​​Fueled by LSCF…Navigating Nature with You

​You may have seen it zipping around already in its quest to teach our kids all about nature. And I’m sure it made you smile. The Outreach Education team travels all over our watershed delivering curriculum based environmental education to students. 

In the past, staff had always used their own personal vehicles, putting a lot of kilometers on gas guzzling cars. Plus with no logo or branding on the vehicle, it was a missed opportunity to engage more with the public while out and about. They needed a dedicated hybrid fleet vehicle with a custom wrap that would enable the Outreach Education Team to lower their current carbon footprint and be highly visible.​

The Lake Simcoe Conservation Foundation wanted to help, and overwhelmingly agreed to support a brand new Ford CMax Hybrid vehicle. Using a hybrid vehicle lowers emissions, enables more students to benefit from environmental outreach learning opportunities and increases the visibility of both LSRCA and LSCF in our communities.

“The new vehicle has been an amazing addition to our team! Since May, we have transported more plants to more schools, increased program delivery to more people all on one third of the gas! Thanks LSCF! “ Dana Eldon, LSRCA Outreach Education Coordinator

What an impact! We were expecting to lower emissions by 20%, but were able to lower them by 50%. The colourful and playful wrap has been a stand out wherever they go! By the end of 2017, the vehicle had travelled over 4,400 km on 143 litres of fuel (about one third). This enabled the Outreach Team to deliver 94 school programs to 2,365 students, plant 1,000 native plants, deliver 5 teacher professional development workshops and 10 community programs such as hikes, BioBlitz, camps and library programs. 

Our children are the environmental stewards of tomorrow and it’s why we support outdoor and outreach education programming every year.