The Natural Step Canada worked collaboratively with ReThink Red Deer and supporting organizations in 2019 to forge pathways for community resilience and energy innovation in Red Deer.
Economic pressures, combined with regional and global developments in energy and climate, have many community leaders asking how they can respond to and shape these changes to help their communities thrive.
The Energy Futures Roadshow harnesses the combined knowledge, skills and networks of the Energy Futures Lab Fellows to focus them on supporting Albertan communities to explore their unique opportunities and challenges arising from energy transition.
Each Energy Futures Roadshow is designed and delivered in collaboration with the host community, and is tailored to the community’s needs and capacities. The engagement includes a series of workshops over a few days with a diversity of community members, including businesses, governments, schools, economic and community developers and the public followed by support from the Energy Futures Lab team to enable action.
Invited participants commit to attend this two-day workshop, take collaborative action with other participants and community members with support from the Energy Futures Lab team, and attend a second workshop 6 weeks later to share progress, discuss learning, and plan for further collaborative action.
Day 1 - The Newtonian Shift
The Newtonian Shift is a facilitated role-playing simulation that allows players to experience decades of energy transition in one day. Participants explore future energy shifts while representing a diverse set of viewpoints: energy producer, private customer, large energy consumer, First Nations, suppliers, grid operator, investors, and government. Through dynamic and fast-paced experiential learning, participants are immersed in the country of Newtonia, which finds itself in the middle of an energy transition - energy must be supplied, energy assets developed and grids upgraded. This project is made possible through a grant from the Alberta Real Estate Foundation.
Day 2 - Local Energy Transition Action
The second day takes a workshop format, providing a place for participants to explore the implications and opportunities of local energy-related issues with each other. The workshop offers guest speakers and provides other activities that help participants better understand the opportunities and risks of local energy-related issues, showcasing existing local initiatives, and exploring what near-term initiatives (existing or new) are most important and needed to take action on. Participants are asked to lead conversations and commit to taking action on these items.