Power To Be joined One Planet Saanich a few years ago as a way to connect to our local neighbours and municipality members and to contribute to being a part of something together. “OnePlanet BC supports communities across British Columbia as we all strive towards One Planet Living” – One Planet BC. This initiative brings together municipalities, organizations, businesses, schools and community groups throughout Saanich, and various other cities around the world. Power To Be strives for authentic action, and the One Planet Action Plan framework provides ambitious sustainability objectives and goals throughout our organization.
This framework takes a holistic approach, providing 10 principles (petals) that cover all aspects of social, environmental, and economic sustainability. They provide guidance on setting organizational goals, supporting action, and driving change towards building healthier and more sustainable communities.
Some ways that Power To Be is moving our One Planet Action Plan forward is by aligning the 10 principles within our daily practices and core values. We have been putting the Health and Happiness principle to practice by designing programs with safety and enjoyment in mind for our participants, staff and volunteers. We have been supporting the Land and Water principle by doing stewardship projects like bird habitat and monitoring, building butterfly gardens, and learning about the watershed our site is on. To support the Materials and Products principle we have been conscious about the material we purchase for our new building at Prospect Lake.
We track, monitor and measure our efforts and engage with our team annually to gauge how we are measuring up on our action plan. Through the evidence gathered we are aiming to shift our procurement approach relating to purchases for our events, we have hired staff to nurture relationships with other members and partners, and we are looking at ways to support local municipal projects and initiatives.
The local coordinator Cora shares that “BC’s growing One Planet Living community inspires and motivates (her). Our network is advancing sustainable living in ways that we could never achieve alone. Partnerships between the municipality, community builders, businesses and schools are uniting us around a vision of sustainability and focusing us on critical actions that will get us to healthy, equitable and sustainable one planet living.” – Cora Hallsworth Lead, One Planet Saanich
One Planet Saanich is now nested within the new One Planet BC website, so that we can begin to bring additional communities into our work and see how we are working together on a regional scale. Be sure to check it out to learn more and get inspired by all the incredible action happening in our neighbourhoods.
