Wednesday, April 25, 6:30-9:30
​OISE Peace Lounge, 252 Bloor St. W (St. George) 

Join Unify Toronto for the first of seven Drawdown sector summits. Learn about food sector solutions to global warming that are already in place and in action in Toronto. Discover how you can help reverse global warming by growing more of what is already working. By donation.

Project Drawdown has identified, researched and modeled the 100 most substantive, existing solutions to address climate change, grouped into seven sectors. Put together, they reveal a path forward that can roll back global warming by 2050. 

Project Drawdown’s food-sector solutions to global warming relate to agricultural production (crops and livestock) as well as food preparation, consumption, and waste. Put together, food-related activity accounts for about a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions. Supply-side agricultural solutions, like farmland restoration, regenerative agriculture, and tree intercropping, reduce emissions from farming and ranching, while also sequestering significant amounts of carbon. Demand-side solutions like a plant-rich diet, composting and reduced food waste reduce the need for land clearing.

In this informative and collaborative evening:

• Learn more about the food sector solutions identified and modelled by Project Drawdown
• Hear from experts and practitioners working on inspiring food solutions in Toronto
• Build a long and local vision for accelerating food sector solutions in Toronto to their fullest potential
• Offer what you can give and/or request what you need, to help grow food solutions in Toronto and reverse our greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Guest speakers:
Owen Goltz of Riverdale Farm and Forest, organic “second-career” farmer, arborist, permaculturist, educator, and farmers’ market vendor from Inglewood, Caledon. Owen recently presented his story and shared his knowledge of soil health at Peel County’s “Our Common Ground” food sustainability event. We welcome this speaker to discuss Drawdown-related solutions for Nutrient Management, Regenerative Agriculture, and Conservation Agriculture.
Steven Bourne of Ripple Farms, owner and Chief Operating Officer of self-sustaining food systems just emerging from startup to growth phase. Combining greenhouse vertical farming and aquaponics, they operate and provide education at EverGreen Brickworks and Seneca College in Toronto. Their urban farming methods are geared to a “circular economy” and have been featured in mainstream media. We welcome this speaker to discuss Drawdown-related solutions for Plant-Rich Diet, Nutrient Management, Reduced Food Waste, as well as local foods (cross-related to Drawdown’s Energy Sector and Transportation Sector solutions).
Cathy Nesbitt of Green Connections and Cathy's Crawly Composters (vermi-composting and home-grown sprouts), lecturer, educator, and charismatic and fun speaker. An award-winning expert on urban farming opportunities, she brings together “wiggly worms and kitchen compost” in the vertical spaced compact Garden Tower. We welcome this speaker to connect with Drawdown-related solutions of Composting, Plant-Rich Diet, and Nutrient Management in urban gardens.
Rob Zend-Gabori of Feedback App, Vice President of Sales. Feedback uses digital technology to connect restaurants with leftover food with people looking for low-cost, off peak hours meals. We welcome this speaker to engage our imagination with opportunities for Drawdown-related solutions on Reduced Food Waste.
Mark Hathaway, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Waterloo studying transformative learning in permaculture. We are pleased to have Dr. Hathaway share some concluding reflections on food, ecological wisdom, and regenerative transformation. 

This is the first of seven sector summits:
April 25 - Food Sector Summit
May 16 - Transport Sector Summit
July 25 - Energy Sector Summit
August 29 - Building and Cities Sector Summit
October 24 - Women and Girls Sector Summit
November 28 - Land Use Sector Summit
January 30 - Materials Sector Summit

More about Project Drawdown and Unify Toronto’s Drawdown program:
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Project Drawdown, founded by author and environmentalist, Paul Hawken, is a scientifically based, comprehensive plan to implement the top 100 solutions to reverse global warming by 2050. Reversing climate change is not only possible, but feasible and eminently practical. The New York Times bestselling book sets out the solutions, the math and the economics of how we can actually do this in an inspirational and accessible way. 

Unify Toronto's 13-month program aims to generate enough activity to make Toronto a hub of Drawdown activity in North America. It includes a series of introductions to Drawdown, seven sector summits, and a 4-session course, that will put vital information about how we can reverse global warming in your hands, connect you with other change makers, and galvanize your action with a new sense of optimism and agency. 

Access details of Unify Toronto’s full Drawdown program at www.unifytoronto.ca. 
Find out more about Drawdown at www.drawdown.org.

Learn about the Pachamama Alliance, creators of the Drawdown introduction and course, at www.pachamama.org.

Please join Unify Toronto in collaboration with Pachamama Alliance for "An Introduction to Drawdown," led by Jon Love and Satya Robinson of JLS-Global.ca.

Are you feeling overwhelmed by the constant stream of stories about Climate Change (aka Global Warming) that imply there's little we can do about it, or that it’s not really happening? Are you feeling despair that the proposed solutions are too little and too late? Having pangs of guilt that you aren’t doing more? 

Well there is a research-based project underway to actually reverse global warming - to pull carbon out of the atmosphere, as opposed to merely slowing down the rate of emissions. It is not only possible, but feasible and eminently practical. The graphic record above, from the first introduction session on January 31st, gives you an idea of the energy and enthusiasm of the 140 participants, and offers a sense of the possibilities for effective action. 

Come and find out what you can do to help reverse global warming!

This very interactive evening program will present an inspiring, uplifting and empowering approach to the issue, based on the latest research from a team of over 200 scientists and researchers from around the world.  

Project Drawdown,  founded by author and environmentalist, Paul Hawken, is a scientifically based, comprehensive plan to implement the top 80 solutions to reverse global warming by 2050. The book sets out the solutions, the math and the economics of how we can actually do this. It’s inspirational and accessible.
 
Unify Toronto has planned a 13-month program (Jan 2018-Feb 2019) which aims to generate enough activity to make Toronto a hub of Drawdown activity in North America. It includes a series of introductions to Drawdown, sectoral events, and a 4-session course, that will put vital information about how we can reverse global warming in your hands, connect you with other change makers, and galvanize your action with a new sense of optimism and agency. For more information on the program and key dates, check out the Unify Toronto website.

The Introduction has been put together by the Pachamama Alliance, a not-for-profit based in San Francisco, California, USA and creators of the Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream symposium.
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Project Drawdown has identified the 100 best solutions that taken together could realistically keep us from catastrophe, and, at the same time, create the world we all want to live in. The team carefully measured the 80 solutions that are already up and running and modelled how they might be scaled up and carried out over the next 30 years. They also modeled the possibilities of 20 solutions that are under development and could soon be utilized – several of which, like energy storage technologies which will make wind and solar viable alternatives to fossil fuels and nuclear, are pioneered in Canada. They then ranked all 100 solutions to see which ones make the biggest impact and should be prioritized by investors, city planners, business leaders, educators, and NGOs.

This four-session course is designed to take participants deep inside the work of Drawdown.org, including a much greater familiarity with many of the solutions presented in the book, Drawdown, edited by Paul Hawken. You will have a chance to actually get into action on one or more of your chosen solutions as well as learn how to communicate Drawdown to people in your life.

The course is full of useful tools and tips to empower you to have a real impact, as well as how work more effectively with others.
The course is 4 sessions of 3 hours each, with research assignments between sessions, and an "Action Break” between sessions 3 and 4 to allow you complete a learning project, either on your own or with a team from the course.

Promise of the Course

You will:

• Gain a basic understanding of how it is possible to reverse global warming, accelerate and expand the work being done
• Know yourself as someone truly making a difference in reversing global warming with a new attitude of hopefulness,
• Be engaged in one or more solution(s) and/or become an “ambassador” for Drawdown

Our intention is that this will represent a lifetime commitment for you.

Overview of the sessions

Briefly, here is what we will do in each session:

Session 1:
Set the stage; get into Drawdown and the top 100 solutions; establish a shared context for ourselves of hope and possibility; begin the process of getting into action. Assignment is to research two solutions.

Session 2:
Learn from each other about solutions that you researched; explore powerful ways to both speak and listen; use those skills as we share our findings; discover a solution to carry you through the rest of the course. Assignment is to research even more deeply the solution you’ve chosen.

Session 3:
Share our individual research; see where we can support each other by teaming up, sharing skills, knowledge, and networks. Assignment is to create an action plan and go to work on a solution, or create awareness and engagement.

Action period of 5 weeks between Session 3 and session 4.

Session 4:
Share with each other our progress and our results, and see what further opportunities we can pursue together. Celebrate!
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This course has been designed by the Pachamama Alliance, with videos and materials they produced. If you have not experienced their core program, Awakening the Dreamer, or if it's been a while, by all means please take two hours and review the online version. We promise you will be uplifted and engaged by its messages.

The course is taught by Jon Love and Satya Robinson of JLS-Global.ca and hosted by Unify Toronto.

Approximately 140 people braved the weather to attend the Introduction to Drawdown hosted by Unify Toronto. If you were there at the event we thank you for making the evening such an enjoyable and hopeful evening. 

It was wonderful to share the exciting possibility of reversing global warming with a group of like-minded, thoughtful, committed people. We were especially moved to see how many people stayed around afterward to connect with each other, discovering what is already being done in our communities to bring about drawdown, and exploring how to move even further in that direction. Check out Patricia Kambitsch’s “Visual Narrative” of our conversation above and photos of the event below.

We are also stoked to see from the responses to our invitations to participate how many people want to play an active role in Drawdown Toronto. We will be in touch with each one of those who signalled an interest about what they want to do next.

If you were unable to attend this event, do not despair! It will be repeated February 27th and twice more after that. We also have a 13 month program planned with the aim of generating enough activity to make Toronto a hub of Drawdown activity in the North America.