Westben Sustainability Team Update
Celebrating Achieving this Season’s ‘Low-Hanging’ Sustainability Goals!
Note: This blog post originally appeared in the Trent Hills Tribune in August 2022.
Written by Ben Finley.
Thank you to the many healing concerts all around us; the wind dance through lush-filled flowers, leaves, and branches, the crickets making nightly sheets of sonic ambiance, green frogs gulping punctuations and presence, fireflies putting on spectacular light shows all around. It has been so rejuvenating to be with people and re-gather with music after isolating years…and we look forward to more of it at our upcoming Fall Fest!
In this article, I’m excited to share with you a few of the goals Westben’s Sustainability Team is proud to have worked on this season! If any of this resonates with you or if you’d like to be on the team (open to all ages), please feel free to email me at: ben@westben.ca. I’d love to hear from you!
1. Waste: Before this season, our waste went into either big garbage or recycling bins. They weren’t labelled very well so many recyclable items and even some reusable items (e.g. glasses) went into the trash! Now, we have grey bins blue bins, compost, and better signage. We also launched a paperless program option.
2. Transportation: Westben now has bike racks! Wahoo! We also have some basic tools so if you need to do some on-the-fly repairs before or after a show! We are working on getting certified by Ontario By Bike. We had a great group ride with members of the WST and Bike Action to the Queer Songbook Orchestra show. Also, we were pretty pumped (sorry, not sorry for the pun!) when we learned that someone biked from Brighton to Joel Plaskett!
3. Experiences: From the campfire poetry of Sarah Lewis (Peterborough’s first Poet Laureate, Anishnaabe Kwe from Curve Lake First Nation), to the bird song improvisations during Eve Parker Finley’s show, to dancing to the Afro-Cuban sounds of Okan with songs about immigration, courage and love—to my ears and heart, each concert contributes in some way to a cultural dimension of sustainability, and connects us to nature and the arts.
Okan brings songs about immigration, courage and love to The Barn!
Sarah Lewis, Peterborough’s first Poet Laureate, Anishnaabe Kwe from Curve Lake First Nation, ignites The Campfire with powerful poetry.
4. Habitats: Thanks to our gardening team we have two gardens with native plants. We have also identified a few invasive species around the property and have had some advice on slight habitat improvements (e.g. respecting bird breeding times).
5. Community Engagement: In addition to writing these monthly articles, Jim Turner made us an astoundingly beautiful lectern for a suggestion box onsite; we loved hearing about your sustainability ideas this summer! Many concerts started with some nature moments beforehand, e.g. where Brian or Donna would share ongoing activities of the WST and highlight a bird song you are likely to hear during the performance! We piloted an immersive experience in the conservation area with three musicians, two dancers and a group of naturalists from the NCC and received some audience feedback; check out “Birds, Breezes” and “Forest Soundprints” in September! Tickets available!
6. Conversations: We’ve had some lovely and meaningful conversations over the past few months, reflecting on how music/art, culture/community, place/nature come together in our lives and our connections to the history of this land/area. Some takeaways for me are: it’s ok to ‘go’ at multiple speeds (global/local), it is important to make sure the house band is taken care of (creatures and land around the Barn), and enjoy the process, step-by-step.
7. Organization: We’ve been doing monthly meetings with the team and have been drafting out a Sustainability Action Plan (with a core team, a timeline, and a multi-phase approach) to put in place over the next year. Did we achieve all the goals we set out to this season? No! Are we enjoying ourselves? I can say for myself, absolutely! It’s been so energizing and fun to come together over a shared desire to care for a small corner of the world, and I’m so grateful to the whole team and many Westben folks for making it happen. Next year we are working on a refillable water station, accessibility guide, waste lifecycle plan, advocating for improved bike infrastructure in the area, publicly sharing these initiatives on our site, and measuring more areas with the free Creative Green Tools. Thanks for listening and tuning in!
We’ve been doing monthly meetings with the team and have been drafting out a Sustainability Action Plan (with a core team, a timeline, and a multi-phase approach) to put in place over the next year. Did we achieve all the goals we set out to this season? No! Are we enjoying ourselves? I can say for myself, absolutely! It’s been so energizing and fun to come together over a shared desire to care for a small corner of the world, and I’m so grateful to the whole team and many Westben folks for making it happen. Next year we are working on a refillable water station, accessibility guide, waste lifecycle plan, advocating for improved bike infrastructure in the area, publicly sharing these initiatives on our site, and measuring more areas with the free Creative Green Tools. Thanks for listening and tuning in!
— Ben
The Westben Sustainability Team leads a bike ride from Campbellford to Westben!
Celebrating with a post-bike bevvy from Focal Brewery!