Earth Day Canada

Earth Day Canada (EDC) is a national environmental charity (Reg. 131951378RR0001) that develops innovative resources and user-friendly programs to help Canadians help the Earth. Its mission is to improve the state of the environment by empowering Canadians to take positive environmental action at home, at school, and in their communities. Over the years EDC has evolved into one of the nation’s most recognized and sophisticated environmental education and communications organizations.

About EcoAction Teams

This comprehensive program helps individuals and families reduce their impact on the environment through the implementation of activities in five core areas—energy, water, waste, transportation, and consumer and gardening choices. EcoAction Teams (EAT) utilizes community-based social marketing techniques, fosters self-reliance and individual responsibility and encourages full community engagement.

The cornerstone of EAT’s program is a sophisticated online, self-administered “calculator” that provides participants with details of greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions, and energy, waste, water and economic savings by way of a personalized online report based on EcoAction activities undertaken by the participants. Achievements and results of the program are monitored and reported through EDC’s central web-based administration system.

Participants will learn how to reduce household energy use, conserve water, reduce transportation fuel use, save on home heating and cooling, and learn how to shop, cook and garden more sustainably. They will also be aware of any economic savings as a result of their program activities.

Individuals and families can find out about the program through multiple media including online and print materials. Once registered as a participant, they receive the following support:

• Education and information through community workshops, handbooks, or on-line equivalent support
• Ability to enter the program at a beginner, intermediate or advanced “conserver” level
• Assistance in identifying their current behaviours and establishing a baseline at the start of the program
• Encouragement to modify behaviours by implementing activities in five core areas
• Documentation of individual baseline data and conservation progress as a result of activities implemented
• Reports and newsletters on their progress, the progress of other teams, and the program collectively

Municipal Partnership Model

Due to its success in Ontario, and following a comprehensive stakeholder analysis and program enhancement executed in 2007, EDC is rolling out EcoAction Teams across the country. This year, the first stage of the national program will include partnering with 25 additional municipalities in both urban and rural communities, including First Nations communities.

Municipalities have a strong interest in pursuing and achieving conservation objectives in the areas of GHG emissions, energy and water use, transportation impacts and household waste. The reciprocal benefit for partner municipalities is that the EcoAction Teams program provides them with co-brandable action resources that can be distributed via several vehicles to their citizens. They also get access to the most sophisticated Canadian conservation results measurement tool—EcoAction Teams Calculator.

Partnering with EcoAction Teams will substantially enhance a municipality’s ability to:

1. Engage individuals, families and communities in integrated sustainable community planning initiatives
2. Develop policy—through the identification of needs and service deficiencies
3. Improve operational services
4. Capture, calculate and aggregate GHG emission, water, energy and waste reductions by geographic region (e.g., postal code) and by group affiliation
5. Use quantified local conservation data to support eligibility for funds—e.g., Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) Green Municipal Fund
6. Help their local power authorities to aggregate the reductions in meeting their energy conservation obligations to relevant provincial agencies.

Roles and Responsibilities

Municipalities will:

1. Identify, staff to liaise with EDC to foster communication and awareness activities with members of the public, community groups and/or non-governmental organizations
2. Do its best effort to engage community-type groups or non-governmental organizations to initiate an awareness campaign for the EcoAction Teams (EAT) program.
3. Host a link to the EcoAction Teams program on the (City, Town, Township) website
4. Print materials (with design files provided by EDC) about the EAT program, for distribution within a budget defined by the (City, Town, Township)

Earth Day Canada will, at no cost to the (City, Town, Township)

1. Provide online training materials for (City, Town, Township) staff and/or elected officials.
2. Provide the (City, Town, Township) with all EcoAction Teams print-ready promotional design files to enable reproduction of program materials for local distribution.
3. Assist the (City, Town, Township) with the promotion of opportunities for the public to participate in the EAT program.
4. Provide the (City, Town, Township) with aggregated household data relevant to the (City, Town, Township) that outlines and quantifies the savings of greenhouse gas air emissions, water, waste and energy.
5. Manage and maintain all data, all electronic and internet-based means, and all information concerning the individual participants and participant groups in the (City, Town, Township) that volunteer to participate in the program.
6. Encourage the (City, Town, Township) to include the EcoAction Teams calculator on its website.
7. Encourage the (City, Town, Township) to use the registered trademark “Earth Day Canada” and the Earth Day Canada logo.

What Our Calculator Offers

Attribute
Over 50 waste, water, energy, fuel consumption, food & garden actions
Three action levels—beginner, intermediate, and advanced
Calculates water savings
Calculates waste reductions
Calculates energy savings
Calculates emission reductions
Captures/aggregates household conservation data by postal code, municipality, region, group affiliation
Identifies what actions citizens are most (and least) likely to do
Calculates current carbon footprint