Rural Routes to Climate Solutions in Alberta is hiring a Solar Lab Coordinator!
About Rural Routes to Climate Solutions
FARM SOLUTIONS = CLIMATE SOLUTIONS
Farmers and ranchers can play a pivotal role in building the low-carbon economy of the future. Especially in Alberta, home to one-third of Canada’s agricultural land and two important carbon sinks—grasslands and the boreal forest. The wildrose province also has some of the best solar and wind power resources in Canada.
Climate solutions are often viewed as being an inconvenience to our everyday lives. But farm solutions are climate solutions and many of them have multiple concrete benefits that go beyond stopping climate change: improving soil fertility; creating new economic opportunities; protecting biodiversity; energy independence and building resiliency against droughts and floods. It is a win-win strategy.
Rural Routes to Climate Solutions is working producers and other members of the rural community to put this win-win strategy into action. By providing learning opportunities to better understand climate solutions, we are empowering rural Albertans with the tools to reap the benefits of climate solutions for themselves and their communities.
WHAT WE DO
We run workshops and farm field days and produce a podcast series all in Alberta so agricultural producers can find out more about the climate solutions that work best on farms and ranches. We cover topics such as:
- Soil Carbon Sequestration;
- Perennial Cereal Grains;
- On-Farm Solar and Energy Efficiency;
- Protecting Biodiversity to Increase Yields and;
- Operating Passive Solar Greenhouses.
Our workshops and field days are usually free for participants and are led by experts from industry, universities and governments. They are an unique opportunity to meet and talk to leaders in various fields and exchange ideas with other producers. Our events are modelled on a ‘human library’ concept meaning the idea is to not only learn from the presentations, but to talk to the presenters and other participants one-on-one between presentations or between stops on a farm tour for example. Our participants bring as much knowledge and expertise to our events as our presenters.
We also recognize that producers do not have a lot of time to attend workshops and farm field days and that is why we do what we can to make sure information from our events is available online either via the Farmer’s Blog or our podcast series. Podcast episodes can be downloaded from iTunes or Google Play and you can stream episodes from our website or SoundCloud.
Job Description
Rural Routes to Climate Solutions is an Alberta-based project providing learning opportunities for Alberta’s agricultural producers—farmers and ranchers—to find out how to benefit from climate solutions. The Stettler Learning Centre manages the project and is seeking a project coordinator (Solar Lab Coordinator) to assist our project lead (Director) in running a brand new program—the Solar Lab.
At its heart, the Solar Lab is a capacity building project. Rural Routes wants to work with rural communities in Alberta to develop their own community-owned solar projects that will provide benefits for those communities (jobs, revenue, electricity, etc.). The Solar Lab will facilitate project development through training, workshops, consultations with not-for-profit and industry experts, all of which the Coordinator will organize. Since Rural Routes cannot provide funding for an actual solar project, the Solar Lab will provide as much ‘infrastructure’ as possible to get from point A (wanting to put up a solar project) to point B (installing a solar project) instead.
The Solar Lab will undertake the following
activities:
- Organizing and running events like workshops and coffee shop meet-ups;
- Organizing and hosting webinars;
- Using multiple social media platforms to engage agricultural producers on the issues we cover;
- Connecting with project partners, industry experts and rural communities interested in developing community-owned solar projects;
- Researching and recruiting expert speakers for our events.
The ideal candidate must be able to work remotely and independently and has some experience with working in rural communities. You must be able to work from home or at a working space you have organized on your own. You will be required to check-in with the Director at least once a week.
Qualifications
- Excellent facilitation and relationship building skills;
- Capable of using social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram;
- Strong communications both written and oral;
- Comfortable with collaborating with partners from different organizations and communities;
- Comfortable with conducting outreach for the Lab in communities you are not familiar with;
- Some knowledge of renewable energy;
- Some knowledge of the issues facing rural communities in Alberta;
- Good event and logistics management skills (booking venues, catering, accommodations and flights, etc).
Requirements
- Work independently and remotely;
- Able to travel at least once a month for the Lab, which may require working and staying somewhere over weekends;
- Have access to reliable phone and internet connections;
- Have access to reliable transportation;
- Have access to a suitable working space;
- Ability to use Google Drive and Microsoft;
- Ability to keep track of your own hours.
Assets
- Previous experience working as a facilitator and/or community organizer;
- Previous experience working in the renewable energy sector;
- Experience in producing video and/or audio;
- A solid vision of what the future of energy in Alberta should be.
Job Details
Term: May 1st, 2019. The end date is currently March 31st 2020, but if additional funding is secured, the position will be extended.
Wage & Hours: Payment will be based on $25 per hour, 30 hours per week. This is a contract position, thus the individual will be responsible for ensuring that necessary payments for income tax, CPP, EI have been made and submitting monthly invoices.
How to Apply
Interested applicants should submit a cover letter and resume as a PDF and email it to dleahy@stettlerlearning.com by 11:59pm on Monday April 22nd. Please include “Solar Lab Coordinator Application” in the subject line of your email.
Only successful candidates will be contacted to arrange for interviews.
In the event a successful candidate is not found, the application process will be re-opened.
When applying, please indicate that you saw this posting at Youngagrarians.org.
Learn More About Rural Routes to Climate Solutions
Website: https://rr2cs.ca/
Facebook: @ruralroutes2climatesolutions
Instagram: @ruralroutes2climatesolutions
Check out their other Project Coordinator position.