Climate Change Adaptation Toolkit by TransitionKW

Pitch

A toolkit of actions that individuals and communities can take to adapt to the impacts of climate change in the Region of Waterloo.

Description

Summary

TransitionKW has created a climate change adaptation toolkit, which helps link community members with the expected impacts of climate change in this area of Canada (the Region of Waterloo, in southwestern Ontario) and actions they can take in their homes, around their homes, getting around, and in their community. Our focus is on things people can do, not things they should be scared about.

We have hard copies of the toolkit available at local libraries and other public spaces, and we have an online version of the toolkit at toolkit.transitionkw.com. We're looking for more ways to bring people to the website, and to make the website more interactive so that users can share their experience and add actions.

Category of the action

Mitigation/Adaptation, Changing public attitudes about climate change

What actions do you propose?

We propose promoting the toolkit in a variety of ways in our community:

attendance at community events and distribution of flyers saying where to access toolkits
getting the toolkits into more public spaces - like churches, community centres, clubs, etc.
partnering with non-environmental community groups to deliver workshops/seminars on climate change
attending events of non-environmental community groups to bring the climate change discussion to a new audience
other ideas welcomed!

We also propose adding to the website (toolkit.transitionkw.com) for more interactivity:

allow people to answer questions about themselves and get customized and printable lists of actions
make it easier for actions to be related to stories (either our own written case studies, or stories submitted by others)
allow users to comment on actions, and say that they have completed an action
other ideas welcomed!

Who will take these actions?

The team of volunteers (8 people) who have put together the toolkit so far, who are all members of TransitionKW and live in the Region of Waterloo.

Where will these actions be taken?

These actions will be taken throughout the Region of Waterloo. We're happy to help get the framework for this toolkit out into other communities as well.

What are other key benefits?

Many actions in the toolkit not only help individuals learn about climate change and what will happen, but also contribute to mitigating climate change through energy efficiency or energy reduciton, help the environment in other ways (e.g. through water quality improvements) and generally help people get out there to meet their neighbours and be part of their community.

What are the proposal’s costs?

All materials so far have been paid for through grants, but if we were to expand, additional materials for promotion and distribution may cost $1000-$2000. Website development - we would like to continue to have this powered by volunteer support - but if we needed to hire a developer, we don't know what the costs would be.

Time line

We have spent the past year developing the toolkit, and would like to spend an "event season" (April - November 2014) on distribution. In November - January 2014, we plan on doing data analysis on website visits, surveys completed, and toolkits downloaded and accessed from public libraries. After the data analysis, we would like to re-assess our strategy and come up with new ways to deliver the toolkit in 2015.