Oakville Sustainability Initiative Launches Early Adopters Program

Unites Leaders in the Transition to a Sustainable Future

Oakville, Ontario – 22 June, 2007 – The Oakville Sustainability Initiative (OSI) is looking for leaders in business, government, and education to join their early adopters program to become role models in helping lead Halton Region’s transition to making sustainability a priority.

The Oakville Sustainability Initiative has been established to provide training and support to
sustainability leaders to spur on innovative ideas and technologies within the Region.

“If you give businesses a challenge that really resonates with their values and enhances their bottom lines you have got a powerful force. It’s about energizing your workforce, proactively avoiding risks, and capturing opportunities associated with sustainability issues,” says Bob Willard, leading expert on the business value of sustainability strategies and 34-year veteran of IBM Canada.

Participants in the early adopters program will learn what sustainability is and why it is needed, evaluate their own organization’s sustainability performance, and develop a sustainability vision for their organization. They will then create an action plan that will move them toward that vision and work together to share their knowledge with the rest of the community.

Earlier this month, Whole Foods Market Oakville joined OSI’s early adopters program, signing OSI’s Sustainability Declaration and committing to work with other early adopters to create the conditions necessary for a sustainable future.

 “We look forward to working with the Oakville Sustainability Initiative on new innovative projects with interested early adopters and involving the community,” says Alexandra Knowles of Whole Foods Market Oakville. “One of Whole Foods Market’s core values is caring for the community and the environment. This initiative is a big step in bringing sustainability ideas and best practices to the forefront.”

In April 2007, Halton Regional Council renamed the Durable Halton planning initiative “Sustainable Halton” to better reflect the interests of the community.  Sustainable Halton is the Region’s blueprint for building sustainable and healthy communities.

“We will engage the community to define what sustainability means for our Region, ” says Gena Ali, Senior Planner Growth Management at the Halton Region.

“Talking about sustainability is the first step but defining and measuring our success requires a clear vision and the ability to backcast to achieve those goals.  We believe that a high quality discussion between multiple sectors within a community will lead to innovative new ideas and the formation of new sustainability markets,” says Elaine Hanson, a former senior executive with technology giant 3Com Corporation and the driving force behind the Oakville Sustainability Initiative. OSI is an affiliated project of Oakvillegreen Conservation Association.

Communities and organizations worldwide are making sustainability an important part of their mission. Examples of early adopters programs that have transformed communities and organizations include Whistler, B.C., Halifax Regional Municipality, the City of Vancouver, Air Canada, Starbucks, Nike, and Co-operators, to name a few.

The Oakville Sustainability Initiative, founded in 2006, is an innovative, science-based research initiative inspired by sustainability principles and leaders around the world. Its primary mission is to encourage and train Oakville and regional organizations to integrate measurable sustainability targets in their strategic planning and share their sustainability practices with others.

“When organizations make sustainability a part of their mission, they tap into human creativity and explore new ways of achieving their goals. Initially it’s about driving down costs. In the long run, it’s about making smart decisions today before they are imposed on us (at greater costs) in the future,” says Hanson.