. fit into this national framework? In a move to provide a price signal against unsustainable choices, a carbon tax was introduced in July 2008 that affects fossil fuels used to produce energy or heat. As a provincial Crown corporation set up by the B.C. Government, the Pacific Carbon Trust will allow the government to acquire credible, provincially located GHG offsets on its behalf. Under the Greenhouse Gas Reductions Targets Act, B.C.’s GHG emissions are to be reduced by at least 33% below 2007 levels by 2020. A further emission-reduction target of 80% below 2007 levels is required for 2050.

The Act that is perhaps most eagerly anticipated is that which will bring about a market-based cap-and-trade system to be developed through the Western Climate Initiative. It is worthy of note that the province has adopted a carbon tax in addition to this cap-and-trade system. The latter scheme can often be politically preferable for existing industries because the allocation of allowances can include a provision that grandfathers in rights based on historical emissions.

There are some key uncertainties that threaten to further delay governments taking action on climate change. There has been much speculation following the U.S. election with the Obama administration outlining its plans to reduce U.S. emissions. Economic mechanisms in the form of Cap and Trade, among others, are expected to be a big part of the new American plan. In order to be effective in a broader scheme on climate change it therefore behooves us to also take parallel, bold economic steps.

B.C. will be having its own election in a few weeks, with some opposition parties’ pooh-poohing the carbon tax. This is counter-productive and, seemingly, politically convenient rhetoric. Ultimately, some programs won’t work but we are going to have to throw a lot of proverbial pasta against the wall before something sticks – and the Provincial Government should be given the latitude it needs and indeed the kudos for doing so. This is B.C.’s opportunity to demonstrate strong leadership on climate change, and we must stick with it.

When compared with the lethargy exhibited by Canada’s national government, B.C. is taking a rational and courageous approach to climate change. However, the next few months are critical in establishing the necessary regulations to make real change happen. If true leadership is proven through action, then we must pay close attention to our government’s conduct in the months to come.

This is, of course, just an opinion - what are your thoughts on the matter?

Christopher completed an MSc in Environment and International Development last year, focusing his research on the impact of reduced GHG emissions on the business community. Christopher has over a decade of experience as an environmental project manager and consultant with various national and international sustainability-focused organizations and began working with Offsetters in December 2008 as an Associate Consultant.

Confessions of a Former Offset Skeptic - Morgan McDonald

Morgan McDonald — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 15:46:27 -0700

You’ve probably heard of carbon offsets. They are the intangible vouchers you can buy to counteract your impact on the climate every time you burn fossil fuels or otherwise cause the release of greenhouse gas emissions. I had known about the idea of buying and selling carbon for about ten years before I was offered a job with Offsetters in Vancouver, Canada.

“Offsetting? But I don’t believe in offsetting,” I recall thinking. Carbon credits were spurious, the good ones were painfully difficult to create (lots of paperwork involved) and, at the best of times, they just resulted in a net-zero impact on the climate – for every emission reduced, someone else lets one go.
My first exposure to carbon trading was in the spring of 1999 when I attended a climate change conference in El Salvador. International delegates had been invited to explore some of the opportunities and risks associated with the carbon trading schemes of the new Kyoto Protocol. A hot topic was the Clean Development Mechanism, a Kyoto program to encourage investment in developing nations through carbon trading. Would this just be another way for wealthy countries to exploit poorer ones? Would carbon reductions be pursued at the expense of other social and environmental impacts? At this time the carbon market was still just an idea but it was already becoming contentious.

I later moved to Vancouver to work with a company that designed and installed solar water heating systems. My first assignment was to support the company’s involvement in an experimental carbon-trading scheme called GERT (the Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Trading Pilot). GERT offered a means of learning about carbon trading by doing it, with participants from government, industry, and environmental groups. It was an interesting concept, but the reporting and analysis seemed endless. We were quantifying something that didn’t exist (a lack of emissions) and could never be proven. We had to calculate, research, and reveal a lot of data, and we were at the whim of a committee to review and scrutinize our claims. I had strong doubts that the business world would ever participate in something like this.

I spent the next seven years designing solar water heating systems and working with other experts in renewables and energy efficiency across the country. We would always evaluate the CO2 reductions associated with our projects but we couldn’t really assign any monetary value to them. When Offsetters approached me, they were looking for someone with my project experience to head their sourcing department. I was impressed by Offsetters’ perspective on the emerging carbon market: their mission was to lead by example with high quality projects and to prove that offsets could be a legitimate part of the climate solution.

What about all that paperwork? It’s still there, but the industry has evolved and the process is more streamlined than it was back in the GERT days. There are internationally recognized quality standards, third-party validators and verifiers who sign-off on the project and the numbers, as well as registries where the public can view the transactions and confirm that each credit is unique and not being double-sold. It appeared that the international carbon market was becoming quite sophisticated and that it was an opportune time to help build the local market in B.C. and across Canada.

Okay, but what were the actual projects? I looked at the Offsetters portfolio: ground-source heat pump installations at five community buildings including care facilities for seniors and the disabled as well as a First Nations school and Band office; energy efficiency measures at a commercial greenhouse, supporting local food production and reducing their exposure to natural gas price shocks; international development projects in Cambodia, Uganda, and India that brought energy efficiency and resource security to small communities. I was impressed. The projects supported appropriate technologies and they had real social benefits outside of the carbon trade.
I realized that I was being offered the opportunity to seek out and develop more great projects to add to this list. As you may have guessed, I took the job.

So what about the issue of the net-zero impact? That every tonne offset is countered by another tonne emitted? Well, I soon discovered that people who pay for their carbon emissions have a strong interest in reducing them over time. And they do. Our repeat customers are proof of this. Over the long term, they save money and reduce risk by fine-tuning their operations to make a smaller impact. In the short term, they support new projects that make a difference right away.

It’s a great job and I enjoy the challenge. I suppose I’m still an offset skeptic in the sense that I scrutinize every project and every aspect of the process. After all, if I see anything wrong, it’s now my job to fix it.

-Morgan McDonald

Morgan McDonald has a background in mechanical engineering and over ten years of experience designing and describing sustainable energy systems. He was a founding director of the BC Sustainable Energy Association and is an educator on solar heating systems. Morgan also plays piano and keyboards in the innovative avant-rock group “Fond of Tigers”.