More than 60 people attended the Other Side of Occupy event last Saturday at the Olds High School Commons.
The day started with a keynote address by Edmonton author Mark Anielski about his concept of genuine wealth.
“If we are not measuring what we value, what contributes to our happiness, then we are not measuring the right thing,” said Anielski.
“If we are going to measure what makes life worthwhile according to our values, we need to measure the conditions that contribute most to happiness and well-being in our communities.”
Anielski says that the GDP does not measure happiness at all.
“We need a new accounting system that also measures the things that contribute to our joy and our life,” he said.
The author sais he was impressed by the presence of Mayor Judy Dahl, Coun. Murray Ball, and Coun. Harvey Walsh at the event.
“I go to many communities and to have a mayor and councillors spend the whole day here in a high school is impressive,” said Anielski.
“I consider this a very healthy and vibrant community.”
After a break, the participants split up in five groups to discuss the different aspects of sustainability.
“Our sustainability model is built on five dimensions: culture, environment, social, governance, and the economy,” said Norm McInnis, Town of Olds CAO.
“I am sure that by the end of the day, we will have some pretty powerful new opportunities for us to look at these five dimensions of sustainability.”
McInnis says that genuine wealth and happiness might gain in popularity over sustainability.
“Sustainability for us in Olds was a great platform for us to start having this type of discussion in our community. It's an overused phrase now,” he said.
“In my personal opinion, we will take a different trajectory or we will take a little bit of a turn in our sustainability journey.”
