Sustainability strategy, policy and governance

Our researchers are building cross-sector and societal partnerships for viable policies and strategies to help with land use planning, food security, Ocean governance and more.

Get to know their expertise.

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Advancing three Sustainable Development Goals

sdg 5
sdg 8
sdg 9

Our researchers

James Nugent

School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability

  • Urban political ecology
  • Social movements
  • Labour geography & unions
  • Economic restructuring
  • Community benefits agreements
  • Participatory, community-based research
  • Community-engaged learning

Kelsey Leonard

School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability

  • Indigenous water rights

  • Climate change
  • Interjurisdictional water governance 
  • Ocean planning

Jeremy Pittman

School of Planning

Michael Wood

School of Environment, Enterprise and Development

  • Business sustainability

  • Water
  • Scale
  • Global security
  • Social license to operate
  • Pedagogy of sustainability management

Amelia Clarke

School of Environment, Enterprise and Development

  • Corporate social and environmental responsibility

  • Campus environmental management
  • Cross-sector partnerships
  • Collaborative strategic management
  • Strategy implementation for low-carbon and sustainable cities
  • Implementing the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
  • Youth and innovation

Andrea Collins

School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability

  • Global land and agricultural governance
  • Gender, development, and global political economy
  • Gender and environmental politics
  • Transnational agricultural investment
  • Public-private partnerships in agriculture and nutrition

Jennifer Clapp

School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability

  • Global Food Politics Group
  • Waterloo Food Issues Group
  • Global political economy of food
  • Food security and sustainability – policy and governance
  • International trade in food and agriculture
  • Corporate concentration in the global food system
  • The intersection of food and financial markets

Neil Craik

School of Environment, Enterprise and Development

  • Public and regulatory law, international environmental law, domestic and comparative environmental law, natural resources law and municipal and planning law

  • Bi-lateral and tri-lateral environmental governance structures in North America
  • Impact of federalism on transnational regulatory activities and the regulatory role of private transboundary environmental litigation

Bob Gibson

School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability

  • Applied sustainability

  • Environmental and sustainability assessment law and policy
  • Climate change mitigation in assessments
  • Indigenous communities and authorities in extractive industry planning and assessment
  • Can also supervise graduate students in the School of Planning​
Graham Bryant Epstein

Graham Epstein

School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability

  • Environmental governance 
  • Collective action
  • Landscape ecology of institutions 
  • Human dimensions of conservation
Rosella Care

Rosella Caré

School of Environment, Enterprise and Development

  • Climate-related financial risks 
  • Sustainable investing 
  • Impact investing 
  • Corporate social and environmental responsibility in the financial sector 
  • Cross-sector partnerships and Impact bonds 
  • Can also supervise graduate students in the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development
Katherine Perrott

Katherine Perrott

School of Planning

  • Political economy of the built environment 
  • Planning policy and development processes 
  • Urban and suburban design

Tingting Wu

School of Environment, Enterprise and Development

  • Environmental economics 
  • Sustainable finance 
  • Corporate social responsibility and environmental social governance

Jessie Ma

School of Environment, Enterprise and Development

Zachary Folger-Laronde

School of Environment, Enterprise and Development

  • Sustainability accounting and disclosure 
  • Accounting for sustainability 
  • Sustainable finance
  • Sustainable banking

Dan Murray

School of Environment, Enterprise and Development

  • Environmental planning in rural and agricultural settings
  • Policy development and evaluation
  • Research design, methods, and research project management
  • Sport and Sustainability