Climate Change Adaptation Toolkit by TransitionKW

This proposal is well-written, builds on an existing framework, and has modest goals to improve awareness and distribution of a 'climate change adaptation toolkit'. It is a good example of a grass-roots, community-based sustainability initiative. I think there is a bit more going on 'behind the scenes' and the proposal would benefit from a little more detail on the origins of TransitionKW, existing partnerships, and the plan for the future. Specific comments as follows: Pitch: This pitch tells me what the final product is. I recommend including an action, i.e., ‘we plan to develop a toolkit of actions…’ or ‘we want to achieve greater distribution of our toolkit of actions..” Summary: Who/what is TransitionKW? I would love some background Positive focus on what people can do, not being scared: Excellent I like how this proposal ‘leverages’ existing work. Is driving traffic to the website the only goal? Are there other good approaches to ‘getting the word out’? Category of the action: Good. Some context of existing public attitudes would be helpful. What is the barrier here? Do people in this region deny that climate change is a thing? Are they resistant to changing their behaviours? Is there support for mitigation activities or government intervention? What actions do you propose: Okay so not just the website – there are different ‘angles’ to this approach. Should be made clear in the summary section Getting toolkits to public spaces - What about schools??? Partnering with non-environmental groups: Are you already partnered with environmental groups? What are some examples of non-environmental groups? Government or business for example? What does Kitchener-Waterloo business community (Chamber of Commerce, Better Business Bureau, etc) think of these concepts? Consider students!! Retired people could be a good audience as well. Many retirees in Canada have a wealth of knowledge and are still active and looking for meaningful ways to spend their time. I like the whole website, it is a very good resource and greatly supports your proposal. The actual ‘toolkit’ page I found a little bit confusing, perhaps due to over-reliance on a graphical approach. I suggest stream-lining it a little bit and consider that many visitors may not be very web-savvy. I am using a current version of Firefox, but it should be tested against older versions and be as backwards-compatible as possible (government tends to be out-of-date with new versions for example) I suggest thinking about more concrete examples. Fostering dialogue and case studies are good but remember that many visitors may not spend much time. Can content be targeted to specific users? For example, what kind of qualitative and quantitative information can a business owner obtain? A homeowner? Who will take these actions: Can you explain who these people are? Do they have other affiliations beyond TransitionKW? Are they volunteers? What are other key benefits: This proposal is submitted under the ‘Adaptation to Climate Change’ heading. Energy efficiency and reduction are mitigation techniques. Try to make the link to adaptation and propose other examples of how the toolkit will help people adapt to climate change. Costs: Seems low Have you looked into partnerships with schools e.g. U of W, colleges, high schools? Timeline: This goal is SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bounded. Excellent References: Can you include some references? If I recall there is significant work being done on community climate change adaptation in the Waterloo area. Links to other work, partners, etc would be very helpful. *** Overall, this is well-done. A little more specificity and ideas of how this initiative will benefit the people of Waterloo would greatly help this proposal. Links to how this work can be scaled to other communities would suggest a path to creating further partnerships and linking into national/global climate change adaptation work. Your financial ask is too low, increase by a factor of ~10 and consider opportunities for leverage (can you work with a professor and help fund a grad student for example?). I look forward to hearing your progress and wish you the best of luck. Should you find yourself in Ottawa, PM me and we can get together for a coffee or beer. -Michael Brown

The climate change adaptation toolkit developed by TransitionKW seems practical and informative, but the scope of this particular proposal - to further promote and develop an existing product - seems small. Looking through the toolkit's website, I find the proposed actions to be executable, and I like how expected time and monetary costs are clearly indicated. Many of the actions focus more on energy saving/mitigation than on adaptation though. I also do not find the toolkit particularly informative about what aspects of climate change users are adapting to. I would suggest adding specific information about how climate change in the Waterloo region is expected to affect the daily lives of community members. Perhaps this proposal could be expanded with the goal to update the toolkit to include specific and current information about the expected impacts of climate change on southwestern Ontario.

Hello, I think it is a good idea and I am always supporting initiatives related to knowledge sharing. However, I am not sure if the materials you are suggesting on your toolkit are informative or if they are also integrating lessons learned from past experiences that could be considered as knowledgesharing as well? I am interested in tools that could produce a change of behaviour in local communities. Additionally I think the development of these materials will depend on the public you would like to reach, an online platform should be useful too depending on your target. Finally i would like to see a more detailed budget that identifies the main needs of this project.

Hi, I agree with the other catalysts and the proposition then seems to me very useful to give birth awareness and perception especially to Waterloo community, then the only limit of this project is the exporting to other different cultures.Perhaps a good idea could be to clarify the aspects that are useful for all the people approaching this issues.

Thank you for submitting a final proposal. Please take this opportunity to strongly consider community involvement in assessing risks and choosing tools. The judges would like to see you respond further to the questions and comments that were raised during semi-finalist selection, which could help your work evolve significantly. For ease of reference, the judges’ initial suggestions have been summarized by a contest fellow below: Suggested improvements summary: - Develop a concrete focus that lays out a vision for transforming this approach to raising awareness and mobilizing action o E.g. game-ifying website/toolkit, adding a social media marketing strategy… o Developing a well-thought-out strategy for engaging people - Can the toolkit promote collective adaptation efforts? - Community involvement in assessing climate risks and considering which possible actions would be the most effective ways to enhance resilience and overcome vulnerabilities? - Think about how communities choose which tool to use and how to mobilize around them? Congratulations on your proposal, and the adaptation contest team wishes you the best of luck!

Hi TranstionKW and your friends, kindly consider voting for my proposal shown on this link. https://www.climatecolab.org/web/guest/plans/-/plans/contestId/1300206/planId/1002 Thanks.