Mount_Arrowsmith

SDGs in Powell River

Author: Jenica Ng-Cornish

The main focus of my work at MABRRI this summer has been helping Courtney, one of MABRRI’s Project Coordinators, on the VIU and the UN Sustainable Development Goals project. The MABRRI team started this project last year by looking at what VIU is doing to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the UN. Because there is so much happening within the VIU community, the project is still ongoing with lots more work to be done! The main focus this summer has being on planning for the upcoming year, as well as continuing to gather data for our final report through meetings with various departments and faculties across VIU. We’ve been trying to meet with as many people as we can, including those from VIU’s satellite campuses.

On Tuesday, July 23, Courtney and I made a trip to the Powell River campus to learn about their initiatives towards sustainable development. It turns out they are doing a lot! We had a long day of travelling, but it was made well worth it by the beautiful weather and the whales we saw during both of the ferry rides! Also thanks to Greg, Powell River’s Campus Administrator, and Julie, a Program Coordinator, our visit was not only extremely informative, but fun and interesting! We arrived at the campus around noon and took a quick tour of the campus, which included viewing all the beautiful, local artwork that is displayed. One of the very cool things at the Powell River campus that we were shown is Fibre Space, a very successful gathering and working space open to all community members. The focus of Fibre Space is on education and support for local fibre and fashion, with an aim to reduce the environmental impacts of textile waste. You can check out their Facebook page here for more info: https://www.facebook.com/pg/fibrespace/about/?ref=page_internal

After the campus tour, Greg and Julie had thoughtfully set up a lunch reservation for us at the Coastal Cookery in the downtown area of Powell River. We had a delicious, very west coast style lunch, with great conversation about everything to do with sustainability and all of the amazing things that are happening within the Powell River community. After lunch, Greg and Julie gave us a little tour of Powell River, visiting some local businesses and organizations that are working very hard to achieve sustainable development in multiple ways. It was very inspiring to see how well the community comes together to achieve environmental, social, and economic sustainability in a number of ways!