Monday was my first day on the job with Niagara Sustainability Initiative and it was a great day! I was hired on to the team as a summer intern and will be helping plan various events for their 2012/2013 season. I get to work at the beautiful Niagara College Glendale campus in Niagara-on-the-Lake, which was an 8km bike ride from my home and provided me with an energizing (and carbon neutral!) start to my day. In the morning, fellow NSI team member Katrina Kroeze got me familiarized with the organization and all the work they do. I learned all about how NSI started, their Carbon Project, how it works, and some of their partners in the project. It’s truly amazing what NSI has already done since 2010 and I am so excited to be working with them. Later in the day we went over some past events that NSI has put on and brainstormed some potential themes that we can look into for future events. I spent the rest of the day doing some general research on these topics, and was pretty lucky to find some relevant information from the Niagara Region. All of the topics we have already discussed are so diverse and interesting; it will be great to see how the events develop and what other unique topics and types of events we will come up with. I’ll be continuing this research and event planning over the next twelve weeks so stay tuned for more information and updates as the work progresses.

Last night (May 2), a member of the Carbon Project, Commonplace Eco-Village (CPEV), had their off-grid home in Welland, Ontario featured on CBC's The National.

Electricity and heat in the straw bale-walled home are powered by a generator that is fueled by waste vegetable oil. Even after having been to the home several times, it's still impressive to think that the home was built for $100/sq.ft. What does this mean? It means that a home without utility costs can be built at very affordable rates. 

What's equally impressive is the amount of collaboration that spurred the development of a home that is now serving as a pilot project for an off-grid subdivision in Welland, Ontario. Multiple members of the community have contributed to the project, including such Carbon Project members as the Municipality of Welland and Niagara College; each entity providing an important aspect of the projects. Niagara College is supplying a waste vegetable oil to CPEV for use in the generator and the city of Welland has contributed a 2.3 ha of land for the Cordage Green subdivision. 

This level of collaboration is quickly becoming a driving force in the Niagara Region, and is undoubtedly spurring innovative solutions to common problems - in this case, rising energy costs. 

The team at NSI is proud to be partnered with such forward-thinking organizations and looks forward to many more sustainable projects spurred by collaboration in the community.

And one more thing - CPEV is having The Grand Opening for Eco-Home Niagara on Saturday, May 12 at 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, please visit www.ecoeverywhere.ca

** In case you missed CBC's The National on May 2, you can watch it here**