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Lighter Living: Better Everyday Lives for People and Planet

October 05, 2019


An evening of inspiring talks and interactive dialogue on mainstreaming environmental sustainability into our daily lives - living well for all within the Earth's life support systems.

Around the world, people are figuring out how to live better lives that don't cost the earth, are just, and improve the quality of our lives. Transforming our everyday lives is essential, as over 70% of global emissions are induced by household consumption of electricity, fuels, products and services.

This event provided an opportunity to learn about living lighter and better, and to identify solutions that shift our everyday lives towards greater environmental sustainability. We discovered who is leading on sustainable living globally and in our region – from individuals to governments to companies – and shared our own actions and experiences on this global challenge.

We began the event by highlighting how to:

  • Join the growing movement on Lighter Living supported by Vancity and One Earth,
  • Work together to make the City of Vancouver the Greenest City highlighted by Brad Badelt, Assistant Director, Sustainability Planning, Urban Design & Sustainability, City of Vancouver, and
  • Advance social and environmental justice and community partnerships with ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement.

Watch the video recording of the full event (1 hour, 45 minutes) above.

Ryu Koide

Ryu Koide, from the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (Japan), was in discussion with One Earth Executive Director Vanessa Timmer. This 14 minute conversation was entitled 1.5 Degree Lifestyles Report: Targets and Actions for Reducing Lifestyle Carbon Footprints. They discussed a  on 1.5-Degree Lifestyles which sets targets for sustainable lifestyles carbon footprints for 2030, 2040 and 2050. It was released in February 2019 by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), Aalto University and D-Mat, financed by the KR Foundation and SITRA.

Dr. William Rees

Following Ryu Koide's talk, UBC Professor Emeritus, co-founder of the ecological footprint analysis, and One Earth co-founder and Director, Dr. William Rees, provided his insights on the scale of change in daily lives necessary to achieve One-Planet Living. Dr. Rees gave a talk entitled Storm Approaching! Overshoot, the Energy Conundrum and Climate Change. 

Dr. Vanessa Timmer

Following this, Dr. Vanessa Timmer, co-founder and Executive Director, One Earth and Senior Research Fellow, Utrecht University invited us to imagine lighter living futures and identified concrete opportunities for action on her Lighter Living Solutions Safari. She also spoke about the Beacon for Sustainable Living project which develops and reveals transformative communications materials on sustainable living that equip us to shift our discourse and mindsets. 

We engaged in an interactive conversation with fellow participants to identify commitments and actions on lighter living co-facilitated by Amanda Mitchell, Public Engagement Specialist - Greenest City, City of Vancouver and Dagmar Timmer, Managing Director - Strategic Initiatives, One Earth. 

As part of the event, four local leaders spoke about their experiences starting businesses, catalyzing movements, and making the transition to lighter lifestyles. We heard from Kevin Huang (), Marissa Bergeron (); Patrick Nangle () and Irina McKenzie ().

You can watch the full conversation, as well as all the individual talks from the local leaders below.

Kevin Huang | Co-founder and Executive Director, Hua Foundation

Marissa Bergeron | Founder, Eat the Dishes

Patrick Nangle | CEO, Modo

Irina Mackenzie | Founder, FabCycle

The event benefited from Stina Brown's live graphic recording. You can see her work here, captured as a time-lapse:

Many thanks to Richard Maerov () for the video and editing.
 

Presented by

One Earth, Vancity, City of Vancouver, ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV's Vancity Office of Community Engagement

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