For Julia Stroud, Executive Director of Sustainable Kingston, climate work is about people as much as it is about emissions. “Our goal is to enhance livability and resilience in Kingston and the wider community,” she explains. “We do that through a mix of community events and partnerships that move climate action forward faster.”
One of the organization’s most exciting initiatives is the Kingston Climate Partnership, launched less than a year ago and already gaining momentum. The partnership brings together organizations from across the city to collaborate on concrete projects through four working groups focused on biodiversity, buildings and energy, integrated mobility, and food.
“It is about getting everyone in the same room, listening carefully, and finding the overlaps in our priorities,” Julia says. “When we do that, we can move further, faster, together.”
Her own path into sustainability has been unconventional. With a background in music performance and administration, she initially wondered how it fit. “In music, you spend a lot of time figuring out ensembles, bringing different instruments together, listening, and creating something bigger than any one part,” she reflects. “The Kingston Climate Partnership is similar. It is all about relationships, collaboration, and shared projects.”
Day to day, that means helping partners surface good ideas, align efforts, and bring climate action directly into community life. Events, workshops, and ongoing meetings give residents and organizations practical ways to get involved, whether they care most about nature, transportation, food systems, or how our buildings use energy.
Despite ongoing climate anxiety, Julia finds hope in the quiet, steady changes happening across Kingston. “More and more, sustainability is just becoming how business is done,” she says. “A lot of really thoughtful work is happening behind the scenes and seeing that gives me a lot of hope.”
From neighbourhood gatherings to citywide partnerships, Sustainable Kingston is working to ensure that climate action is not an abstract idea, but something that touches daily life in tangible, hopeful ways.
“When we listen to each other and work together, climate action becomes something real and local, not just a headline,” Julia says.
To learn more and find out how you can get involved, visit Sustainable Kingston’s website and explore their latest projects, events, and partnership opportunities.
