Sustainable Communities

There are a number of communities throughout the world that are practicing sustainable methods. One of the most well known communities on Vancouver Island is the community of Dockside Green.  This community was specially designed with sustainability in mind.  This building project was completed with green building techniques, as well as sustainable community design plans. 

Source: http://docksidegreen.com/sustainability/overview/overview.html

Image from:
http://www.turtleisland.org/discussion/viewtopic.php?p=9493#p9493

Another example of a community that has implemented sustainable products into their daily lives would be the T'Sou-ke Nations community.  A few years back this community retrofitted 25 of their homes with solar thermal heating systems to save power costs in the long run.  Now the T'Sou-ke Nations people are generating more power than they actually use.  I think that this is amazing, and such a good role model community for other communities on the Island.  The community took solar panels to the next level and found an artist that was capable of making them look aesthetically pleasing.  Since the installation of the solar thermal heating, the energy consumption of the T'Sou-ke Nations has decreased by 30 percent!  

I recently travelled out to the T'Sou-ke Nations community too see their solar project, and I was blown away by how amazing it was.  The implementation of photovoltaic cells and solar hot water heating has made such a huge impact on the community and it seems to have drawn the people closer together.  While we were there we met one of the members of the community who had put a solar hot water heater into his home, and he also learned how to properly install them into other homes.  This individual was so proud of his solar heating system and could not wait to tell us about it.  You could see he had a passion for sustainable power initiatives and this made me want to learn more and more about solar water heating and photovoltaic cells.  I found the community to be very inspirational, and just from touring the community I think that the T'Sou-ke Nations Solar Project is and will continue to be a great model of a sustainable community in BC as well as Canada. 





Image Source
: http://colwood.ca/siteengine/activepage.asp

Recently the City of Colwood was given a $3.8 million grant from the federal government to retrofit 1000 homes within 3 years with solar water heaters.  This is a major project with a large goal, but once it is completed this will be one of the biggest solar communities in North America, and will also be a great role model for the rest of the country.  As part of my major project with RRU I will be researching the benefits and costs as well as conducting a Lifecycle Assessment of the installation of solar water heating, and I am looking forward to determining these said costs so that I can educate my friends and family on the benefit of solar heating.  This retrofitting project is going to make Colwood one of the most sustainable communities in the world! 


I moved to Victoria from Alberta this summer, and since moving here I have noticed some major differences in the way society and community function.  It is strange that for two neighboring provinces the goals and views are so different between the two.  British Columbia seems to focus on keeping the environment a beautiful place, and creating sustainable practices to take over the existing practices.  Alberta on the other hand seems to have a bit of a bad reputation in B.C.  Although Alberta is known as an oil province they are still making attempts at sustainable practices.  It seems as if Alberta communities are a step behind the sustainable practices that the communities in BC are accomplishing, but this is not necessarily a bad thing.  Once the sustainable communities in B.C. become nationally recognized, such as the City of Colwood, then Albertan communities will most likely start moving towards more sustainable practices.  One of my personal goals for when I move back to the prairies is to educate my parents on the benefits of solar water heaters, and get them to consider installing one in their home.  There are so many ideas for making the world a better and cleaner place, and these ideas and practices need to start small scale in our own homes.