Monday, June 6, 2022

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• University publishes right to disconnect guideline
• Q and A with the experts: Canada falls in the SDGs progress rankings
• A painless patch for diabetes monitoring
• Applying systems thinking for positive social change: a grad student Q and A

University publishes right to disconnect guideline

In 2021 the Ontario government passed Bill 27, which changed the Employment Standards Act, 2000 and requires employers including the University to prepare and implement a written “policy” for all employees on disconnecting from work.

"In compliance with the new law, we have developed a guideline that outlines our obligations in supporting you to balance your work and personal lives, whether working traditional hours in the workplace, remotely, or under a work from home arrangement," wrote James W.E. Rush, Vice-President, Academic & Provost in a memo circulated to employee groups last week. "You can read the new guideline online on the Provost’s website."

"It’s important to know that while the changes to the Employment Standards Act, 2000 did not create new rights for employees regarding hours of work, rest periods, vacation, etc., beyond those already in the Act, the University is committed to creating a healthy workplace and work/life balance as important determinants of quality of life," the provost's memo continues. "As the guideline makes clear, all employees are entitled to the ability to disconnect from work. This ability to disconnect means that you are not typically expected or obliged to engage in any work-related communication, such as replying to emails, outside your normal work hours."

"We recognize that the times of day and the days of the week that you will be able to disconnect are likely to vary significantly depending on the nature of the work you do, and terms of your employment contract. We also know that many of you work flexibly when it is convenient for you to work. The ability to disconnect doesn’t mean you can’t send emails when it’s convenient for you to do so, but you shouldn’t expect the recipient to respond to you if it is outside their normal working hours."
 
"We’re asking supervisors to make sure that they are clear with you about the hours you are expected to work, as provided in your employment contract, University Policies, or otherwise," the provost writes. "This guideline also describes what employees can do to report concerns about their ability to disconnect from work. Employees will not be subject to reprisal for reporting, in good faith, any concerns about their ability to disconnect from work."
 
If you have any questions about this new guideline, you can email the Human Resources team at hr.partner@uwaterloo.ca.

Q and A with the experts: Canada falls in the SDGs progress rankings

Last week, the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) released its report ranking every country on its action toward urgent economic, social, and environmental challenges facing our planet — known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This year, Canada fell from 21st to 29th in the rankings.

The University of Waterloo's Chair for SDSN Canada and incoming Dean for the Faculty of Environment, professor Bruce Frayne, weighs in on what's slowing Canada down and what needs to change to make real progress in sustainability. 

Why are the Sustainable Development Goals important to Canada?

The SDGs were created to set ambitious targets to overcome the world's biggest sustainability challenges. We, as Canadians, must use the SDGs to go further and faster on our sustainability ambitions, from reconciliation and partnership with Indigenous communities, transitioning our energy systems and economy to renewables, and ensuring safe and accessible housing exists for every Canadian. The SDGs bring all our social, environmental, and economic crises together under the same roof and show us how one challenge is deeply linked to the others.

What worries you the most about Canada's scorecard on SDGs progress this year?

We are moving backwards in relation to the world on our SDGs progress. We rank 29^th this year, down from 21^st last year. Other countries, in particular in Europe, are taking more decisive action on the SDGs, and I fear that Canada will start to be left behind if we don't see more dedication to the SDGs by all levels of government, in particular from provincial governments that are largely absent at the SDGs table. 

In my opinion, our biggest SDGs challenges highlighted in the ranking are:

• SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production – with a focus on electronic waste and our exports of plastic waste.
• SDG 13: Climate Action – with a focus on our CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion and cement production, as well as our emissions embodied in our fossil fuel exports.
• SDG 14: Life Below Water + SDG 15: Life on Land – with a focus on our limited protected marine, terrestrial, and freshwater sites important to biodiversity.
• SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals – with a focus on our relatively low Official Development Assistance as a share of gross national income (this includes grants, loans, and the provision of technical assistance to lower-income countries).

What impact does this slide have on global sustainability?

I'm concerned about Canada's international spillover index score worsening this year. The spillover index measures how our imports and exports affect other countries' abilities to make progress on the SDGs, which means that our actions are hindering the global pursuit of achieving the SDGs. In particular, the carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and sulphur dioxide emissions of our imports are largely to blame on this front.

What's needed for Canada to do better on the SDGs and see real progress over the coming decade?

It's clear we have big challenges to overcome for Canada to be a world leader on the SDGs. This year's ranking spells out many of these areas for improvement (as listed above). These areas are a good start and remind us that the window to make meaningful progress is closing and that greater ambition is needed now in fighting for transformative systems change. We need more action and less rhetoric, especially when it comes to our clean energy transition and putting decolonization and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples in Canada at the heart of our SDGs work. 

Is there any room for optimism?

The report clearly shows Canada is on track to achieve its commitments to reduce poverty and ensure quality education for all. I'm also encouraged by groups like Together|Ensemble and Alliance 2030, which are working hard to find ways to bring our country together to tackle these SDGs challenges across sectors and segments of society. However, we need to continue to find ways for different voices to be heard and pushed forward. We need to find ways to finance our transformation, and we need to elevate the voices of our students and young leaders to feel empowered today to help shape the future.

Learn more about Canada's ranking through the 2022 Sustainable Development Report and the interactive country dashboard.

SDSN Canada is hosted by the University of Waterloo and is part of the global SDSN community to advance the SDGs in universities and colleges worldwide.

A painless patch for diabetes monitoring

Researchers are developing a tiny, painless, wearable patch for people with type 1 diabetes which will send crucial readings to their smartphones.

The new project, funded by the JDRF (formerly known as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation), involves the use of hundreds of tiny microneedles to sense glucose and ketone levels.

The research team is aiming to bring a product to market within the next few years to provide continuous, non-invasive monitoring to improve health and eliminate painful, inconvenient finger pricks.

"Patients won't have to be constantly conscious of taking measurements," said Mahla Poudineh, an electrical and computer engineering professor at the University of Waterloo who leads the project. "This device will do it for them."

Although continuous monitoring devices for glucose have been available for several years, people with type 1 diabetes must still take blood samples via finger pricks or use urine testing strips to determine their ketone bodies levels.

High ketone levels are the cause of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), a serious and potentially fatal problem that occurs when the body starts breaking down fat at a rate that is much too fast due to a lack of insulin.

The liver processes the fat into a fuel called ketones, which in excess can cause the blood to become acidic, triggering a range of possible complications, including diabetic coma, stroke, heart attack, blindness and death.

Poudineh hopes to alert patients to possible problems early using hydrogel microneedles on discrete arm patches that are less than a centimetre square and will continuously monitor ketone and glucose levels in fluid just under the surface of the skin.

"Devices that continuously measure ketones, as well as glucose, will allow people with type 1 diabetes to know when a DKA event is coming so they can take action to avoid it," said Jonathan Rosen, associate director of research at JDRF. "Dr. Poudineh's work has the potential to transform how we approach risk mitigation for this dangerous acute diabetes complication, a priority area for JDRF."

While the patch itself is under development, Peter Levine, also an electrical and computer engineering professor at Waterloo, is building a miniature electronic platform to wirelessly send readings from the needles to users' smartphones.

A second collaborator, Adria Giacca of the University of Toronto, will be involved when the project moves on to testing on diabetic rats and minipigs prior to human trials.

Eventually, Poudineh envisions all-in-one patches that would continuously monitor glucose and ketone levels and deliver the insulin required by patients based on the readings.

The initial two-year project builds on research Poudineh has been doing on biomedical sensors, including microneedles, since early 2020.

"It's a challenging project, but we have the experience and the right people to work on it," Poudineh said. "I'm super optimistic we can help save lives and improve the quality of life for people with type 1 diabetes."

Applying systems thinking for positive social change: a grad student Q and A

This article was originally published on the Faculty of Environment website.

A team of five Faculty of Environment graduate students that won the Waterloo campus final represented the University at the national stage in the Map the System competition held from May 11 to 13, 2022.

The team made up of Calyssa Burke, Yawei (Selina) Han, Alex Petric, Janet Song Cornett-Ching, and Ayesha Zerin Tasnim proved their systems thinking skills on the national stage focusing on understanding the root causes of the problem of housing inadequacy in Northern BC.

The team discusses their experience, the impact of the project in the community, and how the support of their Professors, Simron Singh, Paul Heidebrecht, Centre director and community partners helped them thrive in the competition. 

Can you tell us about the team's journey in the Map the System competition? 

Our team met through Professor Simron Singh’s course on systems thinking in sustainable development practice (INDEV 607). Participating in the Map the System competition is a key course component, and we were grouped together due to shared interests in building sustainable communities. Prof. Singh guided us through core systems thinking concepts which we applied to our chosen topic, housing affordability, availability, and adequacy in Northern British Columbia.Over the semester, we gathered information on Northern BC’s housing market to understand the topic as a system with multiple feedback loops and structural components that add complexity to the issue. We developed a written report and presentation outlining our findings and ideas for solutions to make housing more affordable and accessible in BC. We presented our work on April 7th at the University of Waterloo Map the System finals, and we were grateful to be awarded first place in the campus competition.

What is the key motivation for the team?

We entered the course and the competition hoping to develop our understanding and competencies in applying systems thinking for positive social change. Our chosen topic comes from having one of our group members in Northern BC, working in employment development and settlement support for immigrants. This on-the-ground presence gave us vital local knowledge that highlighted the growing need for housing in the North and improved our understanding of how housing systems differ between urban and rural areas in Canada. We were drawn to our topic on housing and the topic affects us all, and we wanted to give a voice to people who are often left out in housing discussions.

Most of our team members come from backgrounds in international development, but many of the issues affecting Canada’s more remote regions—like an economy driven by transportation and resource development, and the need for active engagement with Indigenous groups—can be found in other countries as well.

What is the impact of the team's project on the community?

Our project primarily focuses on understanding the housing system in Northern BC and proposing possible solutions. Some of our ideas include recognizing the social inputs into housing access, such as, how mental health and education can affect one’s ability to find housing, using stronger regulations to ensure that economic investments are tied to investments in affordable housing stock, and working with Indigenous groups to ensure culturally sensitive approaches to development. While our project does not actively implement these ideas, we hope that our work raises awareness around housing in northern Canada and around the role of housing in economic and social development across Canada and abroad. Therefore, we are hoping to show our project to influential community members in Prince Rupert where one of our team members resides. We hope the project provides a catalyst for change by identifying root problems and proposing adequate solutions for the housing crisis.

What is the team’s next step?

Over the past month, we worked with Prof. Singh and Prof. Paul Heidebrecht to further refine our work, and on May 11^th, we presented our work at the Canadian finals for Map the System. We heard from several insightful teams across Canada presenting on topics like vaccine hesitancy, mental health, sustainable infrastructure development, and even our own topic of housing from other locations. While the top four teams from the competition will be travelling to Oxford, United Kingdom for the Global Finals, our team unfortunately did not place high enough to advance. However, we are sure that our experience in Map the System will continue to inform our future contributions to social good as we look ahead to our respective careers. Additionally, as mentioned above, we plan to present our work to council members in Prince Rupert, BC who are undergoing a housing assessment project, to share our ideas and findings.