Biodiversité

b2b, b2c, triple bottom line, Hybrid,

Mission Statement

At Mycelium, we believe that ecology is economics.
It is this belief that is at the core of our business model.
We believe in a vision which elevates the understanding of our dependence on the health of the Earth’s Ecosystems. And this understanding is acted upon through our Triple Bottom Line (people, planet, profit) Hybrid Business Model.
We strive to promote ideas, products and technologies which integrate the “Cradle to Cradle” design philosophy.
In so doing, we are working to conserve, protect and sustain the rich cultural and biological diversity, which makes our planet unique, rich and habitable.

A visitor to Tofino is eating lunch. They ask their server about the battles to stop the logging of Clayoquot's ancient rainforests. The server is only here for the summer, and is keen to help save Clayoquot Sound, but doesn't really have all the answers or time to provide them. But she knows of the Friends of Clayoquot Sound office through her Tofino Ambassador training at the Chamber of Commerce. She refers the visitor to the Friends of Clayoquot Sound's brand new retail space, where they can stop by and hear directly from FOCS what happened here 20 and 30 years ago, and what is going on right now with the ongoing logging of rainforests, and the threat of an open pit copper mine within sight of Tofino. The visitor gets stoked, purchases some eco-gifts, picks up the latest FOCS newsletter, and joins our Wilderness Team as a monthly donor. They are now engaged, and can begin to join FOCS letter-writing campaigns to help keep Clayoquot Wild!

Services include counselling, through camping, food gathering, hiking, and touring, attending cultural and community events and other green recreational activities (skateboarding, long boarding, surfing, skim boarding, paddle boardings, canoeing, kayaking etc). Touring services include fishing, hunting, camping, cooking, bird and mammal watching, and other green recreational activities as well as touring cultural items and areas.
As participants carry through the program together I believe they will develop friendships and partnerships that help them to better appreciate the outdoors with other participants. Counselling with anti-bullying and pro-leadership approaches. As friendships develop and interests build participants will generate both interests and a social circle with interests revolving around the outdoors whether it be; hiking, kayaking, swimming, canoeing, fishing, mushroom and berry picking, hunting, sea asparagus picking, cedar bark gathering and weaving. These activities will hopefully replace or prevent drug, alcohol, and high risk taking activities.
My hopes are that a participant with who had had little chance to experience food gathering would learn about picking a variety of foods, and would get the chance to see the outdoor beauty that is Haida Gwaii and build up a wealth of activities that they enjoyed. Foods gathered could be presented to families or to community groups and this gifting would be a modern way of improving self esteem by being a provider as well as a traditional means of raising ones own self worth and status in the community.

When reviewing land-use plans, resource extraction plans, conservation goals, production and distribution of natural resources, stakeholder engagement, etc. -within the Columbia Mountains- it becomes apparent that there are several organizations, industries, governmental agencies, and special interest groups that work within specific areas with very little collaboration amongst each other. However, all these groups are working with and relying upon a region -naturally delineated by the Columbia Mountains- which provides common ecological and cultural grounds.
The solution we are proposing is to identify and collaborate with all entities involved in the use and protection of the natural resources within the Columbia Mountains, to help create a coordinated and comprehensive approach that helps define and achieve economic and environmental sustainability, within a meaningful landscape unit.

We will grow and harvest vegetable crops on front and back lawns in Vancouver. We ask landowners to let us use their space, and in return they will receive a discount on our vegetables. The vegetables we grow will be used to fill community shared agriculture (CSA) shares. CSA is a program where shareholders pay for a share the beginning of the growing season and are provided a weekly box of vegetables until the end of the season (18-20 weeks). Shareholders and community members are actively engaged in understanding the risks that farmers take and the lengthy process of food production.

We do not want to exist as a for-profit business. Our goals as an organization are to reduce barriers to "just" food, encourage people to have a connection with the food they eat, and do this in a way that reduces our environmental footprint. We encourage shareholders to visit our gardens and participate in the process, in order to build a community of people in Vancouver who understand the importance food plays in our lives. We will coordinate a network of landowners and gardeners; there are far too many people waiting for community garden plots in Vancouver. We hope to negotiate with landowners to develop their space into "community plots," using profits to add nutrients to the land and offering workshops on small-plot gardening.

For ex- Power consumption is a major concern for institutions. The energy audit by students found that the computers were on the whole day (in screensaver mode) contributing to a large section of the bill.Our students developed a PC power Management software which put computer to sleep or hibernate and upon resume, informed the user of the power savings, CO2 savings, and cut power consumption drastically. The users not only became aware of their usage patterns but put the PCs to sleep when not in use cutting the power consumption of the PC by 95%.

Another instance would be: We were sensitizing students to understand local bio diversity in their campus. Reap Benefit realized that using the ubiquitous mobile phone with GPS could help locate the position of a tree and its species but also made students aware about the interdependent wild life which exists.This exercise provided the management with a valuable database of the existing bio diversity and its environmental impact beyond the campus.

We strongly believe in making noticeable systemic changes. This allows for evaluation of students efforts. Such noticeable changes inspires others to make a difference and allows one to connect with the issue. The management and parents see the effects of the interventions, changing their mindsets. The intervention builds a platform for the students creating a lasting change in the culture of the institution which can be seen and quantified. This makes the system organic, able to evolve and adapt to the changes.

Wild Voices for Kids (WVFK) is CBEEN’s flagship environmental and heritage education program, providing free curriculum-linked classroom presentations and field trips to over 12,000 K-12 students each year across the region’s six school districts. WVFK is simply a database of local presenters who share their environmental or heritage knowledge with students. CBEEN recruits and trains these volunteers from all walks of life (e.g. wildlife biologists, archaeologists, First Nations storytellers, etc), helps them develop programs that meet BC K-12 Prescribed Learning Outcomes, and promotes their programs via online searchable database. Teachers search for and book presentations that meet their grade level, subject, and learning goals. WVFK provides presenters with a cash honoraria and also cover costs of transportation for field trips.
Involvement in community events and celebrations helps forge new connections to other community partners and expertise. Flexibility allows participation in special events with visiting experts who have come to share their knowledge or special occasions such as the Salmon Festival which celebrates spawning salmon or the spring sturgeon release. Without the Wild Voices program schools could not afford the events or have the connections to bring this visiting expertise to their classroom.
By providing the website with availability to all local expertise teachers at all levels now have access to programs they would never have had access to previously and local informal educators have the opportunity to share their knowledge.