Action by Canadians / Count Me In

The climate change workshop was a one and a half or two hour interactive workshop focused on developing awareness and understanding of climate change, and the actions individuals can take to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions. The workshop was designed by professional adult educators and applied the principles of adult education. Some key principles used in the design included: adults learn by doing (as opposed to passively listening or watching) and there are differing learning styles. Lengthy lecture segments were also avoided.


The training programme had the following key features:

• An introductory lecture on the science of climate change.
• A group activity that highlighted what could be done.
• A lecture and facilitated discussion about how everyone could make a difference.
• An opportunity for participants to commit to energy efficient actions.
• Post workshop monitoring and reinforcement.

Workshops were delivered at companies and locations that included Shell, Dofasco, Syncrude, Ontario Power Generation, IBM, Enbridge, Dupont Canada and the City of Toronto. The companies approached were typically those who felt climate change was a serious concern and were willing to take some sort of action. Through the ABC or Count Me In! in-reach programs, companies were able to increase employee awareness, promote action and send a strong message to their staff and customers that they took climate change seriously.

Environment.

Between May of 1999 and October 2000, over 175 workshops were delivered to over 45 different companies and government offices across Canada. The target audience was Canadians who did not have an extensive background on climate change. More than 3,500 people participated in the workshop including office employees, CEOs and VPs, plant workers and field crews. Regardless of the audience or the company, the workshop was very well received. The workshop was modified based on comments and feedback received from the pilot phase and early workshop deliveries. The workshop and workshop tools were also modified regionally to take into account each region's circumstances and source of energy (i.e. greenhouse gas generation is dependent on the type of energy source such as hydroelectric, nuclear, coal, etc.).