What is one thing you could start doing today to help stop the climate crisis?
Making your own beeswax wrap to use instead of plastic wrap, buying energy-efficient appliances and driving an electric vehicle, or reducing your food waste and regularly composting are all great ways to reduce your carbon footprint and reconnect with nature.
This fair is less about talking and more about doing. Our speakers, exhibitors, and sponsors have chosen the most impactful actions you can take to help our planet and will give you the tools to accomplish them. Because we believe that loving the earth is about taking one step at a time, however small it may seem.
Details
Date: 31 Aug 2019, 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Location: Riley Park, 50 E 30th Ave (Next to the farmer’s market)
Free & All Ages
People are encouraged to walk, cycle, use public transit or rideshare to the event. Refreshments will be available at the adjacent Riley Park Farmer’s Market.
Zero Waste: In keeping with SPEC’s values, this event is striving to be zero waste, meaning exhibitors will be handing out as little waste as possible. RSVP to receive the post-event poster package, which includes educational material from all of our booths.
A big thank you to our sponsors and partners:
Vancity
Aviva Community Fund
CBC Vancouver
Vancouver Sun
Little Mountain Neighbourhood House
Riley Park Community Garden
What to expect
Exhibitors:
We have over 20 different activities planned from SPEC committees, green businesses and local charities. Demonstrations will cover topics in food, waste, energy, transportation, and sustainability to discuss some of the most impactful actions you can take to help stop the climate crisis. Our full schedule ensures that there is something for everyone!
Check out some of the activities we will have:
- Test drive a Solo, the new electric vehicle from Electra Meccanica.
- Learn how to make your own beeswax wrap
- Discover renewable energy technology via SPEC’s Demonstration Shed in Riley Park (kid friendly)
- Spin the Ecosystem Services Wheel and solve common challenges on urban farms.
- Become a green bin expert with Dr. Compost
- Make your own bubble wand with Soap Dispensary (kid friendly!)
- Clean up Riley Park’s cigarette litter with Re:FILTER and the Butt Touchers.
- Go on a scavenger hunt through the Riley Park Farmers Market (kid friendly)
- Challenge your friends to see who can do their laundry while conserving the most energy
- Talk with local solar panel installer VREC and ask all your solar related questions.
- Go for a walk through the neighbourhood with UBC’s R.E.A.C.H. program as “climate change detectives”.
- And more.
Speakers:
From 11am to 12:15pm, come listen to our fantastic lineup of speakers who are each uniquely taking action against climate change.
Ta’Kaiya Blaney
Coast Salish activist Ta’Kaiya Blaney is dedicated to saving what is near her heart, and the heart of her culture, by transforming words into actions and actions into results. Now aged 15, the multi-talented Ta’Kaiya has spoken at United Nations conferences, environmental events, and classrooms across Canada and internationally. She calls for worldwide implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous peoples, and for the adoption and implementation of the Universal Declaration of Rights of Mother Earth.
Rebecca Hamilton
In May 2019, Vancouver secondary school students organized by 11th grade activist Rebecca Hamilton staged their 4th school walk-out to protest adult indifference to climate change. In an interview with Greenpeace Canada, Rebecca pointed out that during World War II, everyone knew there was a war on; it was the lens through which every government and individual decision was made. She believes that the climate crisis needs to become this same lens, and urges us to pressure our politicians to make climate action a priority.
Vesanto Melina
International speaker, dietician and co-author of cookbooks that have been translated into 14 languages, Vesanto Melina is a glowing advocate for health, nutrition and meatless cuisine. Several books that she co-authored with Brenda Davis, including The Kick Diabetes Cookbook and the multiple award-winning Becoming Vegan, are nutrition classics. In addition to consulting with provincial and municipal governments she is also the lead author of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics' current Position Paper on Vegetarian Diets.
Mary Anne Pare
When the Crown asked for jail time for Kinder Morgan pipeline protesters and called senior arrestees a “particularly sinister challenge to the court's authority”, Pender Island activist and slam poetry aficionado Mary Ann Pare jumped into action. The retired therapist, along with fellow activists and arrestees, formed the ‘Sinister Seniors’. The group creates spoken word performances, holds events and protests, and mobilizes and strategizes to save the Salish Sea and our beautiful planet for future generations.
Who is SPEC?
We are one of Canada’s oldest urban environmental non-profits. Since 1969, its volunteer-driven advocacy initiatives, educational programs and events have inspired countless residents of Greater Vancouver to take a stronger stand for the environment.
Want to get more involved? Sign up to volunteer here!
