• March 26, 2024 / 

    Greetings! You’ve arrived at the website of Douglas Worts. Within this site, you will find a range of resources and discussions related to my career in museums, as well as my interests in culture, creativity, culture and sustainability.  There is also a link to material on my ancestors who were early industrialists in Toronto – during the early/middle 19th century. In addition there is a section on geothermal heating/cooling related to a project called “Green Laurier”.  This project was an exploration into the retrofitting of a Toronto heritage neighbourhood with geothermal heating/cooling.
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    My Most Recent Blog Post, on the WorldViews Consulting website…

    Heritage Planning for Sustainable Cultural Impacts

    May, 2019

    NOTE: a shortened version of this article was first published on the Blog site of the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) – (click here). I have been a member of the AASLH Sustainability Task force since early 2018. 

    “Fridays for Future” Demonstrations, Queen’s Park, Ontario Legislature, March 2019 – Photo: DCW

    AASLH President & CEO, John Dichtl, has written an inspiring post in his column for History News, and reproduced on the AASLH blog site (CLICK HERE) – one that is appropriate to this moment in time for our culture. He paints a big picture related to the phenomenon of climate change, asserting a cause/effect relationship between human culture and our transforming climate. John invokes insights coming from history, science and social science – three pillars of human knowledge creation – as being capable to helping to guide humanity through treacherous waters into the future.

    In his call to action, John suggests that the heritage sector can and should embrace climate change as a focus for our public engagement efforts…  (Click here to continue reading and see the animation…)

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    About me

    Culture and Sustainability– culture’s foundational role in our unsustainable society and its potential to foster a sustainable, flourishing world.

    Selected English Publications (quelque titres en français)

    Museology– the potential of museums to be as culturally relevant as possible

    WorldViews Consulting – my consulting company

    Museums in the Winds of Change – A blog on how museums are adapting

    Environmental Translation Project – A resource linking environment to focuses, like culture, food, cities, and more

    Working Group on Museums & Sustainable Communities – A unique group of Canadian museum professionals

    The Whiskey Connection– my connection to 19th century distilling in Toronto

    Green Laurier – a project exploring the use of geothermal heating/cooling systems on a downtown Toronto street

    More Links

    Contact Douglas Worts:

    dcworts  ( at ) (don’t use this bit)  douglasworts  (dot)    ca

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    “In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of.

    In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.”

    Confucius