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Yearly Archives: 2011

Sustainability Project Coordinator Wanted

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Posting Number: CPM-7405
Position Title: Sustainability Project Coordinator
Department: Office of the President
Affiliation: CPM
Salary Grade: D
Hiring Salary Range: $51,910 - $58,398
Maximum of Salary Range: $71,376
Duration: Temporary Full-Time
Hours: 8:30 am - 4:30 pm
Position Start Date: September 6, 2011 Position End Date: September 5, 2012
Purpose:
York University has made a strong commitment to, and has been recognized for its campus sustainability initiatives. We have a strong history of sustainability related activity in research, education and application. As a signatory of the Talloires Declaration, York has a responsibility to provide leadership and dedication to sustainability on its campuses and to the greater community. In 2008, The President’s Sustainability Council (PSC) was created to be an advisory body to the President with responsibility for providing input and recommendations on how to advance York University’s sustainability initiatives, projects, and practices and to provide oversight of the required actions from approved recommendations. It is also a mechanism through which to support and enable York students, faculty and staff to participate meaningfully in the planning and implementation of York University’s sustainability policies, initiatives, projects and practices. The Sustainability Project Coordinator will be responsible for identifying and supporting sustainability projects that are outlined in the PSC Annual Reports ( http://www.yorku.ca/susweb/report/index.html). The Sustainability Project Coordinator works closely with the Sustainability Engagement Coordinator.
Knowledge:
Knowledge about the University programs, policies, and structures; and knowledge of sustainability issues and best practices.
Education:
University Degree in Environmental Studies or equivalent combination of education and experience.
Experience:
Minimum 2 years experience working in a post secondary or non-profit environment.
Skills:
Ability to build networks across an organization; Excellent written and oral communication skills using a variety of mediums (email, social media, web, report writing); Demonstrated proficiency with Microsoft Word, Excel, Access databases. Strong research, data collection and analysis of data skills. Experience developing metrics to track progress of initiatives. Strong organizational and project management skills with the ability to coordinate multi-dimensional activities simultaneously; self motivated and able to exercise good judgment in establishing effective priorities among competing task demands. Ability to inspire and engage students, faculty and staff and install a sense of ownership. Able to effectively work with and influence senior administrative leaders, faculty and students related to progress on York University’s sustainability goals and measures. High degree of flexibility, adaptability and general ability to respond to emerging opportunities and barriers in a constantly changing environment; Must be creative, enthusiastic with a high level of energy and initiative. Commitment to institutional and societal sustainability. Commitment to diversity; ability to work effectively with all constituencies in a diverse institution.
Cover Letter Required: Yes
Dates:
 

Internal Posting Date: July 14, 2011
Internal Application Deadline: Posted until filled
Extended Posting Date: July 14, 2011
Extended Application Deadline: Posted until filled
External Posting Date: July 14, 2011
External Application Deadline: Posted until filled

Thank you for your interest in a career with York University. To apply, please ensure that:

  • You have submitted a complete application package (application form*, resume and covering letter) . When emailing your application package, ensure that you have attached the resume, cover letter, and application form to your email.
  • A complete application package has been submitted for each job posting you are applying for.
  • You have quoted the appropriate posting number on your application form and in the subject line of your email. Please keep the posting number and position description for future reference or inquiries.
  • Your application package is submitted in one of the following formats: Microsoft Word (.doc), or Adobe (.pdf). If you do not have access to the above programs, you may submit your resume and covering letter in plain text format (.txt). Please note the application form cannot be saved in this format.

Applications are to be submitted to: jobs@yorku.ca.

Only those selected for an interview will be contacted. York University is committed to Employment Equity and encourages applications from all qualified candidates.

Sustainability Engagement Coordinator Wanted

Published by
Posting Number: CPM-7404
Position Title: Sustainability Engagement Coordinator
Department: Office of the President
Affiliation: CPM
Salary Grade: D
Hiring Salary Range: $51,910 - $58,398
Maximum of Salary Range: $71,376
Duration: Temporary Full-Time
Hours: 8:30 am - 4:30 pm
Position Start Date: September 6, 2011 Position End Date: September 5, 2012
Purpose:
York University has made a strong commitment to, and has been recognized for, its campus sustainability initiatives. We have a strong history of sustainability related activity in research, education and application. As a signatory of the Talloires Declaration, York has a responsibility to provide leadership and dedication to sustainability on its campuses and to the greater community. In 2008, The President’s Sustainability Council (PSC) was created to be an advisory body to the President with responsibility for providing input and recommendations on how to advance York University’s sustainability initiatives, projects, and practices and to provide oversight of the required actions from approved recommendations. It is also a mechanism through which to support and enable York students, faculty and staff to participate meaningfully in the planning and implementation of York University’s sustainability policies, initiatives, projects and practices. The Sustainability Engagement Coordinator will be responsible for identifying and implementing a program in which students can participate, learn and engage in sustainability initiatives on campus. The Sustainability Engagement Coordinator works closely with the Sustainability Project Coordinator.
Knowledge:
Knowledge about the University programs, policies, and structures; and knowledge of sustainability issues and best practices.
Education:
University Degree in Environmental Studies or equivalent combination of education and experience.
Experience:
Minimum 2 years experience working in a post secondary or non-profit environment.
Skills:
Ability to build networks across an organization; Excellent written and oral communication skills using a variety of mediums (email, social media, web, report writing); Understands learning outcomes and how to create program that meet these needs; Demonstrated ability to create and Implement Engagement plans; Creating and Analyzing Surveys; Developing and Implementing outreach strategies for targeted groups; Demonstrated proficiency with Microsoft Word, Excel, Access databases. Strong organizational and project management skills with the ability to coordinate multi-dimensional activities simultaneously; self motivated and able to exercise good judgment in establishing effective priorities among competing task demands. Ability to inspire and engage students, faculty and staff; Able to effectively work with and influence senior administrative leaders, faculty and students related to progress on York University’s sustainability goals and measures. High degree of flexibility, adaptability and general ability to respond to emerging opportunities and barriers in a constantly changing environment; Must be creative, enthusiastic with a high level of energy and initiative. Commitment to institutional and societal sustainability. Commitment to diversity; ability to work effectively with all constituencies in a diverse institution.
Cover Letter Required: Yes
Dates:
 

Internal Posting Date: July 14, 2011
Internal Application Deadline: Posted until filled
Extended Posting Date: July 14, 2011
Extended Application Deadline: Posted until filled
External Posting Date: July 14, 2011
External Application Deadline: Posted until filled

Thank you for your interest in a career with York University. To apply, please ensure that:

  • You have submitted a complete application package (application form*, resume and covering letter) . When emailing your application package, ensure that you have attached the resume, cover letter, and application form to your email.
  • A complete application package has been submitted for each job posting you are applying for.
  • You have quoted the appropriate posting number on your application form and in the subject line of your email. Please keep the posting number and position description for future reference or inquiries.
  • Your application package is submitted in one of the following formats: Microsoft Word (.doc), or Adobe (.pdf). If you do not have access to the above programs, you may submit your resume and covering letter in plain text format (.txt). Please note the application form cannot be saved in this format.

Applications are to be submitted to: jobs@yorku.ca.

Only those selected for an interview will be contacted. York University is committed to Employment Equity and encourages applications from all qualified candidates.

Grand River Watershed Water Forum (Cambridge)

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On Friday, September 16, the Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA) will host its 11th annual Water Forum in Cambridge, Ontario. The theme of this year’s event is “A Sustainable Watershed: Can We Get There From Here?”

The cities of the Grand River watershed are among the fastest growing in Ontario. The surrounding agricultural areas are among the most productive in the country. The cost of all this development - urban and rural - has been high as many natural areas have been paved over, drained or cleared. Climate change adds another layer of uncertainty. The challenges, opportunities and current process for tackling these issues will be discussed at the Forum.

For more details, see the flyer. Click Here!

 

You may also visit http://www.grandriver.ca/waterforum for details. Please contact Cam Linwood at clinwood@grandriver.ca or 519-621-2763 x 2251 if you are interested in exhibitor and sponsorship opportunities.

 

Many thanks.

Regards,

Katherine Balpataky

Professor Dawn Bazely Awarded a Charles Bullard Fellowship by Harvard University

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Prof. Dawn Bazely was awarded a Charles Bullard Fellowship by Harvard University, Mass., USA, for 2011-2012. She will be spending 6 months at Harvard Forest, an NSF (National Science Foundation) LTER (Long Term Ecological Research Site). (link: http://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/index.html) While at Harvard, Dawn will be completing a book that she started writing in 1999, a scholarly treatment of Conservation Biology in Southern Ontario. Anyone wanting to visit and give a seminar, should contact her by email.

The Global Race Towards Clean Energy

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Please join John Podesta, President and CEO of the Center for American Progress and former Chief of Staff to U.S. President William J. Clinton in a discussion on how Ontario and other jurisdictions should be positioned in the global clean energy race.

Mr. Podesta has served on the US National Security Council and also as co-chair of President Obama's transition. He has a wealth of knowledge about energy and economic policy.

Date: Wednesday, July 13 5:30 -7:30 pm
Location: MaRs Discovery District, Atrium, 101 College St.
This is a free event, but space is limited.

Please RSVP by Friday, July 8th to events@wwfcanada.org or by calling Carla Martella, Events Manager, at 416-484-7718

WWF and Environmental Defence are proud to work together to extend this invitation to you.

Position Announcement for the Global Institute for Water Security

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Post-doctoral Fellowship in Socio-Hydrology: Defining Water Security in the Saskatchewan River Basin

POSITION:  A post-doctoral fellowship is available immediately for a highly motivated and organized individual interested in the consideration of contemporary water security issues by linking physical and biological sciences with social science perspectives including governance, institutions, human behaviours, perceptions, and public policy. With financial support from the University of Saskatchewan (U of S), the School of Environment and Sustainability (SENS) and the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Water Security (CERC), the successful candidate will contribute to the development of a new social science research programme as part of the recently-established Global Institute for Water Security. This exciting initiative builds on the unique breadth and depth of expertise at the U of S that includes more than 65 faculty and 5 research chairs, world-class facilities, and relevant expertise in the social sciences, humanities, and policy arenas. This position is for one year with the possibility of extension subject to satisfactory performance. The fellowship includes a salary of CDN $43,000.

RESPONSIBILITIES:  Through the Global Institute (institute), the University of Saskatchewan aspires to develop a social science component to address key societal issues and to complement the natural science and engineering expertise of the CERC programme. The successful candidate will have demonstrated expertise in water security, water policy and/or environmental management. The candidate will be expected to facilitate and build a research programme (write proposals, produce publications, etc.) and contribute social science expertise to workshops focused on stakeholder perceptions of water security. This post-doctoral fellow will also be expected to collaborate with the larger interdisciplinary teams of both the CERC and SENS. These workshops are the first step in a scenario planning process for the Saskatchewan River Basin. The appointment will be made to someone with demonstrated research skills in social science methods.

QUALIFICATIONS:  The candidate must have a PhD (or have a PhD defense date set) in public policy, sociology, political studies, geography, environmental management, or a closely related field. Experience establishing and carrying out qualitative and quantitative social science analyses is required, as is experience successfully facilitating focus groups and/or managing other group processes in a research setting. The successful candidate will provide evidence of internationally-recognised research capability, an emerging publication record, and a demonstrable interest in interdisciplinary research. The successful candidate must also demonstrate the ability to effectively organize, lead, and coordinate research projects that involve multiple diverse stakeholders. Desirable attributes associated with this position’s responsibilities include experience working effectively with multiple stakeholders, including rural and indigenous communities; supervisory and/or mentorship experience with graduate students; and a demonstrated ability to secure research funding.

DEADLINE:  Review of applications will begin on June 22, 2011 and will continue until a suitable candidate is identified.

TO APPLY:  To be considered, please electronically submit, in confidence, 1) your full curriculum vitae, 2) a list of three references who have each agreed to submit a letter of reference on your behalf if requested, 3) complete academic transcripts (copies are acceptable), and 4) a cover letter that addresses how you meet the job qualifications and are suited for the responsibilities described to:

Global Institute for Water Security, University of Saskatchewan

Attn: Kate Wilson

National Hydrology Research Centre

11 Innovation Boulevard, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 3H5, CANADA

Tel: (306) 966-8014, E-mail:  kate.wilson@usask.ca

The University of Saskatchewan is located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada (www.tourismsaskatoon.com), a city with a diverse and thriving economic base, a strong research cluster, a vibrant arts community, and a full range of leisure opportunities.  The U of S has a reputation for excellence in teaching, research, and scholarly activities, and offers a full range of undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs to a student population of about 20,000.  The U of S is one of Canada’s leading research-intensive universities.  For information about the University of Saskatchewan, please visit www.usask.ca. For information about the School of Environment and Sustainability, please visit www.usask.ca/sens. Further details about the U of S CERC programme and the Global Institute for Water Security can be found at www.usask.ca/water.

The University of Saskatchewan is committed to employment equity. Members of designated groups (women, aboriginal people, people with disabilities and visible minorities) are encouraged to self-identify on their applications.

Save the Date (Oakville)

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Join us for our upcoming one-day workshop on Building Strategic Partnerships to Create Adaptable Urban Forests — a hot topic of interest for municipalities and community groups interested in joining forces to protect urban forests from existing and emerging threats, including those intensified by climate change.

Clean Air Partnership and the Town of Oakville are pleased to announce that this expert-led, technical workshop will take place on Thursday, September 8, 2011 at Oakville Town Hall, 1225 Trafalgar Road.

On behalf of Clean Air Partnership and the Town of Oakville, we look forward to welcoming you to this event.

Sincerely,

Eva Ligeti, Executive Director                                               Mayor Rob Burton
Clean Air Partnership                                                                 Town of Oakville

Live Green Toronto Festival

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With the sun shining and the mercury soaring (30+ degrees), I think we can breathe a collective sigh and say, "summer is here". The July long weekend is the official start of cottage weekends, summer concerts, and events and street festivals in the city. From Pride Week to Taste of the Danforth, the Honda Indy to Caribana, there is no shortage of action this summer.

One of the festivals I am most looking forward to is the Live Green Toronto Festival at Yonge and Dundas Square on July 16. This is Toronto's largest outdoor green festival with hundreds of green products and services, outdoor vendors, and live music throughout the day!

I can't wait to check out the vendors, munch on some local (and wheat free!) food, and take in some great live music. I'll also bring some of my duplicate, or less loved, DVDs for the SWAPZONE. I'm always looking to update my DVD collection at home and at the cottage (I need to at least entertain the possibility that there might be a rainy day) and this swap event is a totally free way to add some new titles to my collection -- plus, unlike other no cost options i.e. holding up your local blockbuster or downloading titles online, it is legal! 

Meaning, after it's all said and done, I'll have some new movies and music, and some extra coin in my wallet for some more tasty treats or perhaps a local microbrew on a patio that evening…

AECL sale: The price says it all – Published in the Toronto Star

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This blog was originally published in Professor Mark Winfield's blog.

Last week’s announcement by the federal government of its sale of the reactor division of Atomic Energy of Canada (AECL) to SNC Lavalin for a mere $15 million comes as no surprise to those who have been following the nuclear industry in Canada over the past few years. The Harper government has been clear about its desire to offload the AECL financial “sinkhole” (in the words of the Prime Minister’s former Press Secretary) for some time. With more than a decade since AECL’s last sale of a new reactor, the failure of the $800 million MAPLE isotope reactor project, the controversy over the shutdown and safety of the NRU reactor at Chalk River, delays and cost overruns on power reactor refurbishment projects in Ontario and New Brunswick, and a perpetual need for annual bail-outs running into the hundreds of millions, the federal government has decided to cut its losses.

AECL, which has absorbed more than $20 billion in federal taxpayers’ money over the sixty years of its existence, has never come close to being a commercially viable entity. As if to drive home this point the federal government is providing an additional $75 million subsidy (five times the purchase price) with the sale for reactor development. Federal taxpayers will remain liable for the cost overruns on the company’s existing reactor refurbishment projects and the long-term clean up costs, estimated to run into the billions, at AECL’s facilities.

Most observers are of the view that SNC has no interest in new reactor sales, given the scale of the capital investments and cost risks involved, as well as AECL’s past record of cost overruns and delays. Rather, it is thought that SNC’s primary interest is the maintenance and refurbishment of existing CANDU reactors.
The strongest response to the sale – aside from the surprisingly loud objections from the nominally anti-nuclear federal NDP – is predictably from Ontario, whose Long-Term Electricity Plan includes as many as four new CANDUs at the Darlington nuclear power station east of Toronto. The province, reeling from the reported $26 billion “sticker shock” of AECL’s ‘all in’ cost bid for just two new CANDUs, had been demanding that the federal government ‘share’ some of this cost. Any cost-sharing options with the federal government, which probably anticipated questions from its western Canadian base about why federal taxpayers from Alberta and BC should pay for nuclear reactors for Ontario, are now off the table.

The case for new reactors in Ontario was already shaky, given the decline in electricity demand over the past five years and the strong response of renewable energy developers to the province’s Green Energy Act. In the context of the Fukishima disaster the federal environmental assessment hearings on a Darlington new build project that wrapped up last month took on a distinct air of unreality. Jurisdictions around the world are now reassessing the role of nuclear in their long-term energy strategies.

The case for Ontario to do the same is now stronger than ever. The renewable energy supply and services industry in Ontario that is emerging in response to the Green Energy Act has already made up for the 800 jobs that are likely to be lost in the immediate aftermath of the AECL sale many times over.

Rather than continuing to make an increasingly hopeless case to the federal government for support for its nuclear-based plans, the Government of Ontario should be seeking federal investments for the creation of a truly national electricity grid. Such an undertaking is far more likely to win backing from other provinces and would enable Ontario to connect its enormous, but intermittent, wind energy potential with those provinces that have large-scale hydroelectric storage capacity. Similar arrangements are being employed among countries in Northern Europe to facilitate the large scale integration of intermittent renewable energy sources into their electricity grids. Water is stored up behind hydro dams when wind-based supply is strong, and released to produce electricity when there is less wind. In Canada, such arrangements could provide the foundations of a sustainable national electricity system.

The AECL sale compels Ontario to revisit is long-term electricity plans, and to embark on a serious and open review of the full range of alternatives in the future design of its electricity system. Province needs to face this reality and respond accordingly.

A Call for Civil Disobedience for the Climate Justice Movement

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This week, a number of prominent writers in the climate justice movement including James Hansen, Naomi Klein, Maude Barlow, David Suzuki, and Bill McKibben, wrote an open letter calling for civil action against the Keystone XL Pipeline. This summer, the State Department and the White House will decide whether or not to grant a certificate of 'national interest' to key fossil fuel producers thereby allowing the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. The Keystone XL Pipeline will move oil from Canada's tar sands to Texas refineries. This move would enable faster transport and increased volume of tar sand oil production. However the burning of these reserves would add approximate 200 ppm of CO2 into the atmosphere. Considering that as of October 2010,  emissions were at 389 ppm, and that 350 ppm has been advocated as the safe upper limit for CO2, this improved production capacity could lead to 'run away' climate change. As James Hansen has stated, "if the tar sands are thrown into the mix it is essentially game over.” In addition, the pipeline would cross through First Nations communities and over the Ogallala Aquifer, where a spill would devastate water supplies. In response, environmental activists will stage a protest beginning in mid-August. Each day through Labor Day, they intend to march on the White House.  The action will continue for several weeks, until the administration can either grant or deny the permit for the pipeline. Canadians are encouraged to join the protest by staging demonstrations in front of U.S. consulates. To become part of this action you can sign up here.

To read the open letter please visit Yes Magazine.

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