By SUZANNE ELSTON, Special to QMI Agency

February 20, 2010-This year will be remembered for bringing the eyes of the world to Whistler, B.C., but for local residents, 2020 has a much greater significance and focus. Whistler2020 is the name of the town’s long-term community sustainability plan.Traditional urban planning tends to focus more on isolated pieces of the planning puzzle, rather than on interconnected systems. What the town needed was an integrated approach that would address social, economic and environmental challenges...

On March 4th, EnviroCentre and The Natural Step (TNS) Canada hosted the first workshop for the 2010 cohort of the Greening Ottawa Non-Gover

Do you have the gift of gab? Are you able to manage the wants and needs of a diverse group of individuals?

Submitted by Shane Yates 02.03.2010

While most of Canada focuses on how many medals Canada is winning or losing, the Whistler Centre for Sustainability has been sharing another important story.  As co-host of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, Whistler is concerned not only with delivering a successful games but also what happens after the games. As The Whistler Centre says, “what happens after the Games after the adrenaline levels drop, hangovers dissipate, and Whistler starts coming to grips with a more carbon-restrained world?”  Can Whistler continue “to be the premier resort community as we move toward sustainability” as their mission states?

Yeterday I wrote about Whistler’s efforts to make this the most sustainable Olympics in history. A big part of this story is Whistler’s Athlete’s Village. Initially, the Athletes Village was planned as a temporary village – instead, the development of the permanent village is providing a means to meet housing needs in a way that is socially, environmentally and economically sustainable.