With all the cool work going on, you may have noticed we barely have time to write emails let alone celebrate success but 2017 was a great year for Transition Toronto, and if we never celebrate it, it's not as fun. Fun's important, so take a read over some of the highlights of last year while you consider helping out with TreeMobile in 2018.
Do you want to drive the TreeMobile? We're revving up the engines again for 2018, and while the store isn't quite open yet (watch this space), what we always need a head start on is delivery drivers. If you can drive, please take a look at this position description.
And how about some fruit trees for your school, faith group, community garden, or non-profit organization? TreeMobile isn't rolling just yet, but its Edible Community Garden Grant is! You can get food-bearing plants and advice on caring for them.
More details on both the driver position and the grant are below.
GEDO (Green Energy Doors Open) Mixer
Green Energy Doors Open (GEDO) is an event we've been helping to promote for years, but in 2017 we partnered with Find a Way and GEDO's organizers the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association to host the first ever live promotional event for the Ontario Green Energy Doors Open weekend. It ended up being a great night with speakers including Josh Fernandez form YIMBY, Ryan Dyment from the Tool Library, Jennifer Bryan from SolarShare, Paul Cairns from SMARTNet Alliance (pictured above in front of that Hollywood-type banner), of course Nick Hebb from OSEA, and we had Glen Alan from Find A Way who was joined by his band and other musical acts. It was great night to be a part of.
HEET (Home Energy Efficiency Team)
Our HEET team delivered some very well-received events to help people save energy in their homes in late 2017. Attendees were equipped to take action and lower their carbon footprints. HEET also teamed up with HESI to help with HESI's workshops, pool efforts, and combine skills. HEET is now looking for new and innovative ways to engage people in saving energy in their homes, so if you have ideas or examples of what works to inspire deep savings, let us know.
EcoFair at the Barns
2017 continued the streak of successful EcoFairs at the Barns!. We once again had great attendance, great food, great workshops, and great exhibitors like Carbon Neutral Shredding, Free Geek Toronto, Nude Smoothies, The Roots Collaborative, and dozens more. Thanks very much to everyone who attended, and our deepest appreciation to the volunteers.
Drive for TreeMobile
TreeMobile delivers food-bearing trees to peoples' yards to encourage sustainable urban agriculture, but we can only offer as many trees as we can deliver. Our access to vehicles is usually the project's bottleneck. If you're able to drive a team in 2018, you could make a big difference. See the details on what's needed.
Edible Community Garden Grant
If you have a school, faith group, community garden, or non-profit organization that needs to grow more of its own food and you want TreeMobile to supply and plant for you, take a look at our Edible Community Garden Grant. This year we've got the new "Fedge" (food hedge) grant. Find out what that's about.
A few other neat things to celebrate include last year's Toronto Climate Film Festival, all the work by TCAN and it's members (including a huge lift on #transformTO work), the Tool Library's successful crowdfund (and related Feb 22nd party), and while I think I mentioned it before I'd like to reiterate that TreeMobile increased it's impact again in 2017. Can we do it again in 2018? Only with your help!
Andrew