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Welcome.
This website is home to a movement, not just a
single organization.
Whatever your reason to conserve, we're here to
help you.
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Start with our top issues (below) or our
programs to help build the conservation
movement (right). |
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Defining conservation...
We
define conservation as "the art of living
lightly". We believe our lives should be
better as conservers, our communities stronger,
and our economy more resilient. We believe
individual acts of conservation add up to global
solutions to environmental, economic, and social
crises.
To help explain
what it means to conserve, and to help organize
a province-wide conservation movement, we have
identified the following ten priorities...
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1. Help nature |
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Without nature, we are nothing.
Nature is the provider of all our
resources, and home to all species.
It is a source of comfort, and of
sustenance.
We can all help nature in our own ways,
by picking up litter, planting trees,
protecting natural areas, restoring
degraded areas, making a butterfly
garden, or even by growing flowers on
our balconies. |
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2. Save water |
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Water is life.
So much of our lives revolves around
oceans, lakes and rivers -- for
food, drinking water, power,
sanitation, recreation, and much more.
We need to protect our lakes and
watersheds, and conserve water in our
homes, yards, businesses, and in our
urban design. |
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3. Save energy |
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Energy is power. Pure and
simple.
It is the power to live comfortably and
to create a strong economy. But
power corrupts, and the side effects of
an era of cheap energy include urban
sprawl, climate change, and economic
fragility. We must change before
change is forced upon us.
A low-energy diet will give us the best
chance of weathering an energy crisis.
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4. Use green power |
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Green power respects nature.
All power sources have an environmental
impact, but renewable sources have far
less an impact than nuclear or fossil
fuels.
From community power projects to rooftop
solar and geothermal, the ability to
produce power is coming closer to home.
Invest in energy conservation first, and
then you'll find the added cost of
greening your electricity bill is within
reach.
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5. Drive less |
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Ditch the car? Not an option for
everyone perhaps, but transportation
accounts for almost one-third of our
greenhouse gas emissions.
We have to find better ways of moving
ourselves and goods around, and reducing
the need to travel great distances.
Where you live, work, and play, are key
factors in your ability to reduce your
personal car-dependency, which leads us
to the next challenge... |
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6. Live local |
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Think outside the box.
Our homes are our biggest investment,
but the community we live in is every
bit as important.
Enjoy your community, support your local
business, arts and culture, and pitch in
to help make your neighbourhood a great
place to live.
A green future depends on our ability to
create vibrant urban villages.
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7. Eat smart |
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Food, glorious food!
The more value we place on our food, the
healthier we will be.
Grow your own, pick your own, support
local farmers, buy organic, choose
sustainable, and eat more vegetarian
meals.
Let's use our prime farmland to grow
food, not houses. |
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8. Buy green |
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Make change happen.
We've already changed the auto industry,
and we've created a market for local
food. The more we invest in a
green economy, the sooner the whole
world will change.
Make a commitment to one percent of your
income as your personal budget for
spending a little extra on green
products.
Invest in a conserver economy.
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9. Waste less |
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Don't trash the planet!
Remember the 3Rs: reduce, reuse, and
recycle. With the convenience of
recycling, we often overlook waste
reduction and reuse.
The less stuff we bundle and ship around
the planet for recycling, the better.
Choose durability over disposabilty,
avoid overpackaging, compost your
greens, and think 3Rs when shopping. |
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10.
Prevent pollution |
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And so we come full circle back to
nature.
Our responsibility is to leave nature as
clean as we found it.
As individuals in our homes, or as
businesses, we should seek to avoid
harming the planet with our hazardous
products and wastes.
Go toxic free -- in your home, yard,
school, and business. |
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We're the
Conservation Council of Ontario,
a provincial association of
conservation leaders.
Our mission is to promote a
culture of conservation.
To get there, we seek to make
conservation easy,
affordable, and
desirable.
Our
programs are designed to help
people act, to
help groups
organize; and to
improve Ontario's
conservation strategy.
Act
Everyone of us is a
leader, each in our own way.
We offer programs to promote
leadership and tools to help
connect people and groups with
ideas and resources.
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Your personal
commitment speaks
volumes! Join
comedian Colin
Mochrie in a
personal challenge
to "lighten up".
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Every store,
business,
organization, and
government should be
a GreenLeader. Our
five star,
self-assessed rating
is based on your
internal operations,
products or
services, and
community support.
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Find
all the help you need in the
Great Green Directory. For
groups,
find funding and campaigns and
create a
hand-out for public info
sessions.
The directory was launched in
April 2010 as free service for
all groups, businesses,
foundations, and governments.
Get
listed!
For other ideas and resources,
see...
our
directories
of events and alerts
our
factsheets
- ideas and links.
our
funding
page, with links to some of the
top sources in Ontario.
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A
video is worth ten thousand
words!
We've launched a terrific
new site to profile community
videos as a tool for promoting
conservation solutions.
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Help
create a conserver society with
individual projects and
coordinated campaigns.
We've designed
some of
our own, and you can
check our
factsheets
for other projects and
campaigns.
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Organize
Our movement is complex.
We help local and provincial
groups organize around their
common vision, be it for a
greener community, or any of the
ten priorities (listed at left).
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Improve
Everyone we talk to knows we
need to improve. We need
increased support for
conservation, better planning,
investment in green
infrastructure, better
fundraising, stronger policy,
and more incentives.
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Sooner or later, by choice or by
crisis, we will all be
conservers. We prefer
sooner and by choice.
Our
movement is based on making a
conserver society easy,
affordable, and desirable.
If you share our goal, we need
your help...
by doing
Lead by example, at home,
school, work, or in your
community. Join a green group
and help out in your community.
by donating
Donate to the
Conservation Council of Ontario,
or
to any group that is part of the
movement.
We're not fussy!
by joining
Become a
Friend of
Conservation, or
become an organization, business
or municipal
member of
the Conservation Council of
Ontario.
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Reflections on the path to
a
conserver society
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Movement Builders
We are indebted to those who have sponsored us
and our projects over recent years. Their
support has allowed us to test new concepts and
design a new, cooperative approach for
addressing global concerns with local solutions.
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Major Partner:
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Municipalities
we're working with...
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Some of Our Past Partners...
For
a full list of sponsors, and
sponsorship details, please go
here.
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