Leadership: In Our Own Backyard

While CWF is proud to be a leader on a global scale, we recognize that it is even more important to lead conservation and wildlife-friendly practices in our own backyard. Conserving wildlife and natural spaces means understanding that all our actions have an impact on the environment. 

CWF encourages national, provincial and municipal governments to be responsible for the short- and long-term health of wildlife and habitat in their regions. In the past fiscal year CWF became a partner of the City of Montreal’s sustainable plan and will participate with other partners in the integration of the biodiversity axis in the new 2010 to 2015 plan. CWF also participated in the activities of the Regional Centre of Expertise of Montreal, created to deliver sustainable development education to local and regional communities in Quebec.

CWF would like to congratulate the City of Montreal for considering wildlife and habitat in its long-term sustainable planning and we would like to encourage other levels of government to follow in its footsteps.

This past fiscal year, we continued our goal of reducing our own footprint. Our Ottawa office grounds include vibrant gardens comprised of native plants, which demonstrate several features that can be easily adapted to regional landscaping, including a bog garden, a drought garden, a hummingbird garden, a pollinator garden and a shade garden.

We are also using solar panels to offset our energy use. Each of the solar panels produces eight to 10 kilowatt hours (KW-H) per day — enough energy to supplement office equipment and lighting — and eliminates more than two tonnes of carbon emissions per year. You can watch how much energy our solar panels generate — currently and historically — here.  As a community leader, CWF plans to expand the number of solar panels on our grid-tie system — the first in the Ottawa area — to further decrease our dependence on the power grid and to offset all of our other energy use.