Pollution Prevention Stakeholder Workshops: Planting P2 Seeds in York Region

In the last two years, over 1,200 stakeholders have been engaged in pollution prevention (P2) outreach activities through the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) funded York Sustainability Program delivered by OCETA. Pollution prevention (P2) awareness generating stakeholder workshops have been a major component of the community outreach activities through this program.

OCETA in partnership with the Canadian Centre for Pollution Prevention (C2P2) has delivered seven successful workshops in Richmond Hill, Markham, Newmarket, Vaughan, Whitchurch-Stouffville, East Gwillimbury and Aurora. The overall objective of these workshops was to provide York Region stakeholders (i.e. industry, governments, institutions, school boards, environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs), and local citizens) with a forum to discuss and share information on pollution prevention activities occurring locally and foster P2 partnerships across York Region communities. Overall, these workshops were highly rated by over 250 participants who attended the workshops over the course of two years, with over 30% of stakeholders attending more than once.

Local politicians from hosting municipalities supported the events by attending and giving welcoming remarks to kick-start the workshops. In fact, many were proud to showcase the environmental stewardship accomplishments of their respective towns such as the Mission Green program in Markham, the Smart Commute 404-7 Project in Richmond Hill & Markham, the Vaughan Manufacturer’s Sustainability Program delivered by OCETA in Vaughan, as well as East Gwillimbury’s adoption of Energy Star standards for new residential developments.

A wide array of speakers from industry (e.g. IKEA, IBM, local manufacturers), governments (all levels), ENGOs (e.g. Windfall Ecology Centre, Clean Air Partnership, Hydrogen Village), and institutions (e.g. York Region District School Board, Trillium Health Centre) were also invited to share their environmental initiatives. The workshops provided an opportunity for participants to network and share ideas and viewpoints in a roundtable type discussion at the end.

After the first six workshops, OCETA and C2P2 surveyed all the participants to examine the outcomes of workshops. For the majority of the attendees the information provided in the workshops on what other communities and businesses were doing with respect to protecting the environment, motivated them to implement P2 practices in their day-to-day activities. Examples shared in the survey included minimization of household chemicals at home, making smart purchasing choices, and switching to energy efficient lighting sources. Many local manufacturers who attended the workshops were also motivated to carry out P2 assessments through the Toronto Region Sustainability Program to improve manufacturing process efficiencies and eliminate pollutant/waste streams at the source.

Partnership development was also identified as a key outcome of the workshops, as many attendees indicated that they had networked or collaborated on projects with their networks after the workshop.

OCETA and C2P2 walked their sustainability talk by serving organic breakfast catered by a local organic caterer in York Region, eliminating all handout materials and instead posting all the presentations online and encouraging participants to car pool or take public transit.

For more information on the workshops or to view the presentations and roundtable proceedings, please visit: www.oceta.on.ca/TORSUS/workshops.htm.

A final workshop that will mark an end to this series of workshops in York Region is planned for April 2007. More information will be posted on the above website in the coming months.