Future of Our Planet

Within the context of sustainable development, what are some of the biggest challenges faced by industries in Canada?

The reality is that we need climate action now. Supporting industries to reduce polluting emissions and allowing these businesses to thrive are not mutually exclusive concepts. Clean, innovative technologies are central to successfully addressing climate change and to growing a clean global economy. Supporting our economy for future generations means creating jobs and positioning Canadians to take advantage of new opportunities both at home and abroad.

For industries to be sustainable, they must prepare for climate-related risks to their operations, such as extreme weather events. The Canadian Centre for Climate Services is a key example of federal support to understand and prepare for climate impacts.

How does the electrification of our fleets tie in to the emissions reduction plan and what are the biggest challenges in achieving your goals?

Transportation accounts for 25 percent of total emissions in Canada. To transition to zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs), we're investing in charging infrastructure and consumer awareness, helping the auto industry re-tool, and providing cash incentives for consumers, as well as tax incentives for businesses. Over 125,000 Canadians and businesses have taken advantage of the federal incentive to purchase a ZEV.

Charging stations are needed across Canada.

Our government has helped to address this key barrier with over $280 million in investments resulting in more than 25,200 new chargers. This means you could drive from St. John’s, Nfld., to Victoria, BC, on electricity!

We committed to developing a regulated sales mandate requiring at least 50 percent of all new light-duty vehicle sales to be zero-emission by 2030, and 100 percent by 2035. Vehicles stay on the road for up to 15 years, so meeting this target is necessary to reach net-zero.

Within the context of protecting our biodiversity and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, what makes nature conservation such a critical tool at our disposal, and how are you accelerating its impact in your overall policy strategy?

Nature is vital to Canada’s efforts in fighting climate change, protecting biodiversity and species at risk, and rebuilding a strong, sustainable economy. For example, resilient wetlands are very important for migratory birds, species at risk, and other wildlife. They also help manage floods and prevent coastline erosion and damage from rising water levels.

To protect the places we love most, we invested an additional $2.3 billion over five years to reach our goal of conserving 25 percent of our lands and oceans by 2025. Together, we're helping protect species at risk, conserve lands and waters, and monitor climate change, informed by Indigenous knowledge and science.

Within the context of sustainable development, what are some of the biggest challenges faced by Canada’s agricultural sector?

Canada’s agriculture and agri-food sector is recognized as a supplier of safe, sustainable, high-quality, and affordable products for Canadians and a growing global population. It manages to do so while balancing a number of challenges including market expectations, labour shortages, and extreme weather events. Our government is helping producers tackle these challenges by providing $550 million to help farmers reduce emissions, store carbon in healthy soil, and maintain resilience to droughts and other climate-related events. Producers also have access to a suite of business risk management programs. For example, in response to last year’s historic drought and devastating floods, our government worked with provinces to deliver over $1 billion under AgriRecovery and Disaster Financial Assistance to help impacted producers. In addition, the Government of Canada, in partnership with provinces and territories, employers, unions, and workers, is developing a sector-specific Agricultural Labour Strategy to address persistent and chronic labour shortages in farming and food processing in the short and long term.

What role does clean technology have in driving the transition to sustainable agriculture?

Canada's hard-working farmers and

ranchers have a solid track record of using innovation and new technologies to preserve and protect the natural resources on which they depend. Our government has invested $165 million in the Agricultural Clean Technology Program, which supports the purchase and installation of commercially-available clean technologies and processes. Additional investments to help farmers adapt to changing climate conditions and boost their long-term competitiveness while cutting emissions include the $185 million Agricultural Climate Solutions — Living Labs initiative and the $200 million On-Farm Climate Action Fund.

How is the Ministry of Agriculture and Agri-Food growing the sustainable agriculture ecosystem to improve environmental and food security outcomes?

The Government of Canada’s goal of helping Canada become a world leader in sustainable agriculture is central to the vision for the next agricultural policy framework. Priorities on environment, science, and sector capacity and growth will help Canada rise to the climate change challenge, expand new markets and trade, meet consumer expectations, and help feed Canadians and a growing global population.

Through the Food Policy for Canada, our government is supporting sustainable community-based solutions to increase access to healthy and local food, strengthen northern and Indigenous food systems, and reduce food loss and waste, allowing Canada to move towards a more resilient and efficient food system that contributes to long-term food security.

Q&A

PHOTO BY ZBYNEK BURIVAL

The Honourable Steven Guilbeault Minister of Environment and Climate Change

Mediaplanet sat down with the Honourable Steven Guilbeault and the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau to learn about some of the most pressing environmental challenges we face today and how they're working with all stakeholders to drive our transition to a sustainable, just, and secure Canada for future generations.

The Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food

The Time Has Come to Manage and Build Climate

D.F. McCourt

Every year we're told that the most important time to act on climate change and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is today, rather than tomorrow, and that the window to act is quickly closing. And every year another global temperature record seems to be set, along with new stories of extreme weather events — confirming the need to take action.

Urgency is required to limit the projected changes in the global climate system and related physical impacts and consequences. Many institutions are also recognizing that similar urgency is required when it comes to implementing adaptation measures to mitigate the adverse effects of an already changing climate.

Matthew Sutton, President and CEO at Matrix Solutions Inc., reflects on the shift he has seen in communities and public and private organizations as they examine climate related challenges and adaptation measures for critical infrastructure and natural resources. “In my 30 years in the environmental industry, I've witnessed a drastic shift in the level of consciousness around environmental stewardship and climate change,” Sutton says. “Addressing the complex and inevitable challenges we’re facing as a society requires a multi-disciplinary approach. At Matrix, we’re helping to create effective solutions by applying our deep-domain environmental experience and climate risk expertise.”

Climate change mitigation and adaptation aren't mutually exclusive As Canada continues to play its role in the global effort to achieve a net-zero society by 2050, we must be simultaneously preparing ourselves for the coming storm. This is a message that Quentin Chiotti, Ph.D., Practice Lead for Climate Risk and Resilience at Matrix Solutions Inc., has been championing for three decades. He has studied climate change impacts and adaptation in academic settings, performed work as a research scientist and policy advisor with federal and provincial governments, and is now applying his focus on climate risk and resiliency in industry.

“The science began sounding the alarm with the first IPCC report in 1990 and has only got stronger since,” says Chiotti. “It’s now widely accepted that climate change is

real and is already happening.”

Chiotti says that there's an inevitability to climate change that we have to deal with by taking adaptation seriously now — especially for infrastructure that has decades or centuries of life expectancy.

“We need to be ensuring that as much of the existing natural and built infrastructure that we manage today and construct in the future is more climate resilient,” Chiotti says. “This is challenging because becoming climate resilient will be a moving target and not an end state until we resolve the mitigation side of the problem.”

Resilience is an engineering problem, a social challenge, and a planning constraint Resilience and adaptation in our infrastructure means building and retrofitting in such a way that our roads, our energy grid, our water systems, and the other critical services underpinning our society are designed not only to handle the extreme conditions that we experience today, but also the changing eventualities of tomorrow. Extreme weather events are becoming more common and more severe, and the consequences and costs are increasing — as we experienced in BC in 2021 with the summer heat dome and wildfires, followed by intense rainfall and overland flooding in November. Just as importantly, the idea of what even constitutes an “extreme” event is shifting as we come to accept that conditions of the past are no longer a reliable indicator of the future.

Adapting to rare climate events that have severe consequences is not just an engineering challenge, where the solution is simply a matter of building stronger roads, larger storm drains, and bigger bridges. Enhancing the natural environment can also play a significant role in reducing impacts. For example, strategies like preserving greenfields and wetlands and installing green roofs and other low-impact development measures can help mitigate flood risks. And while adaptation needs to be extensive and systematic, this doesn’t mean it has to be burdensome or expensive.

“There's a reasonable expectation to build public infrastructure on budget and on time, but there's growing evidence that the incre -

mental costs of resilient design compared to conventional standards are actually not that significant,” says Chiotti. “The prevailing view is that every dollar invested in adaptation today will result in $4 of avoided impacts in the future.”

Ultimately, Chiotti says what we need to be aiming for is a more sustainable method of living — and that doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing.

“Just as the climate is changing, society will need to adapt,” says Chiotti. “Change is constant — that's the one thing we know in life.”

Climate adaptation is everyone’s business

One thing is abundantly clear. This needs to be a collective effort and embraced as an all-hands-on-deck proposition. We're all in this together as Canadians and as global citizens, and solutions need to be informed by multiple voices and perspectives.

“Dealing with the climate crisis requires many voices, from traditional ecological knowledge to engineering and everything in between,” says Chiotti. “I’m a geographer, but I'm really thankful to be working with hydrologists, ecologists, and other areas of expertise, because climate change is a cross-cutting issue.”

With the spectrum of environmental challenges we’re facing today, Sutton agrees that there has never been a more important time for those working and studying in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields.

“The more we recognize that these challenges are multifaceted and require many different perspectives, the better we'll be at understanding the risks and implementing appropriate actions,” Sutton says. “I’m bolstered by the skill, expertise, and passion that today’s environmental experts and the incoming generation are bringing to bear for this critical collective effort.”

Dealing with the climate crisis requires many voices, from traditional ecological knowledge to engineering and everything in between.

Infrastructure. And Here’s How.

Quentin Chiotti Practice Lead for Climate Risk & Resilience, Matrix Solutions Inc.

Matthew Sutton President & CEO, Matrix Solutions Inc.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MATRIX SOLUTIONS INC.

Changing the World, One SodaStream at a Time

When

Every time you buy a bottle of carbonated water at the grocery store or convenience store, you feed a multi-headed hydra of waste and emissions. I know. You just want a drink, and you can’t be held responsible for what was done to get it into your hands. But you can choose to help blaze a better way.

So much of what's going on with the global climate and waste crisis is out of our control, but any change we hope to see on a global or national scale still has to start with us. One plastic bottle may be a drop in the ocean (and, eventually, a drop in the ocean’s Texas-sized garbage patch), but a lifetime of single-use plastics, each of which takes multiple lifetimes to decompose, is not only a significant contributor, but also a barrier to change. By adopting personal lifestyle changes like transitioning our carbonated beverage consumption to SodaStream, we can not only make an immediate impact but also set the stage for more dramatic systemic progress.

Better beverages at home. Sustainable. Convenient. The first order benefits of bubbling your own

drinks are obvious. “The best way to help the planet is to use less and that's what we're trying to do. One SodaStream bottle replaces thousands of single-use plastic bottles,” says Rena Nickerson, General Manager of SodaStream Canada. “The moment of truth happens when you bring your garbage and recycling to the sidewalk. When you look at your trash, and recognize how much plastic you've consumed, you wonder if there's a better way. When you make sparkling water at home with SodaStream, you reduce your plastic impact and you can also customize based on your preferences. You can make it as bubbly as you want, you can flavour it however you want, and you never run out.”

But the impacts extend so far beyond our own kitchens and our own recycling bins. It’s not just the plastic itself — it’s the energy that goes into making it, the energy con -

Diverse Perspectives of Women Help Solve Complex Climate Change Challenges

In the fight against climate change, women can be change makers. Here’s how Hatch is empowering women to drive the green revolution.

Anne Papmehl

Climate change is today’s most pressing environmental challenge. “It impacts both human health and biodiversity at the planet scale and we cannot escape it,” says Carole Barbeau, Global Director of eGRID at Hatch — a global, privately-owned engineering and project delivery company headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario.

“Nearly half of the world’s population is already living in areas that are highly vulnerable to climate change, exposing them to more frequent weather disasters, food and water shortages, and vector-borne diseases, so the call to action has never been more warranted.”

Hatch’s sector of activities are Energy, Metals and Minerals, and Infrastructure. “These sectors are all at the very core of the energy transition and net-zero goal, and so I believe Hatch can play a high-impact role here,” says Barbeau. “In the Energy sector, we help our customers in developing and accelerating renewable power generation and integrating more and more renewable sources of electricity into power grid systems. As the energy transition requires specific resources, such as lithium, nickel, or graphite for the manufacturing of bulk electric battery energy storage systems and wind turbines, we help our customers in mining ore and refining metals in a more efficient and sustainable way. In the infrastructure sector, we help build resilience for enabling adaptation to a changing climate” says Barbeau.

Women bring unique strengths to driving positive change

Women — with their unique perspectives and leadership traits — can be effective change agents in driving the green revolution.

“Women in general tend to present the intrinsic ability to understand the social

and intergenerational dimensions and their associated interrelations, because women think in terms of time horizons that span the lives of their children and grandchildren,” says Barbeau. “There’s also been a lot of reported evidence in developing countries showing women being key at combatting resource loss and at improving food security, which was linked to their cultural and practical knowledge of the environment and resource conservation. There are many cases of women playing a vital role in dealing with disasters by effectively mobilizing their community toward concrete ways of reducing risk, managing risk, and adapting,” says Barbeau.

“These innate instincts, skills, and modes of thinking can be indispensable when dealing with complex, multi-dimensional social and environmental challenges like climate change,” adds Kathleen Vukovics, Regional Director of the Environmental Services Group at Hatch.

Driving our transition to a sustainable future through women’s leadership

Recognizing this, Hatch has incorporated a formal commitment to leverage the perspectives of women and measure progress in its diversity and inclusion policy. “It’s widely acknowledged that diversity and inclusion foster plurality of thought and perspectives including those needed to respond to climate change,” says Vukovics. Having this policy is helping to remove barriers to recruiting and retaining women.

“Within our Environmental Services Group at Hatch, for example, we have a very strong representation of women in leadership positions at 60 percent, with more than 50 percent of our global staff comprised of women," notes Vukovics.

The energy transition field, and the environmental fields more broadly, offer

sumed at the bottling plants, and the truly heart-wrenching amount of fossil fuels used shipping the considerable weight of water across the country or, in the case of some major brands, across the oceans.

SodaStream takes their climate responsibility extremely seriously in every aspect of their operations, but their greatest strength lies in empowering consumers to do the same. “People as individuals make choices on where to spend their money,” says Nickerson.

“Corporations bear a lot of responsibility, but we can choose whether to spend money with companies that are doing the right thing for the planet or not. We each have to do our part.”

Your personal consumption matters, as do the companies you choose to do business with. With SodaStream, you can be a part of the better world we’re all trying to build.

immense opportunities for women to become leaders and make a positive change in the world. “The energy value chain is undergoing an extreme transformation, which is being driven by the conjunction of the need for combatting climate change, new technologies, and the expansion of electrification. As a result, industry segments that never overlapped in the past are now converging and creating new paradigms that challenge the way energy has been generated, distributed, and used in the last 100 years. It’s really an exciting time, and one calling for more women to be contributing to,” says Barbeau.

Both Barbeau and Vukovics encourage young women aspiring to be change makers in the environmental sector, or any STEM field, to recognize and leverage their unique leadership traits and exercise them in a confident manner. “Complex issues like climate change are going to take diverse perspectives to solve, so don’t be afraid to offer your authentic point of view,” says Vukovics.

Be part of a better world with SodaStream.ca

This article was sponsored by SodaStream Canada.

Learn

about how Hatch is leading the energy transition space by visiting hatch.com

Rena Nickerson General Manager, SodaStream Canada

we recognize how much single-use plastic we consume, we wonder if there's a better way. Choices like using a SodaStream sparkling water maker and avoiding single-use plastic bottles make a real difference.

D.F. McCourt

The moment of truth happens when you bring your garbage and recycling to the sidewalk. When you look at your trash, and recognize how much plastic you've consumed, you wonder if there's a better way.

Carole Barbeau Global Director, eGRID, Hatch

Kathleen Vukovics Regional Director, Environmental Services Group, Hatch

Local ingenuity puts organic waste to work

Transportation is Ontario’s largest source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. According to industry experts, renewable natural gas (RNG) is crucial to achieving zero-emission transit commitments. The good news is, with support from Enbridge Gas, RNG solutions that reduce emissions, divert waste and help fight climate change are already underway in companies and communities across Ontario. From farms to landfills, here are four early adopters leading the way to a low-carbon economy with RNG, a clean fuel for vehicles, industry and more.

1Toronto’s turning Green Bin waste into fuel for fleets

The Du erin Solid Waste Management Facility processes 55,000 tonnes of organic waste from Toronto’s Green Bin program. This waste is turned into RNG to fuel the city’s waste collection fleet, eliminating more than 9,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions. Heavy-duty vehicles such as waste trucks can’t be practically electrified today, so RNG o ers a pragmatic solution to emissions.

2Unlocking the value of organic waste in London

The StormFisher Biogas Facility in London, Ontario is converting organic waste to RNG, with capital support from Enbridge Gas to develop the project. The facility processes over 70,000 tonnes of organic waste, mostly food scraps. It also eliminates over 8,000 tonnes of GHG emissions and produces over three million cubic metres of RNG, which will be added to the natural gas system, greening the supply.

The OptUp program invites households to support Ontario’s sustainable energy future. For just two dollars a month, Enbridge Gas residential customers can choose to help fund the cost of purchasing and adding RNG to the natural gas

3Heating homes with landfill gas in Niagara Falls

Enbridge Gas has teamed up with Walker Industries and Comcor Environmental on an innovative $42 million RNG project—Ontario’s largest— projected to be operational by 2023. The plant will capture landfill gas, cleaning and transforming it into RNG. It’s expected to generate enough clean, a ordable energy to heat 8,750 homes and reduce GHGs by 48,000 tonnes every year.

supply—the more households that sign up, the greater the environmental impact. One hundred percent of funds generated from OptUp are used to procure RNG for Ontario’s natural gas system. Enbridge Gas recently purchased RNG from StormFisher’s Biogas Facility in London, Ontario. Visit enbridgegas.com/optup to sign up.

4Catching a carbon-negative ride in Hamilton

Transit systems play an essential role in the transition to a cleaner energy future. In Hamilton, residents can now catch a carbon-negative ride on Ontario’s first bus fuelled by RNG, sourced from the nearby StormFisher Biogas Facility. RNG buses are proven to reduce GHG emissions and divert waste from landfill, going beyond net zero to achieve carbon negativity—not even electric vehicles can achieve this.

Did you know?

Any vehicle can become carbon negative by switching to RNG. The entire RNG process—from diverting methane to displacing diesel emissions—can take total net emissions to below zero

OptUp to RNG for a toonie

Joey Cyples Business Development Specialist, Alternative Fuels, Enbridge Gas

Conservation in Ontario’s Heartland: An Invitation to the Bruce Trail

Some of Canada’s most spectacular and vulnerable natural environments are right in the midst of the nation’s most densely-populated spaces. As we walk along the Bruce Trail, we meditate on new ways to think about conservation.

A ribbon of wilderness

Canada overflows with natural majesty. From the peaks and glaciers of the Rocky Mountains to the Group of Seven vistas of Algonquin Park, it's easy to call to mind the nation’s great unspoiled wilderness far from the bustle of our urban cores. But that natural splendour comes right to our doorsteps. Some of the country’s greatest natural riches are found nestled within its most densely-populated regions. Walk with me along the Bruce Trail.

From the southern trailhead in Queenston on the banks of the Niagara River, the trail extends nearly 900 kilometres to Tobermory on the tip of the Bruce Peninsula, jutting into Georgian Bay. Stretching through the Niagara Escarpment’s verdant and vulnerable ecosystems, the trail boasts some of Ontario’s most dramatic topography and awe-inspiring greenspace. The Niagara Escarpment has been recognized as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, and the conservation of its biodiversity and grandeur are paramount, especially with over eight million people living within an hour’s drive. But, as Michael McDonald, CEO of the Bruce Trail Conservancy, makes abundantly clear, the myriad citizens of Southern Ontario shouldn't be seen as a threat to the conservation of this natural wonder, but rather as its greatest allies.

“Introducing people into these ecosystems in a safe and controlled way actually advances conservation,” says McDonald. “At the Bruce Trail Conservancy, we know that there's real value in connecting people to nature. We believe that when people are connected to natural places, they want to help preserve them. We’ve seen the power of this connection for over 50 years. When people explore the Trail, many are inspired to volunteer or donate in support of our conservation work.”

Every year the Bruce Trail Conservancy brings more Niagara Escarpment land into its growing network of protected natural areas. More than just a trail, it's a robust conservation effort safeguarding vital ecosystems across 12,700 acres of forests, wetlands, meadows, streams, and shorelines. The Bruce Trail winds through these protected areas under the direct care of the Bruce Trail Conservancy, but it wends also through parks, external conservation areas, and privately-owned lands.

The Bruce Trail Conservancy is working to fill in the gaps by creating nature reserves and other protected natural areas. We’re establishing a continuous natural corridor that preserves the remarkable biodiversity of the Niagara Escarpment and creates a lasting home for the Bruce Trail.

“Many people don't realize that the Bruce Trail isn't permanently secure, and that roughly a third of the Bruce Trail corridor is still vulnerable to development,” explains McDonald. “The Bruce Trail Conservancy is working to fill in the gaps by creating nature reserves and other protected natural areas. We’re establishing a continuous natural corridor that preserves the remarkable biodiversity of the Niagara Escarpment and creates a lasting home for the Bruce Trail.”

The nature reserves, along with the Bruce Trail itself, are cared for by volunteers of the Bruce Trail Conservancy as part of one of the largest community-based stewardship programs in the province. Citizens and friends of the trail are highly engaged and motivated to not only explore the Niagara Escarpment, but also to be part of the effort

to preserve its diverse spaces and species for future generations.

Nature and community intertwined With the protection of this diversity in the thick of Southern Ontario’s sprawling population as its mandate, the Bruce Trail Conservancy is constantly growing the scope of its efforts. Through the acquisition of new lands and the expansion of its membership, the organization is bringing ever more people and communities to the cause.

“There are many things that people can do to help advance conservation along the Niagara Escarpment,” says McDonald. “Our first invitation to everyone is to get out and explore the trail and experience the beauty of nature that's around them. We’ve got a wonderful program of guided hikes that can help you do that. Or consider volunteering. There are lots of opportunities on and off the Trail. And finally, if you have the means, support our work through membership or donation. However people choose to help, we've got many different ways for them to connect with us.”

And if there’s one thing Canadians need right now, it’s connection — with nature and with each other. The past few years have made the world feel much smaller in many ways, so it's incredible to be reminded that some of the best the world has to offer is right in our backyards.

This article was sponsored by the Bruce Trail Conservancy

Donate to or volunteer with the Bruce Trail Conservancy to preserve a ribbon of wilderness, for everyone, forever.

D.F. McCourt

Michael McDonald CEO, Bruce Trail Conservancy

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE BRUCE TRAIL CONSERVANCY

Why Do Forests Matter?

Forests are renewable, reliable, regenerative, and restorative. They also store carbon, help protect wildlife, and sustain communities by enabling diverse career opportunities and supporting mental and physical well-being.

But not everyone understands the environmental, social, and economic value that forests provide.

Project Learning Tree Canada’s (PLT Canada) Forest Literacy Framework is a free, bilingual resource that helps increase people’s understanding of forests and the importance of sustainable forest management. By gaining forest literacy, the public and K-12 youth acquire the tools and knowledge they need to keep our forests sustainable over the long term and are empowered to take actions that benefit forests and all of us.

The Forest Literacy Framework translates the complex language of forests, trees, forest practices, and sustainable forest management into concepts that everyone should know by the time they graduate from high school. Readers will learn how forests can address climate change, help recover species

at risk, provide renewable supply chains, lower rates of asthma and respiratory illness, sustain communities and economies, lower the temperature of urban heat islands, develop new medicines, and more.

The publication is organized into four themes: What is a forest?, Why do forests matter?, How do we sustain our forests?, and What is our responsibility to forests? Readers of all ages can explore concepts by grade level or by “hot topics” (like climate change, public health, and green jobs).

The Importance of ZeroEmission Vehicles in a Circular

The transition to zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) is critical to meet Canada’s 2030 climate commitments. However, there may be unintended consequences for repair, a critical activity in a circular economy. Access to parts, tools, and manuals necessary for car repair have long been a basic expectation for consumers, a right that may very well change with ZEVs.

A typical combustion engine has 200 parts compared to a ZEV’s 20. New designs and the digitization of vehicles reliant on proprietary software may lead to reduced access to repair options. Specifically, access to specialized tools and diagnostic software is not readily available to aftermarket repairers. The solution may lie in an innovative circular economy business model that's

beginning to take hold: access over ownership.

When manufacturers retain vehicle ownership to critical parts like batteries, operational costs — inspections, repair, and replacement — remain their responsibility. In this example, manufacturers may also be incentivized to invest in global battery recovery and recycling infrastructure, the critical and most expensive component of an EV.

As quickly as ZEVs are evolving, so too is the opportunity to redefine our relationship to them and other goods — investing not in the product itself, but rather leveraging the value it brings. Our future lies in a transition to a circular economy. Access over ownership provides the solution to consumer access to both EV technology and ensuring that EVs maintain a long functioning life.

Preserving Our Planet Through Forests

As we come together this Earth Month to bring attention to the environmental challenges facing our planet, forests are a part of the solution.

Forests have numerous ecological benefits: regulating ecosystems, protecting biodiversity, cleaning water, providing healthy habitats, and playing a key role in the earth’s carbon cycle.

Forests and sustainable forest management practices reduce the impact of greenhouse gases, as growing forests sequester carbon dioxide. Worldwide, forests absorb 2.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.

Innovation and new technologies in Canada’s forest sector are helping mitigate climate change and supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy. Engineered wood product developments and systems are making buildings more sustainable and efficient, wood fibre residues and forest by-products are being transformed into bioproducts, and forest biomass is providing renewable energy.

Through sound science and innovation, Canadians should celebrate our forests for their critical role in protecting and preserving our planet.

To learn more about how the CIF-IFC advocates for forests, visit cif-ifc.org

(CIF-IFC)

This article was sponsored by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative.

Danika Strecko Senior Manager of Education, Project Learning Tree Canada

SUSTAINABLE FORESTRY INITIATIVE PROJECT LEARNING TREE

Danika Strecko PHOTO

The

Forest

Literacy Framework translates the complex language of forests, trees, forest practices, and sustainable forest management into concepts that everyone should know by the time they graduate from high school.

This article was sponsored by the Canadian Institute of Forestry/Institut forestier du Canada

Mark Pearson Executive Director, Canadian Institute of Forestry/Institut forestier du Canada (CIF-IFC)

Mark Pearson

Learn more about ZEVs and the circular economy at circularinnovation.ca

This article was sponsored by Circular Innovation Council

Jo-Anne St. Godard Executive Director, Circular Innovation Council

Jo-Anne St. Godard

Our future lies in a transition to a circular economy. Access over ownership provides the solution to consumer access to both EV technology and ensuring that EVs maintain a long functioning life.

Researchers at York University Tackle the Complex

Environmental

and Urban Challenges Of Our Time

Everything is connected. At the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change, new ways of thinking, researching, and learning are breaking down the barriers between science and society, between the natural and the urban, to equip us in the building of a better tomorrow.

The challenges facing the world today are complex and can no longer be approached with a siloed mindset, if indeed they ever could. Explicating this interconnectedness is precisely why York University has created a new Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change.

With its launch in 2020, the founding of the Faculty heralded a revolutionary change in ways of thinking about science and society. “Central to the university’s thinking was the need to address issues of sustainability, urban communities, and global justice in an interdisciplinary way,” says Dr. Philip Kelly, Associate Dean of Research at the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change. “We have created an academic unit in which that happens. If you're a social scientist teaching environmental policy, you're working alongside physical scientists who are studying climate change, pollution, and habitat loss. Or, if you're a physical scientist thinking about permafrost, you're working alongside people who are interested in Indigenous environmental knowledge and the political economy of extractive industries in the Canadian north. You can't help but be influenced by that. You can't avoid having those multiple perspectives infuse your research and your teaching.”

Science and society are one Dr. Jennifer Korosi is, in fact, a physical scientist thinking about permafrost. As a professor, as a researcher, and as Environmental Science Program Coordinator at the Faculty, the multidisciplinary and collaborative approach has affected her work and her thinking profoundly. “What excited me about the creation of the Faculty was the idea of thinking about environmental problems holistically,” says Dr. Korosi. “I tend to work on very fundamental science questions, but these questions have direct relevance for policy, for protecting water quality, for climate change. The problems are shared and the solutions are shared.”

In the Northwest Territories, Dr. Korosi’s work on permafrost thaw is intimately intertwined with the interests of the Dehcho First Nations, with whom she collaborates extensively. And, not only does Dr. Korosi’s research have implications for the future of society in the warming north, but her research also directly benefits from a closer connection to ancestral knowledge and Indigenous ways of knowing.

“There are nuances to environmental change, and they're really locally driven,” says Dr. Korosi. “For me, as a southern scientist, I go up north a few times a year, but the Dehcho have lived in the area since time immemorial and they know the land so well. Going up there and having conversations with people, I start to get a better understanding about the land and what's going on. We're all working together, bringing our own expertise and ultimately understanding how the landscape is being transformed and how the community can adapt to those changes.”

nizing that there is a shared commitment to ecological and social justice. A fully interdisciplinary approach enriches my research tremendously.”

Urban planning has the capacity to make global positive change and transform the future. And so it must be informed by our diverse understanding across disciplines and perspectives. With urban planning in Canada having been traditionally very white, middle-class, and male, Dr. Sotomayor is excited for the opportunity at York to bring more diversity to the field. “I had never seen such a diverse group of students as I found at York,” says Dr. Sotomayor. “The planning students that are graduating from York are a new face for the profession. They see the big picture, they have the critical thinking and practical skills to problem solve, lead and imagine a more just and sustainable future. Planning, after all, has an obligation and a commitment to transform.”

A holistic way of studying the world And that’s the fundamental ethos of the interdisciplinary Faculty: working together to transform our world. This interconnection has always existed, and collaboration between these fields is nothing new. But what is new, and essential, is baking that integrative way of thinking in from the very beginning, and operationalizing it as an instrument of tangible progress.

From remote subarctic communities to bustling global south cities Intrinsic to the raison d’etre of the Faculty, encoded in its very name, is the understanding that the environmental and the human are the same. That's true in Canada’s rural northern communities, it's true in the dense cities at our country’s southern border, and it holds equally true around the globe.

Dr. Luisa Sotomayor, Professor and Planning Program Coordinator with the Faculty, is collaborating with researchers in Bogota, Colombia, to investigate how legal tools are being used to contest planning and infrastructure projects. In this area of inquiry, the boundaries between the social, the environmental, the architectural, and the legal quickly blur. “Planning is a truly interdisciplinary field,” says Dr. Sotomayor. “It's about understanding current problems and planning for the future. In our highly urbanized world, most of our complex problems, from climate change to xenophobia, play out in intersecting fields, and we are recog-

“A key part of what we do is being actively engaged in making positive change,” says Dr. Kelly. “We’re not just doing ivory tower research. We’re engaged with policymakers, with industry, with community organizations. And there's a normative dimension driving for sustainability and social justice that really underpins a lot of the research that goes on here. It defines how we try to train the planners, policy analysts, scientists and others who are going to engage with urban and environmental processes in their careers.”

The research programs being carried out at York’s Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change are, quite simply, laying the foundation for the next era of societal change. The scientists and investigators of the Faculty are embedded in partnerships with governmental and industry decision makers, injecting their expertise and interdisciplinary ethos into the conversations that shape the future. And the students graduating from the Faculty are set to be the next generation of decision makers themselves.

Whether you’re a student, a teacher, or a decision-maker, the knowledge you need is at York’s Faculty for Environmental and Urban Change.

This article was sponsored by the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change at York University

We're all working together, bringing our own expertise and ultimately understanding how the landscape is being transformed and how the community can adapt to those changes.

D.F. McCourt

Dr. Philip Kelly Associate Dean of Research, Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change

Dr. Jennifer Korosi Professor & Environmental Science Program Coordinator, Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change

Dr. Luisa

Sotomayor Professor & Planning Program Coordinator, Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change

PHOTO COURTESY OF YORK UNIVERSITY