Principles and Community Values
N:OW for Net-Zero is a project by the Foundation for Environmental Stewardship. The following are principles that FES staff, colleagues, and affiliates are expected to adhere to. When someone new enters the room, these principles are meant to guide discussions and outcomes.
Youth-led, youth-serving - always.
We believe that youth are the best agents of change and that’s why we are investing in them. Youth are powerful, passionate, and competent and the adult-centric world continuously underestimates and ignores the demands of youth. We are passionate about ensuring that youth are empowered and supported to take action and carry these experiences with them into their personal and professional lives.
We’re in a climate crisis and we act like it.
We are at a nexus point where the actions that we take now greatly impact if we’re able to make it under the 1.5 degree mark. Climate change may not be the most important issue in every context, but it certainly is the most urgent, as failure to address the climate crisis heavily impacts our ability to address other inequalities and injustices. Everything we do is centered around finding inclusive and impactful solutions to take action against the climate crisis while supporting the communities the most positioned to tackle the crisis. Our decision making is research driven and outcomes-based, our process ensures we are respectful of community voices. We focus on organizations that have or can create a strong base of support and are action-oriented.
Relationships of trust and mutual respect.
We seek to create, nurture, and maintain long-term supportive relationships and we are committed to collaborating with existing community partners and helping them amplify their impact.
Equity and accessibility.
We seek to support innovative work that takes bold climate action and supports communities most deeply affected by the climate crisis. To do so, we are committed to making our processes as equitable and accessible as possible through clarity and transparency by demystifying climate jargon and language, providing consistent and clear communication within capacity, and ensuring we accommodate folks that may not be able-bodied, speak other languages than English, and experience barriers to climate work. We will review our strategies regularly to ensure that it continues to meet the needs of the community we serve.
Responsibility and reciprocity.
What We Support
FES supports a diverse and broad range of organizations and individuals, all within the mission to empower youth to tackle the climate crisis. As a registered charity we do need to ensure that our grants go to projects that are aligned with FES’ CRA Purposes:
- To educate and increase the public’s awareness and understanding of the environment and its importance by offering conferences, workshops, and written material, on the topic of sustainable development.
- To protect the environment for the benefit of the public by undertaking youth community projects designed to promote sustainable development.
What We Do Not Support
FES does not support, partner with, affiliate itself with, or provide grants to groups that:
- Perpetuate systemic biases and discrimination based on ethnicity, race, religion, colour, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, or veteran or disability status.
- Promote or support violence, aggression, prejudice, or oppression or any infringement on human rights, with a strong emphasis on the infringement of Indigenous rights.
- Force, coerce, or exclude others based on religious or spiritual beliefs.
- Are connected to political parties, political rallies, or otherwise partisan work.
- Promote or partake in unsustainable practices and/or do not have an adequate climate plan in place to address the climate crisis in response to its unsustainable practices.
- Has a track record of tokenizing youth or disrespecting the voices of youth.
