It’s a wrap!
We just finished our solar summer campaign by sending a letter to all local councils with the names of everyone who signed the petition calling on them to make Cowichan the solar capital of BC.
Some of the councils have now said they will explore solar further, with mentions of installations on municipal buildings and even a demonstration project, showing that our voices are being heard!
We could not have done this without the hard work of One Cowichan supporters who had hundreds and hundreds of conversations with local people at farmers markets, community events, and on the doorstep. A big thank you for your hard work.
In addition to the petition, together we did a few other things together.
At the end of June seven generous households opened their doors to others as part of a Solar Tour (like a garden tour). Dozens of people visited solar installations around the Valley to see how it’s done, to ask questions, and to get advice in terms of doing it themselves.
A research team pulled together examples of other Canadian towns, cities, and First Nations leading on solar, and we published a summary report about this that we sent to local governments, following up with delegation presentations.
And, at the end of July we were lucky to have some great outside speakers come to the Quw’utsun’ Cultural and Conference Centre to talk about lessons from the field. These included Judith Sayers, Bob Haugen, and Cheryl Shuman, moderated by Cowichan Tribes Councillor Matthew Louie.
We also need to say a big thank you to LUSH Fresh Handmade Cosmetics who gave One Cowichan a grant to do this solar work. We couldn’t have done this without them!
We’ve had a lot of fun this summer, talked to a lot of great local people, and have – we hope – set in motion a local movement towards having solar emerge as part of a solutions package. There is now even an early discussion of starting a solar co-op, so stay tuned.
Thank you again to everyone who has been involved. We look forward to building on this work in order to make our Valley a great place to live, work and play.