Introducing DIVERSEcity’s Green Guide for Newcomers
DIVERSEcity Community Resources Society is pleased to release our new Green Guide for Newcomers, featuring everyday tips for living green, shared from David Suzuki Foundation and other experts.
As a community-serving organization focused on providing free newcomer, employment and counselling services, why is DIVERSEcity doing a “green guide” for newcomers?
Our new Vision under our Strategic Plan 2024–2029 envisions “an inclusive, equitable and regenerative society that puts people and the planet first.” And within our Values, we recognize our interdependence and responsibility for each other, the environment and future generations. So, the better question is: how can we do the work we do in building stronger communities without considering the environment?
Extreme weather events, warmer temperatures, droughts, floods, poor air quality and more are affecting people and communities around the world. The potential for climate-related migration looms, and as an organization serving refugees and refugee claimants, we recognize this.
Protecting the planet can’t be separated from the work we do; it needs to inform our approach, much like our commitments to inclusion, equity and truth and reconciliation.
In fact, social justice issues are deeply interconnected with the environmental movement. Racialized and Indigenous communities often face an inequitable level of environmental risk or disproportionate impacts from climate change. Environmental justice is about bringing attention to these issues and striving for fair treatment and participation of people of all races, genders, origin or income in the future of our planet.
There is much to do and it starts with taking action and raising our voices. As we learn and unlearn as an organization about being green, we want to share the knowledge we gather with the people we serve. We have done this through our longstanding Community Gardens program, and this Green Guide for Newcomers is another tool to help people meaningfully interact with the environment.
Let’s work together for a better future for people, for communities, for all!
Find our Green Guide and other environmental resources here.
Thank you to our contributors
Throughout this guide, we have gathered tips and resources from climate experts on how we can all do our part in reducing our environmental footprint. It’s our goal to connect newcomers, as well as our staff, partners and community members, to valuable information on living green in our everyday lives.
We are so grateful to the David Suzuki Foundation’s Living Green team for your partnership, guidance and information sharing. We are eager to amplify your messages of conservation and climate justice to the people and communities we serve.
Thank you as well to Surrey, BC–based A Rocha for your work in the local community, including presenting environmental awareness workshops at DIVERSEcity and sharing valuable content for this guide.
Finally, our gratitude goes to Dennis Leon, from the Kwantlen First Nation, for sharing an important Indigenous perspective to protecting the land.
We’re in this together and we can all make a difference with changes to our everyday practices and by using our voices to call for change.