Green Infrastructure

HISTORY OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “One of the great failures of my generation is that we did not teach the next generation about world history. They take the world as it is right now for granted,” stated Thomas Friedman, legendary foreign affairs commentator

April 29, 2025 - Posted in British Columbia's Green Infrastructure Partnership (2003-2010) - oral history allows communities to look back to see ahead

Note to Reader:

Published by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia, Waterbucket eNews celebrates the leadership of individuals and organizations who are guided by the Living Water Smart vision. Stories are structured in three parts: One-Minute Takeaway (REPRODUCED BELOW), Editor’s Perspective and Context for Busy Reader, and the Story Behind the Story.

The edition published on April 15, 2025 featured Mike Tanner, founding chair of the Waterbucket.ca Website Partnership and celebrated the 20th anniversary of the launch of waterbucket.ca in April 2025. The combination of waterbucket.ca and the Waterbucket eNews newsletter gives champions in the local government and stewardship sectors a platform and voice for telling their stories.

20th anniversary of waterbucket.ca, storytelling platform

“Twenty years ago in April 2005, BC Minister of Water, Land and Air Protection Bill Barisoff made the announcement in Penticton the day we went live with the waterbucket.ca website. Keep in mind the context. In the early 2000s, websites were in their infancy,” recalls Mike Tanner.

Waterbucket.ca is one of six original elements of the Water Sustainability Action Plan for BC

“In 2004. a consortium of provincial and regional organizations and federal agencies came together under the umbrella of the Water Sustainability Action Plan to form a partnership and provide funding to create waterbucket.ca. BC Hydro Power Smart provided the seed funding that set everything in motion.”

“Aside from the trust factor, the success of waterbucket.ca as a platform for peer-based learning has added to the credibility of the Partnership for Water Sustainability. How many websites are there like waterbucket.ca that have been able to do it for the length of time that we have, yet still remain current?”

To Learn More:

Waterbucket eNews stories are structured in three parts: One-Minute Takeaway, Editor’s Perspective and Context for Busy Reader, and the Story Behind the Story. To read the complete 3-part storyline, download a copy of Living Water Smart in British Columbia: waterbucket.ca, Storytelling Platform for an Ecosystem-Based Approach to Land and Water Use.

DOWNLOAD A COPY: https://waterbucket.ca/wcp/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2025/04/PWSBC_Living-Water-Smart_Mike-Tanner-and-20-years-of-waterbucket.ca_2025.pdf