RISE hosts its first Annual Meeting

On November 1, 2023 the RISE project team and partners came together for our first Annual Meeting.

The one-day meeting brought together the project research team and partners, including representatives from municipalities, developers, industry, professional organizations, and not-for-profits.

The Annual Meeting provided an opportunity for the research team to share progress on the RISE project to date, receive feedback and input from partners, and identify opportunities to bring this feedback into our continued research, supporting the project’s knowledge co-creation model. 

The morning started with an introduction by Project Director and Lead Principal Investigator Michael Drescher, who brought everybody up-to-speed on the project’s first year. Co-Principal Investigators Dawn Parker, Bruce MacVicar, and Derek Robinson followed with a presentation on the development of RISE-Beta, the first iteration of what will later become the RISE Scorecard.

RISE project partner Mattamy Homes was invited to offer a presentation on stakeholder perspectives and priorities on sustainability issues from a developer’s perspective. Karen Ford, Vice-President of Land Development at Mattamy Homes, provided a stimulating presentation on how Mattamy Homes is incorporating sustainability into its business practices. Her presentation inspired a lot of conversation on green infrastructure in residential developments, the complexities of incorporating green infrastructure in a sustainable way, opportunities for finding long-term solutions to blue and green infrastructure that include multiple actors involved in the residential development planning process, and the role the RISE Scorecard could play in helping to move towards sustainable residential developments.

Next, the meeting shifted to World Café tables with participants breaking up into different groups and moving from table to table to discuss different topics related to the RISE Scorecard hosted by a project faculty member. The groups discussed the assigning scores for stormwater management, terrestrial carbon stocks, aquatic GHG fluxes, and the use of the RISE Scorecard in the residential development planning process. Groups were able to have targeted discussions where the project team could hear more from partners on how they see these things contributing to the overall Scorecard.

The day concluded with a series of three flash talks offered by RISE project team members on in-depth areas of our research. Master’s student Liahm Ruest talked about stormwater ponds as infrastructure or habitat; PhD candidate Adam Skoyles presented on his findings from stakeholder interviews with planners and developers on natural features in residential developments; and, Bruce MacVicar presented on behalf of Master’s student Thiruni Thirimanne on characterizing urban stormwater runoff using green infrastructure.

Participants ended the day with informal networking and next steps for our continued engagement.