Course:IGS585/OK2019WT2/SpeakerAlisonShaw
Alison Shaw - Flipside Sustainability
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Name of Reflection AuthorThis is a reflection on the presentation by the guest speaker. Name of Commenting AuthorThis is a reflection the reflection of the author above. |
The following table are the pairings for commenting on each other's reflections. These pairings are unique for each reflection.
| Nicole | Aditya | Maria | Ian | Stephenie |
| Madeline | Ariele | Amarpreet | Nadia | Jeffrey |
Ariele Parker
Reflective Thinking. Alison Shaw’s knowledge on sustainability is an interesting mix of academic and industry experience. Her presentation seemed to be the most holistic in its approach to sustainability compared to past presenters. She provided an interesting and thorough background on her childhood that gave great insight into how she proceeded with her career. Allison self proclaimed herself to be a disruptor. In my experience, disruptors are usually aggressive individuals and I did not find Alison to be aggressive, possibly she replaces this trait with persistence. I found myself having a hard time grasping the exact services of her company as I do not believe concise case studies were provided. As such, I have instead focused the remainder of my reflection on her personal beliefs and ways of thinking and approaching sustainability and the idea of blending academia with industry knowledge and practical application to mobilize change.
Analysis. I found Alison's quote “sustainability is not just about nature but how we interact with society” to be quite thought provoking. There are so many different ways of living within our means and within our ecosystem. Some of our class is involved in the urban and regional dynamics theme and the conversation surrounding communities at the local level seemed interesting and relevant. I also thought it was interesting that she self identifies as a catalyzer and discusses sustainability as a value system.
Making Connections. As I have reiterated in each reflection, I am a Canadian citizen that grew up in Alberta till the age of 16 then moving to British Columbia. I also have a bachelor’s degree in business management from UBC Okanagan and nine years working in the marketing industry prior to starting my masters. I have a strong appreciation for businesses that find opportunities and niches in the marketplace. I appreciate that Alison is working towards educating businesses and municipalities on values associated with sustainability. I think my biggest takeaway from the presentation is that while I respect the type of work Alison has done with municipalities and is now doing with Simon Fraser University, it is a less tangible form of sustainability than what I would like to pursue in my future career. I really enjoy consumer goods and looking at how we can make these more sustainable and appreciate that Alison has proven that it is possible to pursue and succeed in a career in the field of sustainability both as an academic and a practitioner.
Jeff Nishima-Miller
Unfortunately I was unable to attend class on Thursday, and missed our guest presentation. I am looking forward to having a chance to read everyone’s reflection and learn about Flipside Sustainability.
On the positive side, I am on a research related trip to Cambridge Bay, Nunavut (aka the Arctic). Thus far, it has been a once in a lifetime experience. That being said, it only feels fitting that I write my reflection on my experiences in the Arctic as it relates to climate change and sustainability.
Throughout my time in the Arctic, I have had the opportunity to attend a variety of meetings and community engagement forums. At the top of the list of main concerns, is climate change. From an outsider looking in, it may seem odd that a place so flat, cold, barren (sorry Arctic) has local peoples so concerned about climate change. How can two degrees of warming really affect a place where the temperature in March is -39? But once you start doing some digging, it becomes clear that the peoples and ecosystems of the Arctic will be some of the hardest hit by a changing climate (with warming projections far exceeding 2 degrees with current emission rates). From what I have seen, knowledge mobilization and communication of these impacts to community members has been effective.
This was made evident at a community engagement meeting I attended, where researchers and community members (mostly Inuit elders and hunters) spoke about the noticeable changes in both Caribou and Arctic char populations and patterns. For example, the community I am staying in (Cambridge Bay) is on a large island called “Victoria Island”. Traditionally, there have been two distinct caribou herds that have lived on the island during the summer months. When the ice freezes, the herds have migrated to the mainland for the winter, where there is increased food availability. Recently (in the last 10 years), the herds have been split up into smaller and more vulnerable sub-herds, due to changes in freezing patterns, affecting the timing of migration. Some of the caribou are still migrating to the mainland, while others remain on the island- which has resulted in noticeable population and demographic changes in the caribou herds.
There are also growing concerns of longer Arctic marine shipping seasons- which is used for many purposes, but of greatest concern is iron ore transport and oil delivery (as communities here are powered by diesel). As the shipping season becomes longer (due to longer periods of open water), locals are concerned about the impacts marine ship in can have of marine life. These perspectives and concerns of the Inuit peoples is very grounding, as it becomes clear that a changing climate is in no way their fault, but they are the ones who will have to live with some of the most extreme ecosystem changes (as the climate changes) and increased exploitation of natural resources as they become more accessible.
Stephenie Hendricks
Wow, Jeff! Thanks for this eye opening report. I look forward to hearing more about the indigenous process for community engagement there. I understand that these communities are among the most impacted by climate change. The Yupik people I have worked with on St Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea struggle with permafrost melting. This has unearthed barrels of toxic waste buried decades ago in the permafrost by the U.S. military. Now birth defects, failure to carry to term, and cancer are chronic effects form the toxics getting in their water, air and soil. As to the caribou, I was saddened to learn that the Kootenay caribou is now officially extinct – only about four hours east from here. I understand that indigenous folks depend more on traditional foods, so this could mean starvation for them. Is there some way to assist them to transition to solar and wind energy? I know it is cold, but there is also a lot of sun – I wonder if solar power would work up there. There would be so many reasons to get them off of diesel. With world powers fighting over who “owns” the Arctic, I hope indigenous people emerge as the true “owners” and get some significant compensation for the global shipping routes through their areas.
Nicole Bamber
Alison Shaw’s talk, and her company Flipside Sustainability, filled me with hope for a sustainable future, as well as curiosity for the diverse sustainability initiatives possible across many industries. She also mentioned something in her talk which was directly relevant to the work I am doing in my PhD, and many others are doing in my lab. This was the concept of regionalization, both in terms of regional specificity of human activities, and of the locally relevant impacts of climate change. Over time, the IPCC reports have not changed significantly in terms of the global climate science they present, but they have increased in regional specificity. I believe that this is very important for climate change messaging. As we learned earlier in the term, the concept of a “global climate” is only an artifact of climate modelling. So while global climate modelling is of course useful, it is not surprising that it has not translated well into individual communities understanding what could happen to them with the changing climate. With regionalized models, these potential local impacts can be much better communicated.
The other key take-away message for me was of collaboration. There are so many benefits to collaboration, in terms of creating better sustainability policies and initiatives, and beyond. As she explained, so many industries are actually very closely linked, so it is not sensible to treat each one separately with separate policies and sustainability initiatives. Of course it makes more sense to create more holistic policies and initiatives that look at the entire system, for example a whole city design. However, that is not how our society is set up. My main experience is in academia, but I imagine it is fairly similar in the work force. In academia, generally you must specialize in one particular thing and interact with mostly people in the same field. Not only that, but you are generally in direct competition with those people for grants, etc. so there is not a large collaborative effort even within a single field. However, I sense that these trends are changing, with programs such as the IGS program becoming more popular. In my research, I am combining the fields of agricultural sustainability with human nutrition. In my academic and personal life I am fascinated by this intersection, and the trade-offs and/or synergies that exist between the two goals of sustainability and optimal nutrition. If I were to focus on only one, with the best intentions of improving the food system, it is possible that I could be making an improvement in one area, and making it worse in another. This is why it is so important to consider multiple different goals and disciplines when making these types of initiatives. I also acknowledge that there are many more issues surrounding food production than simply sustainability and nutrition, such as animal rights, fair trade, etc. that should also be included in a truly holistic assessment.
Madeline Donald
Thank you for that final stipulation Nicole. The interpretation of interdisciplinarity as an act of bridge-building between two silos is one that continues to frustrate me and I appreciate your recognition that such bridge building is not holistic. That said, I do not think holism is something we can achieve. Like the comprehensiveness of comprehensive exams the holism in a holistic assessment can never be achieved, for an accurate map of the world can only ever be the world itself. However, striving for holism and remaining cognizant of where you choose to stop is an admirable path. While I would raise issue with the idea of a singular "optimal nutrition" it seems to me that the work your are doing is well informed and gaining increasing levels of nuance; I look forward to reading/interacting with your finalized research.
Maria Correia
Alison’s story of growing up in a tee pee in Alberta caught my immediate attention and I remained engaged as she described her journey of becoming a Catalyzer for sustainability. A few reactions to her presentation and our in-class discussion:
· First, Alison described the disconnect between the science on climate change and values – but at the national level. In contrast, she argued that at the community level, which is the focus on Allison’s work, values are the same; she noted “all communities want to be sustainable…. All communities agree on values.” This is promising.
· Second, Alison described the challenges with engaging at the regional level, which operates in siloed, specialized spheres. She contrasted this with indigenous communities that think holistically, plan comprehensively and look for linkages and connections. Interesting, and consistent with my work and understanding on the differences in the Western and indigenous worldviews. Once again, we are reminded that we much to learn from our First Nations communities.
· Third, Alison talked about “low carbon resilience” (LCR), a term that was new to me. I now understand this to be an approach that simultaneously considers adaptation and mitigation, as compared to most strategies that focus on one of these two goals. I gather that the benefits of addressing adaptation and mitigation in tandem is that you don’t miss opportunities to reduce emissions through adaptation, among other things. It is interesting however that LCR has been around for some years but that funding programs still focus on one or the other strategy. This is one barrier to LCR, with institutional silos and hierarchies being another major constraint according to Alison. Not surprising.
· Fourth, I very much appreciated John’s explanation of the differences between the Netherlands and Canada when it comes to the tools for dealing with the expropriation of land for urban development. How civilized that in the Netherlands, the community benefits from land sales rather than the private owners. Alas, another legacy of Canada’s colonialist past, that settlers took the land they thought was empty and parceled it out to their friends, who are now benefiting by mining the land for development and setting it off. Very disheartening indeed.
Overall, however, I was left with an overall positive feeling from the class after learning about ICABCCI's Action Research Project and the communities that are taking leadership on Low Carbon Resilience. The Town of Gibsons was no surprise as I met Emanuel Machado, the City Manager, and was familiar with him championing Natural Asset Management and valorization. And in the Okanagan, it is again Summerland taking the lead on LCR followed by Vernon. Kelowna, with its land use development culture, lags behind these more forward-looking communities. I was reminded once again that it is up to the citizens of Kelowna to collectively demand change from our city and regional officials.
Amarpreet
Hi Maria,
I agree with all of your points and for sure Alison described her work and experience very well and passionately. As of you, LCR was also a new term for me, after the class I visited LCR: ACT(adaptation to climate change team) website and came to know about ICABCCI. It's really very interesting and informative for me that how ICABCCI is bringing communities and resource providers on the same platform in order to implement the LCR approach and gain co-benefits. As this approach is equally beneficial for both communities and resource providers, and you also mentioned Summerland taking the lead on LCR followed by Vernon, I think kelowna's citizens should demand for this.
Madeline Donald
When Maria asked Alison about her experience working with indigenous communities Alison expressed regret for having had only a few opportunities to do so, mentioning that it was both organizationally difficult and conceptually simple, stating to the later point something like, 'they already get that everything is connected.' I perked up when she said that, for I too have felt the comfort of similarly grounded philosophies despite innumerable differences in both arriving with and articulating said philosophies. Just yesterday I spent perhaps 25 long-winded minutes explaining my theoretical foundation to someone who had liven for many yeas in Fiji, to which she responded something along the lines of, 'If you said that to a Fijian that would all sound very obvious to them and they would be amazed that you had bothered to write it down.'
What, I wonder, does that mean for our overarching theme of knowledge mobilization and sustainability policy. Sometimes I think it means we have a chance, a chance to mobilize and sustain. A chance that is, if we can sift thought the bits and pieces of our world-making, languages, lands, traditions, values, and extract the foundational stuff, that connective tissue, for that is the stuff of sustainability. Other days I am less optimistic.
This past weekend has brought the world into a situation none of us have ever lived through before. One conversation happening globally, one fear that can be parsed into thousands. It is surely already the stuff of poetry, poetry we will one day hear in perceived relative safety, from underneath once-again smoggy skies. The things are obvious though regularly hidden can come out in this period, and have. Saturday the Dutch government published a list of the "crucial sectors and jobs": health, police, defense, teachers and school personnel, public benefits, food supply chain (supermarkets, transport, processing, farmers), waste service, fuel transportation, child minding, media and communications, emergency services, necessary government processes (benefits and allowances, civil affairs, embassies). The link is to a tweet, a screenshot of the list, above which journalist Rob Wijnberg writes, "Inlijsten en nooit meer van Teletekst halen." (Frame it and never take it off the national news feed.) These are the functions that are important in our society, Wijnberg implies, and never you forget it. Now, in the long run I would argue for some other items to be added to that list, but that doesn't take away from the poetry. Sometimes it takes an extreme situation to bring us to the obvious. Maybe our job is to bring us there sooner, like a catalyst in a chemical reaction, modifying and increasing the rate of reaction without being consumed in the process.
Nicole Bamber
Madeline,
I like your observation about the Fijan and the Indigenous, that they understand that everything is connected and that those things are obvious to them. I have also noticed that our analytical Western society loves to study each thing in isolation, and not often consider how things are connected. In the field of nutrition, I read the book Whole by T. Colin Campbell (well, I'm part way through it, it's in my pile of half read books that maybe I will now have the time to finish). In this book, Dr. Campbell explains how this reductionist mindset in nutrition means that studying individual nutrients has become the gold standard. However, although whole foods have specific nutrients in them, there is much more to a food than simply that. Therefore, studying each nutrient in isolation does not actually help us understand the effects of eating the foods. I believe this is true for almost everything.
Ian Turner
After taking a few days to digest the talk we heard from Alison Shaw, I found trying to come up with a topic for reflection quite difficult. Initially during her talk, I took issue when she made the claim that "all communities want to be sustainable". To me, this could not seem more false given the experiences I've had just here in Kelowna during the relatively short time for which I lived here. I heard this statement and couldn't help but think back to watching federal election results with my roommates, and seeing that the Green Party candidate only had 4 votes at first, all of which could have come from the 4 people living in our house. I thought of Ryan Donn telling us that sustainability is not an electable issue in Kelowna and municipal politicians prefer not to "waste their time" on those issues because the constituents here don't care. I thought of my initial feelings on the City Council meeting we attended, in which I thought the council gave the impression of a lot of worthless self-congratulation for their response to "sustainability issues" because they decided to install LED streetlights, which, in my mind, is nowhere near the scope of the changes that need to be made. Based on those thoughts, I could not have disagreed more with the idea that all communities want to be sustainable, because to me it seemed clear that Kelowna does not.
However, my disagreement changed later during the talk when Alison re-framed this statement as one reflecting community values, that communities don't want congestion, that they want efficacious waste management, etc. and that is what she was equating with sustainable. When she re-framed this statement in terms of common grounds that all communities seem to strive for, I couldn't help but agree with her, and just about everything she said in her presentation. With this in mind, what struck me the most about her presentation afterwards was just how easy she was making it sound that achieve these community goals in an environmentally responsible way. Normally, I feel as though sustainable development initiatives are framed using the lens of "it's not going to be easy, but we have to do it because we don't have a choice". To hear about sustainable development instead through the frame of "not only is it going to be easy, but it's going to be exciting too" was refreshing, and made me understand why communities are eager to work with her. Hopefully in the future Kelowna will feel the same way so they can start toward some meaningful sustainable development goals.
Stephenie Hendricks
I really liked Alison Shaw’s presentation. I felt it was a little challenging trying to figure out, exactly, what it is she does. From her website, I am guessing that she provides the information she shared with us by doing workshops and then perhaps provides support in helping municipalities come up with climate mitigation and resilience plans.
I am glad she is working in an academic realm to document her theories and also to record the work of communities engaging on these issues. It is history unfolding as we watch how communities are coming together and dealing with climate change.
I was confused when she said Kelowna did not have a climate plan, as they have one posted on their website. Perhaps I misheard her, or maybe Kelowna has a web page but is not actively engaging in a plan.
I meant to ask her about an NGO that Ian Thomson had mentioned – the Post Carbon Institute. I came close to working with them years ago – when they were based in Vancouver. They subsequently moved to California. One of the last concepts that I recall they developed was the idea for planners and developers to create policy that included open space for each neighborhood. This land would have a variety of vegetation growing (without chemicals) for the purposes of biomass fuel production for that local community. This does several things – it sequesters local carbon, it supports biodiversity with plants and animals, and of course provides renewable energy for the local community. Having lost track of them, I am not sure how far they got. Raising awareness on their ideas to the general public was also a challenging process for them.
But I agree completely with Alison that local engagement on climate issues is crucial and should receive robust support from provincial and national agencies.
Alison echoed what almost all of our other presenters have said: the fossil fuel industry is a significant adversary. This brings me to a question I had at the beginning of the term: Why aren’t we addressing the corporations that are creating the problem? Fossil fuel corporations along with automobile manufacturers need to step up their responsibilities to adapt to climate change. In the U.S., General Motors just announced that they are “re-tooling” to make ventilators. If they can do that, why can’t they “re-tool” to make vehicles with low or zero emissions that run on renewable fuel sources? How can local communities demand that corporations entering their regions prioritize climate mitigation and resilience that lifts up the entire community’s welfare?
I would have liked to heard more from her on how communities can attract sustainable businesses to their regions. A bit more specific examples would have gone a long way to demonstrate her work. She provided us with ample theory, but having more real world examples would have been good. I also wondered if she works with existing businesses to come up with climate plans?
I was sad to see the same weariness on her face as our previous speakers.
Jeff Nishima-Miller
While in the Arctic, I browsed the Flipside Sustainability website and also had some troubles nailing down what the company does and how it functions- so it is interesting that you had the same issue
There is a Kelowna Community Climate Action Plan and a Corporate Energy and GHG Emissions Plan (as you are aware of)- maybe there was some miscommunication on the part of Allison (I would hope). Furthermore, the RDCO is currently putting together a climate plan and will be opening up an employment position for a climate expert of some sort (those are the details I currently know)- This should be an interesting addition to the region.
In regard to your question of ‘why aren’t we addressing the corporations that are creating the problem (environmental/climate change, etc.)? I agree, these corporations should be held responsible. But I can see how this becomes very complicated, as there are many layers to these issues. For example, these corporations hold immense financial capital and state support and public support in some cases. With this being said, I wonder how we can overcome these obstacles in the timely manner which climate change responses are needed? Ideally, taxes and penalties for large GHG emitters/environmental degradation would be so severe it would force these large corporations to change their practices for the better (i.e. get it or get lost).
Aditya Shingvi
One important take away from Alison's presentation for me was that the effects of climate change are felt locally (community effect) yet most decisions are made by leaders in the global stage. It is important to note that different countries have different value systems which makes it a rather difficult task to collaborate on global issues such as climate change. It is easier to implement mitigation strategies in a local scale which is where Alison see's a lot of potential for change.
She speaks about her consultancy business "Flipside Sustainability" and how it add value to its clients such as various municipalities in Western Canada by recognizing and mitigating the disconnect between science and the general society. She spoke of climate change as not only an environmental issue but also an issue of us being able to organize ourselves (or adapt) around it. This idea was relatively alien to me before I took this sustainability course and am thankful to our instructors over the weeks of introducing this important way of looking at the climate change issue. She defines "values" as the ability to reduce vulnerabiltiy, saving costs over time and developing safe, resilient, and health communities.
Her comparison of the Municipalities in Western Countries and the native communities with regards to implementation of a mitigation plan was something I found particularly interesting. Municipalities in developed countries tend to have a top-down approach while coming up with a community plan where each of the focus areas such as transportation, land-use planning, handling of waste etc is dealt with separately in a disconnected fashion which can be ineffective in dealing with a complex issue like climate change. While Indigenous communities have linkages to each of these focus areas and hence are easier to work with.
Ariele Parker
Aditya,
I appreciate your response in its straightforward honesty. I agree that the discussion on indigenous was interesting compared to the top down approach of government. From my understanding this really shaped how she got into the field of sustainability as she lived off the land for many years as a child and in her travels. I think as you mentioned the local community effects of climate change are tough as they can only be controlled so much at the local level as our mayor has stated publicly as well!
Nadia Mahmoudi
By far, I found Allison, the most inspiring guest speaker. At least I can say, as the area of her activity was entirely similar to mine, and I had dealt with identical challenges in my own field of work and study, I found her talk very Inspiring.
I liked that she mentioned the leapfrog effect in the sustainability of the country. It sounded so optimistic, and real at the same time. She believed in synergy, I think she used that word like ten times, and as the purpose of the Flip-side company was to integrate different contributing different influential powers for sustainability project, I believe that synergy and optimism is pivotal and critical.
The practices that try to integrate the approaches of private sectors and the public sector, finding the mutual benefit for a successful collaboration towards a sustainable goal are so valuable, and I believe that this is a great challenge all over the world; however, I do not think these practices should end here. They should also try to have the cooperation of the individuals, publicity and increasing the awareness of the people is also a big challenge in this regard, which she mentioned that they are not active in this area. In this regard, I believe that correction of the peoples’ ideas about the on going projects that are for the benefit of all, not only can inspire everyone, but also increase the demand, creates that mutual benefit, and adds value to their projects; and as a result creates benefit for the both private and public sector.
Ian Turner
I agree with everything you say here regarding the talk Alison gave. I think that if there was something to add to her talk, it would be incorporating the opinions of individuals, and specifically how you deal with instances in which people or groups of people that are stakeholders in the same sustainability issue place different amounts of value on different things.
Amarpreet Kaur
The session with Allison Shaw augmented another dimension of thought in sustainability. Being a science student, I always thought that sustainability can only be achieved with good technical advancements, but after getting into IGS studies, I realized the flip-side considering the communities, their behavior and way of thinking also posses equal influence in structuring of sustainable community. Additionally, as I am not a good critical thinker like others, but attending this course sessions by distinct speakers, has influenced me to think that we can achieve optimal sustainable state only when science and communal aspects goes hand in hand.
Moreover, Allison was born and raised in Canada, thus she can relate very well to the ideology of the people , their needs and how they perceive. She also mentioned, that every community wants to attain sustainability, but a good sustainable community can't be achieved by making decisions and policies by sitting and discussing in a room, rather a good ground level knowledge and interactions with the communities and officials is required to get to the best results. Interestingly, the only concern that comes to my mind is, how to bridge this interaction gap as the social values, belief system and life style of the communities changes with respect to the geographical location they live. Furthermore, can we reach any global solution or not is again a debatable question. Besides this, if I talk about my country INDIA, firstly its pretty difficult to convince and make people understand the sustainable structure and its benefits. The other hard rock to crack would be interacting with the communities and creating policies because in INDIA we experience change in belief system, social values and lifestyle after every 100 kms and whats more is, that they do not welcome the ideologies that interferes their belief system. So, in my opinion finding a local (community wise) solutions is much better than taking it globally.
As, Allison also mentioned about Low Carbon Resilience (LCR) that was fascinating and new to me. I think its a good strategy that takes into consideration both adaptation and mitigation of climate change. Being an integrated approach, undoubtedly it's implementation is not that easy and has barriers on its way as Allison said.
Overall, for sure it will take a lot of efforts to make this approach successful but it seems like to be a very beneficial for our communities as well as environment to achieve sustainable future.
Maria Correia
Thank you very much Amar for your reflection. I would question your comment about not being a critical thinker!
At any rate, you raised a number of big questions, including "how to bridge this interaction gap as the social values, belief system and life style of the communities changes with respect to the geographical location they live" and conclude that in the context of India, local level solutions are "better than taking it globally". I don't think this is an "either or" situation. The wickedness and global connectedness of these sustainability issues demand that we work at all levels: the micro, the meso and the macro. Every level is implicated, as we learned in particular from Greg Garrard's lectures and readings. You also mention that in India, you see "change in belief system, social values and lifestyle after every 100 kms and whats more is, that they do not welcome the ideologies that interferes their belief system." I have worked in India and don't dispute the diversity of the country and the resistance to social and cultural change. This said, even in India, there are innovations in behavioral and social change, including moving beyond conventional information campaigns in India (which have been found to be ineffective), to the use of edutainment and social media. For example, while at the World Bank, we established a platform and worked with Bollywood celebrities to address behaviors and beliefs related to gender-based violence, which remains highly intractable in India. See the attached for some of the work produced: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfDnpHIgFjccgy3yBnB7HVw. More importantly, the Population Foundation is a leader in India in using edutainment on gender violence and reproductive rights for some years, working with celebrities such as Farhan Akhtar, but linking this macro work to their micro community engagement efforts. An evaluation of these programs is currently underway so we will have empirical data on these very soon. The bottom line in my view is that we need to be creative in addressing some of these challenging topics and look for solutions at all levels.