At the beginning of the Stratford Winter Carnival last weekend was an evening of discussions and displays on ‘Creating Stratford’s Future’. It was a great opportunity for Stratford residents to drop by and chat with people working on ideas and with groups promoting sustainability, environmental awareness, programs and services and community work.

Here is the booth for Farmers Helping Farmers. “Farmers Helping Farmers is a nationally recognized, award-winning organization of community-minded people with an agricultural background from Prince Edward Island, Canada. Our goal is to assist Kenyan farmers in becoming more self-reliant in agricultural food production. Together, we develop small-scale, practical agricultural projects, focusing on direct, person-to-person interaction, with little or no government structure.”

You’ll find on their website some additonal information about how you can purchase ‘carbon credits’. FHF is supporting two very primitive but essential technologies in Kenya; biogas generators and fuel efficient cookers for institutions. The biogas generator produces methane from cow manure and in turn generates gas for cooking fuel. The fuel efficient cookers are used in schools and hospitals. They cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50% and have improved the air quality within the institutions themselves.

Here is Matthew McCarville of ECOPEI chatting with Katherine Clough of Stratford. Katherine is working on a sustainability strategy for the Town of Stratford.

The PEI Environmental Health Colalition had a great display of books and information on sustainable choices for home, work and school. They also were selling some neat little lawn signs to encourage people to keep their lawns free of pesticides. I bought one.

The new PEI Office of Energy Efficiency was there as well. Andy Collier had lots of great information about some the programs and services being offered to all PEI residents with regards to saving money and keeping the heat in during the cold winter months. Check out these links for more info:

Home Energy Low-income Program
Renewable Heat Loan Program
Energy Efficient Lighting

These are just a few examples of some of the booths set up at the Town Hall last Thursday evening. There was also viewings of the “Story of Stuff“. “The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world.”

Hats off to the orgainzers of “Creating Stratford’s Future”. It was a wonderfully innovative idea and we need more like it.