Learn tips to protect, maintain and plant trees in your yard. Our city trees provide a wide variety of benefits to us from cleaning our air and water to improving our overall health. Trees and shrubs are also beneficial to pollinators and wildlife.
City trees face a variety of threats from Emerald Ash Borer to climate change. Presented by Patrick Gilbride from Reep Green Solutions. Hosted by Preston Idea Exchange.
Date: Saturday, April 6
Time: 2:30 – 3:15pm
Cost: Free!
Online: Please note an email address is required for online registration.
By phone: 519.653.3632
In person: Visit any Idea Exchange location to register.
13 Oct 2018
Landscape Solutions for Managing Water
EVENT DETAILS
Learn ways to add landscape solutions like rain gardens, bioswales, and trees into your yard. See first-hand the gardens at Avenue Road Baptist Church that are designed to soak up and filter stormwater.
Tour the rain garden and row of trees that reduce water runoff into the newly revamped stormwater pond. We will discuss actions that can reduce runoff from our properties and help to protect our local water ways, such as nearby Shade’s Mills Pond.
Date/Time: Saturday October 13th, 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Location: Avenue Road Baptist Church (465 Avenue Rd, Cambridge, ON N1R 5S4)
Registration: Free (space is limited so reserve your spot)
Light refreshments provided
Presenter: Becca Robinson, RAIN Coach, Reep Green Solutions
Becca Robinson is the Principal Designer and Owner of Grow and Gather Design and is currently the RAIN Coach for REEP Green Solutions. Her practice of landscape architecture centres around the creation of places that promote and celebrate the benefits of interacting with nature.
She has been the landscape designer for prestigious projects such as Maggie’s Cancer Care Centre, a City of Edinburgh park adjacent to the Holyrood Palace (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), and the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge (DRIWR).
She has a Masters of Landscape Architecture from University of Michigan and a B.S. in Environmental Science from University of North Carolina.
Workshop Funders and Partners:
REGISTRATION
EVENT DETAILS
Meet at Idea Exchange, Preston and enjoy a guided walk through historic Riverside Park. Throughout its history, the park has been a gathering spot for people in the community. Learn more about the trees that live and grow in the park and share our urban environment. This workshop will be led by Kristen Grittani, an ISA Certified Arborist, and Patrick Gilbride, from Reep Green Solutions. Visit Idea Exchange for more information.
REGISTRATION
Online – Please note an email address is required for online registration.
By phone – 519-653-3632
In Person – Visit any Idea Exchange location to register
20 Sep 2017
Greening Your Neighbourhood Workshop – Sept 20
For Residents of the Fiddlesticks neighbourhood
(see map below for boundaries)
The Greening Your Neighbourhood Workshop will invite neighbours to collaborate with city planners, engineers and landscape designers to imagine ways to improve the use of the outdoor space in the neighbourhood so it can manage stormwater and improve the quality of life for residents. Landscape solutions that help to manage rain also can have benefits to the community by adding to its beauty, adding green space and shade, and lowering the risk of flooding. The goal of this workshop is to explore and develop projects that could be acted upon by community members.
People who attend the workshop will be led through a series of activities that will tap into their unique knowledge to identify priority areas that could be enhanced or improved in the neighbourhood. Participants will then evaluate and prioritize potential projects to green the neighbourhood and improve its resiliency to climate change.
Refreshments will be provided. There will be child friendly activities for those with young children.
Agenda:
To follow
Neighbourhood Boundary Map
The neighbourhood for the project includes an area bordered on the north by Saginaw Parkway. The southern boundary of the area will be Avenue Road, the western boundary is Cowan Boulevard, and the eastern boundary is Light Drive.
Facilitated by Reep Green Solutions’ RAIN Coach
Becca Robinson is the Principal Designer and Owner of Grow and Gather Design (www.growandgatherdesign.com) and is currently the RAIN Coach for REEP Green Solutions. Her practice of landscape architecture centres around the creation of places that promote and celebrate the benefits of interacting with nature.
She has been the landscape designer for prestigious projects such as Maggie’s Cancer Care Centre, a City of Edinburgh park adjacent to the Holyrood Palace (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), and the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge (DRIWR). She has a Masters of Landscape Architecture from University of Michigan and a B.S. in Environmental Science from University of North Carolina.
Earth Day is on a Saturday this year
Come and join the celebrations at the Reep House for Sustainable Living!
Enter our prize draw! Tattoos for the kids!
Here’s what’s happening
Open House 10 – 3
Drop and check out environmentally friendly features both inside and outside the Reep House for Sustainable Living.
Ask the Experts
10 – 1 Home Energy Efficiency: Dave Wood, Registered Energy Advisor
10 – 11 Water Conservation: Brendan Schaefer, Reep House Facilities Manager
12 – 1 Insulation: Brendan Schaefer, Reep House Facilities Manager
1 – 3 RAIN Smart Homes: Patrick Gilbride, RAIN Program Manager
1 – 3 Taking action on climate change: Danielle Laperriere, ClimateActionWR
2 – 3 Waste Reduction: Andrea Bales, Waste Reduction Advisor
RSVP on Facebook. Invite your friends!
Schneider Creek Neighbourhood Clean Up
10 a.m. – Gather at the park by the pedestrian bridge on Peter Street
10 a.m. – 12 p.m. – Clean up!
Noon – Return to Reep House to enjoy hospitality and open house
Here’s one of the stories that we share in our 2016 Report to the Community about how we help you live sustainably.
Imagine turning off your heat in December and not noticing for three days that you never turned it back on. That may be hard to believe but that is exactly what Johanne and Marcel Girard of Cambridge shared by video to those attending our 2015 awards event.
When they decided to embark on a major renovation of their century home, they arranged for an EnerGuide Home Evaluation by one of REEP Green Solutions’ team of Certified Energy Advisors (CEA). What they learned was that much of their heat was making its way outside.
Their CEA laid out for them the criteria to qualify for the Union Gas Home Reno Rebate program. By doing two projects to improve their home energy efficiency, they qualified for $2,095 in rebates including the costs of the home evaluations before and after the renovations.
Initially, the Girards just wanted to replace their baseboards. It became a bigger project when they discovered their walls didn’t have any insulation but they learned that they could get a rebate for adding it if they had a home energy evaluation.
Their CEA recommended insulating the walls, which in their case meant gutting rooms to the stud and adding batt insulation with a vapour barrier.
The difference their work made has been dramatic. They are on balanced payments for their natural gas based on their previously leaky home. At the end of their first year in the upgraded house, they received $994 back because they had cut their use of natural gas by 37%. They also saved $25 monthly on their electrical costs.
“I can turn on the heat on a cold day for a couple hours and the house stays warm throughout the day,” says Johanne. “And I’m a chilly willy, if I say the house is warm, it’s warm!”
As the Province of Ontario rolls out an enhanced home energy upgrade program, there will be more opportunities across the Region to increase the warmth and comfort of our homes while reducing heating costs. See our website for complete details.
ClimateActionWR reports that 22% of local greenhouse gas emissions come from our homes’ energy use. Having a home energy evaluation and implementing the recommendations is important so that your home can be a part of the solution to climate change.
