@ work

We serve as institutional entrepreneurs, working collaboratively with visionary leaders and groups on institutional change initiatives aimed at resolving the climate crisis. Our specific contributions vary as we move through multi-dimensional processes that have different requirements over time. However, we can roughly describe our efforts in terms of:

- Nurturing the start-up of new initiatives
- Providing strategic guidance to change initiatives
- Facilitating individual and shared learning and understanding
- Brokering relationships and collaborations
- Cultural projects / Framing

Since our inception in 2003, we have built a strong record of successful participation in change initiatives across a range of sectors, geographies and issues, and involving diverse partners, clients and institutions. Examples of our work are listed below.

Nurturing the start-up of new initiatives

Over a period of several years, we helped launch an ambitious community energy plan, by facilitating the formation of a community energy planning leadership group and by helping secure funding for more than $500,000 in planning and feasibility studies.

We convened the first-ever international symposium on health promotion and climate change and co-authored a resolution to develop a health promotion professional response. The resolution was unanimously passed by the global professional association for health promoters.

In just three weeks in 2008, we organized a global outreach initiative from the COP14 climate negotiations in Poznan, aimed at extending the learning and inspiration of young people at the negotiations to young people around the world. We delivered 10 events in six languages.

We crafted a synthesis document on climate change, water and Canada's natural resource sector, that informed the launch of a two year policy research program.

Providing strategic guidance to institutional change initiatives

We designed and led a participatory exercise to establish a framework for US-Mexican bi-national and multi-state collaboration to promote clean energy finance.

In a series of projects that spanned more than two years, we helped shape a federal health agency's response to climate change. This involved designing an overarching framework for the work plan, consulting with internal and external stakeholders, helping build a business case, and advising on program objectives and design, and contributed to new departmental commitments to Parliament, a successful Memorandum to Cabinet, and a series of internally- and externally-focused initiatives.

We advised a major international organization on options for leveraging its youth programming in support of the wider international youth climate movement, and have worked extensively with youth sector organizations and youth activists on climate change.

Facilitating individual and shared learning and understanding

We designed and facilited a series of innovative experiential learning workshops on climate change adaptation. The design was then replicated in a series of similar workshops delivered across Canada.

We initiated and coordinated an article series in a municipal professional publication, and another in a health professional journal. The municipal series included 23 articles over two years, and was concluded with the publication of a book featuring all new content that was freely distributed to nearly 4,000 municipal elected officials and chief administrators in communities across Canada. These efforts are helping advance our understanding of what constitutes good municipal practice.

In our very first assignment back in 2003, we successfully lobbied for and then developed climate change curriculum for a core course in Master's program in planning and development. This was in recognition of the need to provide high-quality training on climate change to development professionals.

We provided key inputs and editorial support to a UNICEF publication on climate change and children that was prepared for the Human Security Network initiative on the human security implications of climate change.

Brokering relationships and collaborations

In one of our first-ever projects, we engaged more than 40 organizations in the co-design of a successful research funding application to test the capacity of emergency health systems in response to extreme storm events.

We initiated and facilitated a series of meetings to nurture interdisciplinary university-government research partnerships, resulting in multiple successful research projects valued in the millions of dollars.

We helped launched the African Youth Initatiave on Climate Change at the UN climate negotiations 2006 in Nairobi. In 2007, we provided coordination to the Canadian youth delegation to the Bali climate negotiations. In 2008, we served as the de facto secretariat for the 500-strong international youth delegation to the negotiations in Poznan, Poland.

Cultural projects / Framing

* These are core skills that we employ in the course of nearly all of our work; however, some of our work is rather explicitly in this area of "Cultural projects / Framing".

We produced a concept for a multimedia celebration of the broad spectrum of scientific and human endeavours associated with, and inspired by, the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008. It is an artistic and engaging presentation of the heroic responses of scientists, northern peoples, communicators and global citizens as they interpret and respond to the massive changes occurring in the poles.

We developed a digital photo archive of Canadian science activity in the International Polar Year. This will provide a basis for several communications products related to Canadian science activity in the North.

In Fall 2009, David Noble will lead a pan-Canadian speaking tour to promote active citizenship in response to the climate crisis. This builds on his active history of public speaking - over the last two years, he has spoken to diverse audiences in eight countries, always encouraging courageous responses to climate change.