These 30 under 30 are leading a green youthquake

Adria Vasil and Natalie Alcoba — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 13:00:03 +0000

Atmospheric rivers flooding a hometown. A pile of glass bottles thrown in the trash at a house party. A grandfather and his tender attention to gardening.

This year’s crop of young sustainability leaders draws inspiration from a kaleidoscope of sources, which all ultimately point in one direction. We are stronger and more capable in community, building networks and seeding ideas that can make a difference at this critical juncture of planetary survival.

“Our work is about more than just environmental sustainability,” says Leïla Cantave, one half of the driving force behind Black Eco Bloom, an environmental collective that empowers Black women to assume leadership positions in the climate fight. “It’s about redefining who is seen and ensuring that the experiences and knowledge of marginalized communities are not just included but prioritized.”

Their work comes at a point of inflection for young environmental warriors, whose voices are carrying increasing weight as a global “youthquake” sees social and political change arising from the growing influence of young people. In the U.S. presidential election, the youthquake has emerged as a defining factor that may make or break the top two contenders clawing their way into the Oval Office. In Africa, young people are leading a shift toward decolonized education. In Canada, Gen Zs and young millennials are stepping into leadership roles in start-ups, politics, non-profits and board rooms, demanding that a higher standard of sustainability be met.

From helping build the world’s first carbon-removal-technology validation centre, to turning food waste into mini biodegradable dye factories and influencing climate policy from inside the Prime Minister’s Office, the Corporate Knights 2024 30 Under 30 sustainability leaders remind us what it means to be fearless and relentless about challenging the status quo.

“It is never about the individual, but the collective,” says Jodi-Ann Jue Xuan Wang, 26, the daughter of first-generation immigrants who advises investors and governments on an equitable transition to net-zero. “Trust in the direction,” adds Freddie Huppé Campbell, 28, a Michif Two Spirit person who has been empowering Indigenous communities around the globe to seize renewable-energy development as a mechanism to assert sovereignty.

The tangible evidence of a changing climate looms large over these young leaders, like a storm that can take their breath away as easily as it can spur them forward. Climate anxiety is fuelled by the flooding, wildfires and droughts that are eroding our sense of the world around us. “They are a near-constant reminder that every acre counts,” says Calder Schweitzer, 28, executive director of the Thousand Islands Watershed Land Trust, which protects and manages land for conservation in one of the most biodiverse areas of the world.

“I was fortunate to have people around me who helped me move from a place of fear to a place of motivation and action,” says Nicole Raytek, the 25-year-old senior manager at GLOBE Series, the Vancouver-based company that organizes corporate sustainability conferences.
And in this battle, there is the wisdom that comes from confronting an existential crisis. “Sustainability is a marathon, not a sprint,” says Ben Grande, 28, co-founder of a carbon-impact-calculating platform called Arbor. “It is essential for youth leaders to remain adaptable and responsive.” Because – as 29-year-old Morgan Lehtinen, who co-founded a facility to pilot and scale cleantech innovations, puts it – in 10 years, “it is our generation and peers who will hold the key roles across the world.”

These 30 Under 30 are already doing just that.

How we found the top 30:

Every April, Corporate Knights opens the 30 Under 30 nominations to the public. An internal team narrowed the list of submissions down to a short list of 50, then our panel of judges each submitted their top 30 picks, and we tallied the votes. (Note: judges abstained from voting for anyone involved in their organization.)

Judges

Senator Rosa Galvez
Canadian senator and president of the ParlAmericas climate change network

James Jenkins
Executive director of Indigenous Clean Energy and a member of Walpole Island First Nation

Katie Wheatley
Head of Canada for the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment

Adria Vasil
Managing editor of Corporate Knights and bestselling author of the Ecoholic book series

Want to be on next year’s 30 Under 30?

Visit corporateknights.com in April 2025 to nominate yourself or any change agents under 30 that you think should be considered for next year’s list.

POWER PLAYERS

THE CITY ELECTRIFIER

Ali Husnain

27, St. John’s, NL

Sustainability coordinator – City of St. John’s

Growing up in Pakistan during an energy crisis, Ali Husnain lived through frequent blackouts and limited electricity access. “Witnessing the disproportionate impacts of climate change – floods, earthquakes and heat waves – deepened my resolve,” he says. While studying electrical engineering, he got excited about renewable energy. “I knew I wanted to dedicate my career to sustainability.” Just three years after immigrating to Canada, the sustainability coordinator for St. John’s has already secured a$6 million in funding for sustainability and climate change projects and is overseeing the deep retrofit of 101 affordable housing units, as well as a corporate energy-efficiency project that will cut 11% of the city’s footprint. “Cities are where climate action truly impacts daily life.” Husnain’s approach to sustainability is driven by the belief that “drop by drop makes the ocean.” While individual efforts, like electrifying a single building, may seem small from the outside, he knows his small team at the City of St. John’s is driving meaningful action and making the coastal city more resilient.

THE RECIPROCAL COLLABORATOR

Freddie Huppé Campbell

28, The Kootenays, BC
Director, Energy & Climate program
Indigenous Clean Energy

“It is not possible to decolonize a colonial system; therefore, new systems must be created that uphold sovereignty,” Freddie Huppé Campbell says. With the teachings of a rural and mountainous upbringing sewn into her ways of being, Huppé Campbell, a proud Two-Spirit Michif, works to uphold reciprocal relationships with human and non-human kin in everything she does. Lately, that has focused on empowering Indigenous communities around the globe to seek control of their own renewable-energy solutions. She established the Energy & Climate program at Indigenous Clean Energy (ICE), fostering collaborations and training with communities and organizations in Colombia, Ecuador, New Zealand and Australia. She has also developed ICE’s National Hub, leading policy endeavours at the federal, provincial and territorial levels. “There are many things I dream of doing that do not fit on a linear timeline. Whatever is ahead, I intend to greet it warmly, nourish what needs to grow and adapt as needed.”

THE RENEWABLE-ENERGY CATALYST

Jasmine Lyn

28, Scarborough, ON
Program manager, Women in Renewable Energy
Project lead, City of Toronto

Jasmine Lyn found her inspiration to safeguard the future by looking to the past, and the knowledge that ancient civilizations held about how to steward the riches of the earth. Equity and equality are at the heart of Lyn’s work. She helped Women in Renewable Energy, an organization that started in Toronto, broaden its reach across the globe, launching chapters in the United Kingdom and Iceland that enable women and underrepresented groups to network and grow their professional skills. In Toronto’s municipal government, Lyn has been focused on meeting the city’s net-zero goal by 2040, working with operators of dozens of affordable housing buildings to help connect them to funding, resources and opportunities for green retrofits, which have lowered energy bills. Prior to that, she led the Climate Change Adaptation Strategy in Orillia, Ontario, implementing new EV chargers and undertaking an energy-management analysis of city facilities.

THE ELECTRICAL FIREBRAND

Anik Rahman

29, Toronto
Vice-chair, Memorial University of Newfoundland; advisor, Independent Electricity
System Operator

Anik Rahman witnessed firsthand how unfair climate change can be, seeing his homeland of Bangladesh battered by flooding and cyclones when it’s responsible for only 0.56% of global carbon emissions. Rahman graduated from Newfoundland’s Memorial University as a licensed engineer in 2017; by 2021, he was one of three Canadians appointed to the World Energy Council’s Future Energy Leaders program. He is now vice-chair of Memorial University, where he oversees the university’s emissions- and carbon-footprint-reduction efforts, including an electrification project that is removing emissions equivalent to taking 6,200 cars off the streets. Rahman is also an advisor for the Independent Electricity System Operator, the not-for-profit that operates Ontario’s electrical grid, managing the grid-reliability contracts and designing procurement mechanisms for renewables and non-emitting resources.

INNOVATORS

THE CLEANTECH INCUBATOR

Morgan Lehtinen

& Sebastian Alamillo

29, Kingston, ON; 24, Kingston, ON
Co-founders, RXN Hub

When BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig ruptured in 2010, a 15-year-old Morgan Lehtinen watched the disaster unfold and knew her future would be shaped by it. “That propelled me to spin out my PhD research into a company to clean contaminated water systems,” she says. Always destined for science, Lehtinen hit a roadblock in graduate school, frustrated by how much groundbreaking research “never leaves the lab.” Fast forward to today: Lehtinen, a serial entrepreneur, is the co-founder and executive director of RXN Hub, a $15-million, 65,000-square-foot facility designed to pilot and scale sustainable chemical innovations. She and co-founder Sebastian Alamillo, the director of strategic development, have helped more than 100 start-ups navigate commercialization; now they’re bringing vital research and development facilities online, aiming to create more than 400 green jobs over the next three years. “We built the kind of place I wish I had as a founder,” Lehtinen explains. Alamillo echoes this vision: “Chemistry got us into this climate mess, and chemtech will get us out.”

THE SEAWEED ECO-PRENEUR

Majid Hajibeigy

29, surrey, BC
Founder & CEO
Canadian Pacifico Seaweeds Ltd

At 23, Majid Hajibeigy decided to return to his family’s farming roots, but his fields would be the crashing shores of the Pacific; his crop, seaweed. Since then, the founder of Canadian Pacifico Seaweeds has worked with researchers, chefs and food scientists to create products like seaweed gel for locally made hand sanitizer in the pandemic and has partnered with Konscious Foods, a plant-based seafood brand, to put new plant-based sushi products in the marketplace. “My goal is also to unite academia and industry in a powerful alliance, harnessing groundbreaking research and translating it into practical, commercially viable solutions.” The work hasn’t been without its challenges: “Recent environmental changes, such as rising ocean temperatures and acidification, have severely impacted seaweed production.” But Hajibeigy’s company has raised more than $3.5 million to fund projects like KelpSpat, which increases seaweed cultivation productivity by up to 400%, boosting its carbon-storing potential. “I aim to revolutionize the way we approach conservation by creating a scalable, for-profit conservation business model.”

THE INVENTIVE COLOURIST

Iris Redinger

26, Toronto/Waterloo, ON
CEO and founder
Material Futures

Sometimes, climate solutions can be found just by looking at our surroundings differently. You could say that is how Iris Redinger stumbled on one. The University of Waterloo architecture grad founded Material Futures, which uses microorganisms to produce all-natural, biodegradable dyes, instead of chemical ones. Or, as Redinger puts it, turning microbes in food waste “into miniature dye factories” that produce vegan colourants that are longer-lasting than plant-based dyes. The technology is applicable across industries like food, cosmetics, fashion and packaging, Redinger says. “Understanding how different offshoots from one industry can be used as an input in another industry requires interdisciplinary thinking,” she says. “If we want to address our climate crisis effectively, we need to start thinking holistically and not in silos.” Her idea is already turning heads, earning her a Mitacs Entrepreneur Award, which honours students, professors and partner organizations, and some $1.5 million in financing so she can scale up her waste-diversion process to reach her goal of diverting 500,000 kilograms of waste from treatment and landfill by 2030.

THE WASTE WIZARDS

Prishita Agarwal

& Abhiudai Mishra

22, 23, Vancouver
Co-founders, Mosa Technologies

Prishita Agarwal and Abhi Mishra first met in high school at a boarding school in South India. “We became friends and discovered our shared interest in social impact,” Agarwal says. Coincidentally, they both decided to study at the University of British Columbia. “When I moved from India, where resources were scarce, to Canada, a land of abundance, I noticed a stark contrast in the public mindset,” Agarwal says. It was at a house party, seeing glass bottles being tossed in the trash, that the idea for Mosa was born. Since then, they’ve kept 20,000 bottles from landfills by upcycling them into home decor products. “While plastic is often highlighted [as a problem], 78% of recyclable glass ends up in landfills,” Mishra explains. The Mosa founders see business as a force for good: “By integrating sustainability into the core of our operations,” Mishra says, “we can prove that it is possible to be both profitable and responsible.”

THE INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE SCHOLAR

Janna Wale

28, Snuneymuxw territory (Nanaimo, BC)
Indigenous research and partnerships lead Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions

The salmon had a message. As a child in British Columbia, and a member of the Gitanmaax First Nation, Janna Wale became attuned to the changing climate as she observed how much harder it was for her family to harvest salmon. She decided early on that she wanted to help ensure that future generations would be able to continue those and other traditions that are rooted in territory. As a policy advisor for the Canadian Climate Institute, the climate researcher demonstrated how Indigenous research can be integrated into climate policy. Her report with the Yellowhead Institute, Bad Forecast, exposed the lack of meaningful Indigenous inclusion in climate-adaptation policy-making in Canada. She is also a CBC columnist and spoke at COP28 in Dubai as a representative of SevenGen, a collective of Indigenous youth energy leaders. “We need more young leaders, more diverse knowledges and more Indigenous people included in policy- and decision-making,” she says. “We are leaders, we are scientists, and we are ready to contribute and make change.”

THE EMPOWERERS

Leïla Cantave

& Tyjana Connolly

27, 26, Montreal & Calgary
Co-founders, Black Eco Bloom

After meeting while interning at COP26 in 2021, Leïla Cantave and Tyjana Connolly couldn’t ignore the reality that they saw no other Black youth at the summit. Frustration quickly turned into action: in 2022 they founded Black Eco Bloom to empower Black women to take on leadership roles in the fight against climate change. “Our work is about more than just environmental sustainability; it’s about redefining who is seen and ensuring that the experiences and knowledge of marginalized communities are not just included but prioritized,” says BEB chair Cantave, who has also been the Quebec lead with Climate Action Network Canada since 2022. Connolly is BEB’s executive director as well as a program officer at United Nations Canada and the co-author of Green Is Not White: Giving Voice to Indigenous, Black, and Racially Marginalized Workers in the Environmental Justice Movement. She explains that BEB has grown to provide guidance on green job pathways and funding for community resilience projects. “This work is very daunting to do alone; there’s so much power in community.”

THE CONVERSATION SETTER

Nic Raytek

25, Toronto
Senior manager, sustainable programs
GLOBE Series

Nic Raytek wasn’t expecting her internship at a think tank to upend her worldview. But as she sifted through data on global emissions, she recalls, “It was clear that reaching 1.5°C wasn’t going to happen.” That sparked a deep climate anxiety that stayed with her – until she found a way to channel it into action. “I decided that by pursuing a career in sustainability, I could actively shape a more certain, sustainable future for all.” Now, as senior manager of sustainable programs at GLOBE (Global Opportunities for Business and the Environment) Series, Raytek is steering the conversation on sustainability at the highest levels. Whether through her programming at GLOBE Forum in Vancouver, GLOBExCHANGE in Toronto or helping with global events like the Canada pavilion of COP27, COP28 and soon COP29, thousands of leaders and innovators have walked away from her programs armed with the connections and insights to drive change.

THE GREEN CREATIVE

Smiely Khurana

26, Vancouver
founder of The Sustainable Act

As the former sustainability lead at Reel Green, Smiely Khurana was called “the face of the sustainability movement in Hollywood North,” helping major studios and films of all sizes in British Columbia shrink their carbon footprints. In 2020, the creative powerhouse also launched The Sustainable Act, which began as a podcast on greening the film industry and has expanded to empower communities to go greener with tools, workshops and events. Her next act hits even closer to home for Khurana. She’s launching the Climate Wellness Network, offering resources and support for those struggling with climate anxiety. “The 2021 floods in my hometown of Abbotsford caused by an atmospheric river have profoundly influenced my work. Seeing my community struggle through such devastation brought my climate anxiety to its peak.” Khurana says she’s committed to leveraging the power of media not just to amplify environmental efforts, but to ensure that young people have the emotional support needed to navigate an uncertain future.

POLICY PUSHERS

THE GOVERNMENT WHISPERER

Shoshana Pasternak

28, Toronto
Senior associate, government affairs
Invenergy

Shoshana Pasternak had heard the utopic stories of what electrification could do for our economies, our planet and the people on it, but every plan she encountered came with a caveat. “That ‘but’ told me a transition was possible,” she recalls, “but we need to support these innovations with systems that reduce risk.” As policy director for Ontario’s Ministry of Energy and Electrification, Shoshana brought forward policies that advanced hundreds of megawatts of renewable power, including rooftop solar, and expedited the build-out of transmission lines in the province, reaching more clean energy projects. Now overseeing government relations at Invenergy in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, she has advanced more than 30 renewable-energy projects, including wind, solar and energy storage. “Even getting one clean energy project off the ground can power a small town – it’s about those tangible impacts,” she says.

THE PMO INFLUENCER

Harry Orbach-Miller

29, Toronto/Ottawa
Policy advisor
Prime Minister’s Office, Government of Canada

Harry Orbach-Miller is used to being the youngest person in the room. Often, that room is at the centre of decision-making in Canada. For more than five years, he has helped shape public policy as an advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “I feel incredibly privileged to be able to play a small role in the central nervous system of the federal government’s policy-making process,” says Orbach-Miller, who is one of the youngest members of the Prime Minister’s Office. “Working in politics can be a frenetic experience at the best of times,” he notes, so he tries to focus on what he can control, putting his energy into areas where he can actually move the needle. His work on the Electoral Participation Act helped expand advance polls and ensure on-campus voting. He helped to develop Canada’s Public Transit Fund and the $6-billion Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund and to secure $500 million for the Green and Inclusive Community Buildings program, initiatives that are designed to drive climate action and create more sustainable cities. Orbach-Miller also helped steer $77 million in relief funding to Lytton, the B.C. village that was devastated by wildfires in 2022.

THE JUST-TRANSITION WARRIOR

Jodi-Ann Jue Xuan Wang

26, Oxford, UK
Policy analyst, sustainable finance & just transition, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment

Among the mantras that drive Jodi-Ann Jue Xuan Wang is one from Audre Lorde: “There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.” That sums up how Wang, raised in White Rock, B.C., views her own work, which sits, as she describes it, at the intersection of finance and climate justice. “My pursuit of climate justice work is informed by my womanhood, my race, my youth and as a daughter of first-generation immigrants, raised in the diaspora,” she says. She specializes in climate policy and finance, advising investors and governments on an equitable transition to net-zero. She was the lead author on the U.K. Transition Plan Taskforce’s just-transition guidance, serves as a member of the UN Expert Group on Resource Management and leads the Commonwealth Youth Climate Change Network. This year, the PhD candidate at the University of Oxford co-authored a UN report on intergenerational equity in resource management. “Advocacy and activism exist on a spectrum,” she notes. “Many of the most tedious, unglorified tasks are what secure the movement and a better outcome for all.”

THE NET-ZERO DOCTOR

Owen Dan Luo

25, Montreal
Resident physician, internal medicine
McGill University Health Centre

Owen Dan Luo has seen the health impacts of climate change, land degradation and biodiversity loss up close as a medical student treating patients at hospitals and clinics around Montreal. That’s why he’s made it his mission to raise awareness of the impact that healthcare has on the climate crisis and prepare physicians and trainees to decarbonize the Canadian healthcare system. “Our healthcare system is responsible for approximately 5% of our nation’s total greenhouse gas emissions – twice as much as the aviation industry,” he notes. As a past co-chair of the Canadian Federation of Medical Students’ Health and Environment Adaptive Response Task Force, Luo developed national standards for medical education on planetary health. He founded Project Green Healthcare/Project Vert la Santé, which provides funding and facilitates mentorships to launch sustainability projects in Canadian healthcare. So far, more than 100 medical students from 14 medical schools in nine provinces have launched projects, from a personal-protective-equipment recycling program in Saskatoon to composting programs in Trois-Rivières.

THE FOOD-SYSTEM FIXER

Allison Penner

28, Saskatoon, SK
Executive director
Reimagine Agriculture

Allison Penner never imagined that a college paper would change her life. In her second year of an environmental governance degree, she uncovered a startling truth: more than 80% of global fisheries were either fully exploited or collapsing. “I had no idea the food system was in such crisis,” she recalls. Even more shocking? Neither did her classmates. It catalyzed Penner’s commitment to fixing the food system. She went on to found Reimagine Agriculture, a non-profit dedicated to systemic change in the sector, which raised more than $250,000 to tackle food-system challenges, and helped shape new legislation to combat food waste while leading a collaboration with law schools. “We started as a small group of friends with a dream, and now we’re making real change,” she says. Whether advocating for cultivated meat or advancing policy reform, Penner is a rising leader in Canada’s sustainable food movement, ensuring that we can continue to nourish a growing global population.

THE MONEY GREENERS

THE ECO-FINANCE MAVERICK

Mégane Mandruzzato

29, Quebec City
Director of sustainability
iA Financial Group

In three short years, Mégane Mandruzzato rose to a leadership position in one of the largest insurance and wealth management groups in Canada, becoming the iA Financial Group’s first director of sustainability. “Her strategic influence contributed not only to the creation of this position, but also to the establishment of a dedicated sustainability team,” her nominee says. Mandruzzato knows that while financial institutions might serve as the backbone of Canada’s economy, their investment portfolios could contribute to 90% of greenhouse gas emissions. So far she has spearheaded decarbonization targets for a $13-million asset portfolio and 38 buildings across Canada. But her proudest achievement is helping to create a “bridge between the academic and professional worlds.” In addition to her award-winning research on integrating sustainable finance values into insurance companies, she helped forge a partnership for a research chair in sustainable finance at HEC Montréal.

THE GREEN BANKER

Mitch McEwen

27, Montreal
Senior manager, Enterprise Sustainable Finance
TD Bank Group

Mitch McEwen had always envisioned a career for himself in conventional finance. But studying abroad while the Paris Agreement was being adopted changed everything. “Realizing that financial systems could support environmental goals and sustainable development inspired me.” Now, McEwen is at the forefront of sustainable finance, wielding his influence to make change happen. Since joining TD, he has spearheaded the $500-billion Sustainable & Decarbonization Finance Target and leads the TD Sustainable Bonds program, with several-hundred-million dollars aimed at projects that promote climate change mitigation and adaptation across North America – winning Environmental Finance’s Green Bond of the Year in 2024. But McEwen is quick to stress that collaboration is essential: “No one tackles sustainability alone, and it requires all disciplines.” It’s a philosophy he echoes with a quote from author Rachel Carson: “In nature, nothing exists alone.

THE SYSTEMS THINKER

Savannah Sarosiak-Larter

28, Toronto
Manager
Quinn & Partners

Drawn to problem-solving from an early age, Savannah Sarosiak-Larter went into engineering at the University of Toronto to tackle the biggest challenge of our time: decarbonizing the economy. “By influencing companies and investors to pursue low-carbon strategies, we can achieve outcomes that create a positive impact on a national and global level,” she says. At just 28, the rising leader is doing just that for clients of Quinn & Partners, one of Canada’s fastest-growing sustainability firms, getting 13,000 buildings to track their emissions and curb an estimated 100,000-plus tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent and developing strategies for building out 100,000 electric-vehicle charging stations. “The accomplishment I’m most proud of is building the investment criteria to evaluate positive climate and social impacts for the $15-billion Canada Growth Fund” – a public fund set up to accelerate the deployment of carbon-curbing technology. Her advice for up-and-comers: “Adopt a systems-thinking approach to address global sustainability challenges to determine which solutions will alleviate systemic inequities rather than exacerbate them.”

THE CARBON HUNTERS

THE CARBON FOOTPRINT TRACKER

Ben Grande

28, Calgary
Co-founder & chief technology officer
Arbor

Ben Grande’s dad encouraged him to find a mission that allowed him to meet three goals: enjoy what you do, make money and make a difference. He hit the nail on the head with Arbor, a successful global platform that calculates the carbon impact of products, assets and supply chains. “Companies often set reduction targets with no clear direction on how to hit them,” Grande says. As chief technology officer for Arbor, he set out to rectify that, knowing that “most of the ‘sustainability’ data out there was flawed. We knew that we had to be diligent in our pursuit of accurate data and sensible methodology.” To date, Arbor has helped hundreds of businesses – from small “mom and pop shops” to large global companies such as Crocs – identify opportunities to avoid up to 373,000 tonnes of emissions, and Grande has no plans to slow down. “I have a goal to help every willing business measure and communicate the environmental impact of everything they buy, make or sell.”

THE CARBON-CAPTURE CRUSADER

Isabelle Callaghan

26, Toronto
Project manager
Deep Sky Labs

Isabelle Callaghan attended her first climate rally when she was 10 years old, hoisting up a handmade sign of a burning earth. Decades later, she has a key role in the world’s first carbon-removal-technology validation centre. As a project manager at Deep Sky, a Canadian carbon-removal developer, Callaghan is coordinating Deep Sky Labs, a $50-million, 217,000-square-foot facility in Innisfail, Alberta, that is about to break ground. She combed through 50 potential sites across two provinces, conducting assessments, site visits and negotiations. Once operational, the plant will remove 3,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. Prior to Deep Sky, Callaghan was a senior business analyst at McKinsey & Company, working with Fortune 500 companies such as energy utilities and mining companies on sustainability and decarbonization. “In five years, I want to look back and say I played a key role in bringing one of today’s many solutions to life,” she says. “My focus is on scale. We have the solutions; now it’s time to execute.”

THE RETROFIT CHAMPION

Fellipe Falluh

28, Montreal
Founder/president
Retrofit Construction

Buildings account for roughly 18% of Canada’s emissions. While a lot of political attention and legislation focuses on curbing the carbon footprint of new construction, Fellipe Falluh believes the big challenge lies within the built environment we already have around us. That’s why, at the age of 24, the civil and environmental engineer founded Retrofit Construction, a company that tackles retrofits of older buildings to make them more energy efficient. “By doing so, we also make these buildings more resilient, comfortable, healthy and more valuable,” he says. Falluh comes from a family of builders in Brazil and says that the importance of sustainability and the environment was always emphasized as he grew up. The vice-president of Quebec’s passive-building association, and recent recipient of a King Charles III coronation medal, he transformed his own 130-year-old duplex in Montreal into the first certified net-zero-ready building in the province and is now sharing his knowledge in a podcast on high-performance construction and buildings.

THE BUILDING DECARBONIZER

Vit Vimal

28, Toronto
CEO & co-founder
Tuuli

Vit Vimal was studying architecture when he noticed a gap in the curriculum: “There was little emphasis on how our designs would impact the environment.” As a young architect, Vimal was tired of working on the sidelines of the climate change battle, consulting on how to make buildings prettier rather than greener. “I couldn’t accept the direction the building industry was heading, so I made the bold decision to leave my job and step onto the front lines of this fight.” He left to start Tuuli, a firm dedicated to sustainable architecture through software that helps developers measure, reduce and monitor the carbon emissions of their assets. “The fight against climate change starts with how we build,” he says, emphasizing that the Paris Agreement targets can’t be met without rethinking architecture, since buildings are responsible for 40% of global carbon emissions. “I will never stop pushing to make it a reality.”

YOUTH MOTIVATORS

THE GALVANIZER

Aubrey-Anne Laliberte-Pewapisconias

25, Saskatoon, SK
Director of DEI, Leading Change Canada; program manager
ImaGENation

“‘Always remember where you came from.’ My parents always tell me this before walking into new spaces to remind me to stay rooted in my teachings. It allows me to stay grounded in an approach to life and sustainability work that leads with Indigenous values and decolonization in mind,” says Aubrey-Anne Laliberte-Pewapisconias, who is a nêhiyâskwew from Canoe Lake Cree First Nation on Treaty 10 Territory and Little Pine First Nation on Treaty 6 Territory. That means incorporating interconnectedness, stewardship and relationships with the land, water and other living relatives in all that she does. She puts those values into practice as the director of diversity, equity and inclusion at Leading Change Canada and as ImaGENation program manager at Indigenous Clean Energy, where she works with Indigenous youth who are spearheading clean energy projects across Canada. Recently, she helped install an electric vehicle charger on Flying Dust First Nation in Saskatchewan. Laliberte-Pewapisconias also served as Canada’s 2023 Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction negotiator at the G20 YouthSummit.

THE SOLUTIONS COACH

Cameron Toy Kluger

20, Montreal & NYC
Founder, Student Education for Environmental Development (SEED)

Growing up in Brooklyn, Cameron Toy Kluger’s connection to nature was mostly limited to squirrels and pigeons. He began developing a deeper appreciation of conservation through his first job, working as a guide in the Prospect Park Zoo. “I’ve pushed myself to explore how cities and nature can work together to strengthen our communities and build a resilient future,” he says. In 2022, Kluger founded Student Education for Environmental Development, or SEED, an initiative that brings free environmental education to schools, with a focus on underprivileged students in Canada and the United States, using a “hopeful, solution-oriented perspective” to inspire a younger generation. He also serves as a member of the Sustainability Projects Fund at McGill University, where he’s an environmental sciences undergrad, and oversees the distribution of $1 million annually to campus environmental projects.

THE YOUTH ENABLER

Gareth Gransaull

26, Toronto
Co-executive director
re•generation

“Every job should be a climate job, and all employees have a role to play.” That’s one of the key messages behind re-generation, a youth-empowering digital platform co-created by Gareth Gransaull, who has been motivated to tackle climate change since the tender age of nine. He charts his young awakening to the trailblazing Al Gore documentary An Inconvenient Truth, and the ambivalent reaction he received from a neighbour about it. “I have since spent the rest of my life trying to get adults to change,” he says. That motivation spurred him to co-create re•generation, which connects young people with clean-economy jobs and provides a tool kit for employees to nudge their employers to be more climate-conscious. Gransaull has helped raise more than $1.5 million for their work. “We exist to help the next generation of leaders to develop critical-systems-thinking abilities, particularly by raising awareness about problems of inequality, shareholder primacy, neocolonialism and the structural barriers that exist which prevent the emergence of a more equitable economy,” he says.

THE BRIDGE BUILDER

Justin Langan

25, Winnipeg, MB
Founder and executive director
O’Kanata

Back in Swan River, a rural community in northern Manitoba, Justin Langan was taught by his father and elders about the connection between the land and his people. Starting as an 11-year-old working at his community’s Friendship Centre, he has been involved in various projects promoting Métis political and community engagement. The 2SLGBTQIA+ youth has taken that vision forward, creating O’Kanata in 2023 to support Indigenous youth. His goal is to bridge the gap between traditional ecological Indigenous knowledge and modern sustainability practices. “By empowering Indigenous youth through education and sustainable economic opportunities, I aim to create a future where our communities thrive both culturally and economically,” he says. O’Kanata has provided educational opportunities to more than 1,000 Indigenous youth and led to the reduction of 2.7 tons of carbon emissions in Manitoba.

NATURE TRAILBLAZERS

THE QUEEN OF INCLUSIVE GREEN SPACES

Kiana Bonnick

29, Whitby, ON
Climate change and community engagement specialist, Womxn of Colour Durham Collective

As a child exploring her Jamaican grandfather’s garden, Kiana Bonnick was captivated by the love he poured into nurturing his plants. For the last five years, she’s poured her own love of nature into the Womxn of Colour Durham Collective, promoting access to green spaces for racialized women through programs she has spearheaded like Get Outdoors, We Outside and Reclaiming Our Roots. “Understanding the technical and scientific aspects of climate change and the environment is important, but it tells us one part of the story,” Bonnick says. “Social aspects of climate change and different forms of knowledge are equally essential in this story.” Her community-building approach has also been reducing “eco-anxiety,” all while challenging the barriers faced by racialized individuals in outdoor spaces. She’s also been busy training the next generation of climate leaders, educating eight- to 16-year-olds to take the reins as part of the Lead Like a Girl program at DYLOTT (Developing Young Leaders of Tomorrow, Today).

THE CONSERVATION HAWK

Calder Schweitzer

27, Gananoque, ON
Executive director
Thousand Islands Watershed Land Trust

Calder Schweitzer’s passion for the territory stewarded by the Thousand Islands Watershed Land Trust is palpable. The trust is located within one of the most biodiverse areas in the world. “This means that you find species here living next to one another that don’t co-occur anywhere else in Canada,” Schweitzer says. His passion supercharged his rise through the ranks, moving from field biologist at the land trust in 2019 to executive director five years later. The trust protects and manages land donated by private owners for the purpose of conservation. Schweitzer has led the protection of 850 acres of conservation land, preserving ecosystems that prevent floods and droughts while safeguarding vital habitat for biodiversity and carbon sequestration. “Fighting for conservation can often feel like an uphill battle,” he says. “My advice is to stay balanced and maintain your passion in the face of this adversity.”

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