FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

George Heyman To Lead Sierra Club BC

Former BCGEU president will foster new alliances to tackle global warming

George Heyman has been chosen as the new Executive Director of Sierra Club BC, the environmental group’s Executive Committee announced today.

“We are delighted to welcome George Heyman to Sierra Club BC as we celebrate our 40th anniversary this year,” said Executive Committee chair Martin Golder, a Victoria architect and mediator. “As past president of the BC Government and Service Employees’ Union, Mr. Heyman brings tremendous leadership skills and great vision to Sierra Club BC. He will play a key role in forging new strategic alliances between the environmental movement and many other sectors as we tackle the urgent issue of global warming.”

Heyman, who headed the 65,000-member BCGEU from 1999 to 2008, said he is thrilled to lead a group with an impressive history of conservation victories and a far-reaching reputation for inspiring people to take action to protect BC’s wild spaces and species. “I'm excited about working with the Sierra Club, a group widely respected for successful campaigns from the establishment of the magnificent Pacific Rim National Park to last week's historic agreement to protect the irreplaceable Great Bear temperate rainforest." 

Heyman said clear priorities include promoting sustainable and green economic recovery and using Sierra Club BC’s network of local groups as a platform to stimulate local ideas and solutions to global warming. “To stop global warming we need policies and action that are both effective and socially equitable. Sierra Club BC's Executive Committee, staff and I look forward to building the relationships and alliances necessary to meet this urgent responsibility quickly and cooperatively."

One aspect of Sierra Club BC’s work that prompted Heyman to deepen his involvement in the environmental sector is the group’s award-winning enviro-education program, which for more than a decade has supported teachers and engaged children in classrooms around the province. “This program has inspired a generation of students who are the key to a sustainable future,” said Heyman. “Activities like these that make a lasting difference - and the chance to work with the Sierra Club’s incredibly committed and energetic staff - motivated me to take on my new role.”

The Sierra Club’s BC chapter began in 1969 when a small group of people launched a campaign to protect the magnificent forests and lakes of the Nitinat Triangle and West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island. Since then, Sierra Club’s conservation successes include protecting endangered mountain caribou habitat, creating the Khutzeymateen Valley grizzly bear sanctuary, developing certification standards for sustainable forestry, stopping two coal-fired power plants in BC and ensuring that BC has strong legislated targets for greenhouse gas emissions reductions.

Most recently, Sierra Club BC was instrumental in negotiating the Great Bear Rainforest agreements which  completely protect 2.1 million hectares of ancient temperate rainforest from logging and will see lighter-touch logging implemented in another four million hectares.

###