In Recent News:

• “Canada dead last in ranking for environmental protection” (The Globe And Mail, Nov. 18, 2013)

•“Greenhouse gas emissions around the world have hit their highest level in nearly two million years…” (George Stoumbouloupoulos Tonight, June 4, 2013)

• “Environment Canada will no longer lead ecosystem status and trend reports…” (Huff Post Politics Canada, Nov. 14, 2013)

Our environment is precariously balanced on the human decision to adopt environmental stewardship, or continue the status quo.

One sector commonly contributing to environmental damage, but with massive potential for change, is landscaping

Traditional landscaping perfects and controls nature as an ornament for social status

Alternative practices nurture ecosystem health. Ex: ‘ecological landscapes,’ permaculture, ‘beneficial landscapes’, xeriscaping

Conventional Landscaping’s Negative Effects:

A gas-powered mower pollutes as much in 1 hour as a car run for 45 minutes (EPA, 2013)

www.mde.maryland.gov

Even the most efficient sprinkler systems waste at least 30% of the water they deliver (Vancouver Green Capital, 2010)

Unnecessary greenwaste is hauled to the dump as gas sheers are used to perfect privacy hedges

Exotic species used in gardens can choke out native biodiversity

Conventional Landscaping Negative Effects:

Chemicals are still used

‘Keeping up the the Joneses’ can harbor exclusion

•Martin (2004) showed that neighborhood vegetation richness rose with increasing socioeconomic status

•Robbins, et al. (2001) found that wealthy, well-educated individuals used lawn chemicals—despite knowing their negative impacts—to increase property values and ‘perfect’ lawns

Damaging aspects of landscaping are a result of:

1.Mechanized labour (Schumacher, 2010) 2. Outdated curriculum and lack of skills training (HortEdBC advisor, and NSLA 2011 survey of Canadian landscaping companies)

3. Demand from clients, based on cultural tastes (Fraser & Kenney, 2000)

1. 2.

3.

Some control from above:

• Federal ban on cosmetic pesticides

• Municipal ban on leaf blowers in Vancouver’s West Side

• Vancouver’s 2020 Greenest City Action Plan

• City published DIY sustainable landscaping booklet

We still need a paradigm shift from the bottom-up!

Valuing this to Prioritizing this?

How can Vancouverites be inspired to shift from:

Thus, my Collective Change Project focuses on creating bottom-up demand for

sustainable landscaping in my neighborhood

My community is in the Hastings Sunrise neighborhood

To determine where to start, I brought up ‘landscaping’ at a community meeting regarding a ‘little library’ we are building

2vancouver.com

As a collaboration of my project with the new outdoor book exchange, we decided to landscape the library.

The Vancouver Sun: little libraries are popping up all over East Vancouver

Through sustainable practices, we will transform an ecologically-devoid lawn to an inviting ‘greenspace!’

Objective #1: Community input for landscape’s design

• I emailed the library’s contacts for suggestions –this created no response

•Alternatively, I placed a ‘suggestions pyramid’ inside the library, for people to record ideas while visiting the library

Wonderful ideas; people supporting other people’s suggestions; interest in environmental stability; input from children; emails from other streets about creating their own libraries

The Result:

Objective #1 continued: Improve inclusivity

The Art of Powerful Questions suggests we question our assumptions and use of words

Words like “landscaping” and “sustainable” (or written English in general) can exclude people who don’t understand them.

-who can really define these words anyway?!

Objective #1 continued: Improved inclusivity

I created an illustrated Voting Sheet to bring to the library’s Opening Celebration. There I’ll talk to neighbors directly, and pictures will engage everyone (including kids)

Note: some illustrations had to be drawn by hand and aren’t included

in this image

Once an ecologically sound, socially inclusive garden is designed, it is hoped we will implement it with the support of donors and voluntarism from the community

Building the garden will create hands-on learning about sustainable landscaping, and a story for my community

Objective #2: Install Garden

The garden will be a beacon of sustainable land use in our community. It should inspire individuals to transform underutilized space into living

ecosystems

Objective #3: Nurture Social Impact of Garden

By exemplifying the ecological potential of landscaping, people may start looking for more sustainable

landscaping services

And support the shift away from polluting, unnatural landscaping towards urban ecosystems

Our little library holds so much potential…

We’ve got a chance to use landscaping knowledge to better our community’s environment

We can engage children with nature

References Cited• http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/john-mckay/harper-environmental-record_b_4268229.html• http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/canada-dead-last-in-oecd-ranking-for-environmental-

protection/article15484134/• http://www.cbc.ca/strombo/news/canadian-environment-week.html• http://www.epa.gov/greenacres/wildones/handbk/wo8.html• http://www.canadanursery.com/Storage/50/6030_Landscape_Canada_Survey_2011_Results.df• http://vancouver.ca/files/cov/Greenest-city-action-plan.pdf • Martin, C., Warren, P., & Kinzig, A. (2004). Neighborhood socioeconomic status is a useful indicator

for perennial landscape vegetation in residential neighborhoods and embedded small parks of Phoenix, AZ. Landscape and urban planning, 69(4), 355-368.

• Robbins, P., Polderman, A., & Birkenholtz, T. (2001). Lawns and toxins: an ecology of the city. Cities, 18(6), 369-380.

• Schumacher, E. F. (2010). Buddhist economics. Jackson, & H. Norberg-Hodge (Eds.), Gaian Economics: living well within planetary limits (pp. 114-120). Hampshire, UK: Permanent Publications.

• Vancouver Green Capital. (2010). Green Home Renovation: Landscaping. Retrieved fromhttp://vancouver.ca/files/cov/green-landscaping-guide.pdf

• Vogt, E., Brown, J., & Isacs, D. (2003). The art of powerful questions: Catalyzing insight, innovation and action. Retrieved from http://www.cihm.leeds.ac.uk/document_downloads/Art_of_Powerful_Questions.pdf