In the Year of Too Much and Too Little Water in Manitoba, a chance encounter at an environmental conference has led to the Manitoba launch of Ethical Water: Learning to Value What Matters Most at the Roblin Centre (Exchange District Campus) of Red River College on October 18^th.

One of the authors, Bob Sandford, was a guest speaker at a conference in Calgary this past June where he met Peter Denton, who teaches ethics and sustainability at Red River College. The annual joint conference of the Canadian Colleges Environmental Network (CCEN)/Canadian Universities Environmental Science Network (CUESN) was on the theme of “water,” and Denton was attending out of interest and as a CCEN Director.

Looking for a new text book, preferably by a Canadian, on a sustainability theme, Denton had been considering Sandford’s Restoring the Flow: Confronting the World’s Water Woes.  A short conversation after the presentation confirmed that choice and led to the discovery of a soon-to-be-released book by Sandford, co-authored with Merrell-Ann Phare from the Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources (CIER) in Winnipeg — Ethical Water: Learning to Value What Matters Most (See Media Release).

When Sandford broached the possibility of the Manitoba book launch being held at Red River College, it seemed like a good idea.

Denton, who teaches his course in the departments of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Civil Engineering and the Aviation Maintenance Engineering program, has a ready pool of students on which to draw, along with other interested faculty members working in areas of environmental sustainability.

Red River College, already one of Canada’s 50 Greenest Employers, is intending to make sustainability a major theme of its next strategic plan. In April, it became one of the first post-secondary institutions in Canada to sign on to the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS) of the American Association of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).

In September, Red River College helped to host a networking event for the Manitoba Education for Sustainable Development Working Group (MESDWG) to bring together current and potential members to consider a major province-wide initiative/event in the fall of 2013 on sustainability, at the end of the United Nations’ Decade for Education for Sustainable Development in 2014.

Thanks to the enthusiastic support of RRC Bookstore Manager Todd Buchanan and his staff, Ethical Water: Learning to Value What Matters Most and other books by both authors will be available for sale and signing after the launch, along with a reception.

Open to the media and the general public, it all takes place on Tuesday, October 18^th, 2011 from 11 a.m. to noon in the Great West Life Lecture Theatre at the Roblin Centre/Exchange District Campus (160 Princess Street).

Denton, who will emcee the event (readings from the book, reflections by the authors and questions from the audience), is delighted this is happening.  “Even if – in a country the size of Canada – you need to go away to a conference to find out about people who live next door, it shows the greatest resource we have in working toward sustainability is each other.  We just need to find ways to bring people together to do the work.”