From Projects to a Community of Ideas
Hello everyone,
August has been an interesting month.
Many of the projects I’ve been working on are beginning to connect in ways I hadn’t necessarily anticipated when they started.
Water conservation, air quality, repair, renewable energy, making, education and the circular economy may look like separate subjects.
Increasingly, however, I see them as parts of the same question:
How do we build a community that is more resilient, resourceful and capable of meeting more of its own needs?
And this month, I’ve seen some encouraging signs that more people are asking that question too.
Computer Cabin — Learning How to Learn
The Computer Cabin page continues to find an audience.
Earlier posts typically received around 200–300 views. The last two have passed 500, and today’s new post is already being viewed.
That tells me people are interested in a conversation that goes beyond simply teaching children how to use computers.
Computer Cabin is about helping young people become curious problem-solvers.
Coding matters. Electronics matter. Computers matter.
But so do screwdrivers, sensors, 3D printers, experimentation—and occasionally building something that doesn’t work.
The goal isn’t to give young people all the answers.
It’s to help them become people who know how to find them.
Foothills Makers — More Than a Room Full of Tools
Another idea that became clearer this month is what a community makerspace could actually become.
A makerspace shouldn’t simply be a room containing equipment.
It can be a place where people develop ideas, learn skills, build prototypes, repair things and help one another turn concepts into working projects.
The Foothills Makers page will increasingly showcase projects such as the rainwater biofilter and sand battery, while also providing space for other local makers to share what they’re building.
That’s important.
A resilient community doesn’t need one person coming up with all the ideas.
It needs places where many people can develop their own.
Repair Is Becoming a Regional Idea
Our next Diamond Valley Repair Café & Trade Day is September 12 at the Griffiths Centre.
But something larger is also beginning to happen.
Diamond Valley, Okotoks and High River are increasingly connected through a developing Foothills Repair Café network.
Rather than each community operating completely independently, the opportunity exists to share knowledge, volunteers, repair skills and eventually resources across the Foothills.
At our September event, we’ll also be introducing a Try It Table, beginning with simple birdhouse kits.
You don’t even need to bring something broken.
Come build something, learn something or share what you know.
Community Air Quality — And It’s for Here
Our PurpleAir monitor continues to provide real-time local air-quality information through the Sustainable Life website.
One of my favourite responses this month has come from people who stop while I’m sitting outside and tell me they’ve been looking at the map.
The comment I particularly like is:
“…and it’s for here.”
That’s really what community environmental monitoring should be.
Not simply regional or provincial information, but information that helps us understand what’s happening in the air around our own homes and neighbourhoods.
The Community Air Quality page will continue developing as part of a larger Environmental Monitoring initiative.
Thinking in Systems
I’ve also been spending considerable time this summer studying systems thinking.
One lesson keeps appearing:
Everything is connected.
Water affects food.
Food affects waste.
Waste can become a resource.
Energy affects water.
Land-use decisions affect transportation, infrastructure and municipal costs.
Repair affects consumption.
Education affects our ability to solve all of these problems in the future.
Once we begin seeing those connections, sustainability stops being a collection of environmental projects.
It becomes a way of thinking about how a community works.
Perhaps the Network Already Exists
Earlier this summer, I began developing the idea of a Community Sustainability Network—a way of connecting residents, organizations, businesses, schools and people with useful skills around practical community projects.
I now have a short list of people who have expressed interest.
But something else has occurred to me.
Perhaps the network doesn’t begin when we hold a meeting or create an organization.
Perhaps it begins whenever someone decides to do something useful and invites their neighbours to participate.
This month, a Diamond Valley resident created a free produce stand outside her home because her garden produces more vegetables than she and her husband can use.
People can take what they need.
Other gardeners are invited to leave their surplus.
Food gets used instead of wasted.
Neighbours help neighbours.
No committee was required.
That’s community resilience in its simplest form.
And there are examples like it happening all around us.
Maybe part of our job is simply to help those ideas find each other.
Looking Ahead
September should be another busy month.
We’ll have the Diamond Valley Repair Café & Trade Day, continued work on Community Air Quality and Foothills Makers, more Computer Cabin conversations, ongoing research into water and the circular economy, and several new articles already taking shape.
But I’m becoming less interested in how many projects we can create.
I’m much more interested in how well we can connect the ones that already exist.
Because stronger communities aren’t built by one organization.
They’re built when people discover what they can accomplish together.
Thank you, as always, for reading, sharing ideas, asking questions and participating.
Sustainability grows when we share it.
Have a wonderful September,
Dusty Williams
Founder & Sustainability Lead
Sustainable Life
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