News

In recent news, Juan Moreno-Cruz, a professor in the Faculty of Environment’s SEED department, was featured in Canada's National Observer, speaking about the impact of Lithium-ion batteries on battery storage.

Congratulations to Juan Moreno-Cruz, a professor in the Faculty of Environment’s SEED department, on their findings on AI's energy usage. Contrary to popular belief, new research finds that the use of artificial intelligence has a minimal effect on global greenhouse gas emissions and may actually benefit the environment and the economy.

SEED and the Faculty of Environment are thrilled to share that Professor Komal Habib received the Best Presenter Award at the World Resources Forum in Geneva, Switzerland (September 2025) for her talk on “Critical Minerals for Electromobility in Canada.”

The University of Waterloo’s Lumet – Illuminating Metal Supply Chains project has secured an additional $50,000 in collaborative funding through a new joint grant with researchers at University College London (UCL). The boost builds on Lumet’s existing $1 million NSERC Alliance Missions grant (2024-2027), bringing fresh momentum to efforts that aim to make supply chains for critical minerals such as nickel, germanium and lithium more transparent, responsible and resilient.

The School of Environment, Enterprise and Development is delighted to introduce Professor Julie Bernard, who brings her expertise in sustainable finance as part of the SEED faculty starting January 2025. Professor Bernard’s research centers on sustainable finance, responsible investment, and shareholder activism, with a focus on the integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria and their role in addressing climate change.

This talk traces the implications of fisheries policy-making and management decisions on research and monitoring practices with a view to offering insights on the potential strengths and limitations of the evidence base for fisheries management. It then “turns the telescope around” so to speak and considers how data collected as part of fisheries monitoring programs typically contributes to decision-making in practice and the extent to which most fisheries management decisions are data-driven, evidence-based and transparent in nature. The talk draws from the Canadian experience but seeks to offer perspectives on fisheries management structures and practices more generally.

Title of the Webinar: Connecting data to Fisheries Decision-Making and Policy: Observations from A Practitioner in the field
Date: Oct 27, 2023 (Friday)
Time: 12:00 PM UTC to 1:15 PM UTC (8:00 AM EDT to 9:15 AM EDT - 1:00 PM WAT to 2:15 PM WAT - Convert to your local time here)
Speaker: Trevor M. Swerdfager| Practitioner-In-Residence, School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability & Fellow, Balsillie School of International Affairs, Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo

YouTube link (watch this webinar live and participate in its Q&A session)

This talk focuses on the initiatives of ICAR - Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute of India to address the multi-dimensional pressures on inland fisheries and ways in which sustainability can be achieved by responding to vulnerabilities and transitioning towards viability.

Title of the Webinar: Challenges and Opportunities in the sustainability of Inland open water fisheries in India
Date: Sep 29, 2023 (Friday)
Time: 12:00 PM UTC to 1:15 PM UTC (8:00 AM EDT to 9:15 AM EDT - 1:00 PM WAT to 2:15 PM WAT - Convert to your local time here)
Speaker: Dr. Pranaya Kumar Parida | Scientist, ICAR- CIFRI and Fisheries Resource Assessment Specialist, CRFM, SVG

YouTube link (watch this webinar live and participate in its Q&A session)

Researchers from the University of Waterloo, including Alex Cimprich, a postdoctoral fellow in the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development, have completed the first-ever assessment of a Canadian hospital to reveal its total environmental footprint and specific carbon emission hotspots.

The study, Environmental footprinting of hospitals: Organizational life cycle assessment of a Canadian hospital, appears in the Journal of Industrial Ecology.

Posted by Media Relations - click for the full story

SEED is hosting the viewing of “The Gig is Up” film which is presented through the Planet in Focus International Film Festival, Cross Canada Campus Tour on Thursdays, September 28^th at 7:00pm in EV3-1408.

THE GIG IS UP uncovers the real costs of the platform economy through the lives of workers from around the world for companies including Uber, Amazon and Deliveroo. From delivering food and driving ride shares to tagging images for AI, millions of people around the world are finding work task by task online. The gig economy is worth over 5 trillion USD globally and growing. And yet the stories of the workers behind this tech revolution have gone largely neglected. Who are the people in this shadow workforce? THE GIG IS UP brings their stories into the light.

Please RSVP for the event if you can join us! Light snacks will be provided.

Articles:

Dardir, M., Berardi, U. and Wilson, J., 2023. Health-informed predictive regression for statistical-simulation decision-making in urban heat mitigation. Sustainable Cities and Society, p.104853.  

 Ali, W. and Wilson, J., 2023. Multi-level analysis on determinants of sustainability disclosure: a survey of academic literature.  

Reports: 

Dardir, M., Wilson, J., Berardi., U., 2023. Health-Informed Heat Mitigation Approach: Case Study of The Regional Municipality of York. Greenbelt Foundation’s Working Paper series. August 2023.  

Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. 2023. Growing Healthy Towers, Transformative Partnerships for Healthy Built Environment. Sustainable Neighbourhood Action Program.