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New West Environmental Partners grows in the city

New community gardens, a cool new endeavour and some yet-to-be-revealed projects are among the current crop of offerings by the New Westminster Environmental Partners.
New Westminster Environmental Partners
Going green: Volunteers take part in a shoreline cleanup in Queensborough, an annual event hosted by New Westminster Environmental Partners. photo FILE PHOTO

New community gardens, a cool new endeavour and some yet-to-be-revealed projects are among the current crop of offerings by the New Westminster Environmental Partners.

Formed in 2002 and incorporated as a society in 2009, NWEP is the place where organizations like Royal City Farmers Market, Royal City Community Gardens and New West DocFest (now the New West FilmFest) took root.

“Some members within NWEP would have gotten together and gotten these programs going,” said Dylan Jones, a director with the group. “The NWEP kind of nurtures these things.”
Once the programs are big and strong enough, they sometimes break off on their own and become standalone organizations.

New Westminster Environmental Partners’ members form committees to tackle various issues, such as Zero Waste and food security. They also organize an annual shoreline cleanup in Queensborough, and they have attended rallies against the coal transfer facility planned at Fraser Surrey Docks and lobbied city hall to begin a water metering program to encourage residents to conserve water.

Jones, who joined the organization about a year-and-a-half ago, has joined up with another member on an initiative aimed at encouraging local businesses to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
“We are trying to get our members’ strengths involved,” he explained. “Where my strength and another member’s strength is in working with small businesses. … We have been working with Climate Smart and VanCity in a three-way partnership to get businesses signed up to reduce greenhouse gases. We are still looking for businesses too to get signed up. It’s a huge part of the community.”

NWEP is also partnering with Cool Neighbourhoods on the North Shore, which brings community together to support homeowners in reducing and conserving energy in their homes.

“It’s community building, neighbourhood building, as well as realizing some energy savings through weather proofing and making the house more efficient,” Jones said. “We are trying to get some of our members who are homeowners to champion it and start a Cool Neighbourhoods New Westminster.”

Along with championing specific causes, NWEP volunteers have staffed information tables at many community festivals through the years. Those outreach activities have diminished because they often take place at times when the group’s members are working, but anyone wanting to volunteer for those table events is urged to get involved with the gorup.

“We are actually way more active in larger projects this year that you will see coming. I can’t really talk about them, but some of them are pretty cool,” Jones said of projects that will be unveiled before summer. “We will re-engage the community on that in a more grassroots level.”

If community members are interested in getting involved with NWEP, they’re welcome to attend the group’s meetings or attend the Green Drinks event that’s held on the third Friday of every other month. The next event takes place on Friday, April 22 at 7:30 p.m. at River Market.

“Because it is a member-driven organization, as opposed to a board-driven organization, the members bring the projects. We talk about them at our meeting. If everyone agrees, that member is in charge of that,” Jones said. “More members means more project, more action.”
For the latest information on the NWEP or to get involved, visit the New Westminster Environmental Partners page on Facebook.