Background
earthwise mission statement
The mission of EarthWise Thunder Bay is to focus the energy, involvement, and collective wisdom of the community to secure the environmental health of our region, and thereby improve the social and economic well-being of future generations.
background
EarthWise Thunder Bay is a partnership between the City of Thunder Bay and a network of volunteers who have agreed to work together on the issues of climate change and community sustainability. The main priority of EarthWise is to implement the Earthwise Community Environmental Action Plan.
It all began in March 2003, when the City of Thunder Bay unanimously passed a resolution to participate in the Partners for Climate Protection (PCP) program. With this resolution, Thunder Bay made a commitment towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions in municipal operations by 20 percent below 1990 levels, and at least 6 percent throughout the municipal area, joining a network of more than 150 Canadian municipal governments who have committed to taking action on climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Other Cities making the same PCP reduction commitments include:
- Collingwood
- Guelph
- Hamilton
- Kingston
- London
- Newmarket
- Oakville
- Peterborough
- Winnipeg
- Sudbury
In July of 2004, City Council supported a proposal for the development of a Community Environmental Action Plan. This was the result from a deputation made to Council by the Zero Waste Action Team (ZWAT) and EcoSuperior. It was recognized that the development of a comprehensive, integrated Community Environmental Action Plan (CEAP) would address a number of existing initiatives within the City. It would also meet the intent of previous council resolutions to develop a community energy plan and a sustainable energy policy to reduce green house gas (GHG) emissions. Almost half of all Canada's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions come from urban environments which suggests that our City has a very significant role to play in addressing climate change. Thunder Bay can reduce emissions through land-use, energy and transportation planning including;
- Infrastructure design
- Green procurement
- Building retrofits
- Conservation programs
- Solid waste diversion
- Renewable energies
In accordance with the PCP program, the City of Thunder Bay is working to complete five performance milestones. The milestone framework was adopted to guide our City's efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It provides a method to better understand how municipal decisions and planning effect energy use, and how we can work to mitigate global climate change while improving our community's quality of life. We have currently completed three of the five milestones - and are working on number four: implementation of the EarthWise Plan.
EarthWise Brochure 
Adobe PDF, 2 pages, 363 KB
