A gratitude practice can take many forms, but when done regularly it has numerous mental and physical benefits for us as individuals. In a year when workplaces have changed, persevered and had to adapt in ways they could not have foreseen, we wanted to end the year being mindful of all that we have to be grateful for as an organization.
Last week we had an opportunity to thank our 2020 event sponsors who have helped us continue our tradition of inviting truly inspiring guests to speak, so the conversations, the learning and most importantly, the actions continue. This week we want to say thank you to our funders, the foundation of so much of our work.
Our Funders – Driving the Clean Economy
At SWR, our mission is to catalyze transformation to sustainable systems of energy, mobility and buildings to build a cleaner, more diverse economy. We do this by supporting the community and looking for collaborative opportunities because it is our genuine belief that our collective potential will have the impact needed to move toward a more sustainable future. This approach also allows us to find innovative ways to work with different sectors and use a community approach to driving the clean economy.
evolvGREEN is a product of this approach, a collaborative workspace for entrepreneurs, researchers and clean economy supporters born out of the evolv1 project. The evolvGREEN partnership works to inspire change, lead innovative research and accelerate commercialization and none of this would be possible without our partners, who we will feature in our series next week, and our funders.
2020 Funders
The funding that supported our work in 2020 shows the commitment of these organizations to support a clean and resilient local economy.
City of Waterloo
The Corporation of the City of Waterloo is committed to supporting sustainable growth, equity, and an inclusive, vibrant community. This includes a commitment to environmental, economic and social sustainability. The City recognizes its leadership role in minimizing its environmental impact, prudently managing financial resources considering current and future needs; and creating processes, systems, and relationships that promote social sustainability and actively contribute to healthy and livable communities. This is demonstrated within the current strategic plan, which commits to apply a sustainability lens on all services and projects and to enable bold local actions to address the climate change crisis.
Ontario Trillium Foundation Grow Investment Stream
The mission of the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) is to build healthy and vibrant communities throughout Ontario by strengthening the capacity of the voluntary sector, through investments in community-based initiatives. As an agency of the Government of Ontario, and one of Canada’s leading granting foundations, OTF funds local community projects that are evidence-based and drive at achieving greater impact in their community.
The Grow Investment Stream focuses on projects which enable us to see positive change in our communities through launching, replicating or adapting a program; scaling up a program currently being delivered, thus impacting more people; or improving the quality of the program currently being delivered to increase impact.
Region of Waterloo
There are two levels of municipal government in Waterloo Region. The Region of Waterloo is a regional level of government, while local levels of government include the cities of Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge, and the townships of Wilmot, Wellesley, Woolwich and North Dumfries. The Region provides more than 60 per cent of municipal services in our region and their programs and services make a difference in the lives of residents every day, including climate action.
As one of the current strategic imperatives, climate action was chosen to not only build corporate and community understanding of the climate crisis, but to ensure key considerations in Regional decision making include reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing climate resiliency.
TD Ready Commitment
TD’s goal is to be an environmental leader through embedding an environmental perspective in their business strategy and they are achieving this through their corporate citizenship platform, TD Ready Commitment.
TD understands that change is a fact of life that can renew our perspective of the world or how we act within it. It can also help some of us get ahead, but it can leave others behind. To help create the conditions so everyone has the chance to succeed in a changing world, TD is targeting C$1 billion by 2030 towards community giving in four areas that support change, nurture progress and contribute to making the world a better, more inclusive place.
| If you would like to have your organization recognized alongside sustainability leaders in the business, academia, government and non-profit sectors, please consider becoming a featured sponsor for a 2021 event. Contact funddevelopment@sustainablewaterlooregion.ca and find out how you can join this list of organizations leading the way to build back better! |