Three Environment students named to Corporate Knights 30 under 30

Three successful sustainability leaders from the University of Waterloo have been named to the Corporate Knights 30 under 30 list. Complied each year, the list acknowledges a collection of young entrepreneurs, activists, corporate professionals and students eager to make our world a better place.

Our selections: Dominique Souris, an Environment and Resource Studies (ERS) student working as an environmental management intern at the United Nations Environment Programme. Jillian Rodak, a graduate student in the School of Environment Enterprise and Development (SEED) working as a program manager at the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation and Sean Campbell a program coordinator St. Paul’s GreenHouse.

“These three young people don’t only represent the best the Faculty of Environment has to offer, but also all of Canada,” says Jean Andrey, dean of the Faculty of Environment. “Their achievements reinforce the responsibility we have here at Waterloo to harness student energy and passion to make the world a better place by giving them the skills, confidence and tools to be the future generation our planet needs."

Dominique Souris, 22

Currently taking a year off to live in Geneva and work as an environmental management intern at the United Nations Environment Programme, Dominique returns this fall to campus to finish her undergraduate studies. She was one of the youth delegates at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP19) in Warsaw, Poland in 2013 and she represented the voice of Arctic youth at the Arctic Circle Conference in Reykjavik, Iceland, as director of the International Partnerships and Strategy of the Youth Arctic Coalition. Dominique was also the Co-op Student of the Year Award in Environment (2012) for her time working at the Ontario Energy Board.

Sean Campbell, 27

Sean, a graduate student in Environment’s Sustainability Management program, is a strong advocate for sustainability on the Waterloo campus and in the Waterloo Region. As program coordinator for St. Paul’s GreenHouse, the first and only live-in campus-linked accelerator in Canada focused on social innovation and entrepreneurship, he’s had the opportunity to coach students as they turn ideas into action. Sean has worked with the environmental non-profit Sustainable Waterloo Region in a variety of program development capacities since its founding in 2008, most recently leading the organization’s policy research team on corporate energy concerns. Sean is the co-founder of Scaled Purpose, an agency focused on co-creating approaches to scale the positive social and environmental impact of social purpose organizations. Current projects at Scaled Purpose include strategic planning and business planning for community nonprofits and food co-operatives and leading the development of frameworks for responsible investing in charities, alternative governance structures for business, and peer to peer lending platforms for credit unions.

Jillian Rodak, 26

Currently enrolled in the unique Master of Environment and Business (MEB) program, Jillian is able to get her graduate degree while working full-time as a program manager at the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation. The philanthropic organizations enhance Canada’s ability to address complex social, environmental and economic challenges. Jillian’s commitment to social finance and sustainable business has defined her career. She’s had a successful internship for a social finance organization in Argentina. At FlipGive she helped successful companies develop and hone their corporate social responsibility programs.