Climate & Environment

Canadian communities face challenges of declining infrastructure quality and diminishing health and resilience of many ecosystems, a challenge made far more pressing by climate change. To address this, leading local governments are starting to identify, value and account for natural assets in their financial planning and asset management programs as a means to develop deliver core services sustainably through a climate resilient green infrastructure. This four-week online course covers core concepts, the most recent case examples and latest approaches to municipal natural asset management. The course will provide both essential information to anyone working for, or with local governments or who is interested in innovative approaches to community sustainability. The course also offers an opportunity to discuss with peers and the instructor, potential approaches to challenges and opportunities in learners' own communities.

This five-week online course offered by the Climate Risk Institute and delivered by leading infrastructure and resilience experts will provide an overview of the fundamental principles that underpin climate change science; the application of climate scenarios; the role of global and regional climate models in predicting the behaviour of the climate system in response to different forcing scenarios, and how we can translate climate model outputs in support of multi-scale impacts assessment or design of various engineering systems including infrastructure systems. Examples will be drawn from various aspects of the built environment and engineering infrastructure to illustrate the impacts in a changing climate, possible mitigation and adaptation approaches, and challenges, opportunities and engineering design decision-making under climate change uncertainty.

This five-week online course offered by the Climate Risk Institute and delivered by leading infrastructure and resilience experts introduces the fundamentals of asset management. Learners will explore the impacts of climate change on asset lifecycle performance, finding opportunities to improve climate resilience of infrastructure through the asset management process, the role of natural assets and natural asset management in climate resilience, and the benefits and challenges of infrastructure asset management. Through discussions around land use planning, operations and maintenance, finance, and risk management, this course provides an understanding of how climate can impact assets and services, and how the asset management process can be used to implement climate action to build resilience effectively.

Climate change is one of the biggest risks facing governments, businesses, societies and ecosystems around the world. Project managers, through their effective direction of complex projects, occupy a critical role in the successful transition to a resilient, low carbon world. This four-week online course is designed to prepare professionals with project management responsibilities to add a climate change lens to their projects.

If you are concerned about where your food comes from, what’s in it (or on it), or simply getting the best nutrition possible, growing your own healthy, nutritious and delicious fruits and vegetables is the way to go. Learn essential applied permaculture and organic gardening techniques to optimize your garden for year-round enjoyment, use holistic solutions for plant health, harvest your own seeds, and more. Practical and hands-on projects, guided by experienced professional organic gardeners.

Be prepared for a major shift in paradigms! This is a gardening course, and so much more. Students have called it "life changing" - because once we truly understand the connection between soil health, plant health, human health and environmental health we look at the world with different eyes. This is our core course. It's intense - challenging - inspiring, and taking the country by storm! You will get the same comprehensive, professional curriculum as the Organic Horticulture Specialist course, but discussions will generally reflect the interests of a more mixed audience including home gardeners, budding farmers and landscape professionals. Depending on registrations, we may combine students from both courses to keep class sizes manageable!

The reality of being self-employed can be daunting. Certainly there is great satisfaction and freedom in being one’s own boss, but there are also many obligations and pitfalls. Most small businesses fail in their first year of operation because the owners are unaware of legislative requirements, and do not have the skills to properly plan and manage the business. Drawing on 40 years of small business experience, this course goes well beyond information found in textbooks and on the web, providing a practical interpretation of common business problems, and guidance to solutions. While it is addressed at small business owners in the ornamental land care and farming sectors, this course is equally applicable to all other types of small business. Participants will develop their own marketing and business plans.

This very comprehensive course begins with an overview of historical garden design perspectives, including an examination of the role of art, statuary, wildlife, water, and native ecosystems. The principles of landscape design and how the various elements are used in softscaping and hardscaping will be examined in detail on how to achieve particular esthetics and function. Design terminology and drafting skills will be applied when following the steps of the design process. Through case studies and project work, the topics of site analysis, hardscape construction and grading, estimating and landscape supplies, drainage and water solutions, site remediation and special needs will be covered. Throughout, presentation skills will be emphasized. This course partially satisfies the requirements for the Gaia College Diploma in Organic Land Care. Several professional associations grant Continuing Education Credits for this course (ISA, CNLA, BCSLA, SOUL).

As an ancient, yet ever new practice, the harvesting and use of rainwater is fast becoming a major issue, not only in third-world countries, but also in more developed regions, and in particular, large urban centers. By using the concepts of rainwater management, and implementing key components of rainwater harvesting, professionals and trades practitioners will be able to design, create and manage quality systems in a sustainable and environmentally ethical manner.

This course provides an overview of plant and ecosystem relationships, through a brief review of ecosystem ecology, botany, and plant physiology as it relates to choosing and planting a variety of native plants. The plant identification component emphasizes native landscape plants including annuals, perennials, shrubs, deciduous and evergreen trees which are commonly used in the ornamental landscape for the temperate and colder northern hemisphere.

Plants are a product of their native environment, having adapted to specific soil, water and climate conditions. These are complex relationships, and to create thriving landscapes we need understand the growing conditions in the plants' native range. Learn plant identification emphasizing ornamental landscape plants including annuals, perennials, shrubs, deciduous and evergreen trees, commonly used in the ornamental landscape of the temperate and cooler northern hemisphere. Weed identification and practices such as pruning will also be covered.

In this course addressed at planners, policy makers and developers we introduce and discuss the complexity and simplicity of integrated natural solutions – low impact development (LID) and living green infrastructure (GI). In “The State of Canadian Cities and Communities, 2012” the Federation of Canadian Municipalities calls for the employment of more sustainable technologies and practices, an investment in resilient infrastructure for long-term future benefits. This course is designed to provide the knowledge and tools to assist professionals and practitioners in attaining a proficient level of competence in living green infrastructure, and for implementing these technologies and best management practices throughout the planning, constructing and maintenance phase of land development.