Social sustainability is one of the hardest things to measure, next to the concepts of economic and environmental sustainability.
To help better define social sustainability, and move Whistler in the right direction, a group of local advocates created the Whistler Social Sustainability Speaker Series, with the support of the municipality, Whistler Community Services Society, the Howe Sound School District and Resort Quest Vacation Homes.
Last week the series organizers announced their fifth and final speaker, international humanitarian Stephen Lewis. He will be in Whistler Oct. 19.
Lewis is a former UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, the co-director of AIDS-Free World, and the chair of the Stephen Lewis Foundation. He is also a professor of global health in the Faculty of Social Sciences at McMaster University and a senior advisor at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York. In 2005, Time magazine listed Lewis as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
He is also an author, and his best-selling book Race Against Time was a finalist for the Writers’ Trust Award and Trillium Book Award.
In Whistler, Lewis will discuss social awareness and responsibility from a global perspective while continuing to take a grass roots approach to issues. His presentation will also focus on the community’s responsibilities as global citizens.
Tickets to the presentation are $20, and will be available at Armchair Books in Whistler and Mostly Books in Squamish. The time and location will be confirmed in the coming weeks.
