Earth Rangers is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing environmental education to children and inspiring them to take action. Their conservation message is shared in schools, community events, at the Royal Ontario Museum and online, offering a positive and engaging experience for children and their families.
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Earth Rangers’ programs promote environmental awareness, educating the public on the causes and effects of biodiversity loss. Every year, their programs reach hundreds of thousands of children through a live animal show as well as connecting with 60, 000 Earth Ranger members online.[1] In April 2010, Earth Rangers launched Bring Back the Wild™, in collaboration with the Nature Conservancy of Canada.[2] Bring Back the Wild™ is a national campaign that educates children about biodiversity and inspires them to fundraise to help protect endangered species and their habitats.[3]
Earth Rangers’ school program offers an integrated education and action program all about biodiversity. The program introduces students to live animal ambassadors and offers in-class activities and curriculum pieces, such as the bio-circle race. Teachers can also engage their students to take action through Earth Rangers’ Bring Back the Wild™ program.[4]
The public can also see Earth Rangers’ shows at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM).[5] The ROM ’s Life in Crisis Shad Gallery of Biodiversity focuses on engaging families in the relationship between nature and humanity. This theme is echoed in the Earth Rangers’ studio where visitors can meet live Animal Ambassadors and see video of some of the planet’s most amazing habitats and creatures. Earth Rangers also hosts events in the community; past locations have included Ontario Place[6] and The Royal Winter Fair.[7] These community events spread awareness about the crisis of biodiversity loss as well as work to empower the public to take action through making environmentally conscious life choices and by supporting the Bring Back the Wild™ initiative. Kids across Canada are also exposed to Earth Rangers’ programs through public service announcements that play on the Corus Network, such as on the channel YTV.[8]
EarthRangers.com offers eco-themed games,[9] a blog for kids called the Wild Wire, avatar items and an online take action piece called Bring Back the Wild™. EarthRangers.com also hosts contests where members of the public can win prizes.[10] Previous giveaways have included the Bring Back the Wild™ Contest which was developed in partnership with YTV and saw a family of 4 take a trip of a life time to British Columbia.
39 Animal Ambassadress live at the Earth Rangers’ Centre and are taken care of by a trained animal care team who maintain a state-of-the-art facility that surpasses Canadian Association of Zoos and Aquariums(CAZA) and Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) standards. These Animal Ambassadors along with their trainers and care takers are integral members of the Earth Rangers team. They are a critical part of Earth Rangers’ presentations in schools, at the Royal Ontario Museum and in the community as they connect audiences with the crisis facing our natural world.[11] Animal Ambassadors include Sammy the Serval, Koho the Bald Eagle, Cosmo the Ring-Tailed Lemur, Timber the Pine-Martin, Dora the Tegu, Shelly the Midland Painted Turtle, Shriek the Red Tailed Hawk, Floyd the Ball Python, Yeti the Snow Owl, Sonic the Barn Owl and Fantom the Pine Snake.[12]
The Earth Rangers Centre is an advanced green building, certified Gold under Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for New Construction. The facility is located on the Kortright Living City Campus in Woodbridge, Ontario Canada and is home to the Earth Rangers’ Animal Ambassadors and staff. The Centre is a showcase of cutting edge building technology such as energy metering, smart automation and controls, innovative water and wastewater management, solar generation, green roofs, and geothermal heating and cooling.[13]
The Earth Rangers Centre was one of the first buildings in Canada to use displacement ventilation and has the largest installation of earth tubes in North America. This ventilation system circulates air through diffusers located near the floor level and displaces the existing air into return ducts near the ceiling.
The Earth Rangers’ 9.3 square metre (100 ft2) Data Centre was completed in December 2008. The data room uses storage servers from Pillar, Dell’s processing servers and virtual personal machines using VMware’s View software. Nortel’s Power over Ethernet (PoE) switching facilitates the transfer of electrical power and data across the infrastructure.[14] Earth Rangers also participates in Compugen’s Green4Good program which works to combat the environmental impact of end-of-life technology products and support charities in need.[15]
The Earth Rangers Centre has two Solar Photovoltaic (PV) arrays in operation; both convert the sun’s rays into a standard voltage to be used by the building’s systems. In the Earth Rangers Centre parking lot there is a 57.6kWp dual-axis tracking array on six separate posts consisting of 54 Solgate 175W panels, provided by Sentinel Power Systems. Each array follows the sun from east to west during the day, increasing output by up to 30 per cent over a fixed panel. Each panel has its own Enphase micro-inverter, further increasing the efficiency of the arrays, and allowing real-time monitoring of the system on panel by panel basis. The second array is located on the aviary this building boasts a 28.08kWp, Designed and installed by Enviro-Energy Technologies Inc,[16] it offsets approximately 10 per cent of the Earth Rangers Centre’s annual needs.[17]
The Earth Rangers Centre was one of the first 100 per cent radiant heated and cooled buildings in North America. The building uses 22 kilometers of REHAU radiant tubing, which was laid within the concrete floors and ceiling. The flow of a non-toxic, vegetable-based liquid (water/glycol) through these tubes causes the concrete to become thermally activated. In the warm seasons, cooled liquid is supplied to the concrete slabs. The heat from the computers, people and the sun is absorbed by the concrete, causing the cooled liquid in the tubing to warm up. The liquid is then cooled by rejecting heat to the ground source system or free cooled by directly coupling to our cooling tower. In the colder months, the glycol is warmed by the ground source heat pump before it is supplied to the slab system.
Interactive Media Awards- 2010, Best in Class Animals/Wildlife[18] SNW’s Best Practices Award- Spring 2010, green computing, energy efficiency and the data centre.[19] Canada Green Building Council- 2006, LEED® Gold Ontario Concrete Association- 2005, Sustainable Concrete Construction Award General Electric-2006, global Ecomagination Leadership Award