History
Cool North Shore (CNS) was launched by the Legacy North Shore Society in 2008 with the vision of: “All North Shore residents, from Deep Cove to Lions Bay, taking action together, to create a low carbon community.”
CNS’s approach to driving our vision in support of a sustainable present and future for the North Shore and beyond includes the following:
a. To engage North Shore citizens in the development of a low-carbon community vision;
b. To support citizens in creating low carbon lifestyles and communities;
c. To engage and support local institutions of all types in adopting policies and approaches that will move us toward a low carbon North Shore community;
d. To support initiatives that showcase the North Shore as a model low-carbon community.
All of these purposes are done in a way that values the long-term social, environmental and economic well being of the North Shore.
Knowing that achieving the vision would take years and a deep, highly-strategic approach, we spent the first six-months of 2008 researching social change models and learning from other communities to ensure we got off on the right foot (<< click here>> for a copy of the research report). This work was generously supported by the District of North Vancouver.
The pilot for Cool North Shore’s first engagement activities were two Climate Change Cafés in the fall 2008 with approximately 90 participants working in teams of 4-8 people to reduce their carbon emissions. Participants came from a wide range of sectors, communities and age groups. Feature-length articles in the North Shore News and Outlook helped create some buzz. Following the Cafés, the teams met 2-3 times over a two month period with in-person support and materials.
Since then, the project has grown and diversified: we host Cool Drinks most months, a social event to connect people who want to do something about climate change; we engage with schools, (link to School Programs page) bringing hands-on workshops on climate and energy in the classrooms; and we recently started to reach out to businesses, through our Cool Corporate Citizen Program (link to Cool Corporate Citizen Program page), in partnership with Climate Smart.
Most recently CNS is pursuing the "Cool Neighborhoods" pilot project in partnership with BC Hydro Power Smart, The District of West Vancouver, the City of North Vancouver and the District of North Vancouver.
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