Author Archives: Eric Miller

About Eric Miller

I am an Ecological Economist, currently working as a consulting economist and university lecturer. Most of my career has been in the Ontario and federal public service. About half of my work these days relates to ecosystem services: communicating the concept, assessing available information, and proposing ways to integrate the concept and measurement into policies and programs. I earned an MES in Ecological Macroeconomics from York University, a BA in Economics from McMaster University and a BSc in Biology from Carleton University.

Introducing the Municipal Natural Asset Initiative

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Learn more about innovative Canadian municipalities that are incorporating natural capital into core financial, asset management and infrastructure decision-making.

We will introduce the Municipal Natural Asset Initiative (MNAI), a platform for leading municipalities to experiment and innovate with natural capital through a series of pilot projects aimed at refining and replicating the Town of Gibsons’ Eco Asset Strategy.

The goal of the MNAI is to support municipalities in recognizing, measuring and managing the contribution natural systems make to people and municipal service delivery, using municipal asset management business processes.

This webinar will introduce participants to the Town of Gibsons’ Eco Asset Strategy, discuss how MNAI is scaling this strategy through a series of pilot projects, and describe how you can participate in shaping the future of natural capital valuation through the Natural Capital Lab.

Webinar Speakers:
John Purkis, Director, Natural Capital Lab
Roy Brooke, Director, Municipal Natural Asset Initiative
Emanuel Machado, Chief Administrative Officer, Town of Gibsons, B.C.
Michelle Molnar, Environmental Economist, David Suzuki Foundation.

Accounting for Canada’s Natural Capital: Introducing the Natural Capital Protocol

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For the past two years, the Natural Capital Coalition has worked with over 200 organizations spanning business, conservation, research, finance and policy to develop the Natural Capital Protocol. The Protocol helps businesses to identify, measure and value their impacts and dependencies on natural capital. Developing this capacity will better position businesses to respond to emerging risks as well as identify new market opportunities in a resource constrained world.

During this webinar, participants will receive an introduction to the Protocol from Mark Gough, Executive Director of the Natural Capital Coalition. Participants will learn about innovative pilot projects currently testing the Protocol and how applying the Protocol in your organization can create value and lead to stronger decision-making.

This webinar is co-hosted by the Natural Capital Lab, Deloitte, and the Natural Capital Coalition.

Latornell Symposium about Green Infrastructure

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Applied in both rural and urban settings, green infrastructure supports the environment, the economy, and our quality of life in a variety of ways. Green infrastructure includes living systems such as natural areas, forests, parks, streams and riparian zones, wetlands and agricultural lands, as well as engineered facilities such as green roofs, rain gardens and stormwater ponds. It can be implemented at multiple scales including regional networks of open spaces, agricultural lands, natural areas, and through site-specific practices.

The 2016 Latornell Conservation Symposium will showcase green infrastructure, and identify how it is supported, protected, and enhanced in our watersheds. Delegates will explore its applicability and benefits in relation to important issues in Ontario such as climate change, biodiversity loss, water management, economic development, improving public health, and fostering sustainable communities.

Several members of ONES will be presenting during sessions.

Grey to Green

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Grey to Green Conference 2016 includes a two full-day program with 52 presentations and panel discussions from over 60 industry experts. This conference is the leading forum for designers, policy makers, manufacturers, growers, landscapers, and more to discuss the benefits of the important green infrastructure industry, and how to grow it even further. The interdisciplinary conference will explore the latest science on green infrastructure performance, economic valuation and public policy developments, new technological developments, and best practices in design, installation and maintenance. The conference also includes a trade show, cutting edge training courses, tours of outstanding projects and networking special events.

Incorporating Ecosystem Services into Decision-Making

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The Ecosystem Services Partnership will host a webinar about the newly released (USA) White House memorandum on “Incorporating Ecosystem Services into Decision-Making.” You can read the White House Memorandum as well as the White House Blog post on the memorandum here:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/memoranda/2016/m-16-01.pdf

https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/10/07/incorporating-natural-infrastructure-and-ecosystem-services-federal-decision-making

Fostering the Provisioning of Ecosystem Services by Private Landowners

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The past decade has witnessed a burgeoning interest within scholarly and applied circles in the re-casting of environmental amenities as commodities for trade, marketable in much the same way as a loaf of bread or a quart of strawberries. With the ostensibly growing foothold of the ‘ecosystem services’ (ES) paradigm, the public good nature of environmental stewardship has been thrust into the limelight. The newly-emergent perspective holds thus: given that individual landowners are expected to bear the responsibility of meeting heightened standards of environmental protection through additional expenditures or foregone development opportunities, and yet society at large reaps the benefits, they should be remunerated by society.
This thesis explores the governance arrangements that would serve to foster the provisioning of ES by private landowners. A heuristic framework is first developed, offering a means of systematically contemplating critical issues influencing the viability and performance of ES governance alternatives. Set in eastern Ontario, the empirical portion of the research assesses the interests of landowners, and program and policy professionals, for different ES governance mechanisms. In brief, interests were varied, with an openness to a range of arrangements. Notably, preferences tended toward arrangements exhibiting cooperative and collaborative leanings, and away from those with competitive underpinnings. These understandings inform the elaboration of a set of high-order design features envisioned as preconditions in a governance ‘architecture’ supportive of the provisioning of ES. The findings suggest that a more open embrace of hybridity in institutional arrangements may offer a way forward as ES governance alternatives continue to be conceived. They also point to the need for a re-imagining and re-constituting of relationships such that they truly embrace the principles of mutual regard, reciprocity, and trust; such ‘relations of regard’ may serve to realize a renewed social contract between those working the land, and those looking on from beyond the farm (or woodlot) gate. Consistent with this suggestion, the findings underscore the need for a greater sensibility to the diverse motivations that inspire the provisioning of ES. In contemplating prospects for reflexive governance approaches to enhance the provisioning of ES, the findings suggest reason for cautious optimism.

Biodiversity Offsetting Law and Policy

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At the Biodiversity Offsetting Law and Policy workshop, Ontario Nature will present a new report that compares law and policy internationally across six jurisdictions, analyzing strengths, weaknesses and gaps, and providing recommendations.

The purpose of the workshop is to introduce participants to a range of policy options on a number of key biodiversity offsetting issues and to advance dialogue about policy development in Ontario.

The workshop is intended for a wide range of interests and will feature David Poulton, the author of the report. Mr. Poulton, M.A., LL.M, completed a graduate thesis on conservation offsetting for Alberta and is one of the leaders in the Alberta Association for Conservation Offsets.

Natural Capital: Its Significance to Business & Society At Large

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Please join The University of Toronto’s School of the Environment’s Environmental Finance Advisory Committee on June 4, 2015 at the offices of Torys LLP for “Natural Capital: Its Significance to Business & Society At Large”

Natural Capital is an emerging topic gaining great interest with the business and accounting communities. The academic community has long advocated that society is not according appropriate value to the wide range of ecological goods and services provided by Nature – services such as water regulation, air quality, carbon storage, habitat, and food production, among many others. This seminar is designed to give a broad overview of the many types of goods and services provided by Nature and approaches to placing a financial value on them.

Innovative approaches to financially valuing the natural world is already underway and affecting the way that many businesses manage their supply chains and create social license to conduct their operations. It is hoped that by establishing more formal ways to both holistically value and account for Nature’s services, society may be better-positioned to understand the true costs and trade-offs associated with managing and sustaining so many of the world’s finite natural resources.

The Committee is delighted to announce that it has assembled thought leaders with expertise in this rapidly emerging topic.

Panel Discussion with:

Brian DePratto, Environmental Economist, TD Canada Trust

Dan Kraus, Senior Director of Conservation Program Development, The Nature Conservancy of Canada

Barb Steele, Managing Director, Natural Step

Steve Hounsell, Chair, Ontario Biodiversity Council

Moderator: Patricia A. Koval, Partner, Torys LLP

There will be a Q&A session following the presentations.

The Footprint and Biocapacity of Ontario, Canada: Comparing Results for 2005 and 2010

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This report summarizes an Ecological Footprint and biocapacity analysis of Canada and the province of Ontario, conducted by Global Footprint Network for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (OMNRF). The results in this report are based on an analysis using the 2014 edition of the National Footprint Accounts (NFA). These results differ from those using NFA 2008. As such, for consistency of comparison, we compared the 2005 and 2010 figures using the NFA 2015 Edition. Refer to Annex B for description of applied changes and improvements between the 2008 and 2014 NFA editions for Canada.

Realizing the health benefits of green spaces in a changing world

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EcoHealth Ontario and the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation are pleased to present a workshop on Realizing the Health Benefits of Green Spaces in a Changing World

There is growing understanding of the complex linkages between the natural and built environments and human health. Nature can help mitigate a wide range of physical and mental illnesses associated with modern lifestyles, urbanization, and changing climate.

Unfortunately, current patterns of urban development are eroding and reducing access to natural areas and affecting the capacity of human settlements to be resilient to extreme weather events.

This workshop will facilitate interdisciplinary dialogue among public health, medical, planning, parks, recreation, forestry, watershed management, and education professionals.

Discussions will explore creative policies, programs, and outreach approaches that could be used to enhance human health through increased quality and diversity of urban and rural green spaces. Case studies of the Ontario Greenbelt, watersheds and urban green spaces will be used to illustrate challenges and opportunities.

The workshop will include:

• Presentations on the evidence for health benefits of green spaces in a changing world
• Expert panel discussion on key issues
• Round-table discussions on ecohealth barriers, opportunities and actions

Questions?
Please contact Tom Bowers, Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation at

tbowers@greenbelt.ca

www.ecohealth-ontario.ca

www.greenbelt.ca