Eating good food and growing food certainly quality as a couple of my favourite things!

For the past several years, through media, friends, colleagues and clients, I’ve experienced a growing awareness of the complexity of food we put in our mouths and meals.  At one end of the the discussion is the growing market for healthy food providers, including free range, local and organic foods.  At the other end of the spectrum lies rising levels of obesity and diabetes related to fast food, poor nutrition, and sedentary lifestyles.

Toronto is known as a North American leader in the global movement for sustainable food. In August 2012, the Urban Agriculture Summit brought together hundreds of professionals who engage in the food and nutrition discussion through a particular lens … what about food grown within our cities?  How can urban agriculture play a meaningful role in our daily lives? Although the Summit had one theme – ‘around the world, people are growing food in cities – broadly speaking, two distinct voices emerged as we solicited content for the 4-day Summit that took place at Ryerson University, Toronto.

City grown food for social good: A social enterprise and social justice contingent – lead by Summit partner and dynamite Toronto NGO FoodShare –  meets the need for healthy food for everyone, not just those who can presently afford to eat the best and often most costly food.  Keynote speaker Will Allen, one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People and Founder and CEO of  esteemed American organization Growing Power, delivered practical ideas of how to feed those in need while providing life skills, social stability and a healthier future to low income and disenfranchised communities.  Local organizations that are literally breaking ground in this area include the Toronto Food Policy Council (who announced their ‘GrowTO Urban Agriculture Action Plan” at the Summit),The Stop Community Food Centre, Sustain Ontario and many other amazing, effective and admirable non-profit initiatives that serve citizens in the Greater Toronto Area.

Building the business case for Urban Ag: The flip side of Summit programming focused on the business case for urban agriculture: How to grow food in cities and turn a profit? Black Current Marketing exists to support businesses that  target a sustainable future, so it was particularly gratifying to gather together inspiring pioneers in this field.  Paul Lightfoot, the CEO of BrightFarms, finances, builds and operates greenhouse farms on the rooftops of supermarkets, cutting time, distance and cost from the produce supply chain. Martin Blake, VP at developer Daniels Corporation, believes “urban agriculture is essential to life in the 21st century city. That is why we … are adding balcony and roof top food production gardens, edible landscaping, composting and urban agriculture initiatives to our condominium communities”.  Architect Joe Lobko of DTAH is a visionary urban designer who has brought multi-disciplinary social hubs like the Evergreen Brick Works to life.

Inspiring solutions to some of our greatest challenges!  Thanks to client Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, I was able to meet leaders in the urban agriculture community from across the GTA and well beyond our city, to learn and be inspired by a diversity of individuals and groups who aim higher for our social and economic health.  Read the resulting Summit declaration, written by dynamo Wayne Roberts, on the Summit blog.  Photos of the event provided by Green Fuse Photographer Laura Berman.

A few weeks early perhaps, but as 2012 draws to a close, here is on of my favourite things …

Social Finance:

What is this ‘impact investing’?  In a nutshell, it’s a means of tackling complex social and environmental problems with economic opportunities.  How?  By actively placing capital in organizations, businesses and funds that generate social and/or environmental impact and a financial return to the investor (http://SocialFinance.ca/).

As the trend towards ‘impact investing’ penetrates the mainstream, social finance is increasingly influencing where long-term visionary individual investors, pension funds and banks place their funds.  In early November, 350+ delegates participated in the 2012 Social Finance Forum at MaRS Discovery District to engage around the topic of ‘Measuring up’ – how to valuate social and environmental attributes along with economic returns.

Highlights of the event, presented by the MaRS Centre for Impact Investing, included RBC President / CEO Gord Nixon announcing a $1 million partnership with the CII (amazing!), Dragon’s Den star Arlene Dickinson proclaiming the ‘coolness’ of social finance (heck yeah!), and the Federal HRSDC Minister Diane Finley asking attendees to help the government come up with social finance solutions (um, sure). The first Social Finance Awards and a series of awesome videos profiling Canadian B Corps were personal ‘likes’ of the Forum.

Watch the highlights reel here for a recap of the sold-out event, which was webcast due to high demand … see if you can catch Black Current Marketing event organizers at work! And thanks to Black Current’s valued client MaRS Centre for Impact Investing for bringing us on board in 2012.

Read a previous report on social finance published the Centre for Impact Investing in 2011, co-written by Rebecca Black: “Mobilizing Private Capital for Public Good”.

For more than 20 years, PhotoSensitive has been capturing powerful images to achieve social goals.   Working exclusively in black and white, talented professional photographers from across the country work voluntarily and outside their usual sphere to capture images reflecting annual themes such as homelessness, AIDs and immigration. The goal: moving public awareness and discourse forward around social justice issues.

SolarShare Rooftop Installation

Working in conjunction with the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association (OSEA), this year’s Photosensitive theme is ‘energy’.  I’m excited about working with Photosensitive photographers to capture the spirit of community-owned power for The Energy Project exhibition in fall 2011 and eventual book publication.

Great images are being generated at the site of a 440kW rooftop solar system being installed in Mississauga over the months of April and May.  The array is owned by SolarShare, and is one project in a portfolio of Ontario-based solar projects that are generating clean energy and revenues by participating in the province’s Feed in Tariff program.

SolarShare will be selling 5-year solar bonds to the public later this year, providing a unique chance for Ontario residents and business to own solar projects without the cost of putting panels on their own roof.  To find out how you can participate and benefit from community-owned solar, sign up here.

Crane lifting rotor to hub of Ex Place turbine April 2011

This week, the iconic wind turbine at Exhibition Place on the Toronto waterfront was undergoing maintenance to replace a worn bearing with a shiny new, 8-foot-across bearing.  Two massive cranes were on site, as were engineers and project managers from both of the turbine’s owners: the WindShare Co-operative and Toronto Hydro.  The media also touched base to report on the turbine’s ‘down time’, resulting in an article in the Toronto Star, which was fairly accurate, and one in the Globe and Mail, which included factual errors that WindShare is addressing through their website, blog and twitter account (@windshare) and through direct communication with the journalist who reported inaccurate information.  The turbine is set to resume power production tomorrow.

The Ex Place turbine is 50% owned by WindShare, a group of 400 citizens who pooled investment to erect the first urban turbine in North America ten years ago.  There was a sense of wonder in the city when that turbine went up – most people had never seen one, let alone stood at the base of one.  Thousands of schoolchildren and adults have since been educated about wind energy at the base of that turbine, as it continues to produce a modest amount of renewable power for the local power grid.

Anti-wind organizations and sentiment grabs most of the headlines about wind in Ontario, and the CanWEA wind industry association has launched their own campaign to provide a voice for supporters of wind power (who, based on numerous polls, represent the majority of Ontario citizens).

Here’s the challenge: Where does the story about community-owned wind power (like WindShare) fit into this polarized conversation?  If it’s true that ‘your own pigs don’t stink’, community ownership in willing host locations is a viable option to generate local support for (and investment in) wind power, as well as generating clean energy.

WindShare is a pioneering co-op that has provided concrete examples of how (and how not) to build community-owned renewable power generation in Ontario.  Look to the TREC Renewable Energy Co-op, founding organization of WindShare, for more opportunities in the near future to participate and invest in community-owned, community-supported, and community-benefiting renewable power projects across the province.

Welcome to Rebecca Black’s blog on WordPress.com. This is my first post. I’m going to use this site to describe the projects, clients and events that have been my main focus (and bread and butter) since starting Black Current Marketing in 2007.

First up … I’m currently the Director of Communications for the Community Energy Partnerships Program.  The Community Energy Program awards grants to support Ontario citizens and groups who are developing their own renewable energy projects in the province.  The application basically acts as a pre-feasibility study for these projects, and grants cover up-front, early stage costs associated with that stage of project development.  Visit our website for more information.