Engaging Youth in Sustainable Ventures

Seattle Trip

2010-06-30T12:02:00.012-06:00

For those of you who don't know the two of us (Adrian and Emily) will be in Seattle, Washington for the next three weeks investigating various sustainable practices thoughout the city. We will be operating out of Miller Hull Architectural Firm who invited us down following our presentation at the Living Futures Unconference in May. However we are looking at several projects by many people and if any of our readers in the Seattle area know of an interesting opportunity drop us an email and we will try to fit it into our schedule.

The trip down was an adventure with Adrian nearly killing us while driving on the Kokehalla by muscling a rather large truck out of it's lane. After we miraculously reached the boarder in one piece we had further trouble when we were pulled off by the US Border Patrol and detained by large men with guns and no sense of humour for four hours before being told that we couldn't actually enter the country because we did not have a letter of invitation from Miller Hull. So we were forced to spend a night in a crappy motel. We got the letter the next morning and they only detained us for an hour and a quarter the next day before we got sent through.

Our fist full day in Seattle was exciting with a sit-in on three meetings in the morning. The fist was the management meeting at Miller Hull where we saw how projects are selected and rolls are assigned at the firm. After that we visited another architectural firm in the building called Maylum where we sat in on a design churette for a new elementary school. We saw how they worked to reconcile their budget with the needs of students, administrators and the environment. The final meeting of the day was back at Miller Hull where we learned about the computer design technology used to create the buildings.

In the afternoon we had a sit down with two architects at at Miller Hull to discuss the actions the firm was taking in order to become more sustainable, both in the buildings they create and in their own office. After that we went to an exhibit by the Seattle Architectural Institute displaying cutting edge sustainable building ideas.

We had some spare time after that so we did some shopping at Pike Market and had dinner before going to the local REI (an American version of MEC) for a presentation on watershed consevation, made by students from several high schools in the local area. The presentation was inspiring, both from an environmental perspective and because it helped to remind us of the incredible results that can be achieved when youth are given the chance to tackle real world problems.

The return home that day was a real adventure as well. We were riding our bikes and we got very lost on our way home and so we did not get back until quarter to 10!

The next day we decided to take the light rail rather than risk getting lost on the way to work again. However, we managed to get lost just on the way to the station and so we were still over half an hour late for work.

The day began with a discussion with one of the Miller Hull architects who told us about a project they just completed. The project being a building, that will be used as office space, as well as an interpretive center and science lab. The centre has just been completed and we are scheduled to tour it later in our stay. As well as the waste water treatment facility that this new building is an add on for.

For lunch we went out for sushi with the Miller Hull interns before going to a meeting at the local municipal building. The meeting was on the 40th floor and the view out the window, while incredible, was a bit disorienting for us small town folk! the meeting was an informational for developers involved in building and upgrading various fire stations in Seattle and we learned some interesting things. Folowing that we went to City Hall where we sat in on a presentation about new city environmental building regulations. And they were trying to come up with incentives to acheive these goals. We were increadibly impressed. They have set the bar extreamly high and our own local government would do well to take after them.

We were finished quite early that day, which was nice so we went grocery shopping at pike market and then created an incredible seafood (shrimp and scallop) and mushroom pasta dinner and had a more laid-back evening.

Today we started off with Sellen construction company who took us to visit a recycling facility that specialises in demolition waste. They take unsorted leftovers from demolished buildings and construction sites and sort it into various raw materials like wood, plastic, or metals and then sends them away to be reused. They claim to be able to recycle 98% of the waste they receive! After that we sat in on the Miller Hull office design meeting where various projects were shared with all members of the firm.

In the afternoon we had a one-on-one with the person in charge of BIM or building information modelling at Miller Hull. We talked with him about the creation and usage of the 3D modles designed by the firm. After that we sat in on a meeting with a a couple of people that Miller Hull has brought in to observe and critique their corporate culture over the next few weeks. We ended the day with Miller Hull's monthly in office meeting-party which involved a humorous mix of junk food, beer, humour, and administrative updates.

Following that we wandered around the Columbia City down-town near our house for a while before coming home to produce an amazing steamed muscle and salad meal!

-Adrian and Emily

Flash Mob

2010-05-03T19:07:00.001-06:00

Here is the link to our 'flash mob' video. The purpose behind the seemingly random dancing was to show that a small group of people can rally an entire community for a good cause. If we can inspire this many youth, you can too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddrkp1A3vVc

Welcome - if you've stumbled upon this site!

2010-02-11T22:17:00.000-07:00

http://www.fitzhugh.ca/news/625-jasper-youth-take-ideas-to-seattle

Thanks to our recent publicity in the Fitzhugh, we've been getting some traffic from outside sources.
We hope that visitors will take the opportunity to provide one of the following:

1. Some support and confidence - we are very nervous (ly excited!) heading down to Seattle to present in front of these cutting-edge professionals.

2. Suggestions about ideas you have found in relation to sustainability. We are trying to keep ourselves current with new news in sustainable building, youth engagement and other fields relating to our presentation.

3. Ideas to make Jasper a more sustainable community! Just because the official Plan has been drafted doesn't mean that we can't still discuss what should or should not be happening!

Thanks for stopping by!

I think these architects will be at the unConference...

2010-01-31T14:28:00.001-07:00

Here's an article about some new buildings in Portland. We should also stay current on these building developments - most of the unConference will center around sustainable building:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/us/31portland.html?em

Does this project look familiar?

2010-01-30T11:31:00.003-07:00

In this project (I think in Seattle) students had to design the specifics for a futuristic school. Local architects were in on the evaluations and acted as judges to see what student's design was the best. The point of including this article in the blog is to demonstrate one of the main points of our presentation: there needs to be a stronger link between professionals (especially ones involved in sustainability) and education.

This, of course, is very similar to the first project that I had you guys do in Grade 10 based on the Natural Step framework - where you completed a sustainability audit of the Palisades Centre.
You guys produced some pretty amazing projects and you guys were more engaged than I had ever seen you before.
Really, that project is what inspired me to look at starting a club.
I think that relating to this project, and how you worked with Parks officials, went to Nutter's organic store, took on a real project/problem in the community and how effective it was at getting you engaged, but also educating you.
You had to design a business - bid for a project, make recommendations based on the TNS framework, offer a cost analysis based on local sustainable products, design a menu based on locally grown, organic food (including price and distribution) and of course, design a model or blueprint.
Cool project eh?
How would you rate that project compared to other ways in which you were educated over high school?
Are there other projects in any class that also got you involved like this?
Give me some feedback on this if you have a chance - will help in the design of the presentation.

Sustainability in Ethiopia

2010-01-30T11:27:00.001-07:00

Here is a link to an interesting article by an interesting guy. Note that this guy (one of the most prominent NYTimes columnists) has a contest each year for youth - the winner gets to travel with him for a month to report on stories in a developing nation. Pretty cool - you can see the work that these students have done in the past on his blog site.

Outline Draft

2010-01-27T14:53:00.002-07:00

Order
1) opening Video

Introducing energy, off-beat sense of humor, and youth views.

2)Short background intro: bio

Who we are as a group and how we were inspired to get involved with sustainability in our community

3)Why youth should be involved in Sustainable ventures

Environmental indoctrination: ingraining from and early age the ideas and importance of sustainability in communities, growing up with an interest in the environment
Creating leadership skills in youth
Ownership and Pride in ones own community for youth creates a good future for both the community and it's citizens. The youth would have a better chance of returning to the community.
Engaging youth is a good business move because there are benifits in idea generation, coming from a different perspective. Marketing strategies, because ideas will most likely hit the market when youth have become adults.
Sustainability is a concept that youth have grown up with. To think sustainably is second nature to youth.
Ideas presented today will ultimately be implimented by our generation...duh!

4)How to involve youth in Sustainable ventures

The most dificult part is attracting youth, once youth are in a meeting the will contribute.
contacting local highschools is a good place to start. Specifically targeting environmental groups (examples in our town are action and sustainability), as well as going to teachers to find which students have a leadership role in the school, and community.
Target youth whose interests coencide with your business specifically. This will broaden the range of the types of youth, from just environmentally conciencious youth.
Offer incentives to youth to attract them. Things such as meetings with free food (cookies and pizza :D)
Involve youth in serious matters that they can contribute to. Using youth as valuable sources of information and take their opinions into serious consideration.
Projects that directly affect youth will be more likely to grab their interest.

5)Conclusion

Wrap up and direct people to blog site.
Getting back to us on blog about their own successes in getting youth involved in their area of sustainability.
Ask for feedback about us, if we were successful in getting our message across.
Taking Questions.

2010-01-26T21:12:00.003-07:00

For my idea on the outline, I think I would do this:

1) show the short video we discussed today (whether if it's the montreal one shot movie or a dance music video, it should be only 3-5 min)

Song: we'll see what will pop into my mind.

2) After video is done, we will roll up on stage and make a good first introduction of ourselves. (whether witty or just plain sarcasm).
Something just plain and simple, giving a little brief detail you know? (2 min)

3) We would bring up a slide show/prezi or etc. to display our topic on engaging youth in sustainability. Explaining the details into why and how:

Why: our generation of youths are the next group who will be facing the hard times as our world is slowly falling apart. We will be the ones responsible for taking action in the next couple of years and if we do not encourage the next generation of youths, there could be major problems such as being unprepared and uneducated. (expand.... etc etc.)

How: You. (meaning the business people at the conference). They are the people who they can look up to, be inspired by or also learn from what these important business guys do for a living. If we can make these important people more noticed and more recognized, then perhaps we can affect them to start thinking like our group is thinking. etc. etc

The explanation is very brief and I know it doesn't cover much but it's just an outline.

Should we have music in the background? instrumental, or a song? I'll write a song for sustainability? A corny and cheesy song.

And then in the end, we should give the big punchline, drop the bomb, badda boom badda bing, Bam, you know? End strong.

The end. Ha ha well this was a horrible outline but whatever, I put in a blog for it.
Fitzugh, 12:30pm Wednesday, Room 1.

-Kai

Today's Meeting - January 26/10

2010-01-26T15:05:00.004-07:00

Basic idea: taking time to engage youth as an investment in sustainability

* Incorporating youth into your business plan or development plan will provide the following:

- youth have some say, some feedback, some ownership/pride over what is being accomplished (ex. new buildings, new businesses, official town plans, etc...)

- youth become leaders and have a vested interest in the sustainability field - becomes 2nd nature

- youth are insightful, caring and creative and can offer perspectives that some professionals may neglect

- youth are more likely to see your ideas through as they get older - invest their education into fields related to the sustainability movement

- we feel that sustainability will be a successful economic industry once people realize even more that current (Albertan) lifestyles are no longer sustainable

- youth want to enjoy their 'job' when they get older. They don't see the need for a dichotomy between fun on weekends and serious at work

- youth need to be inspired by natural and urban spaces

- empowering youth in your own communities (by spending time and taking their opinions into consideration) is like investing money into the development of your community (but much cheaper!)

- youth education needs to start happening outside of the classroom even more - desks in rows with textbooks is no longer cutting it (Adrian)

1. Music video practicalities - How can space motivate change?

- Music video emphasizes the energy required to improve a community, the coordination, teamwork, etc...

2. Segue from video into presentation - including introductions (Matt suggested Ken Robinson technique)

- We could emphasize our proximity to world famous beauty (Rocky Mountains) and destruction (oil sands) - such a unique position to be in - could also emphasize the Jasper Bubble (visually like on the Simpson's movie).

3. Segue into "Why involve youth?" (Need to mention our experiences in the Jasper Community Sustainability Plan)

- you (professionals) will be refreshed, inspired - creates stronger communities

- Eggers "honour them (students) by listening to their thoughts and it becomes a transformative experience for them"

- sustainability is pretty cool for youth right now - we're willing to live differently if given the chance - even if that means living on less

4. Segue into "How to involve youth?" - practical suggestions

- tutoring

- idea sessions - focus groups with youth showcasing your ideas for business or development

- open-ended projects - approach teachers and see how your project could fit into the current curriculum; so much of today's curriculum deals with sustainability either directly or indirectly - have teachers offer real-life problems that students can work on - and see how professionals work on problems as well

5. Your goal when you leave here today - what we want them to do, to think about when they leave our presentation.

- feel inspired

- look at youth as an untapped resource in their community that can improve not only their economic sustainability, but the satisfaction of working with kids is unique and refreshing

- Obama pledged volunteerism and community development as the way forward out of tough times; in the fight to become more sustainable, your greatest allies may be the youth (even though they don't have any money!)

6. Fundraising - especially with Rotary, we will need to establish a connection with the younger grades (establish a small committee to help us work on this project)
off the top of my head...
- Geoff Dick
- Theresa Westhaver
- Tawnya Hollenbeck
- Heidi Schaeffer
- Miranda Munro
- Elsa Tokunaga
- Andrea Thomas
- Doug Matthews

7. Transportation - the van will be an issue - Speak with Doug McPhee soon.

8. When meeting next?

MEETING

2010-01-25T20:49:00.002-07:00

So, English Diploma tomorrow, let's get it done! My god, these past weeks has been hell.
If you haven't been in the loop, well our first meeting will be after our diplomas basically, after lunch possibly. Emily was suggesting that we would meet at her house (grads only) and then meet later on with Adam to discuss our plans. Emily and myself will try and let everyone know after tomorrow's test if you don't get this. I texted tonight as well so hopefully we can arrange something.
Let's get the outline done!
Catch you guys tomorrow.
-Kai

FINALIZED! The pressure is on...

2010-01-20T14:17:00.006-07:00

Ok - so I didn't really share this with you guys - but we were very close to not being accepted as presenters at the unConference. In fact, until today (Wednesday) I wasn't sure or not if we were going to be presenting. I received a bulk email explaining that our proposal had not been accepted. However, I knew that before I received this, I had received an email from the organizer asking us if we would consider doing the "15 minutes of Brilliance" segment at the unConference.

I finally spoke with Joel Sisolak today, he's the organizer, and he explained that we will be presenting at the unConference this May. Speaking with him made me more nervous and motivated than ever as he emphasized how important this event really is! He thinks that the youth voice will be refreshing and inspiring.

I did feel however, that he had been a bit skeptical about our involvement - and through my persistance and our conversation, I worked to ensure him that we will have an excellent presentation. Really though, he is very supportive of our plans overall.

He also thinks that it is excellent that we are even attempting to do such a thing - considering the amount of organization involved. He also noted that it would be excellent if we were able to cover the cost for all the students involved. Consequently, he is going to be giving us a 'presenter' rate for the unConference once we send in our outline.

Did he say outline?

No problem, Joel reassures me, he doesn't need it until Friday of next week... haha. Oh wait, I'm not joking!

In the next week, we are going to need to come up with a mind-blowing presentation outline to submit to Joel. He will then give his feedback and his ultimate approval.

So just when you thought you might have a 'lax' week next week post Diploma - I need more of your creative energy than ever before!

As a side note: He was also worried because 2 of the nights at the unConference are centered around adult socials - drinking involved. I told him that we had no problem making alternate plans on those nights. I already know, for instance, that we will be attending a Seattle Mariners baseball game at their beautiful field. On the Friday night of the unConference, he is trying to setup a PechaKucha night and Joel asked if we were familiar with this type of presentation. Laughing in reply, I said of course, and said that we may even have a pechakucha to present ourselves. This is the one night event we could attend - so this would be exciting for sure.

Let's get started...

Another Possible Forum For Us...

2010-01-13T22:45:00.001-07:00

(because we needed another project?!)
http://your2017.ca/

Sustainable Community in Alberta?!?

2010-01-12T19:26:00.002-07:00

Here's a pretty cool project that should be started soon in 2010. Mike Holmes is building an entire community near Okotoks, Alberta (Jasper to Hinton away from Calgary) based around sustainability. I've attached the link to his site which offers some more detailed information about the project
http://www.makeitright.ca/makeitright/Holmes_Homes/communities/overview#

-Matt

2010-01-10T13:51:00.000-07:00

Hey, I just found some neat stuff on the internet about sustainability in the city of Baltimore. A few years ago the City Department of Planning formed an Office of Sustainability. (http://www.baltimorecity.gov/Government/AgenciesDepartments/Planning/OfficeofSustainability.aspx) This is of interest to us because they’ve done a lot of neat stuff to get youth involved. They created a youth group who then organized a huge outreach event, called Greenscape’08, in order to get even more youth involved. (http://www.baltimorecity.gov/Government/AgenciesDepartments/Planning/OfficeofSustainability/YouthOutreach.aspx)

Video here:

The youth team also won a presidential award for their work. (http://baltimoretimes-online.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=522&Itemid=31)

-Adrian

Not really sustainability related, but an interesting concept, let me know what you think...

2010-01-08T10:36:00.000-07:00

This article is about a measurement system that measures human happiness in various countries. The main point is that is shows that income and 'security' aka military have no bearing on how happy people actually are. Also - follow the links on the article to the actual studies being done on this topic.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/opinion/07kristof.html?em

The reason I chose to highlight this idea is because I feel that for sustainability to truly work, I think it has to resonate not only in our daily lives, but also in our government systems. I would ask our government: What can you be doing to increase the overall quality of our lives besides enticing us and promoting us to buy, buy, buy. Consumerism does not equal happiness, haven't we proven this yet?

A New Year, A New Resolution....

2010-01-02T00:05:00.000-07:00

A New Year, A New Resolution....

Let's have one heck of a year with 2010. I hope everyone had a good New Years with their pops and chips I presume.
Well what can we say? it's the year, 2010, and it's going to be a tremendous year for all of us.
Meetings on Sunday sound good for everyone? 8pm ish...
As Adam was saying, we will need to figure out everything but let's worry about our diplomas first because you know, it's diplomas.

Who would like to be next for finding an article or video?

See you guys real soon.
from your pal,
Kai Okazakiiiiiiiiii

Recycled Houses

2009-12-22T23:36:00.001-07:00

Check out the images of this home and the related article:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/09/02/garden/20090903-recycled-slideshow_index.html

Some Christmas Thoughts!

2009-12-22T22:56:00.000-07:00

Hello folks, the beginning of this blog is a good indication that:

a) Our trip has been initially approved by the school board (thanks wholly to the holy Sandy Cox who will be joining us on our voyage south of the border).

b) We are very most likely going to be presenting in the 15 Minutes of Brilliance section of the Living Future 2010 Unconference in Seattle (May 5 - 7)! As a side note, please check out http://www.cascadiagbc.org/living-future/10/program in order to get a sense of this year's keynote speakers - read through their bios.

c) Mr. Robb had some caffeine too late at night tonight and is currently burning it off before bed.

I have attached some links to some interesting news sources right on our blog. This blog is intended to give you the proper background going into this very HUGE unconference. You WILL want to devote some of your precious spare time to reading and researching all about topics that relate to not only our presentation, but to the presentation of the other speakers at the unconference.

As I have said, if we are going to this unconference, then we are going full steam, we are going to make a real impression with the best presentation we can possibly put together.

I hope that we can meet soon and get this planning process underway once again. Things to consider:

What to present (exactly)?
How to present?
FUNDRAISING!
Where to stay and what to do in Seattle!
Etc...