September greetings from all of us at DoorNumberOne.org. I hope you are entering the fall season restored and ready for the adventures that lie ahead.
We have just over 5 years until crucial 2030 climate and biodiversity targets, and that has us doubling down on our commitment to support schools and communities.
Below you will find stories, resources, and ways to engage more deeply in the growing community locally and globally working towards 2030, and beyond to a just, beautiful world for all. I invite you to share this newsletter with someone who might benefit from some new inspiration.
For those of you starting a new school year as a student, staff member, parent/guardian, or caring community member, I wish you a joyful beginning, full of energy and purpose for the future we are co-creating.
Michèle Andrews, Executive Director
DoorNumberOne.org is registering our fourth cohort in the Climate Action Accelerator Program (CAAP)! Schools will participate over 3 years, during which time they build and begin to implement a bold, whole-school climate and nature action plan. School teams work together, building a network and learning from and with each other, as well as the experienced team of educators and experts. School teams include: Faculty, Operations & Facilities Staff, Senior Administrators, and at least 2 Student Leaders. Many schools add other key members to their team. Learn more here.
Honouring Canada’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation September 30th – Send us your Stories!
As we look ahead to Canada’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, we are inviting school and community leaders to send us stories of how you are marking that day. Tell us how you are collaborating with Indigenous knowledge keepers in your climate and nature action plans. Share how your students, staff, and community members are learning about how to steward our lands. Send us a note at info@DoorNumberOne.org, or tag us on Instagram. We will share a compilation of all your ideas in upcoming newsletters, social media and on our website!
Free Resources for Climate & Nature Action
Each summer DoorNumberOne.org refreshes and updates our programs and resources. Around the world, there is an ever-increasing number of incredible people and organizations who share our goal of transitioning to a just, beautiful and regenerative world. We invite you to check out this inspiring collection of videos, podcasts, books, websites and TedTalks expressing ideas and frameworks for provocative, paradigm-shifting change! Several were released just in the last few months. We curated the work of scientists, artists, visionaries, engineers, farmers, speakers, young people, authors, filmmakers, advocates, and teachers. Please reach out and share with us any resources you think we are missing! You can reach us by email, Instagram, or LinkedIn.
Inspiration from …
Hillfield Strathallan College
Check out this short video highlighting the many ongoing initiatives in climate and nature action at one of our CAAP Pilot Schools, Hillfield Strathallan College. HSC is a pre-school through Grade 12 independent school in Hamilton, Ontario. They have made a strategic commitment to leading in climate and nature action, embedding it throughout their curricular program, operations, governance, buildings and grounds.
CAAP Featured in Academic Journal
We have a chapter in this new book!
DoorNumberOne.org’s Executive Director, Michèle Andrews collaborated with leaders at three of our CAAP schools, Eleonor Kerr, Director of Operations and John Hannah, Middle School Science Teacher at Hillfield Strathallan College, Alison Elliott Sustainability Director at Trinity College School, and Drew Stephens, Head of School at Southridge School in Surrey, B.C., along with Dr. Ellen Field, Associate Professor and renowned researcher in Climate Change Education at Lakehead University.
Our chapter is called Accelerating Change-Making: Reflections on Embedding Regenerative Practices in School Climate Action. Both the chapter and the book are an easy free download under a Creative Commons Licence.
Resources from our Spring Unconference
In April DoorNumberOne.org hosted our first Unconference of Hope and Bold School Climate Action, in Hamilton, Ontario. Teachers, students, administrators, facilities managers, parents, business leaders, and community partners all came together to share ideas and find new inspiration for our collective work on the path to a beautiful, just, regenerative future. Most workshop facilitators and speakers shared their slides and links to other resources – we put them all together here.
Our leading sponsor was Canada’s Forest Trust. They are an innovative organization supporting businesses and school communities to plant, build and protect forests across Canada. Nature-based solutions are a huge part of remedying our climate crisis, and we need innovative organizations like CFT finding new ways to engage people. Check out the presentation that Canada’s Forest Trust made at our event.
Save the Dates – July 8 – 11, 2025 – Leading Beyond Green Leadership Institute
DoorNumberOne.org will once again be co-hosting a Leadership Institute for school and district leaders wanting to deepen their practice in leading aspirational climate and nature action. We are returning to the pastoral setting of The Ecology School at River Bend Farm in Maine. Set on over 300 acres, The Ecology School has an active agroecology farm, and has built its dining hall and dormitory to the standard of the Living Building Challenge, the most aspirational building standard in the world. It is an ideal setting for our work. Learn more here.
Voices of Inspiration
We will leave you with this hopeful and inspiring TedTalk: “3000 year-old solutions to modern problems” by Diné musician, scholar, and cultural historian Lyla June, on ways we can lead regenerative practices.
Please share this newsletter with your students, friends and colleagues looking for practical inspiration for taking climate and nature action in schools and communities, and join us in building a movement too exciting to resist, and too powerful to ignore!