RBC Blue Water Project™
RBC has a longstanding commitment to environmental sustainability. Water has become an integral part of that commitment, as it is fundamental to the sustainability of all life. The first phase of the RBC Blue Water Project, announced in late 2007, is a grant program of $50 million over ten years to support charitable initiatives that foster a culture of water stewardship.
RBC Blue Water Project members
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Principles
The RBC Blue Water Project Grants Project rests on four principles:
Focus: The issues affecting sustainable water resources are wide-ranging and complex. RBC has chosen to narrow our philanthropic focus to "watershed protection" and "access to clean drinking water" so that our donations can make a significant, measurable environmental and social impact.
Prioritization: We believe that the water challenges facing the world represent a serious humanitarian crisis in developing nations, as well as a growing economic challenge in all nations. That's why we have expanded our traditional domestically-focused scope for RBC Blue Water Project grants so that we will fund watershed protection and clean drinking water projects in developing nations.
Collaboration: We will strive to collaborate in innovative ways with individuals, businesses, governments and non-government organizations and others through our donations, as well as through other Blue Water Project activities in the future. We strongly encourage collaborative approaches from prospective grant recipients as well.
Impact: Our goal is to make a measurable, meaningful social and environmental impact through the RBC Blue Water Project. With our Advisory Panel, we will measure and report on how the RBC Blue Water Project contributes to:
- Better understanding by more people of the sources and uses of, and threats to, fresh water resources in their communities;
- More protected and restored natural areas within watersheds;
- More individuals with access to clean, safe drinking water in rural and indigenous communities.
We will also work with individual grant recipients to ensure they are able to report on the impacts of their projects.
Advisory Panel
RBC convened an advisory panel of North American water experts to help us develop a strategic approach for RBC Blue Water Project granting activities, recommending key program assessment criteria, including social and environmental impact metrics. The Panel will review specific project proposals and act as a sounding board to help RBC identify water-related issues, trends and developments. The advisory panel will not make funding decisions.
The RBC Blue Water Project Advisory Panel was convened in 2008 to provide expertise on matters pertaining to RBC Blue Water Project initiatives. The panel is advisory in nature--RBC will make all decisions about grant criteria, specific grants and other matters.
The Panel will provide RBC with expertise and advice on:
- Developing a strategic approach to activities of the RBC Blue Water Project, and providing guidance on grants and other activities so as to ensure the greatest social and ecological impact on water issues;
- Reviewing and commenting on specific programs, initiatives, partnerships and grants, as submitted to the Panel by RBC;
- Recommending key program assessment criteria, including social and environmental impact metrics and ongoing measurement of program success;
- Acting as a "sounding board" relative to employee and client engagement for the RBC Blue Water Project; and providing advice on an ad hoc basis as requested by RBC with respect to issues, trends and developments relating to the RBC Blue Water Project.
Show members of RBC Blue Water Project Advisory Panel
- Rob de Loë (chair), Professor and University Research Chair in Water Policy and Governance, University of Waterloo
- David Brooks, Senior Advisor (Fresh Water), Friends of the Earth Canada, and retired water specialist with International Development Research Centre.
- Merrell-Ann Phare, Executive Director, Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources.
- Danielle Droitsch, Executive Director, Water Matters and member of Alberta Water Council.
- Tom Siddon, Chair of Okanagan Water Stewardship Council and former Federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and Indian Affairs.
- David Moreau, Water Expert and Professor, University of North Carolina.
- George Yap, Program Director, WaterCan, and Coordinator, Sanitation and Water Action Network.
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The RBC Blue Water Project is a wide-ranging, multi-year program that helps foster a culture of water stewardship across Canada and abroad.
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