Kingston Sustainability Centre
Community
Education
Change
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Overview Join the Journey is a community-based campaign that is action-oriented and led by youth to engage and inspire Kingston residents to pledge to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Working towards Kingston’s goal to become Canada’s most sustainable city, the JTJ team targets live conversation with Kingstonians to achieve effective and lasting results to reduce waste production as well as water and energy consumption. The team went door-to-door to engage Kingstonians and collect pledges from residents to take steps in their own homes to reduce emissions. We also have interactive displays set up at the centre which were used at various events around the city through July and August 2010 to further educate the community on our 3 areas of focus; waste, water and energy- and, of course, collect more pledges! |
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Objectives
Our Mission: To advance our community journey to become Canada’s most sustainable city by uniting & harnessing the power of Kingston’s youth to be the agents of change.
Goals: Throughout the campaign, JTJ has set targets to converse with 16,000 Kingston residents through three approaches; our door-to-door campaign, presence at 6 Kingston summer events, and the Kingston Sustainability Centre base. We have set the goal of obtaining 1600 pledges during the summer campaign, each aiming for a 5% personal greenhouse gas reduction.
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Strategy Empowering Youth: Today’s youth are the policy and decision makers of tomorrow. The project has been planned and led by three post secondary students. Eight high school students executed the campaign to foster long-term behavioural change, while two more students worked out of the Sustainability Centre base. |
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Three Actionable Pledges: Achievable and realistic actions are presented to Kingstonians to encourage them towards pledging to incorporate new energy, water & waste management behaviours and provide a stepping-stone to other imitative and adaptive changes. Pledges may involve things such as behavioural changes (shortening shower times doing organic composting), smart purchases ( buying products with less packaging, purchasing energy star appliances, etc) , and household changes ( Purchasing and using a programable thermostat). Each pledge can be adapted at different levels to cater to the individual needs and desires of each and every resident.
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Community-Based Social Marketing: Fostering specific, long-term behavioral Goals and changing social norms by identifying barriers and developing a strategy to motivate individual action. Prompts and incentive materials will be provided to pledgers to encourage continued actions and assist in elimination of barriers. These include: reusable water bottles, "no flyer mail" mailbox stickers, and shopping list pads to help you consider smart purchases.
Measuring Results: Following campaign completion, pledge and coupon results will be captured and evaluated by SLC students to understand the GHG emissions reduction impact.
Sustainable Kingston
Living sustainably means to live such that we meet the needs of today without comprimising the ability of future generations to meet their needs
It is Kingston’s vision to become the most sustainable city in Canada, a vision that will be reached only through a collective effort of all residents, businesses and leaders of the community. The Sustainable Kingston plan involves 4 pillars of change: Economic, social, cultural and environmental. The Join the Journey project focuses on the Environmental pillar and encourages Kingstonians to really take ownership of and be involved in this vision. Join us on the journey to becoming Canada's most sustainable city!
Funding
The main portion of the funds for the Join the Journey campaign are provided by the Community Go Green Fund, a grant secured in collaboration with St. Lawrence College. Additional funding has been provided by a variety of private businesses around Kingston for student sponsort and event sponsors. See the Join the Journey main page for a complete list of sponsors.