Category Archives: Uncategorized

Sustainable Peterborough Coordinating Committee Recruitment and Selection

Sustainable Peterborough has spent the last couple of years conducting an extensive organizational review, including a governance and plan review. This comprehensive work facilitated many insightful conversations and led to the decision that the new Sustainable Peterborough Plan should focus on helping the community implement and track progress towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Utilizing the SDG framework provides an opportunity for Sustainable Peterborough to continue the SDG work conducted through the 2019-2021 Community Forum led by Kawartha World Issues Centre and GreenUP. The SDG framework also aligns SP’s new strategic plan and Peterborough & the Kawarthas Economic Development’s (PKED) Future Ready Regional Economic Development Strategy – Sustainable Peterborough has been operating under the auspices of PKED since its inception in 2012, and a recent governance review has led to the mutually supported decision that this relationship continues.

Our new Strategic Plan was recently approved by the Sustainable Peterborough Coordinating Committee (SP CC) and the PKED Board of Directors. Work is already underway on Objective 1 of the new Strategic Plan. As such, Sustainable Peterborough is presently in the process of recruiting and selecting new members to sit on the SP CC. The SP CC shall consist of no less than 9 and no more than 12 members, with a proposed 2-year term length. The SP CC will have an overseeing, advisory role, meeting two or three times per year or as needed. 

Interested individuals are welcome to apply by filling out this skills matrix and emailing it to Anca Pascalau, Sustainable Peterborough Coordinator, at no later than July 5th. The Executive Committee will review the submissions and all applicants will be notified with the decision by the end of July.

 

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Key Focus for New Sustainable Peterborough Strategic Plan

MEDIA RELEASE – April 21, 2022

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Key focus for new Sustainable Peterborough Strategic Plan

[PETERBOROUGH, ON]: Sustainable Peterborough (SP) and Peterborough & the Kawarthas Economic Development (PKED) are pleased to announce the launch of Sustainable Peterborough’s new Strategic Plan.

Sustainable Peterborough has spent the last couple of years conducting an extensive organizational review, including a governance and plan review. This comprehensive work facilitated many insightful conversations and led to the decision that the new Sustainable Peterborough Plan should focus on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The SDG framework has become a recognized tool for advancing sustainability in the Greater Peterborough Area. Communities in Ontario and across Canada are working on localizing the SDGs. The SDGs have become a globally recognized framework for measuring progress towards sustainability. Benefits of using the SDG framework include the use of shared language and goal setting for sustainability across many communities globally and locally and access to tools to track and visualize progress towards the goals.

Utilizing the SDG framework provides an opportunity for Sustainable Peterborough to continue the vital SDG work conducted through the 2019-2021 Community Forum led by Kawartha World Issues Centre and GreenUP. It also provides an opportunity to use long-standing community connections and partnerships to build on the significant local interest in sustainability, raise awareness of the SDGs, and incorporate best practices from other communities.

The SDG framework also aligns SP’s new strategic plan and PKED’s Future Ready Regional Economic Development Strategy, which was developed through extensive community consultation. The Future Ready strategy identifies five SDGs as priorities for the region to achieve the vision of seeing Peterborough & the Kawarthas become the most sustainable and innovative community and economy in Ontario.

“On behalf of the Sustainable Peterborough Coordinating Committee, we are excited to work towards Sustainable Peterborough’s new mission of supporting, measuring, celebrating, and facilitating collective action among local governments, businesses, institutions, and organizations to annually track and measure progress towards achieving targets related to priority Sustainable Development Goals,” stated Karen Jopling and Michael Papadacos, Co-Chairs of the Sustainable Peterborough Coordinating Committee.

“In a sustainable economy, people live and do business in ways that are good for the economy, the environment, and communities. Sustainable economic development is about more than just being green; business activity reflects a commitment to sustainability, and, in turn, sustainability helps the economy thrive for future generations. The staff and board of PKED are looking forward to collaborating with Sustainable Peterborough on this new strategic plan.” said PKED’s President & CEO Rhonda Keenan.

The new Strategic Plan is available on the Sustainable Peterborough website.

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For media inquiries contact Anca Pascalau, Sustainable Peterborough Coordinator, at

 

Sustainable Peterborough Plan Update

It is that time of year when we would typically commence work on the annual Sustainable Peterborough Report Card and Partnership Recognition Event and Awards. This year, however, we have exciting news to share. Sustainable Peterborough has embarked on a comprehensive SP Plan Update project that will likely wrap up towards the end of the year.

As such, just for this year, we are postponing the Report Card and Event until the Plan Update project is completed, as we focus our efforts, time, and limited resources on the Plan Update process. Stay tuned for more details, as stakeholders will be consulted throughout this process – your feedback is invaluable!

However, we always love to hear about all the great work our partners continue to undertake and we will continue collecting our partners’ 2019 sustainable accomplishments, as we will continue celebrating them on our website and through our social media channels. 

Family approach, natural approach at Harley Farms

KEENE – Harley Farm is sustainable from the ground up.

That might sound redundant. Of course their business runs from the ground up. It’s a farm, after all.

But the Harley family is a different breed with a unique approach to livestock farming, meaning the ground they steward – 1,300 acres of soil stretching along both sides of Heritage Line north of Keene – is particularly vital.

All they have is the ground and what grows on it. There are no barns for shelter. Their cattle, pigs and sheep live outdoors, 24/7, 365 days a year.

The operation is also entirely organic. No pesticides. No chemical fertilizer. No genetically modified seeds.

It is, Roger Harley believes, the largest-scale farm in the country that operates on those principles. The Harleys currently have 700 pigs (with plans to double that number next year), nearly 700 sheep and 200 head of cattle.

Innovation makes it work.

Roger and his son, 23-year-old James Harley, explain the ins and outs of the operation as we sit under a bright blue sky in front of the plain, neatly efficient retail store where a small percentage of the meat they produce is sold directly to the public.

Humane treatment of the animals is the key to their marketing success, Roger says.

They are the only farm in Ontario certified for humane animal care by the SPCA (Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) and AWA (Animal Welfare Approved) audit programs.

Animals are happiest and healthiest when they live outside, the Harleys say. But that means selecting the right animals.

They use two breeds of cattle. Belted Galloways are native to the cold, blustery highlands of Scotland; “old style” British Herefords are from the England-Wales border area.

“You can take a Blonde Aquitaine cow (from the south of France) and you can put it outside and say, ‘Oh, it’s looking fine in the summer.'” Roger says.

“At minus 40 it will be shivering in the corner and looking dead. That is not animal welfare, that’s bloody cruelty.”

Their pigs are reddish brown and hairy, not “pink and naked” like pigs in a barn. Some live in the woods. They are, as Roger notes, clean and happy . . . and they don’t stink.

Pigs are social animals so they do have huts. Knocked together out of two-by-fours and plywood, the huts cover about 50 square feet and serve five or six animals. When it’s time to move the pigs to a new field the huts and electric fencing can be rolled up and reassembled in a single day.

Moving the pigs is an essential part of the Harley Farm system. It is, the two men agree, all about rotation.

None of the acreage ever lies fallow. About a third is pasture for the animals. Some is planted in forage crops and vegetables for feed. Ever innovative, the main Harley forage is sorghum, a hardy plant originally from Africa that does well in varied climates.

Pigs are the primary fertilizers so they move twice a year. The rest of the rotation is annual: pigs, then forage crops, then hay, then cattle or sheep, then pigs again.

No animal barns means very small energy bills. There are no buildings to heat, light or cool.

Solar battery packs about the size of a lunch box power the electric fences.

The Harleys buy their tractors from Germany, where strict environmental regulations have resulted in clean, high efficiency diesel tractors that cut fuel costs by a third.

All the family works the farm: mother Julie, daughter Emily and James’s partner, Jessica Farrell. Julie and Jessica are also nurses and Emily is a student in the Fleming College health and fitness program.

Working as a family is rewarding, Roger says, particularly when everyone is committed to the outdoor, all-natural approach.

“Some days when it’s pouring with rain, blowing a gale, you think: ‘What the hell am I doing out here?’ ” he says. “But then you get a day like today, there’s no better place to be.”

This is one of a series of articles commissioned and paid for by Sustainable Peterborough and published in partnership with The Peterborough Examiner. By Jim Hendry, Peterborough Examiner, original article published Saturday, October 8, 2016.