Faculty of Environment Update 2016-17

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Strategic Initiatives: Transformative Research

  • In recognition of the significant impact of her career research in environmental politics and her outstanding contributions to the understanding of global food policy and security, School of Environment, Resources, and Sustainability Professor Jennifer Clapp received Canada’s highest academic honour, being named to the Royal Society of Canada.
  • The Polar Data repository became the 100th member of the International Council for Science World Data System and was named Canada’s National Antarctic Data Centre.
  • Geography and Environmental Management Professors Merrin McCrae and Claude Dugauy joined researchers from the Water Institute, the University of Saskatchewan, and other universities on the Global Water Futures initiative, the largest university-led water research program ever funded by the Canada First Research Excellence Fund.
  • For his outstanding contribution to the field of ecology, School of Environment, Resources, and Sustainability Professor, Andrew Trant was awarded the prestigious William Skinner Cooper Award. Trant’s recent study found that 13,000 years of repeated human occupation by coastal First Nations enhanced temperate rainforest productivity.
  • The Intact Centre for Climate Adaptation forged several partnerships and created programs to enhance knowledge mobilization, including the Home Flood Protection Program with the City of Burlington, and a report of best practices for making new residential communities flood-resilient with Standards Council Canada.
  • School of Environment, Enterprise, and Development Professor Amelia Clarke gave international presentations at the United Nations Habitat III in Quito, Ecuador and the International Conference on Sustainable Development conference in New York City on the important role of partnerships in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
  • Environment welcomed Banting Fellow Olivier Roy-Baillargeon, who joined the School of Planning to study transit adjacent communities with Pierre Filion.
  • Two Environment professors were granted Ontario Early Researcher Awards: Knowledge Integration’s John McClevey to study the development of free/libre open source software in massive inter-organizational collaboration networks, and geography’s Derek Robinson who will use drones to better understand the impacts of climate, technology, and policy on Ontario farming.

  • Professor Sean Geobey of the School of Environment, Enterprise, and Development, and his graduate students partnered with the City of Kitchener through the Smart Region Initiative to pilot a participatory budget experiment.

  • In recognition of his pioneering research on tourism and climate change, Distinguished Professor Emeritus Geoffrey Wall was awarded the United Nations World Tourism Organization Ulysses Award for Excellence in the Creation and Dissemination of Knowledge in Tourism.

  • Helping Canadians to prepare, respond to, and measure a changing climate, Shawna Peddle, director of the Partners for Action Research Network, was a featured presenter at the 2016 Livable Cities Forum.

  • Widely respected lawyer and the newest faculty member to join the School of Environment, Enterprise, and Development, Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger was awarded the 2016 Justica Regonorum Fundamentum award for exemplary, outstanding achievement and professional activities carried out in the field of protection of human rights.

  • School of Planning professor Leia Minaker received a Career Development Award from the Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute for her work on lifestyle behaviours that prevent cancer in Canadian youth.

Student looking up at brightly painted wall art.

Fourth-year Planning student Suran Ketheeswaran gains an international perspective on the 'Kakehashi' exchange program in Tokyo, Japan.

Strategic Initatives: Outstanding Academic Programming

  • The Faculty of Environment broke all previous attendance records welcoming world-renowned economist and development expert, Jeffrey Sachs, as keynote for the 2017 TD Walter Bean Lecture in the Environment.
  • The Faculty of Environment hosted the largest Canadian Association of Geographer’s — Ontario Division conference in the organization’s history.
  • A testament to the quality of their education, three female Environment alumni were named to Corporate Knights Top 30 Under 30 for Sustainability: Morgan Book, Tahnee Prior, and Dana Decent.
  • The School of Planning announced a new minor in Urban Studies.
  • Challenging students to see sustainability through a different lens, School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability professor Rob de Loë offered the first-ever Photography for Sustainability course.
  • The Department of Geography and Environmental Management was awarded $330K from eCampus Ontario to create an online graduate diploma in Climate Risk Management.

Strategic Initatives: Experiential Education | Vibrant Student Experience

  • The first cohort of young pilots trained under Sunwing Airlines’ intensive cadet program — Cameron Fuchs, Spencer Leckie, Siobhan O’Hanlon, and Chelsea Anne Edwards — were hired upon graduation as First Officers. The successful cadet program was renewed for another year.
  • For the third year in a row, faculty and staff from the Faculty of Environment led a student delegation to the Conference of Parties (COP) climate change conference. The 2017 team attending COP22 in Marrakech, Morocco included five students from four different Faculties across campus.
  • Five School of Planning students were selected to travel to Japan as part of a nine day Japan Friendship Ties Program called ‘Kakehashi’. The students visited the Earthquake Disaster Reconstruction site, met with students studying planning in Japan, and learned about the infrastructure and politics involved in the planning of a city the size of Tokyo.
  • The Faculty launched its Leadership Breakfast Series which provides an opportunity for current student leaders to meet, learn from, and network with, established alumni over waffles and coffee.
  • Alumni, students, donors, and the campus community came together to celebrate female entrepreneurship at the screening of Dream, Girl; a documentary co-produced by alumnus Komal Minhas.
  • The TD Friends of the Environment Foundation donated seed funding for the Waterloo Urban Forest Revitalization Project to turn a “hidden gem” campus woodlot into a vibrant living laboratory for the campus and broader community.
  • Parlaying his passion for sustainable urban food systems, fourth-year planning student Michael Wideman founded Eggplantr. He joined St. Paul’s Greenhouse, placed second in the Jack Rosen Memorial Awards, won a Velocity $5K final, and has recently been accepted into Velocity Garage.
  • The Faculty of Environment hosted its inaugural Awards Banquet to thank donors and recognize hard working student scholarship recipients.
  • The 2017 Faculty of Environment holiday video was named one of the season’s Best University Holiday videos by Higher Education Marketing and College Web Editor.