The POLIS Water Sustainability Project is turning 20 this year! We couldn’t have made it this far without the support of our colleagues, partners, advisors, funders, water leaders, and many many supporters across B.C. (and beyond!) who give their time and energy and continually champion the necessary and crucial work of water sustainability and watershed security. To celebrate some of the people who have made this milestone possible, POLIS Communications Director Laura Brandes got in touch with several “POLIS alumni” to find out what they’ve been up to since leaving POLIS, and to ask if there are lessons from their POLIS days that they still carry with them…
Susi Porter-Bopp was part of the POLIS Water Sustainability Project team from August 2006 to 2011. As our Community Water Coordinator, her work focused on enhancing water conservation capacity in various communities across Canada through water soft path planning pilot projects and the development of practical tools for local governments. She also led Action H20, a national project that sought to develop leadership for water conservation in grassroots communities and local governments across Canada (in partnership with Sierra Club Canada and Sierra Club BC). Much of her career has been spent in the world of fresh water. Susi has had roles at Waterlution, the Canadian Freshwater Alliance, and the First Nations Fisheries Council.
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Laura: When did you work at POLIS and what did your role involve?
Susi: I was there from 2006 to 2011. I started at POLIS while finishing my Masters degree as a research assistant for Michael M’Gonigle’s Green Legal Theory project, but spent most of my time as Community Water Coordinator with the Water Sustainability Project.
Laura: What was your biggest contribution to the work at POLIS? And what were the impacts of that work?
Susi: When I started, the Community Water Coordinator was a brand-new position. Oliver Brandes, Carol Maas, and team wanted to help local governments rethink water infrastructure as something beyond pipes and pumps. We were looking at how demand side management and the water soft path could lead to a more sustainable relationship between cities and fresh water.
I spent most of my time at POLIS working with local governments and community groups all across Canada. I learned a lot about community organizing, and about what kinds of research can actually be useful to communities. One particularly memorable project involved working with the Environmental Law Centre at the University of Victoria on a handbook for local governments called Peeling Back the Pavement: A Blueprint for Reinventing Rainwater Management in Canada’s Communities. I can’t trace the specific impact this work had, but over the years I have loved seeing how many communities, especially here on the “wet” west coast, have embraced so many of the ideas and examples that we shared through that project.
Some of the POLIS Water Sustainability Project team outside their offices in 2011. L-R: Liz Hendriks, Oliver Brandes, Laura Brandes, Susi Porter-Bopp.
Laura: Are there any skills or lessons from your POLIS days that you still carry with you today?
Susi: All the time, every day. Everything from how to write persuasively and for different audiences, to how to work with funders, to how to design a good project, to how to work with diverse partners. I feel lucky to have spent the first years of my career in as rigorous, progressive, and meaningful an environment as POLIS.
Laura: What adventures have you been on since leaving POLIS? Are there any major milestones—either personally or professionally—that you’d like to share?
Susi: Working at POLIS lit my “water fire.” Since leaving in 2011 I have been lucky to have a series of roles all centred on freshwater policy and advocacy. From working with the Canadian Freshwater Alliance in the early days of its inception and creating a brand new B.C. program, to working with the First Nations Fisheries Council of British Columbia on their long-standing freshwater initiative, I worked, lived, and breathed water for 15 years. Earlier this year, I made the difficult decision to pivot out of the water world and learn about other environmental issues from a different perspective. Although I’m not currently directly working on fresh water any more, it will always be a deep part of me and I find a connection to water in everything I do.
Laura: There are some big concepts that are central to our ongoing work at POLIS—like ecological governance and watershed security. What do these concepts mean to you? And has your understanding of these ideas changed over time?
Susi: When I first started with POLIS, it felt like these concepts were still emerging and were mostly considered fringe concepts in our corner of the world. Even up until five years ago, it was still challenging to talk about water challenges in a country where, unless you were living on a First Nation reserve, many believed water challenges did not exist. Over time of course, climate change has forced a reckoning and an awakening on all sides of the political spectrum. Water now appears in many government mandates. I am encouraged by the many Indigenous communities here and around the world that are reclaiming, revitalizing, and driving creative solutions to living with too much or too little water.
Laura: Now that you can look at the work of POLIS from a bit of a distance, what are your thoughts? Are we achieving what we should be? Where do you think we’re having the biggest impact?
Susi: I think POLIS’ biggest contribution is achieving improvements, such as the changes we have seen here in British Columbia over the past 15 years in how fresh water is managed and governed provincially.
