Here’s another spotlight blog post of our amazing vendor, Power Shift WR. Our marketing director, Jennifer Lyon, sent Kate Pearce, Community Engagement Coordinator at Power Shift WR, a few questions about the work Powershift WR does. Here are her responses!

1. Tell me about Power Shift WR.

Power Shift WR brings together community partners from different specialities, generations, and neighbourhoods to localize the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Waterloo Region. Solutions that include diverse viewpoints have never been so important. Our world is changing with unprecedented speed — and although we are more connected than ever, we continue to approach many challenges from a remarkably narrow lens. With so much talent and ingenuity in our community, we know there is a better way. We create the conditions for building local collaborations and offer a coordinated campaign to connect people, organizations and ideas across the Region.

2. How does Power Shift WR keep sustainability at the core of the organization?

Power Shift WR has been building unlikely partnerships to address sustainability in the Region of Waterloo since 2016. We do this by fostering connections between local partners to deliver events and activities that highlight sustainable solutions for all members of the community. Power Shift WR creates common ground among different specialties, generations and neighbourhoods. Power Shift 2019 is coordinated by WGSI and is linked to Generation SDG, an inititaive focused on SDG implementation in Canada. Learn more about Power Shift WR here.

3. Tell me about WGSI, Power Shift WR’s coordinator.

Power Shift WR is coordinated by Waterloo Global Science Initiative (WGSI). WGSI brings people of diverse disciplines and demographics together for brainstorming sessions around big picture sustainable development challenges. Past topics have included how to decarbonize electricity, create better high school classrooms, and improve energy access worldwide. It was WGSI’s work on energy access that highlighted a need for improved “sustainability literacy” at the community level around the world. Power Shift WR was established in 2016 to address this need in WGSI’s home community.

4. Anything new with Power Shift WR?

In Spring 2019, Power Shift WR is supporting 17 SDG-related events hosted by partner organizations in Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo. From film screenings and panel discussions to community walking tours there is something for all ages to explore the interconnected nature of sustainable development and to highlight amazing SDG-aligned work already happening in our community.