By Dr. Trevor Hancock

“Think globally, act locally” was one of the enduring slogans of the 1970’s environmental movement. But I believe that we need to think locally as well as act locally, and thus I am leading the organisation of a series of local Conversations on Victoria as a One Planet region, a concept I first suggested in my August 10^th column last year. The purpose is to explore the idea and begin the process of imagining a future for our community where we have a high quality of life and a low ecological footprint.

But this is no mere academic exercise, it has a very practical application. We are entering the Anthropocene, a new geologic epoch created by human activity. We have become a force to rival nature; in one telling line in a short video – Welcome to the Anthropocene – produced for a 2012 international conference in London, the narrator notes “we move more sediment and rock annually than all natural processes, such as erosion and rivers”.

On top of that, we are changing the climate, have made a hole in the ozone layer, manage three-quarters of the land outside the ice-sheets, and have started a sixth Great Extinction. Our rate of resource use and pollution is so high that if everyone on Earth lived the way we do, we would need three or four new planets to meet our demands.

We cannot blithely continue on like this. Nor can we say to the rest of the world – sorry, you must take less so that we can take more; it would be unjust and they will not accept that. So clearly we need to learn to live within the limits of the one small planet that is our home.

I recently came across Bioregional, a non-profit consultancy based in the UK. They have mainly been working with developers on ‘One Planet’ developments; Dockside Green, as orginally conceived, would have fitted right in. But more recently, some cities have been developing and adopting One Planet plans; of particular interest to us is Brighton and Hove, on the south coast of England, which has a population about the same as ours. And last Friday in Vancouver there was an event to begin to explore ‘How do we become a One Planet city?’ So our series of Conversations are right on target.

But getting from here to there will not be easy, because the changes we need are massive, transformative – and they have to happen quickly. However people are not going to willingly and easily make the changes that are needed if they see them as harmful. That is the dilemma – and the challenge – we face. Can we imagine and then describe a positive vision of what our region would look like if it had a high Happy Planet Index? And more to the point, what would our society be like, how would we reconceive our economy, what are the value shifts we would have to bring about?

Our Conversations, then, clearly need to be as much about philosophy, the humanities, the arts and the social sciences as technology and the natural sciences. We will need need visionaries, hope and imagination, innovation and new forms of entrepreneurship that make a profit while building natural, social and human capital.

These free Conversations start Monday, January 23^rd from 5 – 7 PM at the Robert Bateman Centre, 470 Belleville Street and continue weekly for 5 weeks. The opening Conversation will lay out some basic ideas and discuss the estimation of Victoria’s ecological footprint, an essential step in measuring the HPI. Over the following weeks we will discuss the Indigenous perspective on these issues (Jan 30) and what a One Planet energy system (Feb 6), transportation system (Feb 13) and food system (Feb 22^nd) would look like.

This will culminate in a UVic IdeaFest event on Saturday March 11^th at New Horizons in James Bay. But already ideas are being hatched for more Conversations: What is the role of the arts in contributing to this transformation? What do the various faith communities have to say about a One Planet way of life? What sort of economy fits a one Planet region- and many more issues. The Conversation is just beginning.

© Trevor Hancock, 2017

Originally Published in Times Colonist.

Photo by Claudio Vasquez.

By Dr. Trevor Hancock

The high cost of health care, driven in part by a strategic failure to invest adequately in prevention and self-care support, is diverting our attention and resources from what should be our number one priority. On both humane and economic grounds we need to reduce the burden of disease and the need for health care.

But doing so is largely beyond the scope of the health care system and the Ministry of Health. Because the major determinants of our health lie in areas such as food, housing, education, income, safe and healthy neighbourhoods, good working conditions, a clean environment and a stable climate – none of which fall within the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health. This requires reform for health, in which the whole government, led by the Premier, accepts and acts upon its responsibility to improve the population’s health.

As a society we need to invest in policies and practices that will improve the health of the population. And we have to stop creating ill health that just adds to the burden of disease and the costs of health care. Yet we know that “social injustice is killing people on a grand scale”, as the World Health Organization’s Commission on the Social Determinants of Health bluntly put it in its 2008 report; it is also making people sick on a grand scale.

People whose lives and choices are constrained by poverty, hunger, homelessness, poor education, unhealthy living and working conditions, multiple insecure jobs and other stressors will find it hard, if not impossible, to lead healthy lives and raise healthy children: It is a testament to their strength that so many manage to do so in the face of such adversity.

The costs of poverty and inequality are not only lost human potential but significant economic costs. In an April 2016 report, the Public Health Agency of Canada found that for just three health care services, representing only one quarter of total health care spending, “socio-economic health inequalities cost Canada’s health care system at least $6.2 billion annually”.

Noting that the lowest income group accounted for more than half of this excess cost, they concluded that “Improving the health of this group could significantly reduce these costs”. When you add in the other costs associated with poverty, it becomes clear that poverty is so expensive that we just cannot afford it. Which is why provinces such as Ontario are beginning to look at some form of guaranteed minimum income.

In addition, we are becoming increasingly aware that our current economic and industrial system is creating massive global ecological changes that threaten to undermine the very basis of our health: An adequate supply of water, food, fuel and materials, waste detoxification, a stable climate and a viable web of life, of which we are a part.

Photo

by

Claudio Vasquez.

The danger is that when ecosystems decline, the societies embedded within and dependent upon them also decline. In ecological and human health terms, business as usual is so expensive that we can’t afford it. We need to switch to a new development path, one that puts people and planet first, not profit – at least, not profit based in an economic system that ignores or externalises damage to people and the planet.

We need to invest in poverty reduction, affordable housing, food security, education, a fossil fuel-free economy, sustainable development and other key determinants of health. Because ultimately, the health of our population depends upon what we do beyond health care.

But this is not only about public policy, important though that is. It is also about what the private sector does and how it behaves. The reality is that many private sector activities threaten health; we have seen countless examples of industries and investors that are determined to go on making money and ignoring the harm they do.

We need to pay much more attention to what Dr. John Millar, a former Provincial Health Officer for BC, has called ‘the corporate determinants of health’. In fact, we need a new economic model –in which we aim to simultaneously increase natural, social, human and economic capital – and new ways of measuring progress.

Now that would be reform for health!

© Trevor Hancock, 2016

Originally published in Times Colonist on 26 Dec, 2016

By Paola Ardiles

Who are we?  

Bridge for Health was created in 2013 as a volunteer based network to foster innovative strategies that enable people to have more control over conditions that impact their health. Since its inception three years ago the network has reached people across Canada and abroad, and has evolved into an incubator of social innovation in health, with empowerment and community engagement at its core.

Our Goal

The co-op works with community organizations and businesses to co-design healthy social and built environments that promote wellbeing.  The ultimate goal is to support transformation of our society towards a safe, sustainable and healthy future for all.

Why a co-op?

Co-ops promote inclusiveness, collective leadership and shared ownership, all concepts that are core to promoting health and wellbeing. The co-op will focus on social innovation research and consulting.

How to get involved?

Join the co-op member today!

Have a say in how we operate and grow.

Make an impact and join our research and consultant team or join one of our committees to help us sustain our efforts..

Connect today at info@bridgeforhealth.org

By Marianne Meadahl, Paola Ardiles, Shawn Smith, Simon Fraser University

The community will become the classroom for one group of Simon Fraser University students this fall. As part of their involvement in an immersive course called Health Change Lab, they’ll be tasked with finding potential solutions for some key community health issues, while learning from and being mentored by community stakeholders.

Billed as a “living laboratory” the Surrey-based course was developed by Paola Ardiles from SFU’s Faculty of Health Sciences and Shawn Smith from the Beedie School of Business RADIUS social innovation lab. Working together with the City of Surrey and Fraser Health, students will spend one day a week in Surrey, conceiving ideas and creating projects designed to impact health and wellbeing in the community.

The Change Lab concept was launched five years ago by SFU alumna Jennifer McRae while still an undergraduate student, as an experiment in the future of learning at universities. Run for several years as an interdisciplinary experience between the Faculty of Environment and Beedie School of Business, the program has been offered at all three campuses and is now partnering with Health Sciences and adding a Health Change Lab cohort in Surrey. Students in any of the Change Labs earn seven credits towards a certificate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

In Surrey, health innovation dovetails with SFU’s relationship with neighboring Fraser Health Authority, the City of Surrey and the University’s role as a co-founder of the burgeoning Innovation Boulevard, designed to grow health and health technology in the region.

“This is a unique approach because students are not only learning, they will be making a difference in this community, as they will work on priority issues identified by Surrey partners,” says Paola Ardiles, a lecturer in health sciences and champion of health innovation, based at the Surrey campus.

The 30-student cohort includes students from health sciences, business, interactive arts and technology, and arts and social sciences. Students will spend the first week getting to know an array of community players and take a “social innovation walking tour” of downtown Surrey. A retreat to shore up their roles as prospective change-makers will follow.

They’ll next identify key issues such as food security and active transportation, taking a wide view that focuses on root causes rather than symptoms.

Students will share their emerging venture concepts with a panel of entrepreneurs and community leaders for feedback, drawing input from mentors. They’ll do a “deep dive” into prototyping and test their early stage ideas, giving demos and making presentations along the way.

“Our goal with the Change Labs concept is to create the most powerful experience of each participant’s undergraduate experience,” says Shawn Smith founder of RADIUS. The Health Change Lab, like other courses in the entrepreneurship and innovation program, focuses on building great future entrepreneurs, moreso than specific venture outcomes. But Smith says many Change Lab concepts have already moved on to the incubation process. “Our plan,” he adds, “is to be SFU’s main pipeline of future change-makers.”

You can follow the student’s journey this term via #healthchangelab