Speakers announced for New Westminster’s Envision 2032 Sustainability Fair

New Westminster, BC - The City of New Westminster is pleased to announce an engaging line-up of speakers for the “Let’s Talk Sustainability” forum as part of the Envision 2032 Sustainability Fair. The forum will be held on Friday November 2^nd from 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm at the Inn at the Quay and will provide attendees with both information and inspiration about planning for a sustainable future.

The Sustainability Fair is the community launch event for the City’s Envision 2032 process, which will lead to New Westminster’s first Integrated Community Sustainability Plan (ICSP). Envision 2032 is intended to provide a sustainability-based decision-making framework for evaluating future community plans, policies, practices and projects.

“Let’s Talk Sustainability” speakers and topics include:

• Lori Baxter, former manager of the 2010 Legacies Now arts program for the 2010 Winter Olympics and executive director of the Greater Vancouver Alliance for Arts and Culture, will address the importance of arts, culture and heritage in creating vibrant communities.
• Judith Cullington, City of Colwood Councillor and a driving force behind the “Solar Colwood” initiative, will speak on how the initiative was implemented in Colwood using a community outreach and engagement process involving multiple community partners.
• Jerry Dobrovolny, Director of Transportation for the City of Vancouver and former New Westminster city councillor, will discuss the integration of land use and transportation and Vancouver’s success with achieving transformational change through transportation targets.
• Darlene Gering, President of the 2012 BC Seniors Games, Chair of the Burnaby Art Gallery and former President and CEO of the Burnaby Board of Trade, will focus on how to apply triple bottom line thinking into decision-making, including social innovation.
• Patrick Johnstone, a municipal environmental coordinator and past-president of the New Westminster Environmental Partners, will speak on how environmental sustainability can be applied in urban settings like New Westminster.
• Virginia Weiler, Chair of VanCity, will address the role of business and the financial industry in creating a sustainable community with examples of how VanCity incorporates sustainability in its everyday practices.

Building on the information shared at the “Let’s Talk Sustainability” event, a visioning workshop will be held the following day, on Saturday, November 3^rd from 9am to 1:30 pm at the same location with lunch provided for workshop participants. The vision statements created at the workshop will inform the development of Envision 2032.

While attendance for both the “Let’s Talk Sustainability” forum and visioning workshop is free, registration is required due to limited space. Participants can register online at www.envision2032.ca by email to or by calling 604-515-3767.

-30-

Contact:  Mark AllisonSenior Planner, City of New Westminster

  604-527-4653