In just over 2 ½ months we went from early conversations about improving the old Sustainable Waterloo Region website to launching the new site in time for our second annual Evening of Recognition. Idea to action. It’s a common theme around Sustainable Waterloo Region these days. The result is a new website that we hope makes it easy for you to find out about Sustainable Waterloo Region, the Regional Carbon Initiative (RCI), membership impact and how to get involved with us.

So what’s new?

Stronger Focus on RCI Members

Regional Carbon Initiative members are working to make their operations more sustainable, and we wanted to share their progress with you. Now you can see the initiatives RCI members have started in the member box on web pages throughout the site. More examples of members’ sustainability projects are on the RCI Impact page too, where you can see the collective impact of the Regional Carbon Initiative.

Making it Easier to Get Involved

It’s not just RCI members that are focused on environmental sustainability though. We meet so many people in Waterloo Region who are passionate about sustainability. So the new Get Involved section lets people know how they can contribute. Visit this section if you’re interested in keeping up-to-date on our news, thinking about coming out to an event, wondering about the benefits of the Regional Carbon Initiative, or are looking to support the work of Sustainable Waterloo Region. It’s here you can find out about other environmental organizations in our community too.

Info on Our Team Dynamics

Internally we recognize that Sustainable Waterloo Region wouldn’t be where it is today without the passion, drive and talent that characterizes our team. So we wanted to let people who are interested in helping out know what we’re like, how we work together, learn from each other and that we have fun pulling together to make things happen.

A Better Reflection of Where We Are

When we first started this project we were focused on using the design and navigation to make key information easier to access. But as we started going over the old website content it became obvious how much Sustainable Waterloo Region has grown over these first few years.

Sustainable Waterloo Region wasn’t just looking forward anymore, hoping to gain community support and the interest of Waterloo Region’s businesses. Now dozens of organizations are members of the RCI working toward greenhouse gas reductions and participating in our more extensive event season. And the community support has been outstanding. So we realigned our content too, to better reflect where we are now.

It took a lot of hard work from our team to launch as quickly as we did. And we’re still working to make it better. So if you have any ideas for improvement, let us know!

If you haven’t already, check out the new site at www.sustainablewaterlooregion.ca. Take some time to browse around to see what’s new, and then share the link with someone who might be interested in getting to know more about us and the RCI.

Happy surfing!

– Deb