Jim Martin

Category: Individual Commitment

Project: Individual Commitment

Contact Information

Contact Name: Jim Martin

Email Address: jim.martin@telus.net

Website: http://www.jimmartin.ca

The Recipient

Jim 

Known to many as a pioneer in environmental education in this province, Jim Martin has worked over a period of four decades to help Albertans understand how the environment they live in is a complex, integrated whole linking our ecosystem, economy and society. Jim began his career as a classroom teacher in the 1980s, and realized that educators lacked the appropriate information and tools to properly educate their students about controversial subjects such as land use, clear cutting, and oil and gas extraction. This realization led Jim to found the Friends of the Environment and Education Society of Alberta (FEESA) which is now known as the award-winning organization ‘Inside Education’. At a time when the environment was a topic of emotional debate between industry, government, community groups and environmentalists, Jim brought these groups together to develop environmental education programming that reflected a bias-balanced approach, so that educators and students could understand all sides of an issue.