The Faculty of Environment hosted a TD Walter Bean high school lecture titled, Water Future: A New Generation of Sustainability Leaders on Thursday June 9, 2022. The lecture was followed by a workshop on June 13 to 15 that featured Professor Dustin Garrick, University Research Chair of Water Governance at University of Waterloo and member of its Water Institute, along with participants from across Canada and internationally.
The Water Futures lecture featured Amber Wutich, 2021 TD Walter Bean professor, Isabel Jorgensen, PhD student, School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability, Dax Dasilva, Founder and Executive Chairman of Lightspeed Commerce Inc and Sarah Burch, Canada Research Chair in Sustainability Governance and Innovation at Waterloo.
The lecture, targeted at grades 8 to 12 pupils, brings into focus important environmental issues, and promotes a legacy of community involvement and commitment to youth. The goal is to encourage our youth to get engaged in water sustainability and learn about the opportunities available.
Each speaker individually talked about their distinct but complementary interests, and their ongoing research or foundations regarding water sustainability. At the end of the lecture, there was a campus tour for the students to see what opportunities the University of Waterloo offers.
On the other hand, the workshop, with its overarching objective to advance cutting-edge research on water conflict and cooperation in the context of water and food security for researchers, spotlighted Professor Garrick and other researchers discuss on the topic Water, Sustainability, and the Commons: Pathways for Food and Water Security.
Approximately 20 scholars made up of mid-career and graduate students, including Professor Wutich and participants across Canada and internationally took part in the workshop.
The three-day workshop provided an opportunity for water sustainability researchers to scale up interdisciplinary research initiatives focused on sustainable water and food transitions, leveraging on a set of existing networks and building a common agenda.
Professor Garrick displayed his expertise in water economics and governance and global networks addressing water and food insecurity. His discussions examined hot spots of water conflict, new models' cooperation between cities and rural regions, and promising pathways for managing water and food systems that better account for sustainability and social justice.
The workshop and the lecture are in line with the Faculty of Environments' strategic goals. Remarkably, the research being developed on water sustainability and resource management creates solutions needed to address complex water scarcity challenges facing the world today.
Both events provides campus and community leadership in environmental and sustainability research, education, and knowledge mobilization.
