Our Projects |
North Hamilton Environmental Justice Project Working With Community Members to Eliminate Industrial Emission Problems Environment Hamilton continues to work with local community members to ensure that emission problems at local industrial facilities are properly resolved. Our efforts include photo-documenting the problems we see. One of our community volunteers has started a blog called 'Hamilton Stacks' which regularly posts photos of stack emission problems taken by concerned Hamiltonians. You can visit the blog at hamiltonstacks.blogspot.com. We also watch industrial stacks on a regular basis. Most recently, we observed the major upset at US Steel/ Stelco's blast furnace. The company was forced to do what is referred to as a 'bleed' because of a pressure build-up in one of its blast furnaces. The result was a dramatic black cloud that wafted over the city. The incident occurred on August 7th, while the EH board was meeting. We saw the cloud float towards our offices, and were able to capture it in the photo below.
Home Depot and Environment Hamlton Build Birdhouses With Woodward Students
Environment Hamilton (EH) arranged for Home Depot to visit Woodward Junior Public School last Friday to help the students take a break from their daily reading, writing and arithmetic, and…build birdhouses. A team of smiling EH staff and Home Depot employees arrived at the school, nestled in East Hamilton's industrial district, bright and early, to be warmly welcomed by the Woodward Elementary School Family. Of course, the handypersons in orange aprons, led by the enthusiastic Annie Kravitz, didn't arrive empty handed. They brought a birdhouse building kit for each student. Together Home Depot and Environment Hamilton staff led kindergarteners to grade sixes all day long as they sanded, screwed, hammered and assembled their birdhouses—with a few bent nails and rough edges here and there—just in time to take home for Dad on father's day, or maybe just the summer birds in the backyard. Passers-by would have noted the dozens of Woodward students in their little orange workshop aprons working together, one student holding the pieces steady for another, on the front porch of the school. Outside, the weather was perfect, and the hammering could be heard by the beleaguered ears in french class down the hall. While most of Home Depot staff were teamed with Woodward students, others were planting gorgeous new gardens just a few feet away; orange flowers for the Home Depot, and yellow for Woodward's own colours. At the end of the day, almost 175 birdhouses later, each student also took home an Energy Savings Kit, provided by Environment Hamilton, with energy-efficient light bulbs, shower-heads, and insulation, good for the bills and the environment. This isn't the first time Environment Hamilton has partnered with the school. In the past, EH has worked with Woodward students to reduce their daily waste by 95%. EH Project Manager Brenda Johnson, and Woodward principal Joyce Munroe said Friday's birdhouse workshop is proof that when local businesses, organizations and children get together, everybody ends up a winner, all look forward to the next partnership, even if there were a few slivers and sore thumbs.
Last year, we visited Woodward Elementary School to talk about green projects we could work on together. This school is deep in the city’s industrial core, a stone’s throw from the sewage treatment plant, the QEW, the Red Hill Expressway and the recently excavated Rennie Street Landfill. Little did we know that this school would nearly eliminate its waste sent to landfill!
Environment Hamilton & the Hamilton Community Foundation Environment Hamilton's North Hamilton Project would not be possible without the generous support of the Hamilton Community Foundation. Through the Foundation's "Tackling Poverty Together" fund, we have been able to initiate innovative approaches to environmental enhancement and protection in North Hamilton neighbourhoods. For more information on the Hamilton Community Foundation, please visit www.hcf.on.ca. |
