[Music]
we are all part of interrelated systems
and this connection has fascinated me
from a very early age I remember growing
up helping my grandma tend to the garden
and come harvest time strawberries were
always my favorite and it was probably
because of this rule for every
strawberry we picked we ate one too now
I know what you’re thinking this did
make our harvest go considerably slower
but it also gave me the opportunity to
observe the many aspects that made our
garden healthy much to my grandma’s
dismay soon I was equally as interested
in the birds and bugs and bees and worms
as I was the food we were growing now I
carried this fascination with me and
fast forward 15 years I was a wide-eyed
first-year undergraduate student looking
to make my mark on the world
I’ve learned a lot in those 15 years but
my eyes were about to be opened you know
when you have one of those aha moments I
had two of them during that first year
of university the first happened during
an Environmental Studies course on
systems thinking everything just seemed
to click in essence systems thinking is
looking at the whole as opposed to
individual parts and pieces we’re really
looking at the cause and effect of
relationships here let me use an example
to demonstrate on the left-hand side you
will see a number of independent objects
if I added something or if I took it
away it probably wouldn’t make that much
of a difference however on the right
hand side you’ll see these same objects
assembled into a system together they’re
able to accomplish something greater
than what they can do independently this
time if I added something or took
something
away it would fundamentally change how
that system works but this is not our
first experience with systems the
hydrologic system is one of the first
that we learn about in school but every
day we navigate social cultural and
economic systems as well and the
decisions that we make impact and
influence how those systems change and
evolve so after I was learning about all
of these systems I was pretty sure I was
suffering an existential crisis you know
I was learning about these complex
issues and I wanted to make a difference
I wanted to take action but I had no
idea where to start I was utterly
overwhelmed and through speaking with my
other classmates I realized that I was
not alone in feeling this way the
further along we got in the course the
more I learned about feedback loops and
linkages and connections and I realized
we’ve made some big wicked problems and
that’s because there’s a gap that exists
between how systems function in reality
and how we think they function our food
system is a good example of this it’s a
system that has a high degree of human
interference and that can be either a
good thing or a bad thing but in our
case because of the decisions that we’ve
made we’ve created an unhealthy and
unbalanced system one that we are so far
disconnected from where our food is
grown raised and produced it’s
staggering so this was my passion this
is where I wanted to make a difference
so I thought okay through decision
making maybe I can move this system a
little bit so I became a vegetarian now
this was a good first step I was
definitely reducing my ecological
footprint but I didn’t feel any more
connected with my food systems than I
had before so I got together with a
group of my
friends and we decided we were gonna
grow food ourselves then we started
running into challenges challenge number
one we lived in a high-rise dormitory
with no balconies no green space and
windows that were barely large enough to
grow spider plants let alone food okay
problem number two it happened to be the
middle of winter in Canada all right so
we put our dream on hold temporarily a
few months later I was at my local
farmers market eating an apple strudel
minding my own business when I overheard
two women talking they had baskets full
of produce and they were talking about
how they used to grow a lot of this in
their garden but as they got older they
were no longer able to tend to them I
quickly interjected myself into the
conversation and within 30 minutes I
found out that these ladies lived only
three blocks away from the University so
disregarding the fact that I had just
met them I asked if they would be open
to me coming over gardening their yard
and in return they would get fresh
produce they quickly said yes and within
a few months by springtime we had eight
yards and five gardeners that first year
was a huge success it was a lot of work
but we were able to grow enough food to
share amongst the gardener’s and those
that were taking care of the yards so I
thought we’re finally making a
difference but what I was really
interested in were the users experience
so one day I sat down with those two
ladies from the farmers market over a
cup of tea and this is when I had my
second aha moment they said to me Kalyn
I love the fresh fruit I love that
you’re using our land but more than that
I love visiting with the gardener’s and
the sense of community that this has
built that’s when I realized in order to
have true
dunh sustainability not only do we need
to take care of the garden but we need
to take care of one another my scope was
too narrow and my view of sustainability
changed from one that was predominantly
environmental to one that included
social cultural and economic components
all part of the same complex system that
next year we grew more food than we ever
had before we added more yards we added
more gardeners and we did things a
little bit differently we started to
learn about the culture of the residents
planting crops they remember growing up
with and in turn they gave us knowledge
things that we could never learn on the
Internet
we also started knocking on the doors
inviting the residents back to visit
with us rather than worrying about
disturbing them and because we had extra
produce we started partnering with a
local farmer where he gave us a small
corner of his market table where we
could sell the extra food and make some
money
reinvest it back into the project we
were all part of a system the natural
environment gave us countless things
including Sun rain and pollinators
the gardener’s gave social stimulation
and manual labor
the homeowners provided land and
knowledge the farmer provided us a means
to sell our produce and the community
benefitted from having access to
affordable local organic produce and
their money was being directly
reinvested back into food security
within their own community this was an
extremely local impact but it was
connected to the larger global goal of
food security through local action we
were slightly nudging the system to
Ward’s more system
recently the UN came out with the UN
sustainable development goals these
provide us a global framework where we
can align local action with global goals
trying to tackle some of these complex
problems I want you to think about
what’s my piece of the pie you don’t
have to take on the full pie yourself
there’s other people out there with
passions and strengths in different
areas that are there to support you and
help you find what you’re passionate
about and take action systems thinking
is complex and these issues are
interlinked and interrelated and need to
be looked at holistically we have these
tools where we can break apart the
solutions and synergistically reassemble
them so that we’re addressing shared
goals and some of these wicked problems
that we’ve created we need to bring
together people with different
backgrounds all contributing towards
shared solutions so that we can get to a
more sustainable state integrating
innovation and biomimetic design just
imagine the opportunity for system-wide
change we need to shift our thinking
from parts to the whole from objects to
relationships and from quantity to
quality john muir the inaturalist really
summarized it well he said when we try
to pick out anything by itself we find
it hitched to everything else in the
universe for true systems change we have
to think holistically support one
another and empower everybody to take
action and find their piece of the pie
together we can solve some of these
wicked challenges and remember next time
you’re picking strawberries
it took an entire system to create that
delicious berry thank you
[Music]
[Applause]
we are all part of interrelated systems
and this connection has fascinated me
from a very early age I remember growing
up helping my grandma tend to the garden
and come harvest time strawberries were
always my favorite and it was probably
because of this rule for every
strawberry we picked we ate one too now
I know what you’re thinking this did
make our harvest go considerably slower
but it also gave me the opportunity to
observe the many aspects that made our
garden healthy much to my grandma’s
dismay soon I was equally as interested
in the birds and bugs and bees and worms
as I was the food we were growing now I
carried this fascination with me and
fast forward 15 years I was a wide-eyed
first-year undergraduate student looking
to make my mark on the world
I’ve learned a lot in those 15 years but
my eyes were about to be opened you know
when you have one of those aha moments I
had two of them during that first year
of university the first happened during
an Environmental Studies course on
systems thinking everything just seemed
to click in essence systems thinking is
looking at the whole as opposed to
individual parts and pieces we’re really
looking at the cause and effect of
relationships here let me use an example
to demonstrate on the left-hand side you
will see a number of independent objects
if I added something or if I took it
away it probably wouldn’t make that much
of a difference however on the right
hand side you’ll see these same objects
assembled into a system together they’re
able to accomplish something greater
than what they can do independently this
time if I added something or took
something
away it would fundamentally change how
that system works but this is not our
first experience with systems the
hydrologic system is one of the first
that we learn about in school but every
day we navigate social cultural and
economic systems as well and the
decisions that we make impact and
influence how those systems change and
evolve so after I was learning about all
of these systems I was pretty sure I was
suffering an existential crisis you know
I was learning about these complex
issues and I wanted to make a difference
I wanted to take action but I had no
idea where to start I was utterly
overwhelmed and through speaking with my
other classmates I realized that I was
not alone in feeling this way the
further along we got in the course the
more I learned about feedback loops and
linkages and connections and I realized
we’ve made some big wicked problems and
that’s because there’s a gap that exists
between how systems function in reality
and how we think they function our food
system is a good example of this it’s a
system that has a high degree of human
interference and that can be either a
good thing or a bad thing but in our
case because of the decisions that we’ve
made we’ve created an unhealthy and
unbalanced system one that we are so far
disconnected from where our food is
grown raised and produced it’s
staggering so this was my passion this
is where I wanted to make a difference
so I thought okay through decision
making maybe I can move this system a
little bit so I became a vegetarian now
this was a good first step I was
definitely reducing my ecological
footprint but I didn’t feel any more
connected with my food systems than I
had before so I got together with a
group of my
friends and we decided we were gonna
grow food ourselves then we started
running into challenges challenge number
one we lived in a high-rise dormitory
with no balconies no green space and
windows that were barely large enough to
grow spider plants let alone food okay
problem number two it happened to be the
middle of winter in Canada all right so
we put our dream on hold temporarily a
few months later I was at my local
farmers market eating an apple strudel
minding my own business when I overheard
two women talking they had baskets full
of produce and they were talking about
how they used to grow a lot of this in
their garden but as they got older they
were no longer able to tend to them I
quickly interjected myself into the
conversation and within 30 minutes I
found out that these ladies lived only
three blocks away from the University so
disregarding the fact that I had just
met them I asked if they would be open
to me coming over gardening their yard
and in return they would get fresh
produce they quickly said yes and within
a few months by springtime we had eight
yards and five gardeners that first year
was a huge success it was a lot of work
but we were able to grow enough food to
share amongst the gardener’s and those
that were taking care of the yards so I
thought we’re finally making a
difference but what I was really
interested in were the users experience
so one day I sat down with those two
ladies from the farmers market over a
cup of tea and this is when I had my
second aha moment they said to me Kalyn
I love the fresh fruit I love that
you’re using our land but more than that
I love visiting with the gardener’s and
the sense of community that this has
built that’s when I realized in order to
have true
dunh sustainability not only do we need
to take care of the garden but we need
to take care of one another my scope was
too narrow and my view of sustainability
changed from one that was predominantly
environmental to one that included
social cultural and economic components
all part of the same complex system that
next year we grew more food than we ever
had before we added more yards we added
more gardeners and we did things a
little bit differently we started to
learn about the culture of the residents
planting crops they remember growing up
with and in turn they gave us knowledge
things that we could never learn on the
Internet
we also started knocking on the doors
inviting the residents back to visit
with us rather than worrying about
disturbing them and because we had extra
produce we started partnering with a
local farmer where he gave us a small
corner of his market table where we
could sell the extra food and make some
money
reinvest it back into the project we
were all part of a system the natural
environment gave us countless things
including Sun rain and pollinators
the gardener’s gave social stimulation
and manual labor
the homeowners provided land and
knowledge the farmer provided us a means
to sell our produce and the community
benefitted from having access to
affordable local organic produce and
their money was being directly
reinvested back into food security
within their own community this was an
extremely local impact but it was
connected to the larger global goal of
food security through local action we
were slightly nudging the system to
Ward’s more system
recently the UN came out with the UN
sustainable development goals these
provide us a global framework where we
can align local action with global goals
trying to tackle some of these complex
problems I want you to think about
what’s my piece of the pie you don’t
have to take on the full pie yourself
there’s other people out there with
passions and strengths in different
areas that are there to support you and
help you find what you’re passionate
about and take action systems thinking
is complex and these issues are
interlinked and interrelated and need to
be looked at holistically we have these
tools where we can break apart the
solutions and synergistically reassemble
them so that we’re addressing shared
goals and some of these wicked problems
that we’ve created we need to bring
together people with different
backgrounds all contributing towards
shared solutions so that we can get to a
more sustainable state integrating
innovation and biomimetic design just
imagine the opportunity for system-wide
change we need to shift our thinking
from parts to the whole from objects to
relationships and from quantity to
quality john muir the inaturalist really
summarized it well he said when we try
to pick out anything by itself we find
it hitched to everything else in the
universe for true systems change we have
to think holistically support one
another and empower everybody to take
action and find their piece of the pie
together we can solve some of these
wicked challenges and remember next time
you’re picking strawberries
it took an entire system to create that
delicious berry thank you
[Music]
[Applause]
Please follow and like us: