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Geoff Cape and Evergreen

By Nicole Zummach
November 20, 2006

TORONTO, ON // Statistics show that about 80% of Canadians now live in urban centres. We're used to tall buildings blocking our view of the sky and concrete under our feet. If we want to sit under a tree to enjoy our lunch or take our kids tobogganing, chances are we'll have to get in our car to seek out a locale. This is the reality of modern urban life, but it doesn't have to be this way. At least that's what Geoff Cape believes.

For the past 16 years, he has been advocating for more nature in the city. Through Evergreen, the organization he founded in 1991, Cape and his colleagues have been helping communities across Canada reclaim outdoor urban spaces to create natural environments for all to enjoy. In recognition of his groundbreaking (literally!) work, Cape was selected as an Ashoka Fellow in 2005. CharityVillage spoke with him about how his organization brings communities and nature together, and what he hopes Canadian cities will look like in the future.

CharityVillage: What prompted you to start Evergreen? What was the impetus?

Geoff Cape: I guess it was the primary recognition that people in cities felt that environmental issues were happening somewhere else, in rainforests, with polar bears, with whales. But the heart of environmental issues is about values that people hold in the way they live their lives in cities. And that's where we need to start making changes.

CV: Evergreen's mission is to bring communities and nature together for the benefit of both. What are you trying to achieve through your work?

GC: There is a significant part of our work that is focused on making communities work and bringing communities together around important issues. So a lot of our work is focused on process and the idea of communities committing to working together to address important social issues. Often, that type of a mandate from the community can be realized, we believe, through the sorts of environmental issues that we are about.

CV: So, are you approaching communities with these initiatives or are they coming to you?

GC: A bit of both. Certain high-needs communities we will go to proactively and work with them and ask, 'how do we bring some ideas into your community that could help get the community working together?' So we'll work in St. Jamestown [in Toronto] or the East Hastings area of Vancouver, or certain difficult, high-needs communities of a variety of sorts. But a large proportion of our relationships are developed by them coming to us.

CV: Part of what you do is to help restore the ecosystems of unused urban spaces. Tell me a bit about that.

GC: A lot of our projects work through third-party agents - a school group, or a city group or some community initiative. They tend to be reasonably small in scale and quite scattered. For Evergreen they end up almost virtual; they get represented on our web site and they end up being led by someone other than us. So Evergreen's relationship with these sites is sometimes quite loose.

Increasingly, the projects are getting bigger and more exciting and dramatic on the ground in these communities and we felt that the next thing to do was to think about creating a facility that would showcase best practices and become a place where people could come together and share ideas. So at the Don Valley Brick Works, an old industrial site here in Toronto, we are almost building a stage for the type of work we do, where we will showcase best practices and celebrate great ideas. [The site] will feature adaptive, reusable heritage buildings with a series of green design solutions woven into the fabric of the buildings, ranging from gardens to mechanical and electrical systems that are showcasing the 'best ofs'.

CV: When you say you will showcase 'best practices', what exactly will that look like?

GC: It will be both process and end product. So we will showcase how certain projects are initiated and what the chemistry is of making them happen, and the dialogue around that. But we'll also showcase design ideas for how school grounds can be made better, how waterfronts can be established as great community spaces, and how residential front yards and backyards can be made more environmentally friendly in their design.

CV: Given Evergreen's mandate, what message do you want to impart to urban dwellers?

GC: The big idea is really for them to think about natural processes and not to try and impose artificial environments. They should try to incorporate nature into the design and management of urban landscapes, whether they be school properties or residential, or any urban landscape, for the simple opportunity to create a relationship with nature in the city, which is difficult to do unless you are lucky enough to have a cottage or some place to escape to on the weekends. We want to try and change people's sense of what the urban landscape could be about.

People want cities to be more livable. They don't just want them to function as economic centres. They want them to be livable communities where they will be happy bringing their kids up and giving them an outlet to have diverse experiences, not just going to the mall or sitting in traffic. They want to be able to experience a balanced lifestyle in the city.

Geoff Cape is the founder and executive director of Evergreen. He was honoured with the Governor General's "Golden Jubilee Medal" in recognition of significant contributions to the building of a fair and just Canadian society. For more information about the organization, visit: www.evergreen.ca.

To learn more about the Ashoka Fellowship program, visit: www.ashoka.ca.

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