Good afternoon. Thank you for inviting me to participate in the Second Conservation Summit. I am delighted and honoured to be part of a program organized by The Conservation Council of Ontario, an organization for whom I have a high regard, and to be sharing a panel with Tom Heintzman of Bullfrog Power and Deb Doncaster of OSEA, both of whom are leaders in Ontario’s sustainable energy movement. 

It’s wonderful to observe that, since the last summit a year and a half ago, because of your commitment and dedication, several innovative programs were launched and have already hit their stride. The Doors Closed program we heard about earlier is just one example. So while much remains to be done, there is also much to celebrate.
And yet, these successes don’t make headlines. What does? Seems to me that we need to be pushed to the brink of disaster before a conservation story is deemed newsworthy. The spate of media interest in conserving electricity after the last blackout is one example. And yes, stores and businesses adjusted thermostats and turned off a few lights. Temporarily.  

Think about the rising price of gasoline. I’ve been around long enough to remember another oil crunch, way back in the 1970s. The reaction? People bought smaller cars. Briefly. Now gas guzzlers are back.

Headlines shout about the skyrocketing prices and whisper the potential solutions.  So it’s gratifying to be surrounded by people for whom the whisper is more important than the shout: people who are interested in participating in a meaningful dialogue about how we achieve a culture of conservation in Ontario.  

Today, on behalf on the Ontario Trillium Foundation, I will add my voice to that conversation. I’m going to talk about three organizations that have used Foundation funds wisely and well to build healthier communities. I chose these particular stories because each in its own way touches on our commitment to energy conservation and capacity building in the environmental sector.  I will then draw on these examples to suggest five themes or learnings.
And since the true value of these sessions is in the dialogue, I am really looking forward to the discussion period, to hearing your thoughts. Seeing things from your perspective. Walking a kilometer or two in your shoes.

Many of you are familiar with the Ontario Trillium Foundation, but first, for those who aren’t, let me provide a thumb-nail sketch. We are an agency of the Government of Ontario and each year we have the privilege of distributing $100 million in capacity-building grants to not-for-profit and charitable organizations across the province. Our grants fund initiatives in four sectors: arts and culture, environment, human and social services and sports and recreation. We’re proud to include both the Conservation Council and OSEA in our list of grantees or partners. And we’re proud to be the largest funder of the not-for-profit environmental sector in Ontario.
 
Now I know it sounds like we have an awful lot of money. And we do. But as large as we are, we are unable to say yes to everyone. The reality is, for every grant dollar available, we receive requests for over three dollars. The reality also is that most of our grantee organizations can exist without us but we cannot exist without our grantees. Our mission is to build healthy and vibrant communities across Ontario but we don’t do that ourselves. We are the catalyst that facilitates and assists others in this work.

We fulfill our mission by funding both local community and province-wide programs, making grants to not-for-profit and charitable groups that assist them in building their capacity, strengthening their organizations.
That’s the big picture. On a more tangible level, since 1999, the Foundation has approved 745 environment sector grants totaling more than $60 million.  In the conservation area, our grants have supported: 

. • Projects that educate the public about energy conservation;
. • Initiatives that support or promote the use of alternative, sustainable or green energy sources; and
. • Programs that promote the use of energy-efficient equipment or renovations in community organizations across the province. 

You’ve already been introduced to my first grant story and the results are a tribute to the work and passion of Deb Doncaster and her board of directors, staff and volunteers. The Ontario Sustainable Energy Association (OSEA) came to us with a bold vision and a practical plan to stimulate green energy projects by providing workshops, resource materials and ongoing support to community groups across the province. So compelling was their application that the Association received a substantial grant to implement their vision. 

As it turned out, the demand for green energy workshops surpassed everyone’s expectations with the participation at their introductory and advanced workshops across Ontario. The workshops were just the first phase. The Association also provides one-on-one development assistance to help communities build a project from concept to implementation.
This turnkey approach stimulated new community power projects such as Positive Power in Hamilton. In fact, Positive Power Co-operative has itself received a grant to educate the community about wise energy use and explore wind power as a renewable energy source. And in the communities where alternative power projects were not developed, energy conservation projects have been launched.

Programs such as this are integral to establishing that desired culture of conservation. Which is one reason why at last year’s OTF Great Grants Awards celebration, OSEA garnered the Minister’s Award, an award that celebrates significant impact across Ontario.

My second story is connected with a landmark that every Torontonian, and almost every visitor to the city, has seen. No, I’m not referring to the CN Tower or City Hall, but to the wind turbine at Exhibition Place. The Toronto Renewable Energy Cooperative, working with Toronto Hydro Energy Services, wanted to build, implement and evaluate a Wind Power Education Program at the site of the turbine.

The idea was to facilitate a guided interpretation and education program for up to 2,500 people each year and to enhance the visiting experience for the quarter-million or so people who would come through the CNE turnstiles each summer. The goal, of course, has been to increase community information about the advantages of renewable energy – and what better location could possibly exist than North America’s only urban wind turbine. This project has proceeded extremely well and the education has been well received by school groups, science clubs, government officials and environmental workers.

The third grantee I’d like to talk about is in the conservation business, although not, strictly speaking, in the energy conservation sector.

Also a winner at last year’s OTF Great Grants awards, Community Environment Alliance, or CEA, was recognized for its work in bridging the digital divide while keeping computers out of landfill sites. Their program, called Share-IT, reduces e-waste through increased reuse and recycling of computers, printers, cell phones and so on, by distributing them to needy individuals and families. Share-IT also provides new immigrants and students interested in a career in Information Technology with the opportunity to participate in a co-op program.  
The CEA is fairly young organization serving the Halton-Peel Region.  Share-IT has helped divert 9 tonnes of e-waste away from local landfills. The refurbished equipment is distributed to families with low or marginal income, new immigrant families, persons with special needs, disadvantaged students and single parent families. It is proving so successful that there is now a groundswell of interest to expand the program in other areas of the province. 
Part of Share-IT’s success stems from its collaborative approach, partnering as it did with Children’s Aid, an organization with a more established community base. 

These are just three stories about work that OTF has supported in the conservation and environment sectors. There are literally hundreds more.
 
I’d like to build on these stories to identify a few themes that they have in common.

First, I hope I have demonstrated two points relating to innovation. One, the spirit of innovation is alive and well in the conservation movement – but I guess everyone in this room probably knows that. Two, the Ontario Trillium Foundation, as a funder, is not afraid to recognize and support innovative work.

The next theme relates to collaboration. In each of these examples – indeed, in the majority of our grants, we observe that collaboration between community groups is rich and varied and usually leads to extremely effective program delivery. 

A third theme is that capacity-building in this sector takes time. We recognize this at the Foundation and we are open to making grant commitments of up to five years. This is not always easy for us to do, given the demand for our funds. So, like any responsible grant-maker, we strive to find the right balance, by supporting longer-term capacity building projects as well as small short-term initiatives where the outcomes are clear.

Now, I’ve mentioned this phrase capacity building a few times now, so let me briefly expand on this buzz-word by saying that we are committed to helping not-for-profit organizations working in our priority areas to strengthen themselves. Our research has told us that there are four components, or pillars, of successful capacity building. These are: Relevance, Responsiveness, Effectiveness and Resilience. If you are interested in learning more about our research in this area, I’d encourage you to read more on our website, www.trilliumfoundation.org.

A fourth theme is the sustainability or legacy of a program, the lasting influence an initiative will have on our communities and our province. The grantees we’ve become acquainted with this afternoon have left indelible footprints on the conservation landscape, the wind turbines that dot the province, the e-waste that never did make it to the landfill, the workshop participants who have become converts to the cause of conservation at work and at home.

And the fifth theme that runs through these stories, and indeed, through every OTF grant, is the theme of volunteerism. I’m convinced that social change, cultural change, happens only when many levels of society are working together to make change happen. Committed, enthusiastic volunteers have been an integral part of every progressive change. So as we work to build a culture of conservation in Ontario, I would urge us to hold onto the culture of volunteerism as an integral component.

Earlier, I talked about how sought-after our funds are, how demand outstrips our available resources. I hope I haven’t scared you away! Because in fact I’m here to invite you to create partnerships, work with us to build those wonderful communities and leave a rich legacy for future generations. 
Think of OTF not just as a funding institution but as a resource for ideas. Yes we dispense funds. But we also try to dispense expertise or to help a grant applicant seek it out.

So, if you’re interested in learning more, we invite you to visit our website, call or meet with us. We’ve found that the more an organization is able to sit down with us and discuss their applications and their operations, the better their chances for funding. And the better it is for us. Because it’s not about getting more applications, it’s about enabling better quality applications. So I speak for everyone at the Ontario Trillium Foundation when I say that we do look forward to hearing from you. 

We at the Foundation are always looking for ways to get better at what we do, so we can be more responsive to your needs. To do that, we need to understand how things look from your perspective. So in the discussion period we have, I’d love to hear about the challenges you face and about what’s going well. I’d love to hear reflections on any changes in the sector over the last five years that we should be aware of. Can we be more helpful? And if so, how?

Thank you again for the invitation to participate today. On behalf of the Ontario Trillium Foundation, I look forward to working with you in the building of healthy and vibrant communities and in creating a real culture of conservation.