SPECTRUM 2009: Student Action for Sustainability
 
Highlighting and discussing sustainable initiatives in the National Capital Region and providing numerous opportunities for students to become involved.
 
 
September 25th, 2009
Ottawa City Hall
110 Laurier Avenue West 
 
 
About the Conference 
 
SPECTRUM 2009: Student Action for Sustainability, will bring together students from a wide-range of academic disciplines and from all universities and colleges across the National Capital Region to:
 
  • Explore sustainability in the National Capital Region by highlighting the multi-faceted dynamics of sustainability and by painting a picture of the current local realities.
  • Encourage student action by providing solutions and opportunities for local contributions and by engaging students with other academics, policy leaders and community groups to share ideas about building sustainability in the National Capital Region. 

 
Our Partnership with Choosing our Future 
 
This year, the SPECTRUM 2009 conference will be held in partnership with the Choosing our Future initiative, a joint long-term sustainability planning effort between the City of Ottawa, the City of Gatineau, and the National Capital Commission. 
 
Choosing our Future is a long-term vision that will ‘future-proof’ the City of Ottawa, City of Gatineau and National Capital Region by integrating the concepts of resiliency and sustainability into all facets of regional planning and design.
The initiative has three major outcomes: 
 
  • A Sustainability Plan that will guide short and medium-term decision making
  • A Risk Mitigation and Prevention Plan aimed at increasing resiliency of the region through alternative approaches to land use and infrastructure design 
  • A Community Energy Plan, a set of board performance targets for security and resource availability  

The Choosing our Future initiative is focusing on a number of innovations: a ‘systems approach’ to decision-making, urban security by design, collaborative planning and regional scale planning.
 
Between September 21st – 26th, 2009, the Choosing our Future initiative will hold a series of workshops and events, culminating in the Student Action for Sustainability conference on September 25th and the Future’s Forum on September 26th, where participants will be encouraged to engage in discussions on key questions regarding sustainability in the region.  SPECTRUM 2009 is proud to be part of this larger community initiative and bring student and academic voice to real policy making.