Inspiration Lab

Cool new tech space at the library. Spotted this in the Greenest City newsletter this week. The Vancouver Public Library’s Downtown branch is now home to a new custom-built digital media space, the Inspiration Lab. Featuring high-performance computers, recording studios, creativity and digitization stations, and collaboration and program spaces, the […] Read More

Sustainability Competencies

Wals and Corcoran (2012) summarize some of the competencies considered key to the sustainability professional, including “thinking in a forward manner (anticipatory thinking), seeing relationships and interdependencies (systems thinking), the ability to put yourself in the mind of others, even other species, having different backgrounds or living elsewhere (empathic understanding […] Read More

Grooves & Moves

Robson Square skating rink has been transformed into a hip hop dance studio. The smooth floor is great for slides and spins. What a wonderful public space to get your groove on, or just to make a few subtle shoulder moves as you watch. Looks like Salsa Sundays are returning […] Read More

Messing Up

This is what the garbage containers looked like along 4th Avenue today. So much for the new city recycling program. David’s, Starbucks, 49th Parallel, Whole Foods – everyone of you were littering the street today. The minimum retailers could do is charge a significant fee for the paper and plastic […] Read More

Change Makers

I’ve been dipping into a great book called Getting to Maybe, How the world is changed, as I inch along on my thesis. Here the authors offer wise words for changemakers. A leader is only one part of the equation. A leader often intensifies or clarifies communication. In this sense […] Read More

Leading by Example

Some wise Sunday thoughts from EE. Loving someone does not mean automatically acquiescing to their every whim. Sometimes love shows itself in saying no to an attitude or desire that is harmful. But your opposing must be done tenderly, without anger or condescension. This is a difficult art. Go slowly. […] Read More

Building Energy

Thanks to the City of Vancouver’s Greenest City newsletter for this post. Vancouver’s rezoning policy, updated in June 2014, now recognizes Passive House as a compliance option.

 Rezoned lots, like the 3-6 story apartment buildings on Hastings or townhomes along Cambie, are great for the surrounding community because greater density […] Read More