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Adventure Traveler Garry Sowerby in his own words:
Tuesday, September 28
Winnipeg, Killarney and Boissevain, Manitoba
Environmental Initiative #53
New Flyer Industries,
Winnipeg, Manitoba
How often do you get to do something that you've
never done before? Most days, it's 'same old, same old', but
today.
Today, I did something I've wanted to try for a long time but
I'd never done before.
I drove a bus.
And not just any bus. I drove a New Flyer 60-foot (18.5 m) hybrid
diesel-electric bus. I got to close the door. I got to open the
door. I even had a few passengers. Mind you, I couldn't leave the
parking lot because I don't have the proper license but hey! I
still drove a bus.
I had the same feeling as when I switched from training on DC-3
airplanes to jets during my military years. Where did all the noise
go? You'd think driving a bus would be noisy. But this hybrid bus
is sleek and quiet. I wanted to know if we could take it across
the country to continue the Mission Green tour.
John Marinucci, President and CEO, and Amy Miller, Director of
Marketing and Product Development of New Flyer showed the Mission
Green team through the clean, impressive facility here in Winnipeg.
New Flyer has a long history of innovation in the bus and coach
industry that dates back to 1930, when the company started as Western
Auto and Truck Body Works Limited. Since then it has grown to include
five facilities in Canada and the US.
The company has been on the leading edge of
the environmental transit movement. New Flyer has the widest
selection of heavy-duty hybrid-electric transit vehicles available,
with diesel-electric 40-foot (12 m) and 60-foot (18.5 m) vehicles
and a gasoline-electric hybrid transit bus. The company introduced
the first heavy-duty, hybrid-electric transit vehicle in 1999
to Orange County in California.
Hybrid power buses (diesel and gasoline) are the building blocks
to support transit agencies in reducing harmful emissions of particulate,
NOx and Green House Gases (GHG) without sacrificing operational
performance or making a significant investment in alternative gaseous
fuel infrastructure.
Efficient operation and power management of electric hybrids mirror
the future zero emissions vehicle technologies of hydrogen and
fuel cell propulsion systems.
Other benefits include: better fuel economy, enhanced acceleration
(to enter traffic lanes), shiftless drivetrain (comfortable ride
for drivers and riders), and reduced maintenance (longer life on
mechanical components such as brake linings and fuel injectors).
As we rode around Winnipeg, I sat in the back of the bus and tried
to imagine what this bus would go through in its lifetime. I tried
to visualize this brand new bus, still with protective paper on
the floor, filled with passengers. Which route would it be working?
Who will have the seat I was in as their favourite seat?
How would you get the word out to the public that the bus they
were riding in was this incredible green machine, significantly
lowering greenhouse gas emissions?
This one was easy to answer: The best advertisement for these
buses is themselves. There's no puff of exhaust that spews from
the pipe, the bus is quiet, there's no smell. Everyday you have
a limitless captive audience. It's the perfect word of mouth scenario.
It was fitting that Bryan Swift, Director of Environmental Activities
for General Motors of Canada, had joined the team today to tour
the New Flyer facility. It has only been five days since the announcement
that BC Transit will be the first transit system in Canada to buy
New Flyer buses equipped with GM's advanced hybrid diesel-electric
system.
It's part of GM's environmental vision to start at the other end
of the spectrum when it comes to reducing GHG emissions by applying
hybrids to larger vehicles to have a bigger impact and save more
fuel.
These buses, like the bus we were riding now, improve fuel economy
by up to 60% and reduce particulate, hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide
emissions by up to 90 percent and nitrous oxide emissions are reduced
up to 50 percent when compared to a conventional diesel, while
providing a 50 percent improvement in acceleration.
As I stepped out of the bus, I realized that I had been riding
one of the actual vehicles that is part of the fleet of 235 hybrid
buses that Seattle, Washington has ordered, the largest transit
hybrid order in history. It was already sporting the city's transit
colours.
It's a trend that is growing and makes perfect sense when you
consider that if the 13,000 transit buses in service in the nine
largest U.S. cities were replaced with New Flyer buses featuring
GM's hybrid technology, the U.S. would use nearly 40 million fewer
gallons of diesel fuel each year. That's the equivalent fuel savings
of 584,000 small hybrid cars!
In Canada it would take fewer than 150 hybrid buses or about 1%
of all the urban transit buses operating in the country today to
exceed the fuel saved by all the hybrid cars that have been sold
here to date.
Mission Green would like to salute the 1900 bus builders of New
Flyer who have shared in bringing the dream of hybrid and alternate
fuel vehicles to reality but who have also acted to ensure that
the company as a whole practices environmental manufacturing processes.
http://www.newflyer.com/
http://www.gm.com/company/gmability/adv_tech/100_news/index.html
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Environmental Initiative #54
Turtle Mountain Sustainable Ventures, Killarney, Manitoba
A beautiful sun-filled day with a breeze rippling the grasses
that stretched as far as the eye could see seemed the perfect backdrop
for our whirlwind tour of this tucked-away corner of Manitoba.
People from the towns of Killarney, Boissevain, the regional municipalities
of Turtle Mountain, Morton, Whitewater and Riverside had come to
Killarney today to talk to Mission Green about some of their visionary
ideas about their future.
Almost every initiative we have saluted to date has made us think
about the Big Picture. We're not just here on the planet to live
and then move on. There is a legacy that we'll be leaving to future
generations. And the state of that legacy is completely up to us.
It's in our control.
The people involved in each of the initiatives we've visited on
the Mission Green tour have had a belief in that control. Each
initiative has been about people considering the Big Picture, the
Future and the Legacy.
Today, we met quite a unique group of people who have acted, most
constructively, upon those beliefs.
The consortium of communities, incorporated as Turtle Mountain
Sustainable Ventures, decided that by working together they could
accomplishment so much more.
Mark Witherspoon, Mayor of Killarney, Les Routledge, from the
Prairie Practitioners' Group, Cliff Cullen, MLA for Turtle Mountain
Constituency and Roy Arnott, Agricultural Representative from Manitoba
Agriculture and Food, were waiting outside the Killarney Town Hall.
I was about to attend my first Town Hall Meeting.
Les explained to the Mission Green team that the vision of the
TMSV is to build sustainable agricultural communities by advancing
the establishment of new environmentally sustainable ventures that
will in turn improve the economic vitality of the region, thus
creating sustainable employment and encouraging community population
retention.
The communities have a vision of having eggs in more than one
basket, so to speak. They want to diversify, to attract new investment
in the area. But they are being choosy. They don't just want a
company to come in and build a factory or plant. They would like
to attract corporations that have the same beliefs they do, beliefs
grounded in sustainability, environment protection and preservation.
They are investigating a variety of areas so a major catastrophe
like a drought or beef problem don't have a huge impact on all
aspects of livelihood.
They've looked at attracting investment in renewable energy enterprises
including wind, ethanol and bio-gas. They hope to stimulate the
development of diversified agriculture options including livestock,
aquaculture and greenhouse operations.
Our visit made me realize that, as you drive
through these prairie towns with their wide streets and laid-back
atmosphere, you immediately think 'farming community'. But there
is more to these communities going on than you think.
There are people here and in communities like these across the
Prairies that are working to change the way others think about
the sun and the wind. To the Turtle Mountain Sustainable Ventures
group, these resources are like gold.
Mission Green enjoyed saluting this consortium and their true
spirit of cooperation and conservation, their partnership of planning
and their eager leaning toward their future.
http://www.killarneymanitoba.com/tmsv.htm
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Environmental Initiative #55
Whitewater Lake
Wildlife Management Area , Boissevain Manitoba
We've left Killarney behind. The quiet of the day has gotten even
deeper if possible.
But there's no quiet in my head, which is full of new thoughts,
facts and figures from our last visit. And it's about to be bombarded
with more information because Ian Witherspoon, a biologist with
Ducks Unlimited Canada, with me here in the GMC Yukon, is taking
us to one of his pet projects. The Wildlife Management Area of
Whitewater Lake, a 13-km long, 8-km wide protected body of water,
provides important breeding, brood rearing and staging for over
200 species of migratory birds.
This special, peaceful place has played host to endangered and
rare species such as trumpeter swans, whooping cranes and our old
friends, piping plovers.
Ducks Unlimited Canada completed the construction of two wetland
cells, covering an area of 3,400 acres, in 1997. Eight miles of
dyke are part of a water management system that protects the marsh
cells and stimulates the growth of native Whitetop grass. The grass
provides a rich feeding area and secure site for nesting birds
and other wildlife early in the season and a valuable hay crop
for local farmers in the late summer.
Ducks Unlimited are known world leaders in wetland conservation.
But the organization knows that there is more to conservation than
enhancing wildlife areas. DUC understands that, in order to ensure
sustainable wildlife populations, farmers and other land managers
have to incorporate wildlife-friendly farming practices into their
agricultural operations.
For a wildlife habitat program to be truly effective, farmer and
landowner philosophies must be respected if landscape change is
to occur on a broad scale. Through a multitude of initiatives that
the organization has spearheaded over the years, DUC has been able
to make positive inroads in educating communities about sustainable
agronomy practices.
Kevin Archibald, a local resource manager, farmer and landowner,
has been working with Ian on a few of these practices. Traditional
tilling practices would expose the soil to the harsh winter conditions
of the prairies. By using a zero tillage system, that is, not tilling
the soil at the end of the crop cycle, Kevin ensures that soil
erosion on his land is reduced.
Zero tillage reduces energy use, pesticide and fertilizer dependence,
lessens wear and tear on machinery and increases the production
of the field.
Winter cereal production and fall-seeded crops also help to keep
the soil in place and establish a root system, making it easier
to produce year-round almost regardless of moisture conditions.
With every new idea, skeptics have to be won over, especially
if there is an initial cost involved to get the new system going.
Ducks Unlimited Canada has provided both financial and resource
support to farmers for the past decade to this end.
The connection between zero tillage and wetland conservation seemed
a bit vague to me. What did one have to do with the other?
It's that Big Picture idea returning again and again. The interconnectedness
of what humans do to the land has a ripple effect of repercussions
and consequences.
And Ian Witherspoon and Ducks Unlimited Canada have made positive
ripples in protecting and conserving wetlands.
http://www.whitewaterlakemb.com/
http://www.ducks.ca/aboutduc/index.html
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