Or so we’ve been told.

Blaming the youngsters of today for ruining society is a tale as old as time, as assistant English professor Eric Weiskott explained earlier this year in an article for The Conversation. Dipping back into medieval England, Weiskott found the youth of the day being blamed for ruining poetry, storytelling, the notion of truth and even increased promiscuity.

In the same vein, one particularly derided listicle on Business Insider in August described millennials as killing countless industries, from home-improvement stores to casual dining chains.

But to turn that question around a bit, what are millennials into?

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, kids are drinking, smoking and doing fewer drugs than previous generations, as well as having less sex (although debatable whether it’s a bad thing or not).

At the same time, educational attainment has skyrocketed, with the number of students enrolled in Canadian universities more than doubling since 1980.

Polling data suggests that millennial values lean much more progressive on a number of key issues, particularly when it comes to gay rights, immigration, Indigenous reconciliation and environmental issues.

These issue-sets and desire to apply their values across their everyday lives are beginning to impact the political, cultural and economic landscape in a variety of ways.

To capture what this looks like in practice, Corporate Knights, with sponsorship support from insurance co-operative The Co-operators, decided to carry forward the annual Top 30 Under 30 in Sustainability into its third year.

It’s the belief of this publication that the power of markets can be harnessed to shape and grow an economy that is grounded in a golden rule: Business and society must succeed together. This vision of clean capitalism aims to sustain prosperity where it exists, and achieve it where it doesn’t.

Sustainable societies are ones that treat all of our sources of wealth – human, financial, natural, social and produced – with equal importance. On balance, when we enhance our various forms of capital on a net basis, we enhance our overall wealth. This year’s Top 30 Under 30 winners were judged on this basis.

A celebration of emerging leadership, each is pursuing a different avenue to push for systemic sustainability-oriented change. Some have started social enterprises of their own, while others are working within larger companies and organizations. There are ground-breaking female and male scientists, emerging Indigenous leaders, members of the business community and social activists alike. Drawn from across the country, the Top 30 Under 30 are collectively focused on a mix of intensely local, national and international issues.

The selection process began this spring, when we opened up nominations to anyone under 30 currently residing in Canada as well as Canadians working abroad. An internal team cut this number to a shortlist of 50, at which point a panel of judges each submitted their top 15 picks and the votes were tallied up (note: the list appears in no particular order). The judges were:

• Katie Sullivan, managing director, International Emissions Trading Association
• Troy Kolish, corporate citizenship advisor at The Co-operators Group
• Karel Mayrand, director general, Quebec and Atlantic Canada, David Suzuki Foundation
• Jeremy Runnalls, editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine

We’re also pleased to once again partner with the Impact! Youth Program for Sustainability Leadership to create opportunities for experienced professionals to mentor young leaders.

Jennifer Prospero, 29

Toronto

Jennifer has had remarkable impact in her career as a sustainability professional in the mining industry. She was an integral part of the original permitting team for the Mary River iron ore project in Nunavut, and was key in creating community buy-in through her organization and implementation of the community consultation program with the Inuit of North Baffin.

Jennifer has a track record of creating strong relationships between regulators, industry and local communities. At a young age, she chaired working groups that brought various players together to ensure Baffinland met its regulatory and social commitments, which continue to be international best practice.

Now, Jennifer is working for global nickel and cobalt mining company Sherritt, where she has significantly improved public sustainability reporting to align with global industry leaders and administered the international community investment budget. She also volunteers at Women in Mining Canada and the National Ballet of Canada’s young professionals committee.

“For a long time, industry was not as open about its challenges. But I have found that through listening to one another, multi-stakeholder solutions are possible and often successful. Groups that were traditionally oppositional are finding innovative and meaningful ways to work together for a sustainable future.”

Josh Walters and Benjamin Walters, 22 and 26

Toronto

Cousins Josh and Benjamin are the co-founders of a social enterprise called Feedback, a digital marketplace for surplus food that drives customer traffic to restaurants during off-peak hours to purchase, at a steep discount, food that would otherwise be discarded.

Recently, the duo won a grant at the Creator Awards sponsored by WeWork, an organization that awards $20 million per year to various entrepreneurs. The Walters received $36,000 (U.S.), which will be used to expedite the Feedback app’s development and begin marketing.

Feedback has nearly 50 restaurant partners in the Toronto core alone, and launched its mobile app in September. The enterprise has the potential to divert close to 3 million kilograms of CO2 emissions in Toronto alone.

In addition to reducing food waste, Josh and Benjamin have partnered with multiple local charities to donate meals based on each order made through the Feedback app, allowing users to track the direct impact they are having on food security in their local communities.

“When developing Feedback, we focused on coming up with a solution that made sustainability convenient, valuable and even cool! We are very optimistic that by doing this, we can help our society develop habits that will create long-lasting impact.”

Leah Davidson, 23

Washington, D.C./Sherbrooke, Quebec

Leah is passionate about innovative and immersive approaches to environmental education. In high school, she received a scholarship to travel to Antarctica on an educational expedition with Students on Ice.

Inspired by the beauty and fragility of this remote ecosystem, she published the first youth arts-based anthology focused on Antarctica, which is now used as an educational resource by the International Polar Foundation. She also delivered more than 50 presentations, including for TEDx and the International Polar Year Conference, and launched a global youth-driven campaign called Act for Antarctica, which integrated the study of climate change into over 30 school curricula and partnered with more than 15 green businesses.

At the University of Pennsylvania, Leah co-founded the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities, an interdisciplinary research and academic program bridging art and sustainability that has led to an academic minor, three tenure-track faculty hires, annual research fellowships, an artist-in-residence program and curated community events such as a faith and environmentalism conference. This program has raised over $1.5 million and received support from the President’s Climate Action Plan.

Leah has recently worked for various UN agencies as a writer/blogger on climate change and environment for UNICEF, a researcher on innovation in international development for UNDP and as a delegate/speaker at the UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development in Japan.

“Every time I show a video of frolicking Antarctic penguins to a group of elementary school children, I see their eyes light up with glee. This excitement for learning and innate desire to connect with nature makes me optimistic about the future.”

Nabaa Alam, 24

Calgary, Alberta

 Nabaa’s work has the potential to change the future of Alberta and Canada’s energy profile through his involvement in an innovative biofuels plant in Edmonton. This new renewable energy process was invented by SBI BioEnergy CEO Dr. Singh and essentially converts canola into marketable products: renewable diesel, renewable gasoline and biojet fuel.

A pilot plant is scheduled to be commissioned by the end of 2017, when the plant is expected to convert 10 million litres of canola into various fuels. The Alberta government hopes to then upscale the process to 240 million litres annually by the end of 2018.

The project was able to secure $10 million in provincial funding. The project has also received $1.86 million in funding from Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions and the Alberta Innovates Technology Futures. Shell has purchased the technology licensing rights and is currently evaluating its potential to expand across Canada and the globe.

In his free time, Nabaa has been helping redevelop the community and environment in the aftermath of the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire. Nabaa helped raise $10,000 from private sponsors in the first week and has since planted 1,000 trees in the area. He also sponsors and trains new immigrants and entrepreneurs who are aligned with his vision of developing innovative solutions and leveraging technology to change the world and build a more sustainable future.

“When trying to make a difference in the world, there are going to be challenges and failures along the way. But invest your time and energy not in what is current, but what can be.”

Puninda Thind, 25

Brampton, Ontario

According to the United Nations, real estate accounts for approximately 40 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. In her job, Puninda manages programs across North America that have proven to reduce emissions and energy consumption and to build awareness and education around environmental responsibility.

Currently the sustainability manager at Bentall Kennedy, one of the 30 largest global real estate investment advisors, Puninda has led implementation of a number of portfolio-wide initiatives that promote sound and sustainable investment. These include Bentall Kennedy’s award-winning ForeverGreen Tenant Engagement program, its green building certification and corporate sustainability reporting efforts. Previously, she worked as a sustainability professional at the Sustainability CoLab – Sustainable Waterloo Region, Environment Canada and Microsoft Canada.

Outside of work, Puninda has pursued her love of writing as an environment correspondent for South Asian Generation Next, a Toronto-based newspaper. She has also reported from the UN climate change conference, COP19, as part of University of Waterloo’s academic delegation.

“Sustainability means acknowledging that we are a part of the environment. It is about re-examining what we value, fostering justice and equity, and putting in place the necessary incentives to drive change.”

Robyn Ashwell, 29

Vancouver

Robyn has spearheaded the development of an innovative sustainable enterprise in Vancouver. As co-founder of Shift Delivery, Robyn has brought together an energetic team and created a culture that places great emphasis on social sustainability in addition to the ecological sustainability inherent in Shift’s business model.

Shift Delivery partners with businesses to deliver their products in downtown Vancouver using heavy-duty cargo tricycles. It began as a class project at Simon Fraser University, and thanks to the vision and passion demonstrated by Robyn and her co-founders, has grown into a successful sustainable business.

In six years, Shift has made over 150,000 deliveries with trikes instead of trucks or vans, partnered with dozens of local businesses and currently employs 12 staff. Shift is structured as a worker cooperative, meaning it is democratically owned and operated by its employees. The empowerment, collaboration and creativity required to enact this structure inspires Robyn’s work.

“Pursuing sustainability means striving to make communities and societies resilient, inclusive and fair.”

Charlie Andrews

Toronto

An artist, orchestral musician and corporate social responsibility professional, Charlie is active in pushing for creative, sustainable and ethical business practices.

Through a wide range of experiences, Charlie currently works in corporate social responsibility at SOCAN Foundation and is a board member for the Greater Toronto Area Telus Community Investment Board and WorkInCulture. Commended for exceptional results, she has been the recipient of a number of awards, including the Top 40 Under Forty by Northern Ontario Business Awards in 2013 and, in 2016, the Vital People Award from Toronto Foundation and the Alumni Leadership Award from Laurentian University.

Additionally, Charlie is passionate about human rights, social justice and community arts. In 2015, she led a community arts project that resulted in the creation of the Pride House Anthem, which was premiered at the Pan Am Games.

During that time, she completed her fellowship with the Association of Fundraising Professionals, which focused on diversity and inclusion in philanthropy. In 2016, she was awarded the Nathan Gilbert fellowship through the Laidlaw Foundation to research and advocate against the lack of inclusive spaces in publicly funded schools in Ontario. Recently, she completed her Cultural Leaders Lab fellowship, which was a leadership incubator created by the Toronto Arts Council/Banff Centre for the arts.

“Corporations that embrace sustainable practices will have a significant competitive advantage, and there is now an abundance of opportunity for corporations to be social and sustainable champions in society.”

Apefa Adjivon, 19

Toronto

Moving to Canada as a refugee from Sierra Leone, Apefa has had the opportunity to experience life in both the western and developing worlds. Recognizing the difference in the treatment of women between the two countries, she has dedicated her life towards improving the lives of women internationally.

In the previous year, Apefa advocated for children’s and women’s rights through Plan International and Because I am a Girl and was selected to represent Canada as a delegate to the Youth Assembly at the UN.

At the UN, she was invited to pitch her idea at the Social Venture Challenge – a centre for girls in low-income communities named the Pearl Project, which pairs girls with mentors and skill-based opportunities to help them achieve their goals. Apefa and her Pearl Project were awarded a Resolution Project Fellowship and start-up grant. She was subsequently selected by the UN and British Council to receive social enterprise training, and was the youngest chosen to present her startup at the Youth Innovation Summit at Parliament.

Apefa was also one of few first-year students chosen to represent the University of Toronto at Parliament as a participant of the Women in House program.

“It does not matter where you come from or who you are. The people who change the world are the ones crazy enough to believe that they can.”

Colton Kasteel, 21

Vancouver

Colton’s passion for sustainability and environmentalism focuses on promoting and implementing market-based solutions to environmental degradation and climate change.

In his second year at UBC, Colton co-founded the Environmental Policy Association to address a lack of dialogue on campus regarding economic and policy-based solutions to climate change. While abroad at the National University of Singapore, he served as creative officer for the country’s largest student-run environmental group, NUS Students Against Violation of the Earth, promoting zero-waste and low-carbon lifestyles.

Currently, his primary focus is on Gathering Voices Society, where he works to build out workshops, in partnership with the Ahousaht, Tla-o-qui-aht and Yunesit’in First Nations, aiming to foster economic, social and ecological resilience in First Nations communities. This is achieved through environmental stewardship programs that combine traditional ecological knowledge with market-based tools.

In addition, Colton manages the UBC Alma Mater Society’s Sustainability Projects Fund, administering a $115,000 budget dedicated to funding student-led projects that reduce the environmental footprint at UBC. He spends his remaining time promoting social sustainability as a community engagement assistant at Reconciliation Canada.

“Despite the risks that climate change poses, we have the tools to solve this crisis. From grassroots organizations and up, sustainable alternatives to our current lifestyles are rapidly emerging.”

Uytae Lee, 24

Halifax

Uytae is a community advocate working to make complicated local planning issues accessible to all citizens. He is the co-founder and voice of PLANifax, a non-profit organization committed to honest communication between government, advocacy groups, private organizations and the public.

PLANifax makes local issues more tangible and understandable by telling these stories through video. Informed citizens know how their cities work, and how to get involved to steer the growth and evolution of their communities in a positive manner.

Since starting PLANifax in 2015, Uytae has partnered with numerous organizations to produce over 50 videos explaining issues such as coastal sea-level-rise policies, future transit plans, affordable housing and accessibility, to name a few.

“I really stuck with the idea of sustainability because it means having empathy for others and the planet.”

Gabriel Meunier, 26

Montréal/Lanaudière, Quebec

During the day, Gabriel works as the project manager for energy and climate change at the Lanaudière Regional Environmental Council, while in the evening sitting down with citizen groups.

Gabriel has chaired the Équiterre de Lanaudière Action Group for several years. Dozens of the group’s actions have helped to increase awareness of sustainability issues among the region’s population. He is also a director of Bécik Jaune, a community-based self-service bicycle project, and joined the organizing committee for the provincial consultations regarding pipeline issues and the arrival of the oil sands bitumen in Quebec.

In 2015 Gabriel was honoured at the Gala Florilège organized by the Forum Jeunesse de Lanaudière for his commitment and perseverance to environmental issues in the area.

“It will be difficult to induce the profound changes that our society needs by acting alone. It is rather by helping to build solidarity within communities, where everyone will come to put the shoulder to the wheel, that we will succeed in making change.”

Hayley Carlson, 26

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan is home to some of the last remaining native prairie in the world, an ecosystem Hayley grew to love while working over summers with rare species like the Ord’s Kangaroo rat at the province’s Ministry of the Environment.

Now the policy coordinator for the Saskatchewan Environmental Society, Hayley interacts with governments, business, academic organizations and the general public to set the province on a more sustainable path. She previously worked as a climate analyst with Agriculture Canada, monitoring impacts of climate on agriculture.

Outside of work, she is also an organizer with Climate Justice Saskatoon (CJS), running a weekly radio show with programming about environmental and climate topics and holding focus groups and workshops with members of the local community to learn more about how people think about climate change.

Studies show Western Canada has some of the lowest levels of climate literacy in Canada, and Hayley hopes CJS’s work with the community will help to develop more effective communication tactics for target audiences around climate change.

“Many environmental problems we experience today are consequences of decision-making that has favoured one way of seeing the world, and discounted other views. Sustainability is about remaining open to new narratives, especially those that have been marginalized. Every perspective adds more to the story and allows us to make better choices.”

Mikhail Smilovic, 29

Victoria/Montréal

Mikhail is trying to tackle one of humanity’s greatest challenges: how to grow enough food for a growing population, and how to do this without continuing to dry the world’s rivers, lakes and aquifers.

Trained as a natural scientist, mathematician and artist, Mikhail recently completed a PhD at McGill University investigating initiatives to produce more food with less water and has been awarded a prestigious Canadian NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship to continue to fund his research. His work has led to the development of a new method to determine irrigation scheduling to maximize the amount of food produced per drop of water, available for different crops and regions.

Convinced that local communities need to be part of the change and offer their voices as part of the solution, Mikhail has facilitated events across Canada to encourage dialogue on sustainability and change, including water tastings, curated galleries and performances, and story building.

“Be kind, be patient and get out of your own way.”

Natalia Mykhaylova, 29

Toronto

With a background in engineering, chemistry and design, Natalia is focused on tackling a major unmet need in society: access to a reliable, low-cost and high time-resolution device for measuring the air we breathe.

Her PhD work at the University of Toronto involved the development of novel devices and adaptable wireless networks for air pollution monitoring, and creating air quality sensor networks for the 2015 Pan Am Games.

One software solution she designed, Ease, makes use of traffic data to reduce city congestion and the associated carbon emissions. Ease was a first place winner at Climate Hack-to-Action sponsored by Brookfield Institute, as well as a winner of Toronto Climathon.

More recently, Natalia started a research initiative to develop technologies that would not only track air pollution but also purify the air we breathe. She co-founded Cleanopy and has developed a unique portable device for children that offers continuous indoor and outdoor protection from air pollution. She also founded WeavAir, which develops sensor modules that improve indoor air quality and energy efficiency of HVAC systems.

“By setting up infrastructure to provide public access for environmental monitoring tools and encouraging citizen science, we not only democratize access to knowledge but also increase the number of engaged and empowered citizens contributing to the revitalization of their communities and a more sustainable society.”

Edward Tian, 17

Toronto

As the Secretariat General for the Southern Ontario Model UN Assembly, Edward is at the forefront of providing young people with a forum for meaningful dialogue on sustainability in their communities.

Previous to this role, Edward represented over 330,000 young Torontonians as one of the voices on the Toronto Youth Cabinet, the official youth advisory body to Toronto City Council. For three years with the cabinet, he was a champion for creating youth spaces, rallied community organizations and spoke to city council against the closure of youth shelters.

After working on the Toronto Youth Equity Strategy, Edward started Envision City, an organization that worked with young people across his community to develop sustainable solutions to real-world city planning challenges, such as animating an under-utilized parking lot and developing an electronic voting system to promote recycling cigarettes.

He was also recently tasked with spearheading a series of youth consultations for the UN Human Settlements Programme’s Inclusive Cities Summit to ensure that the voices of youth, in developing a sustainable urban future, are heard on the world stage.

“Some things are meant to be eliminated, while other things, rich with heritage, remain vital to our communities. I’m not certain which is which, but sustainability is about finding the balance.”

Rudayna Bahubeshi, 28

Toronto

Rudayna is deeply committed to advancing equity and inclusion, and knows that a more sustainable future requires addressing systemic racism, creating equitable opportunities and recognizing the often overlooked capacities and knowledge of historically marginalized populations.

She is a manager at Inspirit Foundation, a grant-making organization focused on advancing inclusion and addressing discrimination based on race, ethnicity and religion, as well as a CivicAction DiverseCity Fellow.

Leveraging both her expertise and lived experience, Rudayna works with decision-makers and leaders to develop strategies for meaningfully supporting youth facing barriers. As a member of the Premier’s Council on Youth Opportunities, she is able to advise the provincial government on policies affecting young people. In the last year, she was also an advisor with the Wellesley Institute, a nonprofit think-tank focused on social determinants of health, seeking to support young people experiencing systemic inequities.

Rudayna was one of 25 young people from around the world brought to Berlin in 2015 to develop a youth-focused climate action plan to present at COP21. As a champion for more inclusive civic discourse, her work has included leading programming for Women in Toronto Politics.

“Justice and equity are critical to creating sustainable, livable communities – whether you’re doing work to alleviate poverty, advance climate justice, improve education, etc… We need to centralize the most vulnerable populations and co-create solutions.”

Joshua Green and Zachary Green, 27 and 24

St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador

When Joshua was working as an energy consultant for homeowners, he came to the realization that the smart thermostats available on the market were not applicable for homeowners with high voltage heating systems (HVHS). It turns out that one in three homes in Canada has an HVHS and cannot use smart thermostats designed for central heating systems like furnaces or heat pumps that are dominating the market.

Seeing the opportunity to enter this space, Joshua partnered up with his brother Zachary to create Mysa. With over 1,000 pre-sold units, they are empowering people all over North America to lower their energy consumption and their bills.

Joshua and Zachary recently secured $600,000 in private equity funding to assemble a passionate team of engineers, software developers, and marketing professionals, all under the age of 30. The team will soon begin shipments of Mysa.

“Few people change their behaviour for environmental reasons. You’ll only reach the masses if your product is appealing for other reasons such as convenience, nice design and cool technology, while still achieving your broader mission.”

Kevin Yuen, 27

New York City

Kevin is a recent Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) design fellow who uncovers intersections between biology and design to address critical sustainability issues facing our globe today.

He currently works as a business strategist at Modern Meadow, a startup that bio-fabricates leather in a laboratory. Imagine a future where animal products do not need to be extracted from raised livestock, but rather can be grown in vitro to be biologically identical to traditional products?

During his time at MIT, Kevin served as the director of collaboration for the Cellular Agriculture Society, where he spearheaded ideation and partnership efforts to transform unsustainable production systems in food and fashion with biotech.

With a dual background in biomedical sciences and business from Western University, Kevin leverages a multi-disciplinary approach to design living factories. He started his career at Innosight, a consultancy advising Fortune 50 companies on disruptive innovation principles and growth strategies. In 2016, he was selected as an IDEO fellow at Food + Future, an incubator with the MIT Media Lab to prototype new ventures addressing food access and transparency.

“Empathy can bring user experience to new heights that scientists and investors alone cannot. As we strive to develop sustainable systems, we need to challenge assumptions, address personal pain points and emphasize collaboration at every stage.”

Justin Fisch, 27

Barss Corner, Nova Scotia

A lawyer by trade and outdoor adventurer by passion, Justin works in renewable energy and environmental law and in his spare time, makes his way to the Arctic and Antarctic regions as a naturalist and lecturer with Quark Expeditions. When not fighting for environmental sustainability or on a ship heading toward the poles, Justin can be found teaching environmental law to budding conservationists at the University of Ottawa.

Seeing the need to work internationally and across political and geographical borders in the name of sustainability, Justin strikes a careful balance between focusing his efforts on improving sustainability in his own community, while simultaneously acknowledging the important role of global factors in shaping a sustainable future. Justin has spent his young professional life encouraging Canadian youth to connect with the beautiful environment in their own backyards while serving Parks Canada as its youth ambassador.

He is also completing a documentary titled Hello Ukkusiksalik (currently in post-production), filmed in the remote and threatened arctic tundra of one of Canada’s newest parks, Ukkusiksalik National Park in Nunavut. The film explores the conservation efforts of Inuit peoples while simultaneously uncovering the opportunity the park has to safeguard Inuit traditions, connect youth to their culture and create sustainable tourism-based economic opportunities for the local community.

“Find your sustainability passion, and share it with others. Big things will come of it. A first time bike commuter will someday become Canada’s leading advocate for sustainable cycle-ways. A fledgling canoeist will evolve into Canada’s leading conservation writer. A beginning swimmer will one day protect our most pristine of waterways. Sustainable leadership always starts with just one experience.”

Steve Lee, 25

Toronto

Steve is a climate change activist, a policy advocate to the UN and a global speaker. He is the executive director of the Foundation for Environmental Stewardship and its 3% Project, which mobilizes Canadian youth through national tours across hundreds of schools. It provides youth-friendly and holistic education on climate change and empowers them to take action on solving climate change in their local communities today.

A prolific global speaker, Steve has represented the Canadian youth at over a dozen international forums. He is a voice to the voiceless youth globally in policymaking as a member of World We Want 2030 Policy Strategy Group, UN Major Group for Children and Youth, UNEP Tunza, UN Inter-Agency Network on Youth Development, and more.

Also an entrepreneur, Steve was a partner of RevIT² Solutions, a market research consulting firm for private investment firms, and the CEO of Steve’s Guidebook, a publishing company for university-level calculus and biology study guides.

“Although we are the final generation who can solve climate change, I am quite concerned that we are no better off than the previous generations in our capacity to deal with its effects. We must exercise the muscle for sustainability problem-solving skill to make it our generation’s core competency.”

Larissa Parker, 23

London, England

Passionate about the intersection of human rights and environment, Larissa recently finished her MSc in Nature, Society and Environmental Governance at the University of Oxford, where she focused her studies on climate change adaptation, traditional environmental knowledge and loss and damage.

Larissa recently returned from Rarotonga, Cook Islands, where she conducted her dissertation fieldwork, researching marine non-economic loss and damage and place pathology. Specifically, she looked at the impacts of climate change on people’s sense of place, livelihoods and traditions. Larissa is currently working for the Risk and Resilience Programme of the Overseas Development Institute, which focuses on providing research and policy advice on systemic, inclusive and just approaches to build resilience against climate-related risks and other hazards on poverty and development in developing countries.

But this only describes what she has been up to in the past year. Larissa has held jobs in both the civil service and government, working for the Ontario Energy Board, as well as a Toronto city councillor and in a federal MP’s office. As one of three Canadians to receive a Jaimie Anderson Parliamentary Internship, Larissa assisted with work on Canadian Indigenous issues, researching and advocating for Indigenous rights to land, water and education.

“The rhetoric around climate change can make it easy for young people to fall into the trap of thinking that there is nothing they can do. Instead, be confident and resilient. Any action – big or small – can make a difference; but most importantly, it’s your own hope and drive for change that will contagiously inspire others to do the same.”

Robyn Seetal, 29

Calgary, Alberta

As a consulting manager within Deloitte’s sustainability and climate change practice, Robyn enables her clients to manage social and environmental risks and drive sustainability performance. She supports companies that are struggling to develop Canada’s energy resources in a way that is sustainable while managing the needs and expectations of Indigenous communities and key stakeholders such as landowners, government and investors.

Robyn has served as a co-judge for the CPA Canada Award of Excellence in Sustainability Reporting and is the co-lead of the corporate workstream of the Natural Capital Lab, which aims to propel Canada and its vast natural capital to a position of global leadership on the measurement and management of natural capital assets. She directly identifies opportunities to integrate these assets into corporate decision making, and is at the forefront of global thought leadership on this subject.

As well, Robyn is the co-founder and chair of a renowned youth leadership development conference that was founded in 2009. In 2017, her passion for impact investing led her to join the founding board of a local investment cooperative called Local Investing YYC, which provides capital to local business generating valuable social, environmental and financial returns. Robyn is also the youngest board member of the Trans Canada Trail.

“Sustainability is increasingly used as a buzzword, but to me, it’s more than that – it’s an active mindset and a way of being. Sustainability is about understanding that everything is interconnected, and making the conscious choice to have a net zero or positive impact on our environment and society.”

James Dekker, 26

Vancouver

James is a globally-focused business and human resources professional, currently working as a talent development manager at HSBC. In this role, he is dedicated to recruiting and developing emerging and talented students and recent graduates into the business.

At HSBC, James has been involved in a number of initiatives that support sustainability and diversity, equity and inclusion, including the launch of the Indigenous Canadians Employee Resource Group and establishment of key external partnerships with nonprofit organizations that align with the strategic priorities of the bank.

James is active in his community, sitting on the board of directors for the Indigenous-led charity Indspire and the Ch’nook organization at UBC. He is a member of the Pine Creek First Nation and has demonstrated a true passion for working with youth-focused organizations that support young talent and Indigenous advancement.

“Take time and reflect on the social issues that you’re passionate about most. Look for opportunities to get involved in initiatives that align with those values and take action with both passion and a positive attitude.”

Amelia Mary Brinkerhoff, 24

Montréal

Amelia is a recent graduate of the McGill School of Environment, where she focused on systems thinking, urban sustainability and food systems. Eager to learn from and be engaged with the Montréal and McGill communities from the start, Amelia collaborated with McGill’s head chef to create the new position of student sustainability coordinator for McGill’s Food and Dining Services.

During her three years in this position she established long-term commitments around waste, procurement and engagement practices and proved to be a key force behind a culture of sustainable food at McGill. After receiving McGill University’s Catalyst Award in 2016 for this work and other contributions to the McGill sustainability community, Amelia was hired to craft the university’s new Climate and Sustainability Action Plan. In this role, she facilitates complex, inclusive conversations about strategic decisions and climate action, and aims to strike the balance between earnest ambition and on-the-ground realism.

For a number of years, Amelia has volunteered with the Montréal community organization and food hub Santropol Roulant. She was recently elected to its board of directors, is active with the Montréal YMCA, YWCA and Native Women’s Shelter and recently joined the Food Secure Canada Youth Caucus.

“While certain political forces seem to pull us back, I do think that we’re getting better at having difficult conversations, at deep thinking and learning, and at realizing that sustainability means tackling a full range of problems in order to build more equitable and inclusive societies.”

Nivatha Balendra, 22

Montréal

Nivatha has always been curious and interested in exploring new answers to big questions. Her science fair journey started at the age of 13 and her research has garnered her numerous accolades in the years since.

Recognizing the lack of environmental solutions for cleaning up oil spills, Nivatha’s research involved a novel species of bacteria she discovered and its effectiveness in the bioremediation of oil particles. The young scientist isolated this particular strain of Pseudomonas bacteria from local soil samples she collected around Montreal. In recognition of her work, she received the World Economic Forum Prize at the Intel International Science and Technology Fair to travel to China for the forum.

Nivatha has also founded the International Young Scientists Mentorship Program, a student-led non-profit organization focused on motivating and supporting youth to participate in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) activities and provide opportunities for their scientific enrichment.

At age 20, Nivatha was diagnosed with cancer, Stage IV Hodgkin lymphoma. After undergoing six months of chemotherapy, she has been a year in remission. It made her realize how precious time is and has redoubled her drive to achieve these dreams.

Having cancer as a young adult, however, poses its own obstacles. As a result, she is currently working on developing a young adult cancer awareness program that will target university students and staff in the hopes of raising awareness and gaining psychosocial support for others facing cancer through university.

“Don’t wait for the right moment to pursue your goals. Go for it – there’s no better time than now.”

Maya Burhanpurkar, 18

Barrie, Ontario

As a young scientist, Maya has a dream to continue to combine art with science to spread the message of conservation far and wide.

Fresh off a gap year before beginning studies at Harvard University, Maya’s beginning scientific work has ranged from prototyping an “intelligent” antibiotic to discovering new properties of potential Alzheimer’s drugs. More recently, alongside professor Steve Mann (known as the father of wearable computing) at the University of Toronto, she led a project that uncovered a new principle of Newtonian physics.

As an advocate for climate change awareness, Maya travelled to the Arctic to produce an open source documentary about climate change featuring author Margaret Atwood, astronaut Chris Hadfield, famed explorer Wade Davis and Nobel laureate Brad Bass. The documentary, 400PPM, was recently awarded the prestigious international Gloria Barron Prize. Currently, Maya is creating an international Climate Ambassador program inspired by the documentary due to popular interest.

As an advocate for girls in STEM, she has also served as the president of a national non-profit which provides science outreach to over 120,000 youths across Canada.

“A new generation must take charge, because together we can achieve anything.”

Caitlyn Baikie, 25

Nain, Nunatsiavut, Newfoundland and Labrador/Gatineau, Quebec

Born and raised in Nain, Nunatsiavut, Caitlyn has almost a decade of experience under her belt in Arctic social and physical sciences through various programs and work experiences. She currently works as a manager for Students on Ice while completing her undergraduate degree in Geography and Aboriginal Studies at Memorial University.

She is an alumnus of the kANGIDLUASUk student program which operates out of the Torngat Mountains National Park, and was a research assistant for the Arctic Inspiration Prize-winning project SakKijanginnatuk Nunalik initiative, a collaborative sustainable communities initiative between Memorial University and the Nunatsiavut government.

Caitlyn also has a keen interest in government policy, taking various summer internships with the Nunatsiavut government’s Executive Council. This allowed her to better understand the implementation of the Labrador Inuit Land Claims Agreement, while working closely with elected officials and community members of Nunatsiavut. Most recently, she participated in the 2014 Victoria Strait expedition, which located Erebus, one of Sir John Franklin’s ill-fated ships through the Northwest Passage.

This year, Caitlyn was appointed an official ambassador for the Canadian government department of Heritage Canada 150 initiatives, where she has been engaging in grassroots conversations about reconciliation.

“Being sustainable means that I am able to harvest and eat traditional country food with my family while practicing and learning about our traditional Inuit knowledge.”

Chloe Dragon Smith, 27

Yellowknife, Northwest Territories

Chloe is a Metis woman of Chipewyan and European heritage who grew up close to her Indigenous cultural values and learned traditional skills for living on the land. This northern upbringing shapes her values today. Chloe is a trained canoe instructor, an open water scuba diver, an avid hiker and a hockey player.

While educated in science, she has found her niche in working with people on the social/cultural benefits of the natural world. Currently, Chloe works with the Canadian Parks Council as an executive project leader. She is co-chairing an intergenerational citizen working group called Connecting a New Generation with Nature. The working group has created a document called The Nature Playbook: Take action to connect a new generation of Canadians with nature. It was adopted by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as a global best practice, which led to it being featured at the 2016 World Conservation Congress.

Today, Chloe continues to share The Nature Playbook at conferences around Canada, while working on new collaborative projects with the Canadian Parks Council. In April 2017, she was named the first Young Woman for Nature, by Nature Canada’s Women for Nature. She was also appointed by Canada’s minister of the environment and climate change and Alberta’s minister for environment and parks to the National Advisory Panel for Canada Target 1 – the conservation target aiming to protect 17 per cent of Canada’s land and water by 2020.

“Sustainability to me means balance. That means living in harmony with all systems and making decisions to actively maintain that harmony.”

Audrey Morin, 24

Montréal

Audrey is a champion of Canada’s natural spaces and the manner in which we perceive them. As a Master’s candidate at the University of Québec at Montréal in Tourism Development, Audrey is exploring the promotion of tourism in Québec’s most remote outposts, contrasting this with a natural resource-based approach to development.

In doing so, she is breaking down long-held preconceptions about how ecotourism development is seen and its saviour context, critically analysing the opportunities and returns for transitioning communities, notably those of the Côte-Nord region in Québec.

In her past work, Audrey has contributed to The Starfish environmental magazine, educated for Parks Canada, participated in Students on Ice Arctic Expeditions, taught for an environmental education organization in the Saguenay and contributed her volunteer labour to dozens of people and other organizations across the country.

“I’ve met so many inspiring people in my life, but what makes them special is their ability to be themselves and to do what it means for them and not what society dictates.”

Mac Balacano, 28

Winnipeg

Mac has developed a specialty integrating sustainability into telecommunications products and services.

He was responsible for BlackBerry’s first life cycle analysis on BlackBerry smartphones, and has gone on to create Bell MTS’s corporate social responsibility policy and report, its supplier code of conduct and a wireless device recycling program. In addition, he has also steadily improved Bell MTS’s CDP Climate Change disclosure.

Mac’s passion has also translated over to tackling various social issues in his community, volunteering on the board of directors for six organizations in Winnipeg that focus on caring for individuals with disabilities, providing social housing programs, helping new immigrants find professional work and various youth engagement programs.

“Focusing on the greatest aspects of our humanity (such as passion, creativity and love) and pairing that with sound business practices and the latest technology is what will help us build a truly sustainable society.”

The post Meet the 2017 Top 30 Under 30 in Sustainability appeared first on Corporate Knights.

Business schools are made up of expert faculty, diverse stakeholders and students, with a range of experiences from across countries, disciplines and industries. Together this offers a unique, and underutilized, laboratory to explore and test solutions to push sustainability forward in ways that benefit both business and society at large.

The challenge is that it isn’t just society that often fails to recognize the important role that business schools play; the schools themselves often fail to recognize their role and the increasing range of opportunities that sustainability can offer them, particularly now that the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are in place.

A look at the 2017 Top 40 Better World MBA ranking demonstrates that this is beginning to change, with business schools around the world taking their own ideas of how to make sustainability the business of business education and putting them into practice.

Author and sustainability advisor Giselle Weybrecht delves deeper into some of these more innovative approaches here, looking at examples from both the Top 40 schools and other programs from around the world.

In first place this year is the University of Exeter Business School, which barely edged out perennial winner Schulich School of Business at York University as well as Warwick Business School on the strength of its curriculum. All three programs earned top marks for their institutes and centres, along with faculty research.

Following the top three were the Copenhagen Business School and Duquesne University’s Palumbo Donahue School of Business.

The 2017 list represented a 17.5 per cent turnover rate from last year’s list, welcoming new schools such as the University of Edinburgh Business School and the University of Victoria’s Peter B. Gustavson School of Business.

Click here to go back to the ranking landing page.

The post The 2017 Better World MBA ranking appeared first on Corporate Knights.

Note: Warwick Business School was listed in the Oct. 16th print version of Corporate Knights as finishing 3rd in the 2017 Better World MBA Ranking, while it in fact tied for 2nd place alongside the Schulich School of Business. We regret the error.

Click here to go back to the ranking landing page.

The post 2017 Better World MBA results appeared first on Corporate Knights.

The ideas include adding “shifts” into the curriculum, moments when students are unexpectedly placed in a situation they need to resolve.

There is a course called “From Day 1,” which brings students and faculty from across disciplines together to discuss current events, the impact they have on the business involved and what they would do if they were in charge (and following what actually happens). The Lifetime MBA invites alumni back to campus for a range of additional modules throughout their lives, including at retirement or upon returning to work after starting a family. Another idea involves eliminating all courses and instead engaging students in a number of interdisciplinary experiences throughout the degree focused on identifying challenges and opportunities and acting on them. Many of the ideas don’t even mention sustainability by name; they are about creating graduates who can question assumptions, listen effectively, work across culture, collaborate, who have an understanding of the world around them and can make better decisions as a result.
 

Collaborating with business to explore solutions

A growing number of business schools are setting themselves up as testing labs for new sustainability ideas and helping partner organizations move forward on theirs. For example, since 2013, Copenhagen Business School has been working with the Roskilde Festival, the second largest music festival in Europe. Researchers use the festival, which brings together 130,000 people into a temporary city for two weeks every year, to research sustainable solutions for cities on a small scale that might be applicable to other communities.

Ideas for Action, a joint initiative of the World Bank Group and the Wharton School, invites students from around the world to devise innovative new strategies for financing the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Winners earn the opportunity to present their ideas to the World Bank Group and receive support from a project incubator at Wharton.

Business school INCAE and Nespresso formed a partnership in 2013 to launch a global case study challenge where the company presents a specific sustainability challenge it is facing each year for students to work on. The winning teams have a chance to implement their ideas with Nespresso.

Duke Fuqua School of Business’ CASE i3 Consulting Program pairs students with leading organizations on impact investing projects, including developing impact due diligence guidelines for investors and doing market analysis and investment landscaping.

Second-year MBA students at Haas School of Business can apply to be fund managers of the Haas Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) Fund, the first and largest student-led SRI fund within a leading business school. The fund has more than doubled the initial investment to over $2 million (U.S.) since 2008 and empowered new generations of graduates around SRI and environmental, social and governance investment strategies and practices.

Opportunities within the curriculum

In addition to embedding sustainability into all courses, schools are reinforcing these messages through a series of courses that focus on the interdisciplinary nature of sustainability. A number of schools, including Griffith University in Australia, are requiring MBA students to take a course in systems thinking. These introduce and address the challenges of making decisions within the context of complex business systems with multiple stakeholders and short- and long-term social, environmental and economic consequences.

The Rotterdam School of Management is one of seven European business schools that concurrently take part in the Climate Change Course. The course is followed by a two-day simulation of UN climate negotiations with master-level students from the participating schools, giving them knowledge and first-hand experience in finding climate change solutions on a global scale.

At HEC Montréal, a popular course on business history involves a 12-day, 500-kilometre cycling trip across the region. The experience seeks to expose students to how politics, culture and environment influence the economic development of the region.

Engaging the community

Business schools are also acting as enablers to help their communities engage in sustainability. For example, a number of schools in the U.S. offer a board program where students are matched with a local non-profit board of directors for 14 months and serve as a non-voting board member, while also being paired up with a mentor.

Students at the University of Wollongong can become a volunteer mentor in the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience. The country-wide program supports Indigenous students throughout high school, university and beyond with the aim of bringing high school graduation and university admission rates among Indigenous youth in line with the rates of other students.

While in-person initiatives have an important impact, virtual ones are reaching a wider audience. The Haas School of Business’ Philanthropy University provides free online courses, such as How to Scale Social Impact, which have already been viewed by over 225,000 social change makers from 180 countries. The courses can be combined to earn a Certificate of Social Sector Leadership from Berkeley-Haas.

It’s part of a growing number of sustainability-focused, publicly available courses provided online, many with interactive elements. Students enrolled in Copenhagen Business School’s Becoming a Social Entrepreneur online course form virtual teams with others from around the world to study a problematic issue, develop an idea and business model around a solution, and then compete in a virtual business plan competition.

Sustainability within the school itself

Courses on sustainability will have limited impact if the school itself isn’t practising what it preaches. Business schools are increasingly looking at sustainability within their operations and creating supportive environments to enable their students to engage on campus. At the University of British Columbia, the yearly Changemaker Showcase engages and connects students seeking to start sustainability projects, whether these are on campus or a new business. Students can also tap into a number of grants to help them launch their social change project.

PhD students at the University of Nottingham started the Sustainability Research Network with the aim of creating a platform where those working on sustainability topics could meet one another and share ideas and expertise across disciplines. Today there are over 370 members from 23 different schools including business, engineering, education and sciences, and the network has spread across to the university’s Malaysia campus.

The ID@work project at Antwerp Management School aims to support organizations in attracting, developing and retaining employees with intellectual disabilities. The school, in collaboration with researchers with intellectual disabilities, has developed a coaching program for employers as well as a number of training courses.

As these examples show, many business schools are already implementing innovative sustainability-related ideas into their curriculum, research, partnerships and campuses. Through their students, research and graduates, they are becoming an indispensable resource for leaders and business looking to move forward in sustainability.

The potential impact, both positive and negative, that business schools collectively can have should not be taken for granted.

Click here to go back to the ranking landing page.

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But the wholesale reimagining of society requires a common civic bond, described by Harvard sociologist Robert Putnam in his book Bowling Alone as social capital – referring to “connections among individuals, social networks and norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them.”

This capital is built up through hundreds of little and big actions we take every day. Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government created a list of nearly 150 ideas, drawn from suggestions made by many people and groups, to get the ball rolling.

Some of these ideas may appear trite or obvious, but when multiplied across a community they can make a real difference.

Try out some of these or come up with your own:

❏ 1. Organize a social gathering to welcome a new neighbour
❏ 2. Attend town meetings
❏ 3. Register to vote and then vote

❏ 4. Support local merchants
❏ 5. Volunteer your special skills to an organization
❏ 6. Donate blood (with a friend!)
❏ 7. Start a front-yard/community garden
❏ 8. Mentor someone of a different ethnic or religious group
❏ 9. Surprise a new neighbour by making a favourite dinner – and include the recipe
❏ 10. Tape record your parents’ earliest recollections and share them with your children
❏ 11. Plan a vacation with friends or family
❏ 12. Avoid gossip
❏ 13. Help fix someone’s flat tire
❏ 14. Organize or participate in a sports league
❏ 15. Join a gardening club
❏ 16. Attend home parties when invite
❏ 17. Become an organ donor or blood marrow donor
❏ 18. Attend your children’s athletic contests, plays and recitals
❏ 19. Get to know your children’s teachers
❏ 20. Join the local Elks, Kiwanis, or Knights of Columbus
❏ 21. Get involved with Brownies or Cub/Boy/Girl Scouts
❏ 22. Start a monthly tea group
❏ 23. Speak at or host a monthly brown bag lunch series at your local library
❏ 24. Sing in a choir
❏ 25. Get to know the clerks and salespeople at your local stores
❏ 26. Attend PTA meetings
❏ 27. Audition for community theatre or volunteer to usher
❏ 28. Give your park a weatherproof chess/checkers board
❏ 29. Play cards with friends or neighbours
❏ 30. Give to your local food bank
❏ 31. Walk or bike to support a cause and meet others
❏ 32. Employers: encourage volunteer/community groups to hold meetings on your site
❏ 33. Volunteer in your child’s classroom or chaperone a field trip
❏ 34. Join or start a babysitting cooperative
❏ 35. Attend school plays
❏ 36. Answer surveys when asked
❏ 37. Businesses: invite local government officials to speak at your workplace
❏ 38. Attend Memorial Day parades and express appreciation for others
❏ 39. Form a local outdoor activity group
❏ 40. Participate in political campaigns
❏ 41. Attend a local budget committee meeting
❏ 42. Form a computer group for local senior citizens
❏ 43. Help coach Little League or other youth sports – even if you don’t have a kid playing
❏ 44. Help run the snack bar at the Little League field
❏ 45. Form a tool lending library with neighbours and share ladders, snow blowers, etc.
❏ 46. Start a lunch gathering or a discussion group with co-workers
❏ 47. Offer to rake a neighbour’s yard or shovel his/her walk
❏ 48. Start or join a carpool
❏ 49. Employers: give employees time (e.g., 3 days per year) to work on civic projects
❏ 50. Plan a walking tour of a local historic area
❏ 51. Eat breakfast at a local gathering spot on Saturdays
❏ 52. Have family dinners and read to your children
❏ 53. Run for public office
❏ 54. Stop and make sure the person on the side of the highway is OK
❏ 55. Host a block party or a holiday open house
❏ 56. Start a fix-it group – friends willing to help each other clean, paint, garden, etc.
❏ 57. Offer to serve on a town committee
❏ 58. Join the volunteer fire department
❏ 59. Go to church…or temple…or walk outside with your children – talk to them about why it’s important
❏ 60. If you grow tomatoes, plant extra for a lonely eldery neighbour – better yet, ask him/her to teach you and others how to can the extras
❏ 61. Ask a single diner to share your table for lunch
❏ 62. Stand at a major intersection holding a sign for your favourite candidate
❏ 63. Persuade a local restaurant to have a designated “meet people” table
❏ 64. Host a potluck supper before your Town Meeting
❏ 65. Take dance lessons with a friend
❏ 66. Say “thanks” to public servants – police, firefighters, town clerk…
❏ 67. Fight to keep essential local services in the downtown area – your post office, police station, school, etc.
❏ 68. Join a non-profit board of directors
❏ 69. Gather a group to clean up a local park or cemetery
❏ 70. When somebody says “government stinks,” suggest they help fix it
❏ 71. Turn off the TV and talk with friends or family
❏ 72. Hold a neighbourhood barbecue
❏ 73. Bake cookies for new neighbours or work colleagues
❏ 74. Plant tree seedlings along your street with neighbours and rotate care for them
❏ 75. Volunteer at the library
❏ 76. Form or join a bowling team
❏ 77. Return a lost wallet or appointment book
❏ 78. Use public transportation and start talking with those you regularly see
❏ 79. Ask neighbours for help and reciprocate
❏ 80. Go to a local folk or crafts festival
❏ 81. Call an old friend
❏ 82. Sign up for a class and meet your classmates
❏ 83. Accept or extend an invitation
❏ 84. Talk to your kids or parents about their day
❏ 85. Say hello to strangers

❏ 86. Log off and go to the park
❏ 87. Ask a new person to join a group for a dinner or an evening
❏ 88. Host a potluck meal or participate in them
❏ 89. Volunteer to drive someone
❏ 90. Say hello when you spot an acquaintance in a store
❏ 91. Host a movie night
❏ 92. Exercise together or take walks with friends or family
❏ 93. Assist with or create your town or neighbourhood’s newsletter
❏ 94. Organize a neighbourhood garbage pick-up – with lawn games afterwards
❏ 95. Become a story-reader or baby-rocker at a local childcare centre or neighbourhood pre-school
❏ 96. Join a book club discussion or get the group to discuss local issues
❏ 97. Volunteer to deliver Meals on Wheels in your neighbourhood
❏ 98. Start a children’s story hour at your local library
❏ 99. Be real. Be humble. Acknowledge others’ self-worth
❏ 100. Greet people
❏ 101. Cut back on television
❏ 102. Join in to help carry something heavy
❏ 103. Plan a reunion of family, friends, or those with whom you had a special connection
❏ 104. Take in the programs at your local library
❏ 105. Read the local news faithfully
❏ 106. Buy a grill and invite others over for a meal
❏ 107. Fix it even if you didn’t break it
❏ 108. Pick it up even if you didn’t drop it
❏ 109. Attend a public meeting
❏ 110. Go with friends or colleagues to a ball game (and root, root, root for the home team!)
❏ 111. Help scrape ice off a neighbour’s car, put chains on the tires or shovel it out of the snow
❏ 112. Hire young people for odd jobs
❏ 113. Start a tradition
❏ 114. Share your snow blower
❏ 115. Help jump-start someone’s car
❏ 116. Join a project that includes people from all walks of life
❏ 117. Sit on your stoop
❏ 118. Be nice when you drive
❏ 119. Make gifts of time
❏ 120. Buy a big hot tub
❏ 121. Volunteer at your local neighbourhood school
❏ 122. Offer to help out at your local recycling centre
❏ 123. Send a “thank you” Letter to the Editor about a person or event that helped build community
❏ 124. Raise funds for a new town clock or new town library
❏ 125. When inspired, write personal notes to friends and neighbours
❏ 126. Attend gallery openings
❏ 127. Organize a town-wide yard sale
❏ 128. Invite friends or colleagues to help with a home renovation or home building project
❏ 129. Join or start a local mall-walking group and have coffee together afterwards
❏ 130. Build a neighbourhood playground
❏ 131. Collect oral histories from older town residents
❏ 132. Contra dance or two-step
❏ 133. Help kids on your street construct a lemonade stand
❏ 134. Open the door for someone who has his or her hands full
❏ 135. Say hi to those in elevators
❏ 136. Invite friends to go snowshoeing, hiking or cross-country skiing
❏ 137. Offer to watch your neighbour’s home or apartment while they are away
❏ 138. Organize a fitness/health group with your friends or co-workers
❏ 139. Hang out at the town dump and chat with your neighbours as you sort your trash at the recycling centre
❏ 140. Take pottery classes with your children or parent(s)
❏ 141. See if your neighbour needs anything when you run to the store
❏ 142. Ask to see a friend’s family photos
❏ 143. Join groups (e.g., arts, sports, religion) likely to lead to making new friends of different race or ethnicity, different social class or bridging across other dimensions
❏ 144. Attend or start a free summer music series at a local park
❏ 145. Tell friends and family about social capital and why it matters

Note: Expanded from original list of “100 Things You Can Do to Build Social Capital” (Saguaro Seminar: Civic Engagement in America project at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government); additional contributions from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and Rochester Area Community Foundation, as well as ideas from the general public.

The post Civic bond appeared first on Corporate Knights.

Steelmaking is energy intensive and one of the world’s leading industrial sources of greenhouse gases, generating nearly two tonnes of CO2 emissions per tonne of steel produced and accounting for about five per cent of total GHG emissions. On the flip side, steel is essential to building the infrastructure required in a low-carbon economy – everything from wind turbines and electric vehicles to mass transit systems. Another bonus with steel is that it’s recyclable.

While the global steel industry says it has significantly reduced its CO2 emissions in recent decades – largely by reducing its energy consumption per tonne of steel produced by 60 per cent over the past 50 years, according to the World Steel Association –  production still involves massive amounts of iron and carbon.

“You need carbon to make steel,” says Aleksandra Pogoda, director of environment at the Canadian Steel Producers Association (CSPA). “There is no way to get around that.”

There are also no breakthrough technologies, at least not yet, that will change the steelmaking recipe for mass production. For the industry, that means a near-term focus on continuing to reduce energy consumption as well as investing in more research and development (R&D) to find ways to clean up the steelmaking process for the future.

What the industry is doing

Players across the global industry are currently working on technologies such as carbon capture and storage (CCS), using bio carbon as a substitute in the steelmaking process, as well as experimenting with algae ponds to gobble up carbon.

While these technologies aren’t expected to move the needle on lowering the industry’s overall emissions anytime soon, they are steps in the right direction. The steel industry is expected to play a role in helping to mitigate climate change, while also contributing to the build-out of the low-carbon economy.

“The steel industry is waking up to its carbon exposure right now,” says Chris Bataille, an energy policy consultant and researcher at the Paris-based Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations. “The iron and steel industry has been operating on late-1800s technology for more than a century. It’s time for them to jump into this century.”

Governments have a part to play too, say both the industry and environmental groups, through policies that encourage a greater reduction in emissions and incentives to spur increased investment in carbon-cutting technologies.

The Trump administration’s decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement on climate change is seen as a potential setback to both strategies. “[Industry] needs to be absolutely certain that, when they say we’re doing Paris for instance, they’re doing Paris,” says Bataille. “Then they’ll foot the bill.”

Some companies and countries are forging ahead regardless. An example is the $122 million (U.S.) Al Reyadah facility in the Middle East, the world’s first fully commercial carbon-capture steel project. The joint venture between Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) and Masdar, which launched last fall, captures up to 800,000 tonnes of CO2 emitted from Emirates Steel facilities and transfers it to oilfields for enhanced oil recovery operation.

CCS technologies, along with other end-of-pipe solutions, could reduce overall emissions by almost 60 per cent of 1990 levels, according to a report from Boston Consulting Group. However, it cites “economic practicalities” as one reason why the technology remains “highly speculative.”

While CCS is expensive, it’s a lot cheaper than what it would cost for the industry to revamp its traditional process, says Binnu Jeyakumar, program director of electricity at the Pembina Institute. “It’s one of the few industries where carbon capture and storage might make sense,” she says.

The steel industry needs incentives to invest in more CCS projects, Jeyakumar says, including everything from government grants and tax credits to a higher carbon price. “Right now there is not the right signal for the steel industry to start taking on some of these capital-intensive actions to reduce their carbon,” she says. “The bigger penalty they pay, or the bigger incentive they have … the more they’ll be motivated to invest the R&D and the commercialization that’s required. There’s a huge opportunity here.”

Technologies for the future

There are other technologies in the works, including a joint venture with three Swedish companies – SSAB, LKAB and Vattenfall – to develop a steelmaking process that emits water instead of carbon dioxide. Their goal, albeit a long way off, is to replace today’s blast furnace process, which uses coal and coke, with a process based on hydrogen gas. It aligns with Sweden’s overall goal to be the first fossil-free country by 2045. The project is currently being studied, with research and pilot plant trials not scheduled until 2024. It still requires significant financial contributions from the state, research institutions and universities, the companies say.

The Boston Electrometallurgical Corp. (BEMC), a company spun out of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is also working on a way to produce metal in a smelter using oxygen instead of carbon dioxide through a technology known as molten oxide electrolysis (MOE). MIT professor and BEMC co-founder Donald Sadoway says the company has raised more than $10 million (U.S.) over the past four years from governments and investors and has advanced the “de-risking” of the MOE technology for several different metal systems and industrial segments.

“We’ve designed, built and operated a prototype pilot scale reactor and produced hundreds of kilograms of metal – various metals and alloys,” Sadoway said in an email. “The next phase will involve a multi-year program to build a demonstration facility involving one or more industrial partners.”

Industry has no choice but to change

While the success and long-term viability of projects like these may seem far off, Bataille says a day will come when the industry has no choice but to reduce its emissions, and those not working on solutions will be shut out.

“The industry has to change, and it will change,” he says. “There will be certain companies that get the jump and develop the technologies early enough that they corner the market. Some will go out of business if they don’t adapt fast enough.”

The global steel industry acknowledges its role in reducing emissions, as well as in helping to create the low-carbon economy with the product it makes. But it also wants help.

In a position paper, the World Steel Association calls on governments to collaborate with the industry “to overcome the technological and economic challenges involved to ensure progress.”

That includes recognition of its role in a sustainable economy, in particular when developing carbon policies that would impact the industry’s bottom line. For instance, the association notes that about a third of steel is traded internationally and urges government policies that “promote a level playing field to ensure that steel companies in one region are not put at a disadvantage with steelmakers from other regions.”

It also calls on governments to share the expense of required R&D to come up with breakthrough technology that’s badly needed to produce a meaningful change in production emissions.

“Any future climate agreement should include provisions on technology transfer, climate risk management mechanisms and international funding for public-private partnerships either individually or collectively,” the association says.

CSPA president Joseph Galimberti says the steel industry has the “tremendous ability to facilitate a low carbon economy,” but that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution.

“This is an industry that is very aware of its environmental responsibility,” Galimberti says.

He also says the industry accepts there will be a price on carbon and, speaking on behalf of his Canadian members, says it is “very aware of how carbon emissions are going to be regulated and monetized in Canada and is interested in leveraging our advantage in the marketplace.”

The post Steel work appeared first on Corporate Knights.

He began by detailing the uncertain but escalating economic costs of dealing with climate change. Absent efforts to deal with global warming, these would likely run into the tens of billions of dollars on an annual basis by the 2050s, he said. As it pertains to the bank’s broad mandate for financial stability, a combination of physical, policy and liability risks could result in “stranded assets,” the rapid re-pricing of things like oil reserves that would in turn be negatively reflected on balance sheets.

Lane described the two tools to navigate the low-carbon transition in Canada as carbon pricing, which aligns incentives in the real economy, and green finance, which accelerates the transition. While many challenges remain, including uneven pricing of carbon globally and information gaps as to how companies are positioned to lead or lag this transition, Canada is well positioned to seize the opportunities by leveraging our large stores of renewable energy and growing capacity for clean innovation.

This summer, Corporate Knights caught up with Timothy Lane over the phone from his office in Ottawa to flesh out some of these themes.

CK: The Financial Stability Board (FSB) Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures issued its final report this summer recommending better climate disclosure, including for banks, to disclose their credit exposure to carbon-related assets.

It also proposed that investors disclose their portfolio exposure to carbon-related assets, as well as climate opportunities, as part of their standard annual financial filings. Are these suggestions under consideration in Canada?

Lane: As a member of the FSB, we endorsed the task force’s report. In terms of implementing it within Canada, it falls mostly to the securities administrators, including the provincial securities authorities. The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions also has a role, to the extent that it involves federally regulated financial institutions.

CK: What is the role for finance as it relates to the low-carbon economic transition?

Lane: There are two phases. The current phase is more at the level of socially responsible investing. There are certainly many investors that have an objective of making their investments support more responsible climate outcomes, a group that includes quite a few individual investors but increasingly some of the major institutional investors as well. In this phase, having clear standards for what constitutes a green bond, having funding that’s dedicated towards that kind of investment is useful as it harnesses some of that sense of social and environmental responsibility to actually develop some of these projects that will help mitigate climate change.

Where things could change is once carbon pricing becomes a bigger factor. With appropriate carbon pricing, green investing is basically a profitable investment too. Even investors that are not particularly socially responsible would start caring about how carbon pricing is going to affect the returns on their investment.

At that point, green finance becomes mainstream and you have funding being channelled in an appropriate way into those green investments. But I think during the first phase, when carbon pricing isn’t yet creating the incentives for those green investments that are in line with their broader economic benefits, there is still a benefit to having a framework for something like green bonds that harnesses the environmentally-responsible investment dollars.

CK: Other countries like China and France have issued green bond standards to kick-start green financial flows to some considerable success. Is this something Canada should look at?

Lane: A green bond standard makes sense. Standards are really important because you don’t want a situation where anybody could label anything green. Investors need to know that there is some consistency around these things, and certainly I think that’s why that was emphasized in the G20 report as well.

CK: One major trend we’ve observed over the past several years has involved global oil majors selling their oil sands assets to Canadian oil majors, underwritten in most cases by Canadian banks. From a financial stability perspective, is this exposure a point of curiosity for the Bank of Canada?

Lane: Our assessment has been that Canadian banks are well diversified, despite the fact that they are making substantial investments in certain industries like oil. They have investments or loans that are distributed widely across different parts of the Canadian economy. Three years ago, when oil prices dropped from around $120 to the neighbourhood of $30 a barrel, there was very little effect on even the profitability level, let alone the solvency of the Canadian banks.

We don’t think it is a major concern at the moment, but over time, as the economy shifts to a lower carbon basis, it is going to involve some significant changes to the structure of the financial system and what kind of activities get financed. There are a number of oil investments that look profitable with the current sort of energy and carbon intensity of the economy that would not be getting financed under a low-carbon economic scenario with lower oil prices.

CK: Could climate change be an opportunity for Canadian finance?

Lane: The Canadian financial system has a number of attributes that position it well for success in a changing environment. We have very resilient financial institutions and a lot of relevant expertise. There are many opportunities for Canada, not only on the financing side but also on the real side, including the development of new technologies as well as the implementation of those technologies and managing the changes in other aspects of the economy that might flow from those.

This is an area where there could conceivably be synergies with activities that are already important in the Canadian financial system, where there could be opportunities for Canadian institutions to engage in different types of activities that would be opened up.

CK: Given Canada’s big focus on clean growth and the prowess of our financial sector, do you think Canada hosting next year’s G7 could play a special role in advancing green finance?

Lane: The plans for the 2018 G7 are still under construction, but clearly [green finance] is one of the priority topics for the world economy. These are common issues and they do cry out for a common global mindset.

I think they are ideally suited for international groups to talk about them and to come up with solutions.

This conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

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One other area where La Belle Province is setting a distinct trajectory is in the policies it has adopted to fight climate change.

The environment has been a major priority for the Quebec government for more than a decade, and even the person currently responsible for it has a combative title you won’t find anywhere else in politics. David Heurtel is the minister of sustainable development, environment and the fight against climate change, and he asserts that the Quebec government’s view on the environment stems from a deep conviction that climate change is among the major challenges of this century.

“Our mission is to build a low-carbon and resilient economy with the development and implementation of climate change solutions,” Heurtel explains. “It is an opportunity to foster economic development, innovation and to increase the well-being of Quebec’s citizens.”

Quebec has taken the lead on several occasions recently when it comes to the environment. Cap and trade is an ambitious and key component of Quebec’s approach in the fight against climate change, ensuring that carbon cost is taken into account in individual, organizational and collective choices. The Quebec cap-and-trade system, which has received broad support across the political spectrum, has been operating for almost five years.

When the province linked its system with California’s in 2014 it suddenly formed the largest carbon market in North America. “The implementation of carbon pricing and the recycling of its revenues in Quebec’s Climate Change Action Plans,” says Heurtel, “enables the government and Quebec society to support its ambitions and actions.”

Last year Quebec became the first Canadian province to move in the direction of adopting a zero-emissions vehicle (ZEV) standard, joining California and several Northeastern states that already have standards in place to increase the number of electric vehicles (EVs) on their roads. Remarkably, the measure was passed with the full support of all four major political parties in the National Assembly of Quebec.

Bill 104 requires that as of the 2018 car model year, 3.5 per cent of vehicles sold in Quebec must be electric or plug-in hybrids. This number steadily increases over time, reaching 22 per cent by 2025. Companies that fail to meet this threshold can purchase credits from those who have an excess.

To prep for the surge of these new EVs, charging stations are sprouting up all over the province (1,250 and counting) as part of the Electric Circuit, the first public electric charging station network for EVs in Canada.

It’s a cultural thing

Steven Guilbeault is the cofounder and senior director of Équiterre, the Montréal-based non-profit environmental advocacy organization that is widely considered to be the most powerful in the province. He blames Europe (in a good way) for what he feels is Quebecers’ greater appetite than other Canadians for politicians to make proactive decisions on environmental issues.

“There is a greater cultural proximity in Quebec to Europe than the rest of the country has, while English Canada tends to be culturally closer to the U.S.,” explains Guilbeault. “We have that bit of European culture where there [are] arguably more things being done on environmental issues, transportation and energy efficiency and renewable energies.”

Another important element that helps place Quebec a few notches higher in terms of environmental awareness is the fact that its electricity production is pretty green. Hydro-Québec, the government-owned electrical power juggernaut, looms large in the province.

Considered one of the major renewable energy producers in the world, Hydro-Québec accounts for close to 45 per cent of all hydropower generated in Canada, while its infrastructure includes the most extensive transmission system in North America.

“The fact that Hydro-Québec still belongs to Quebecers, I think gives people some form of pride that we are greener, whether or not this is true,” says Guilbeault. “We are talking perception here, and perception can play a big role when it comes to policy-making and decision-makers feeling that they have the necessary support to do things that might seem unpopular,” he adds.

When it comes to perception, nothing is more potent at influencing it than media, and Quebecers consume theirs uniquely. Ici Radio-Canada, the French-language public television and radio network owned by the CBC, is immensely popular and has strong penetration among Quebecers. The public broadcaster tends to spotlight environmental issues and take a stronger (read progressive) position on them than do private networks.

“Two of Radio-Canada’s scientific shows announced that they would no longer present the two sides of the coin on climate change,” says Guilbeault about where the broadcaster stands on the debate, “because, they argue, there are no two sides.”

Business tends to function differently here as well. Guilbeault finds that the big lobbies are less present in the province than they are in the rest of the country. “We [often] have the Quebec version or the affiliate of a big board of trade and things like that,” he says, “but even they tend to be more open to working on environmental issues.”

Équiterre is part of the steering committee for a provincial green alliance coalition called Switch. Guilbeault points to its members, which include the Employers Council of Quebec, an organization filled with CEOs from the largest private sector companies in the province. “They’re pro-electrification, reducing our dependency on oil, pro-green economy and we do work with them often,” says Guilbeault. “So even what would normally be considered an anti-environmental lobby will be far less anti here than they could be in the rest of the country.”

One business mogul in Quebec having a big impact on the future of transportation in the province is Alexandre Taillefer. A serial entrepreneur, and perhaps best known as the former judge on Quebec’s version of Dragon’s Den, Taillefer is now Montréal’s newest taxi king. A powerful local business figure on a mission to shake up the cab industry and urban mobility in general, Taillefer in 2015 launched Téo, an app-based, all-electric taxi company. Téo’s green and white branded Teslas, Kia Souls and Nissan Leafs are becoming a ubiquitous sight on Montréal roads, battling head to head with the industry’s old guard and Ubers alike.

When it comes to electric vehicle adoption, Quebec is leading the charge in Canada. With 14,390 registered EVs on its roads, the province is home to close to 50 per cent of all electric cars in the country.

The government recently launched the Industrial Cluster for Electric and Smart Vehicles, with Taillefer tasked with heading the cluster’s board. The cluster’s aim is to place Quebec among the world leaders in the development and deployment of electric and intelligent vehicles and products and services related to them.

Taillefer feels Quebec is well positioned for an initiative like the cluster because of the growing number of companies in the province operating in the electrification space, often in niche sectors. “I don’t think Quebec obviously has the capacity to compete with the car manufacturers,” he explains, “but when it comes to trucks and buses we have a lot of manufacturers here, and it’s really ours to seize. We need to identify where the niches are and how we can contribute to a better future.”

Players forming part of the cluster include Saint-Jérôme-based Lion, a company developing a range of electric heavy vehicles, including a school bus and a class 8 truck, and Nova Bus, which recently put into public transport service, for the first time in North America, its 100 per cent electric buses on Montréal routes. Nova Bus, headquartered in Saint-Eustache, is owned by Volvo buses.

Taillefer isn’t positive whether Quebec business leaders are more pro-sustainability than those in other provinces, but when it comes to transportation in the province, he says more of them are waking up to the economical benefits of going electric. “In our case we’re reducing our operating costs by around 12 per cent,” he says of Téo.

“In the truck business, fuel can represent up to 35 per cent of your operating costs. If you’re able to reduce that to five per cent it makes a lot of economic sense to do it,” he says. Taillefer will soon be launching an electric transport truck project between Montréal and Toronto.

While the environmental movement has just taken a few major steps back under the Trump presidency, Taillefer feels it will actually be a boon for companies in the cluster. “What’s really surprising is the fact that Trump’s position regarding green energy and cleantech has strengthened the willingness of states to become greener faster,” he explains, “so, there’s a lot of opportunities in the U.S. for Quebec companies.”

As the transition to a low-carbon world intensifies, the environment is perhaps one aspect of Quebec politics the rest of the country can get behind.

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This is Nu, Ottawa’s first zero-waste grocery store, where virtually everything on offer comes stripped of packaging, or naked as the name suggests in French. Inside the airy 1,700 square foot space, you’ll find display cases of fresh fruits and vegetables, with no cling wrap, Styrofoam trays or spools of plastic baggies in sight. A wall of shiny stainless steel containers offers an array of oils, vinegars and soy sauce not to grab and lug home – these jugs have taps with rows of refillable glass jars sitting beneath them (in case you forget to bring your own containers from home). Even mayonnaise and ketchup come in bulk here, in the refrigerated case next to slabs of tofu, cheese and, on Thursdays, hummus.

Nu is one of over half a dozen zero-waste grocers that have sprouted up across the country over the past year or so. Already popular in Europe, there are now four in Montréal, one on Salt Spring Island and one in mid-construction in Vancouver. At their heart, they’re less supermarket and more souped-up, largely plastic-free bulk boutiques leapfrogging beyond the aisles of dried spices and beans of bulk stores past.

“It looks more and more like a grocery store where you can find everything you need,” says French teacher-turned-grocer Valerie Leloup. “We’re not 100 per cent yet, but we’re getting closer.” The former packaging buyer for Danone’s German division began living packaging-free a year and a half ago, after her mother gifted her a copy of zero-waste guru Bea Johnson’s best-selling book Zero Waste Home. “It was a bit of a logistical challenge,” says Leloup, who’d spend her Saturdays driving across town to the four or five stores that allowed her to use her own containers. “I thought that’s really not very sustainable.” So she built her own one-stop zero-waste shop in Ottawa’s west end. There’s even a wall of shampoo and laundry detergent on tap.

With reports that there’ll be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050 and with images of straws and forks wedged up sea turtle noses going viral, anti-single-use plastic campaigns have been picking up steam. A wave of bars and restaurants across the continent are banishing plastic straws from drinks as part of surfrider.org’s #strawsuck campaign. Montréal has banned plastic bags by 2018, which would make it the first major city in Canada to do so, while Costa Rica, home to those plastic-ensnared turtles, recently banned all single-use plastic by 2021. Kenya’s even proposing jail time for disposable plastic bag vendors and users.

Still, as corporations like Subaru, Nestle and Unilever celebrate zero-waste-to-landfill status at manufacturing facilities and distribution centres, major grocers have been among the last to get onboard. Canadian grocers have more catching up to do than most, coming from a country that produces more garbage per capita than any other developed nation on earth, as National Zero Waste Council chair Malcolm Brodie points out. And as of yet, we have no national strategy for tackling Canada’s $31 billion food waste problem (though Ontario is currently mulling over a Nova Scotia-style ban on organic waste in landfill). Of the big three grocers, Montréal-headquartered Metro is the only one that’s publicly pledged to go zero waste in all of its stores by 2020. Notably, that doesn’t address all the disposable packaging wrapped around virtually every food item on shelves and sent home with customers.

Making sure truckloads of cardboard produce boxes are recycled and dumpster bins of unwanted veggies head to industrial composters doesn’t quite cut it with zero wasters either. Former marine mammal biologist Brianne Miller is the founder of Nada, Vancouver’s first zero-waste market, and wants to see her whole supply chain close the loop. “That’s one of our criteria to become one of our suppliers,” says Miller, who’s been holding zero-waste pop-up shops around Vancouver until her 2,300 square foot LEED Gold-certified space on East Broadway is fully built. “They essentially need to help us reduce waste not only in our business but in their business as well.”

Miller has witnessed plastic food-packaging debris swirling around remote corners of the ocean, from Borneo to Belize, and says even the most local, organic and ethical food is caught in the same disposable waste trap as other food. She’s now nudging suppliers to ditch the twist ties, plastic bags and cardboard boxes for refillable Rubbermaid bins.

Miller is working with local farmers to keep food waste in check too, and is planning a smoothie bar to process wilting produce as well as a free community fridge for the social housing tenants sharing the building.

At Montréal’s first dedicated zero-waste grocery store, which opened in summer of 2016, Épicerie Loco gives unsold produce away either to customers or their caterer, who transforms, say, bruised eggplants into baba ganoush and wilting green beans into a vegan satay dish for Loco’s cold salad bar.

Unlike major grocers who keep enormous stacks of shiny produce piled high, “we order the right amount of food,” says co-owner Martine Gariepy, who started the business with three fellow environmental studies students from Université du Québec à Montréal. “Honestly, we’re not wasting stuff like you could see behind a big grocer. We’re not stuck with big, big producers so we don’t have quota [and] we order small.”

A couple items at Loco still come in plastic bags to extend their shelf life, like the frozen vacuum-sealed fish, but instead of selling small bags of 20 frozen shrimp to customers, Loco clients can scoop as much as they need in bulk. There have been some challenges with larger suppliers promising to work within the zero-waste framework and then surprise, a box arrives with everything individually packaged. Despite the kinks, business has been thriving and Loco opened up a second location in the Montréal neighbourhood of Verdun in September after a flood of emails begged the owners to spread the love across town. This time, it’s sharing a larger space with a zero-waste cafe stocked with donated ceramic mugs.

Admittedly, the grocers are still quite niche, but indy entrepreneurs aren’t the only ones tapping into the zeitgeist. Last winter, Bulk Barn relented to consumer pressure and reversed its policy against customers bringing in their own refillable containers. VP Jason Ofield says it took a few years of coaxing his father, Bulk Barn president Craig Ofield, but the program is now mandatory in all of its 270+ locations. Between the reusable container program and implementing a four or five cent plastic bag charge, Ofield says plastic bag use is down significantly: “It’s an absolute home run.”

Can the full zero-waste concept spread to major grocers? Corporate food manufacturers aren’t likely to give up on the prime branded real estate of shiny plastic bags or oversized cardboard boxes any time soon, but zero wasters argue supermarkets of the future may be left with little choice but to shift away from excessive disposable packaging and flagrant food waste.

“We’re a large number of people on a finite planet with a limited amount of resources, so as time goes on people are going to have to become aware of their consumption and where products are ending up,” says Nada’s Miller. “I think the zero-waste movement is here to stay, ultimately out of necessity.”

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After more than two hours of semi-final presentations for the de Gaspé Beaubien Foundation’s AquaHacking Challenge, a panel of judges was determining which five teams will advance to September’s finals. The judges have been deliberating for 30 minutes. Until they’re done, there’s nothing anxious hackers can do but eat and drink.

The hackathon format is new for the family-run de Gaspé Beaubien Foundation. Founded in 1990, the organization has typically guided its philanthropic largesse towards supporting family businesses and improving health resources – assistance that often takes the form of partnerships and investment. But when a younger generation of the family suggested the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River region wasn’t as water secure as their ancestors thought, the foundation turned its attention to water issues plaguing the basin.

“We talk about problems all the time, but we want to focus on solutions,” says Claude Perras, executive director of the de Gaspé Beaubien Foundation. Rather than assume they or institutional experts knew best how to tackle worries facing the watershed, the hackathon format opened the field to a variety of international players from across disciplines.

“It becomes playful,” Perras says: “It’s a game, and people like to compete.” But be sure to lose any Silicon Valley-esque, Red Bull-chugging and late night pizza-scarfing image you may have of hackathons. Given the seriousness of the problems the teams were being asked to tackle, packing plans into 24-hour cram sessions didn’t make sense. Instead, the foundation staggered the competition over 10 months, allowing teams to meet, reformulate plans, work with Southern Ontario-based incubators like LaunchPad and Velocity, and polish their pitches.

After the 2015 and 2016 AquaHacking Challenges focused on issues facing the Ottawa and St. Lawrence rivers, the organization shifted focus in 2017 to the most vulnerable Great Lake – Lake Erie. Prospective teams of hackers were told to focus their solution on one of five broad categories: invasive species, algal blooms, citizen science, plastic microbeads or what they dubbed “Spreading #LakeErieLove.”

Thirty-two teams answered the call. Most came from Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City, but a small number registered from Chicago and one even signed on from the Netherlands. “The best teams are always multi-disciplinary,” Perras says. “You have engineers, water experts, you could [even] have a social scientist. The whole idea is that you need to develop solutions beneficial to society – and at the same time create a potential start-up.”

Far from generating theoretical solutions, the AquaHacking Challenge is premised on transitioning effective and scalable ideas into the real world. Finalists share $75,000 in prizes from the de Gaspé Beaubien Foundation and its partners in the form of cash, incubator workspace and pro bono legal and business services. The ultimate winner also receives one-on-one time with venture capitalists familiar with water technologies.

Forming businesses from hackathon ideas is no empty promise. Since winning the inaugural challenge in 2015, Kat Kavanagh’s citizen science project, Water Rangers, has connected conservation authorities and lake associations with real-time water data like pH and dissolved oxygen levels. “As a web designer I saw this great opportunity to create something that connected everyday people who care about lakes and rivers with technology that might help them understand the issues affecting their water,” Kavanagh says.

Water Rangers has found partners for its app-based platform in Alabama and Florida, but its focus remains on the Ottawa Valley and western Quebec where Ottawa Riverkeeper (a partner in the 2015 AquaHacking Challenge) has been instrumental in connecting Kavanagh’s business with partners and potential investors.

The games begin

Before shuffling into the auditorium at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, the teams stood in clusters around high tables, poring over notes and fiddling with lanyards. Some participants paced around fountains in the outdoor foyer. One man sat alone in the sun, eyes closed and hands clasped in his lap as if in silent meditation. Lights flickered, telling everyone to find a seat in the darkened theatre. The presentations were about to begin.

Ideas presented ranged from practical to doe-eyed and back again. Gamification was an early favourite of many who aimed, Pokémon GO-style, to connect people with local Erie landmarks while collecting digital tchotchkes. These teams seemed unaware of just how spatially massive Lake Erie is. Others focused on enhancing citizen science, part of a broad approach that numerous teams embraced to collect user data affecting things like beach closures.

The panel, including judges from The Water Institute, WaterTAP Ontario and Velocity, among others, ultimately selected five teams that went straight to the source in tackling Lake Erie’s woes. ImPONDerable is developing a kit to help Erie residents detect unsafe water conditions, while eMagin is proposing to work with wastewater utilities to reduce untreated sewage spilling from combined sewer overflows directly into the watershed. SIM Labs is constructing hardware to classify and enumerate cyanobacteria, a form of bacteria found in algal blooms that can carry lethal toxins. PolyGone, meanwhile, was making a device to capture 90 per cent of plastic microfibres shed from fleece clothing in household washing machines.

The fifth team, Fertilizer Burn, is manufacturing a device that assists farmers in determining how much fertilizer is present in their soil, with the aim of reducing the volume of nitrogen and phosphorus, two leading causes of algal blooms, applied to their fields. “Our goal,” Fertilizer Burn’s Rebecca Swabey told the crowd, “is a soil lab for every farmer.”

Few believe the solutions proposed at the AquaHacking Challenge will revolutionize how society tackles multi-dimensional (and multi-generational) problems facing Lake Erie. Algal blooms alone have been Erie’s summertime scourge since the 1970s. Without radical alterations to agricultural practices, blooms are unlikely to cease – with or without citizen data.

“We shouldn’t kid ourselves that [the solutions proposed] are going to solve all the problems” facing Lake Erie, says Kevin Boehmer, managing director of the University of Waterloo’s The Water Institute, noting that “complex problems need complex solutions.” But many hackers brought together by the de Gaspé Beaubien Foundation will propose solutions that stand on their own.

“Hackathon participants are committed – it’s almost like a benevolent cult,” Boehmer says, a format bringing people “committed, enthusiastic and passionate about the technology side” to contemplate, in new ways, the water problems facing the 40-million-plus people living in the basin.

With the winner announced in Waterloo on September 13 (SIM Labs), the de Gaspé Beaubien Foundation will now turn its attention to the next AquaHacking Challenge for Lake Ontario in 2018, followed by a binational challenge that may take place in Chicago in 2019.

It’s all part of a plan to engage the next generation of clean water advocates, those not beholden to old solutions or outdated ways of thinking, says Claude Perras. As they grow the movement to find solutions to our water problems, the goal is to allow youth, students and water researchers to begin expressing their ideas for improving local watersheds in language that everyone understands.

“You convert them,” he says, into “water ambassadors and water entrepreneurs.”

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