A Living City Part 4: Budgets & Small Changes for Big Impact

Environment Lethbridge is working to make Lethbridge a Living City through several green infrastructure projects. They are planting drought-tolerant species in schools and parks, and assisting households to create resilient, environmentally-responsible, beautiful outdoor landscapes. Join Michael as he gets his hands in the dirt, visiting schools, attending workshops, and stopping by households across the city to meet the people behind these grassroots initiatives. He'll learn about their hopes and dreams, challenges, and successes as they all do their part to make Lethbridge a Living City.      Environment Lethbridge's Living Cities

Michael sits down with Kathleen to learn how and why Environment Lethbridge's Living City projects started, and what work they are doing in the community. He also connects with Tianna from Green Communities Canada to learn about their involvement in this project.Featured in this episode:Kathleen Sheppard - Executive Director, Environment Lethbridge Tianna Mighty - Green Infrastructure Coordinator, Green Communities CanadaEnvironment Lethbridge's Living Cities

Michael sits down with Charlie to learn more about Environment Lethbridge's community project sites. He also travels to Winston Churchill High School and Fleetwood Bawden Elementary School to hear from the teachers who are working to make their schools more water-wise.    Featured in this episode:Kathleen Sheppard - Executive Director, Environment Lethbridge Charlie Weston - Community Watershed Ambassador, Environment LethbridgeJoel Heyland - Teacher, Winston Churchill High SchoolGeoff Waugh - Teacher, Winston Churchill High SchoolPaige Rosner - Environmental Education Specialist, Helen Schuler Nature CentreAaron Rosenke - Teacher, Fleetwood Bawden Elementary SchoolEnvironment Lethbridge's Living Cities

Michael sits down with Amber to learn all about how the Waterwise 101 workshops started and what this initiative hopes to accomplish. He also stops by Krysty's home, a westsider who is short on time but busy making her community a better place. Featured in this episode:Kathleen Sheppard - Executive Director, Environment Lethbridge Amber Murray - Urban Watershed Ambassador, Environment LethbridgeKrysty - Waterwise 101 Workshop ParticipantEnvironment Lethbridge's Living Cities

Michael attends two Waterwise 101 sessions: Budgets and Small Changes for Big Impact. There he meets Brady, a busy PhD student who is looking to learn more about drought-tolerant plants, and Daphne, a westside homeowner and mom who is making a second attempt at water-wise landscaping.   Featured in this episode:Amber Murray - Urban Watershed Ambassador, Environment LethbridgeBrady & Daphne - Waterwise 101 Workshop ParticipantsEnvironment Lethbridge's Living Cities

Michael tags along to two more Waterwise 101 sessions: Microclimates and Irrigation, Planning, and Preparation (Maintenance). He also meets Sheila & Owen, a westside couple looking for local knowledge on how to change their backyard space, and stops by Svenja's home, a southsider who wants to make her yard more water-wise for her family.       Featured in this episode:Amber Murray - Urban Watershed Ambassador, Environment LethbridgeSheila, Owen, & Svenja - Waterwise 101 Workshop ParticipantsEnvironment Lethbridge's Living Cities

Michael follows up with Waterwise 101 participants from across the city after their landscaping projects have wrapped up. Did they finish? What challenges did they face, and how did the experience change them?   Featured in this episode:Amber Murray - Urban Watershed Ambassador, Environment Lethbridge Krysty, Brady, Sheila, Owen, Daphne, & Svenja - Waterwise 101 Workshop ParticipantsEnvironment Lethbridge's Living Cities

Michael welcomes back Michael Maniates to talk about his new book, The Living-Green Myth: The Promise and Limits of Lifestyle Environmentalism, which questions the dominant narrative that individuals can make a significant environmental impact through their consumer choices and lifestyle changes. Michael explains why this myth persists, including some of the history behind the living-green myth. They also discuss strategies to think beyond our individual lifestyle choices to make real change, including Michael's list of seven new living-green ideas to help you make a difference.   Michael Maniates is a former Professor of Social Science and former Chair of Environmental Studies at Yale-NUS College in Singapore. His teaching, research, and writing have focused broadly on environmental politics, sustainable consumption, and oppositional forces to transformative environmental governance.  He has authored or co-authored five books and dozens of articles, opinion pieces, book chapters, and review essays. His recent work explored systems of sustainable consumption and production, social innovations for a low-growth/high-prosperity world, and the pitfalls and promise of conscientious consumption.Rethinking Growth Part 4: Higher Education (original conversation with Michael Maniates)

In February 2023, Michael traveled to the village of Myrnam, Alberta, to interview staff and students at New Myrnam School, learning all about the sustainability projects, including a school bus they were converting into a tiny house. He recently went back to see what they were up to now and what progress they had made on the "cool bus".Planet-saving Superstar: New Myrnam School (original episode)The Road to Myrnam Documentary   

Michael chats with sculptor, performance artist, and sewist Arianna Richardson (aka The Hobbyist) who works with discarded plastic and craft materials to explore themes of consumerism, gendered labour, waste, and excess. They discuss her work, plastics' unique connection to consumerism, using art to engage the public in conversations about sustainability and waste, and more.  Arianna Richardson's Website