Sustainable Waterloo’s educational forums provide attendees from local industry, the public sector, academia and environmental groups with the opportunity to learn cost-effective best practices with regards to reducing carbon emissions. These events primarily feature case studies of local organizations that have been successful in pursuing more sustainable operations. Hosted on a quarterly basis, educational forums offer attendees the opportunity to network with others from complementary firms and sectors over breakfast.

Educational Forum: Feed-in Tariffs (FIT)

Ontario's Feed-in Tariff (FIT) Program is North America's first comprehensive guaranteed pricing structure for renewable electricity production. This program was enabled by the Green Energy and Green Economy Act, 2009 which was passed into law on May 14, 2009. Educational Forum: Feed-in Tariffs (FIT) provided attendees with a thorough overview of the FIT Program from an OPA representative, presented the local utility's perspective of the program and shared the case study of the City of Kitchener’s approved 500 kW solar FIT contract.

Educational Forum: The Implications of Copenhagen

The 12 days of International climate negotiations in Copenhagen ended and the resulting Copenhagen Accord was signed, but it seems to ask more questions than it answers: How will countries be held accountable for their emissions? How will reductions be monitored? In what ways are international governments exerting their power? Where does Canada fit in? How do ambitious provincial targets fit with our national plans? What does this mean for local organizations?
Our January Educational Forum aimed to ask the right questions for our country, province, and businesses as well as provide a few answers. We were led by a range of experts that attended the conference and closely followed the analysis.
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Educational Forum: Low-Impact Commuting

The demands of individuals’ schedules today often make it difficult to get from a to b let alone consider sustainable commuting options. This is why November’s forum focused on how an organization can help make choosing more sustainable commuting options easier for their employees, while contributing positively to employee lifestyle and reducing impact on the local environment.
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Educational Forum: LEED Buildings

This forum, focused on LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified buildings featured presentations from the City of Cambridge’s Mayor Craig, Bob Paul, Director of Facility Development at the City of Cambridge, and Steve Carpenter, President of Enermodal Engineering Ltd. Each of these speakers provided insights on how LEED certification fits into their environmental strategies, the features of their LEED buildings, as well as their expected energy savings.
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January Educational Breakfast

Sustainable Waterloo was proud to host Lori Duvall, Eco Responsibility Program Manager for Sun Microsystems, at our first educational breakfast forum. Lori had some fantastic insights for the 187 attendees from the business community, local government, academia and environmental organizations. Please see below for her slides, media coverage and several pictures from the event.
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Sustainable Waterloo’s technical workshops provide organizations across Waterloo Region with the knowledge, resources, and expertise required to achieve sustainable business operations and pursue carbon reducing projects. These events are led by environmental experts across the community and feature topics such as GHG inventory process, green building design and carbon offsets. Hosted on a quarterly basis, technical workshops offer attendees a close learning environment and a continental breakfast.

Technical Workshop: Financial Incentive Programs

Technical Workshop: Financial Incentive Programs featured speakers that outlined federal, provincial and local financial resources available to help organizations achieve energy reductions. It also incorporated small group interaction with presenters to provide attendees with takeaways specific to their business.

Technical Workshop: Energy Audits

This workshop provided attendees with a thorough understanding of energy audits and how they can be used as a step toward improving an organization’s energy use. Scott Martin, a partner with Efficiency Engineering Inc., outlined the reasons for performing an energy audit, how to prepare for one, the process involved in completing one, and strategies for analyzing its outcomes.

Technical Workshop: Developing GHG Reduction Projects

Featuring presentations from Jason Steinburg and David Cruickshank of Carbon Foresight, this workshop provided attendees with a framework for structuring fast, low-risk and high-impact initiatives that would build their organizations capacity to understand and reduce GHG emissions. Attendees learned about strategies for engaging employees' innovation and expertise in designing and implementing GHG reduction projects.

Technical Workshop: GHG Inventories

This workshop, focused on Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventories, featured presentations from Ernst & Young associates. Todd Ernst educated participants on how to conduct a GHG Inventory while Melanie Steiner discussed relevant disclosure standards and options for GHG certification. Attendees also had the opportunity to learn from current Pledging Partners of the Regional Carbon Initiative as they provided insight regarding their personal experiences in completing GHG inventories over the past year.

Each event season (September - June), Sustainable Waterloo hosts 4 educational forums, 4 technical workshops and the Regional Carbon Initiative Evening of Recognition. In addition, environmentally focused Peer-2-Peer Networking Sessions are co-hosted with Communitech.

Member Hosted Learning Session: Enermodal Engineering

This session looked at real energy use at a dozen LEED certified buildings over their first year of operation to see how this energy use compares to conventionally designed buildings and the energy savings predicted during the LEED energy model. The presenter also explained what the best performing LEED buildings have in common – in other words, how to get a green building that performs up to expectations.

The 23rd Annual Energy and Environment Forum

The 23rd Annual Energy and Environment Forum promoted awareness of environmental issues within the business community and the community at large through a half day event that brought the attendees face to face with experts who shared practical information that they can implement at both work and at home.

Sustainability P2P: Shifting Organization Culture Towards Environmental Sustainability

This Peer-2-Peer examined a systematic approach to learning and action with the goal of shifting organizational culture towards a more environmentally sustainable future. This shift is achieved through progressively educating each individual in order to develop the right skills and attitudes while gaining support within every level of the organization.

Evening of Recognition and Launch of 2009 Report

Throughout the past year, dozens of individuals, across many sectors, have joined together to help develop Waterloo Region as a future hub for the intersection between business success and environmental sustainability.

On March 23rd, 2010, Sustainable Waterloo recognized these efforts as we launched our 2009 Report, which celebrates the commitments and accomplishments of Regional Carbon Initiative members, as well as the leadership shown collectively by organizations across Waterloo Region.

Sustainability P2P: Making Sense of Sustainability

Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability, Climate Change; what does all this mean and how does it impact the bottom line for small and medium sized organizations? These are business scenarios that present both risk and opportunities to enhance customer and supplier relationships, protect and create value, and to drive positive impacts on the bottom line.

Regional Carbon Initiative Launch Event

On Tuesday June 16th, Sustainable Waterloo hosted 250 attendees at the Waterloo Inn to officially launch its Regional Carbon Initiative and announce initial Pledging Partners: Athena Software, VeriForm Inc., Enermodal Engineering.

This event was focused on truly celebrating the individuals and organizations that had contributed to Sustainable Waterloo to date, and the Regional Carbon Initiative that is a product of their efforts.
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