ABOUT THE TRIP

CHANGE ACTION TEAM 2010

From September 12-20, 2010, Aeroplan Canada will lead Groupe Aeroplan’s second Change Action Team experience in beautiful British Columbia, Canada.

The 2010 Change Action Team is composed of nine Groupe Aeroplan employees: one employee from Aeroplan Canada, three from Groupe Aeroplan-UK, three from Carlson Marketing, one employee from Air Miles Middle East and one from Nectar Italia.

Working with Offsetters, Groupe Aeroplan’s and Aeroplan Canada’s carbon management partner, the Change Action Team will travel to the Canadian province of British Columbia.

Lead by Alden Hadwen, CSR, Groupe Aeroplan, and a representative from Offsetters, employees will spend a week learning about climate change, carbon emissions, carbon offset projects and how local communities are linked with these projects. The CAT will visit clean technology projects in Vancouver, First Nations communities in Tofino and the resort of Whistler in the Coastal Mountains.


Monday, September 13, 2010

Will - Vancouver so far..

I arrived Saturday morning early – Canada time, my body clock was questioning why I wasn’t in bed asleep, I suppressed the urge to pass-out with a strong coffee and proceeded to leave the airport for downtown Vancouver. Although I was tired things were looking up, it was a beautiful day, in a new city and the anticipation of a new adventure left me filled with nothing but excitement.
I later arrived in downtown Vancouver via the skytrain, I then checked my bags into the hotel and went off discovering. My first impressions of Vancouver were the amount of beauty that existed in this city, from the many gardens to the new buildings and the sprawling mountainous skyline, everything was captivating.
When I went back to the hotel later that afternoon I met up with my fellow change action team (CAT) member Sunju, we both decided to go look around and grab some food and drink, I recommended we try some local ales, this was well received from Sunju and we proceeded to try Canada’s finest..
The next morning more CAT members from around the world had started to arrive but we would not be together as a group till later that evening. As the official deadline for our formal introduction diminished it was time for Sanju and I to arrive at the meeting place. From first introduction it was evident that we had an engaged and motivated group.
After our introductions, the CAT team, lead by Alden Hadwen were to go meet our partners from Offsetters for dinner. The evening consisted of meeting some very intelligent motivated individuals with a shared focus: the environment. Dinner conversation was good and we all introduced ourselves on video and set our expectations for the coming week.
The next morning, Monday: We all meet as a group and travelled to the University of British Columbia to receive a presentation from Offsetters to go into further detail about their projects and successes to date and also be educated about the workings of carbon offsetting at a high level. After our visit to the University we had a team lunch and made our way to the Offsetters office located in scenic downtown Vancouver. It would be here we skimmed the top off the intricate workings of carbon trading. A few areas covered were ways to measure carbon production and also the more complex theory of how to obtain carbon credits...
I will try and go into this further later in the week...
Posted by Groupe Aeroplan Change Action Team 2010 at 11:55 PM

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FUN FACTS ABOUT THE TEAM

Jo-Ann: In 2006, I had my head shaved during the Shave to Save campaign to raise funds for the fight against Breast Cancer.

Laura: I recently achieved my personal goal to visit 30 countries before I turned 30 and celebrated with a visit to Brazil at Carnaval.

Will: I hold a private pilot’s licence and have been flying since I was 16 years old.

Jackie: When I was in high school I won a contest to name a ride at a local amusement park – The Flitting Flume of Festal Frenzy! It was a log water ride. I won a $100 savings bond, six case of Coke and a season pass to Valleyfair. Oh, and let's not forget the coverage in the local newspaper...ha!

Brendan:The Metro (London’s free newspaper) once sent me on a blind date to Paris, along with a film crew who normally worked on documentaries in war-zones.

Marcello: I visited Geogia during Russian air raids, Ukraine after Orange Revolution and I’ve just come back from former war countries in Balkans: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro. I use my trips as inspiration, writing for newspapers and magazines, I’ve even created a blog: http://www.marcellopeluso.it/. I’ve also published some books…and more are coming! It’s my way to describe the world.

Sanju: My love for animals constantly worries my wife as she isn’t sure what new addition I’ll bring into our home at anytime.

Emma-Lee: I used to work for Bridgeclimb in Sydney. I’ve climbed 1,439 steps to the top of the Sydney harbour bridge over 500 times – that’s 719,500 steps in total! Once I was caught in a freak storm at the top of the bridge with 50 tourists, the winds were over 140Kmph and we were completely exposed to the elements, unable to move until the storm passed.

Majeed:I love to eat - my favourite saying is: “People eat to live, while I live to eat”.