Preliminary results of ”Understanding the Environmental Landscape of Alberta” research presented to Ecotrust’s board.

by Pat Letizia

The results of the “Understanding the Environmental Landscape of Alberta” research commissioned by Alberta Ecotrust will help identify the environmental issues that are most important to Albertans and assess the capacity needs of environmental groups in Alberta. Preliminary results were recently presented to Ecotrust’s board and the full research results will be released later in the year. Click here to read more about the research, preliminary results and how Ecotrust plans to inform our funding program with the results. 

Earlier this year, Alberta Ecotrust undertook a significant scan to determine which environmental issues are most important to Albertans and to assess the capacity needs of environmental groups in Alberta. Recently, the project consultants at Green Planet Communications presented the preliminary results to Ecotrust’s board of directors. The board will now undertake a comprehensive review of the results at an upcoming planning retreat to analyze how the Ecotrust grants program and outreach activities can more effectively meet the community needs identified in the report.

Over the next few months they will create a roadmap for implementing program changes into our strategic plan based on the priority issues and environmental NGO sector needs identified in the assessment. The plan is to share the results of the needs assessment in detail with our sponsors and discuss the results with other environmental funders and grantmakers across Canada to help promote and strengthen environmental philanthropy in Alberta.

The survey was undertaken in two parts. Part one focused on priority environmental issues and sustainability strategies and was distributed to over 200 individuals in local, provincial and federal government, industry, academia, and the environmental NGO community. An impressive amount of information was acquired and in-depth analysis of the responses is underway.  All of the survey participants who so requested will be provided with a summary report. 

The second part of the scan was a comprehensive 31-question survey on capacity issues sent in early March to 128 targeted organizational representatives of the environmental NGO sector. In addition to the online survey, the project consultant conducted four focus groups sessions with a total of 28 environmental NGOs, in Lethbridge, Calgary, Canmore and Edmonton. This frank personal feedback will ensure a more robust understanding of the challenges that affect the ability of groups to most effectively achieve their mandates.

In addition to the project sponsors, Alberta Ecotrust would like to thank all of the people who took time out of their busy schedules to provide us with valuable input about current environmental priorities and gaps in capacity facing the environmental sector. The response has been positive and surpassed our expectations.

We are very grateful for the financial support of the project sponsors: Alberta Real Estate Foundation, The Kahanoff Foundation, Anadarko Canada Corporation, BP Canada Energy Company, ExxonMobil Canada Ltd., Nexen Inc., Suncor Energy Foundation and The Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Family Foundation.