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Yearly Archives: 2010

Net Impact presents: GreenEdge Conference (March 6)

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Schulich NetImpact would like to invite you to attend our first annual GreenEdge conference on Saturday, March 6, 2010. The main theme of the conference is clean technology with three areas of focus: green building, renewable energy, and “base of the pyramid”. Some of our confirmed speakers include Tyler Hamilton from the Toronto Star, Andrew Wilcox from Enwave, Anthony Santilli from Bullfrog Power, Nicolas Morgan from Morgan Solar, and many others. The keynote address will be delivered by Peter A. Victor, author of “Managing without Growth”, in which he will discuss the role of clean tech in developing a new economy. This conference will not only be a great opportunity to acquire new knowledge, but it will also be an excellent opportunity to network with students and professionals at the forefront of these emerging industries.
To find more information and to register for the conference, please go to:

GreenEdgeConference.com

Also, please help us to promote GreenEdge 2010 by circulating the attached PDF file to your networks via email or as a printed flyer or poster.
Lastly, some food for thought: With the passing of the Green Energy Act in Ontario last year, already we can see how clean tech is becoming a priority for the provincial government. Just a few weeks ago, the Liberals cemented their commitment to clean tech as a main driver behind the rebuilding of Ontario’s economy, by signing a $7 billion dollar deal with Samsung that will provide 15,000 jobs! Although this deal is somewhat controversial, nonetheless, it confirms that clean tech will be a main sector in the new economy. And undoubtedly, this will have some effect on your career, regardless of your current profession…

So don’t just stand there, join us at GreenEdge 2010 and learn about how the latest developments in clean tech are affecting your career!Early Bird Registration
Get a $5 discount if you register this week only! (until Friday Feb. 12)
Find us at the Marketplace at Schulich or register online at http://www.facebook.com/l/84fc5;www.GreenEdgeConference.com .

NI members - $20
Early Bird - $20
Students - $25
Professionals - $35

Countdown To “Accountability Through Measurement” in Toronto (March 2-3)

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Dr. Laszlo Pinter, Director of the Measurement and Assessment Program at the International Institute for Sustainable Development Cordially Invites You To Attend:

ACCOUNTABILITY THROUGH MEASUREMENT:
2nd National Canadian Sustainability Indicators Network Conference in Toronto

March 2 to 3, 2010

Special Discount Available If You Register By February 18!

Please Note That All Conference Sessions will be held at

Courtyard by Marriott-Downtown Toronto
475 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
Phone: 416-924-0611

One of the most profound governance challenges of this century is Accountability through Measurement—how to accurately gauge progress towards social, economic and environmental sustainability. That’s why it’s the theme of our Conference in March 2010.

Don't Miss Special Guest Speakers

Scott Vaughan, Canada's Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development

Johanne Gélinas, Partner and Leader of Deloitte Canada's Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Group

Enrico Giovannini, President of the Italian National Statistics Institute (ISTAT), and

Hazel Henderson, from Ethical Markets - author, futurist and syndicated columnist

Workshops and plenary discussions are geared for professionals eager to learn practical techniques that demonstrate how to develop and evaluate indicator systems and put them
to use wherever they work.
You’ll discuss everything from Accountability through Measurement and the growing role of community indicators to the positive effects that indicators systems and evidence-based decision-making are achieving in the world, today.

When Tuesday, March 2, 2010 7:30 AM -
Wednesday, March 3, 2010 5:30 PM

Where NOTE NEW LOCATION
Marriott Courtyard, 475 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON
Canada

Conference Summary
Conference Agenda

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LEARNING EVENT: A Forum on the CIW’s Draft Environmental Domain (Feb 16)

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LEARNING EVENT: A Forum on the CIW’s Draft Environmental Domain

The 30th CSIN Learning Event on CIW’s Draft Environmental Domain will take place on Tuesday February 16, 2010 from 11:00 to 12:30am central time and feature a presentation and discussion with Alexis Morgan of the Pembina Institute. The event will be hosted using a virtual meeting room power by Elluminate Live!(r) 7.0. This Elluminate Live!(r) meeting room has been generously donated to CSIN by Thompson Rivers University.

About the Learning Event

The Canadian Index of Wellbeing| CSIN Learning Event will provide CSIN Members the opportunity to learn about the CIW's draft environmental domain which uses an array of indicators to inform environmental policy and public debate in Canada. The Learning Event, hosted by Alexis Morgan from the Pembina Institute, will also provide an opportunity to for members to provide feedback / input on the domain and play a role in its development.

When
Tuesday, February 16, 2010 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Central Time Zone

Where
Webinar
As close as your office or home

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Tuesday, February 16, 2010

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YFile: IRIS event marks the release of report on York’s forests

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The following appeared in the Monday, February 8, 2010 edition of Y-File:

What is the value we ascribe to trees and urban forests? Are they merely things that stand in the way of development and urban sprawl or do they have value?

These questions and more will be the subject of a special lecture today hosted by the Institute for Research & Innovation in Sustainability (IRIS). The lecture, which will take place from 1:30 to 3pm in 280 York Lanes, features a number of speakers who will address the value of urban forests. It also marks the release of a report by IRIS researchers on the value of the Keele campus urban forest.


Above: A Google map of the Keele campus. The circles indicate surveyed plots within buildings and squares indicate plots within park-style land. For each plot, IRIS researchers recorded the location of the plot, its global positioning coordinates and the actual land use. They estimate that the Keele campus has 97,575 trees.

Participating in the lecture are Lionel Normand, a terrestrial biologist with the Toronto & Region Conservation Authority (TRCA), Meaghan Eastwood, an urban forestry technician with the TRCA, and IRIS Senior Fellow Cecilia Tagliavia. The event will be chaired by IRIS director and York biology Professor Dawn Bazely.

Right: Dawn Bazely

Normand and Eastwood will discuss TRCA’s current urban forest study project. Their presentation will offer an in-depth look at the project’s intentions, partnerships and collaborations, study methodology, findings and recommendations, and more. The TRCA manages a number of urban forest studies within the Greater Toronto Area and works in partnership with municipalities and other conservation authorities.

Tagliavia has been examining the urban forest canopies on York’s Keele campus, both in existing blocks of natural forests (woodlots) and in man-made urban forests (gardens, recreational areas and parklands). By adapting the Urban Forest Effect model (UFORE) to the smaller campus scale, Tagliavia and her research team were able to estimate the role of York’s forest in carbon sequestration and removing greenhouse gas pollutants.

Her study highlights the importance of preserving the forest in park lands, including woodlots, which contain more than six times the number of trees compared to building areas. The full results and an accompanying analysis have been captured in the IRIS report titled, The Value of Keele Campus Urban Forest, which will be officially launched at the lecture.

This event is free and all are welcome. For more information, visit the IRIS Web site.

Toronto Mayor David Miller on “Canada, Climate Change and Cities” (Feb 11)

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Cecilia invited you to "Toronto Mayor David Miller on "Canada, Climate Change and Cities"" on Thursday, February 11 at 2:00pm.

Event: Toronto Mayor David Miller on "Canada, Climate Change and Cities"

Start Time: Thursday, February 11 at 2:00pm
End Time: Thursday, February 11 at 3:30pm
Where: UofT University College, room 163

You can refer to this web page for more information.

To see more details and RSVP, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?event.php&eid=288614973892&mid=1d62b4aG21ddbd53G98d8ce9G7

Thanks,
The Facebook Team

Your Food, Your Choice: Grounds for Change (Feb 20)

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COG Toronto's Annual Conference

Saturday, February 20, 2010
9:00 am - 5:00 pm
University of Toronto Conference Centre
89 Chestnut St., Toronto

Your Food, Your Choice: Grounds for Change

Check out our website for the latest on the conference program and our speakers. In addition to our keynote, Baerbel Hoehm, the first Agricultural Minister for Germany from the Green Party, sharing insights on what the German Government accomplished under her direction to support organic farming, we have just confirmed Michael Schmidt, the dairy farmer from Durham who was recently acquitted of all criminal charges relating to the sale and distribution of raw milk and raw milk products. We are also looking forward to hearing from Percy Schmeiser, the Saskatchewan farmer who challenged Monsanto, Rick Smith, Executive Director of Environmental Defence Canada to speak as one of the panel on Land vs Development: Questions about the Greenbelt, Tom Manley, President of Homestead Organics, who will speak on the panel about Slow Money, and Megan Westgate, Executive Director of the Non-GMO Project which is helping retailers take products containing GMO's off their shelves. There will be other great sessions in three streams, one for the Grower, one for the Eater and one for the Reformer, as well as a delicious organic lunch, a special song composed especially for the conference, a reading by Margaret Webb, author of Apples to Oysters: A Food Lover's Tour of Canadian Farms, and a presentation to Wilhelm and Barnhild Pfenning of the Lifetime Organic Hero Award. This conference is not to be missed!

Presented by Canadian Organic Growers in association with The Big Carrot

$65 ($85 after Jan. 31); COG members $55
Rates for seniors, students and unwaged

Organic lunch included !

Info and registration:  www.cogtoronto.org or 416-466-4420

Sustainable Energy—Without the Hot Air (March 30)

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How easy is it to get off our fossil fuel habit? What do the fundamental limits of physics say about sustainable energy? Could a typical developed country live on its own renewables? In the annual J. Tuzo Wilson Lecture, Professor David Mackay of Cambridge University argues that public discussion of energy policy needs numbers, not adjectives. It may not be easy to get off fossil fuels, but it is possible.

8 p.m.
Isabel Bader Theatre
93 Charles Street West

More information call 416-978-5175

YFile: Prof receives $1 million from SSHRC for climate change project

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IRIS to house $1 million SSHRC Climate Change Project

IRIS to house $1 million SSHRC Climate Change Project

The following appeared in the Friday, February 5, 2010 edition of Y-File:

Carla Lipsig-Mummé, professor of work and labour studies in York's Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies and research fellow in York’s Institute for Research & Innovation in Sustainability, has received $1 million over six years from the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

Right: Carla Lipsig-Mummé

The award will fund an international project to study the challenge climate change presents to Canadian employment and workplaces. Lipsig-Mummé will examine seven Canadian employment sectors to seek policy, training, employment and workplace solutions to effectively assist Canada’s transition to a low-emission economy. By combining research, workplace education, policy recommendations and pilot projects in transnational work adaptation, her project will allow Canada to re-enter the international debate about how best to engage the work world in the struggle to slow global warming.

“We need to know more about the chain of processes that comprise work, employment and training in key Canadian industries and professions – and how their decision-makers understand and respond to the challenge that global warming poses to these processes,” says Lipsig-Mummé. “Our second goal is to engage community partners active in the work world and the environmental community in research that identifies critical spaces for adaptation, drawing on their hands-on experience and linking it to the expertise of the academics.”

Community-University Research Alliances (CURA) awards, among the largest awarded by SSHRC, bring postsecondary institutions and community organizations together as equal research partners to jointly develop new knowledge and capabilities, provide research training opportunities, and enhance the ability of social sciences and humanities research to build knowledge in areas that affect Canadians and their changing communities.

“This award is the latest in a series of funding successes that reflect York’s leadership in national and international collaborative research projects,” said Stan Shapson, vice-president Research & Innovation. “Climate change is one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century and climate research and innovation are priorities for York. Our researchers are working with industry, government at all levels, academia, and the community to find ways to address the complex issues it raises.”

Lipsig-Mummé’s research team includes nationally- and internationally-based climate scientists, senior labour market actors and academics from a wide range of disciplines. A total of 23 researchers, 20 partners, and 10 universities in three countries will participate, including York Professors David Doorey, Dawn Bazely, Irene Henriques, Jan Kainer, John-Justin McMurtry, Stepan Wood and Steven Tufts.

Gary Goodyear, Minister of State (Science & Technology), announced the funding yesterday in Kitchener, Ont. Lipsig-Mummé’s project is one of 20 large-scale research projects funded through SSHRC’s CURA program.

“These grants highlight the excellence of our country’s talented researchers and recognize the importance of fostering collaboration to keep Canada at the leading-edge of research, development and innovation in the 21st century,” said Chad Gaffield, president of SSHRC.

For a complete list of CURA awards, visit SSHRC Web site.

IRIS Speaker Series: Urban Forest Studies in the GTA + Launch of Keele Campus UFORE Report

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IRIS Speaker Series

IRIS Speaker Series: Urban Forest Studies in the GTA and UFORE launch

IRIS Speaker Series: Urban Forest Studies in the GTA + Keele Campus UFORE Report

Monday, February 8th, 2010
1:30pm to 3:00pm
Room N280, York Lanes, York University

Lionel Normand and Meaghan Eastwood
Urban forest studies in the GTA
Mr. Lionel Normand, Terrestrial Biologist (TRCA) and Ms. Meaghan Eastwood, Urban Forestry Technician (TRCA), will present on TRCA’s current urban forest study project providing an in depth look at its intentions, partnerships and collaborations, study methodology, findings, recommendations, stakeholder consultation and expected outcomes.
TRCA manages a number of urban forest studies within the GTA in partnership with municipalities and other Conservation Authorities.

Dr. Cecilia Tagliavia
Do you know the value of York’s urban forest?
Dr. Tagliavia, Ecology Consultant and IRIS Senior Fellow, has been examining the Keele campus’ urban forest canopies in both existing blocks of natural forests (woodlots) and in man-made urban forests (gardens, recreational areas, and parklands). By adapting the Urban Forest Effect model (UFORE) to the smaller campus scale, her team was able to estimate the role of York’s forest in carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas pollutants removal. The study highlights the importance of preserving the forest in “parks areas” (e.g. woodlots), which contain over six times the number of trees compared to the “building areas”. The IRIS report "The Value of Keele Campus Urban Forest", is now available for download.

Chaired by Dr. Dawn Bazely, IRIS Director and Faculty of Science & Engineering, York University

View the IRIS Speaker Series: Urban Forest Studies in the GTA poster

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