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Welcome to IRIS’ new Director for 2011-12, Prof. Stepan Wood: Dawn’s last post as Director

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In the first six months of 2011, the time absolutely whizzed by. In fact, in the 5 years, since I took on the assignment of being Director of IRIS, time has accelerated ever more rapidly. I began my third 12-month sabbatical on July 1st 2011 - they happen every 7 years - but it was not until the end of July that I have finally cleared off the last of several administrative obligations. When I tell friends and family that I am on sabbatical, they generally look on with envy and quite a few sarcastic comments. This is not surprising, because not many careers have the built in idea of a sabbatical. BUT, just to give an idea of how hectic my life was in June, just before the sabbatical began: I squeezed in field work in Iceland and business meetings in Oxford University during  a 10-day family vacation to see aged relatives! Here's some shots of grass collecting in Iceland!

 

 

 

 

 

I am very excited about two things for this sabbatical:

1. Getting up and working a nice 10-15 hour day in which I work on my own top priority projects, rather than having to prioritize the administrative tasks required to support other people.

2. Getting to be a student again, and learning a lot of new stuff.

During my last sabbatical in 2004-05, I wrote an article for University Affairs about being a harassed, overworked working parent of young children and trying to have a successful sabbatical. On rereading it, I found that my advice to readers, was actually helpful to me six years on!

I started planning for my current sabbatical two years ago. I will be spending 6 months at Harvard Forest on a Charles Bullard Fellowship finishing a book that I started writing 10 years ago. After that, I will be going back to the Zoology Department in Oxford University, where I did my doctorate. I will be a Visiting Scholar in the group of Prof. Kathy Willis, at the Long-Term Ecology Lab., where I will write another book. But before this blog reader goes all misty-eyed, yes, that IS Oxford's picturesque Radcliffe Camera, with my daughters standing infront, a few weeks ago, but to right, is a shot of the very 70's concrete Zoology building. Squeezed in between my time at Harvard and Oxford, I will be attending conferences and workshops, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science 2012 AGM, where the symposium that I proposed and am organizing with former York U student, Dr. Andrew Tanentzap, "Making Progress on Wicked Problems Through Interdisciplinary Collaborations" was successful in the peer-reviewed adjudication competition!

 

 

 

 

 

This sabbatical will be quite different from my previous one, when I did three separate one month trips to Sweden, and hung out in the basement at the Massey College Library at the University of Toronto, for the rest of the time. Together, with the Librarian, P J MacDougall, I wrote a cool article for Trellis, the Toronto Botanical Garden newsletter, about the Victorian gardening writer, James Shirley Hibberd, "A Victorian Google".

During the next year, IRIS will be very ably led by Prof. Stepan Wood of Osgoode Hall Law School, whom I am delighted to welcome back from a very successful Sabbatical Year in Italy. I hope that he will find time to blog, but he will probably find himself in the same mega-time-crunch boat that I did. On the other hand, I hope to be blogging more in the next year about my travels, and posting in the regular blog part of IRIS. The work that I will be doing, relates to sustainability, and specifically, habitat conservation and restoration, as well as to oil and gas and energy security.

I wish Stepan and the IRIS community, the very best for a productive  year, and I hope to see some of you in Harvard and Oxford.

Dawn Bazely

 

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.

IRIS Core Faculty Member Awarded Molson Prize

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The following is from the Wednesday, June 22, 2011 edition of the YFile

York environmental studies Professor Peter Victor has been named the recipient of this year’s prestigious Canada Council Molson Prize in the social sciences for outstanding lifetime achievement.

Victor, a renowned research professor in York University’s Faculty of Environmental Studies, is being recognized for his trailblazing research which has led to the emergence of a new discipline named ecological economics. The $50,000 Molson Prize is presented by the Canada Council for the Arts in collaboration with the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council.

Two awards are bestowed upon Canadian scholars annually to honour their lifetime achievements and ongoing contributions to Canada’s cultural and intellectual life. Prizes are awarded in the social sciences and humanities category, or in the arts, with one prize offered in each category.

“A distinguished environmental economist, Peter is a most commendable choice for the Molson Prize,” said Stan Shapson, York’s vice-president research & innovation. “Peter has earned international recognition for his important contribution to the field of environmental studies and his commitment to research excellence. His recent book – Managing Without Growth – has received international attention. His work is a prime example of the leadership York University’s research-intensive faculty members continue to provide in order to advance knowledge and develop solutions to the many challenges we face in our everyday lives.”

A top expert in his field, Victor has examined environmental issues as an academic, consultant and public servant for more than four decades. His pioneering research explores the many ways in which the economy is embedded in and dependent on the environment.

“Professor Victor has demonstrated that we, as a society, can explore novel approaches to managing without economic growth while sustaining our environment and improving our lives,” said Barbara Rahder, dean of York's Faculty of Environmental Studies. “His groundbreaking research can have a far-reaching impact on how people all over the world can develop healthy communities for generations to come.”

Victor has written Managing Without Growth: Slower by Design, not Disaster, among several other publications. His extensive portfolio currently includes serving as a member of the advisory committee on the National Accounts for Statistics Canada, the academic advisory panel of TruCost, the board of the David Suzuki Foundation, the board of the New Economics Institute, and the editorial advisory boards of several academic journals. He was also recently appointed chair of the Greenbelt Council of Ontario (see YFile, June 2).

Is nuclear power necessary for a carbon-free future?

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The recent devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan have confirmed the worst fears of nuclear power critics. Governments everywhere are re-evaluating their nuclear plans. But are fears of nukes misplaced? Chris Goodall and Jose Etcheverry are both environmentalists – but stand divided on the nuclear debate.

Every issue we invite two experts to debate a hot button issue in The Argument, and then invite you to join the conversation online - we’ll read all your comments and select the best to print next issue. (We’d prefer you to use your real name, but would love to hear what our readers have to say either way.) If you can’t comment, then you can simply vote in our poll, which you’ll find partway down the debate.

Looking for a previous Argument? See the full list of debates.

Chris

I am looking at a website that tells me how much electricity is coming from various sources around Britain. After a decade of financial incentives, wind turbines are currently producing about two per cent of our electricity. Excluding a small amount of hydro, all our electricity is coming from fossil fuels and nuclear. Britain’s 10 nuclear power stations are now producing 10 times as much energy as comes from 3,000 turbines.

I would love it if we powered our entire economy from renewables but I see no political will to achieve this aim. We would need to invest billions now in renewable technologies. Without nuclear, reducing carbon emissions at high speed is impossible. We might end up keeping old coal power stations open for the next 30 years.

People say that we simply need to work harder to persuade a largely indifferent public to accept huge numbers of turbines and to invest billions in other renewable technologies. Such idealism is irresponsible: if we truly believe that climate change is the greatest threat the world has ever faced, we cannot risk failing to achieve the growth in low-carbon energy sources. However much we may regret this, nuclear is the only technology capable of delivering large amounts of power within the next decade. We in the environmental movement have failed to get the UK to invest in renewables and we now have no alternative but to welcome nuclear power.

Jose

Nuclear plants need to be phased out because they are dangerous, toxic and impede the adoption of the three key options needed to build a carbon-free energy future: conservation, efficiency and renewable energy. Conservation and efficiency (i.e. doing more with less) represent two of the three most profitable opportunities to create new jobs and address climate change. To visualize the potential: Canada and the US use electricity at embarrassingly greater per capita rates compared to leading industrialized nations like Denmark and Germany.

Those two nations have not only minimized the way their citizens use power, they’re also constantly innovating efficient design and they’ve become world leaders in the development of renewable energy sources.

Their success is based on developing pragmatic renewable-energy policies, such as feed-in tariffs, which quickly enable entrepreneurs to innovate in vibrant markets that guarantee easy interconnection, fair long-term prices for all types of renewable energy and investment stability.

Germany’s renewable-energy policies in the last 10 years have become the most important climate-mitigation strategy in Europe and are a strong engine of industrial innovation and employment creation.

Germans and Danes have understood that nuclear plants cannot complement renewable- energy sources, as they cannot be turned on or off easily. Furthermore, they also understand that building nukes forces you to sell vast amounts of electricity, which acts as a clear contradiction to efforts at conservation and efficiency.

These lessons are starting to be understood by 148 other nations that have formed the International Renewable Energy Agency to develop rapidly a new paradigm of energy security and climate protection.

Chris

If we believe that climate change is the world’s greatest threat, we cannot risk failing to achieve the growth in low-carbon energy sources. Nuclear is the only technology capable of delivering large amounts of power within the next decade

Almost all of us welcome the rapid growth in renewables but even in Germany only 17 per cent of electricity comes from these sources. The key question is whether renewables have any prospect of growing fast enough to replace fossil fuel sources completely. In the UK and almost everywhere else, I don’t think anybody pretends that low-carbon sources are increasing at anywhere close to a fast enough rate. That is why nuclear is vital – not because we don’t want renewables.

The second illusion is to believe that energy-efficiency measures can significantly reduce demand for electricity. All independent sources predict a rise in electricity use because of home heating and the need to switch to electric vehicles. Conservation efforts are barely denting the demand for power. Environmentalists can bemoan the lack of interest in efficiency. But we need to deal with the world as it is, not how we want it to be. We may not like today’s consumerist, high-energy use lifestyles but we cannot change the world’s priorities overnight. Nuclear power is necessary to meet people’s demands for electricity.

Jose

I’d like to set the record straight on nukes:

  • Nukes are toxic and pose great dangers to present and future generations (Fukushima is now a level 7 catastrophe, the same as Chernobyl).
  • Nukes take at least a decade to build and are highly context-dependent design projects (i.e. a nuke design from Canada cannot be cut and pasted in seismically active places without major design modifications, which by definition involve higher costs, longer timelines, and trial/error experimentation).
  • Nukes are not cheap and uranium is a finite, non-renewable toxic mineral.
  • Nukes can easily be diverted for atomic weapons – one reason the technology has ‘strong’ fans.

Renewable sources on the other hand:

  • Are much safer, have vastly smaller ecological footprints, and represent strategic assets for current and future generations.
  • Most renewable energy systems are manufactured today in assembly lines and can therefore be deployed and implemented very quickly anywhere suitable.
  • Most renewable energy systems benefit from economies of scale; therefore the more money we invest in them the cheaper they become. Plus they use fuels that are plentiful and cheap (e.g. sun and wind) or can be locally produced at stable prices (e.g. biogas/biofuels).
  • Renewables can promote local resilience and energy autonomy, so diffusing sources of conflict instead of becoming weapons.

Chris

Zhang bin fj / AP / Press Association Images
Carry on regardless: China is pushing ahead with its nuclear power programme, with 13 reactors in operation and 35 more, including this one in southeast Fujian province, under construction. Zhang bin fj / AP / Press Association Images

Fukushima is a horrible disaster but we can reasonably expect that no-one will die as a result of the radiation leaks. Yes, nuclear power is very expensive but so are all low-carbon technologies. Most studies show nuclear costing less than offshore wind. What is more, nuclear will deliver power reliably and throughout the year.

People who live and work near nuclear reactors seem happy to have them as neighbours. By contrast, in Britain at least, onshore wind is widely detested.

I cannot accept that other technologies have ‘vastly smaller ecological footprints’. A new nuclear station will generate the same amount of electricity as about 3,000 wind turbines covering hundreds of square kilometres and requiring far more steel, concrete and disruption to wildlife.

We come back to the core argument. There is no political will anywhere in the world to make renewable electricity happen in sufficient amounts. I deeply regret this. Environmentalists watching the world sleepwalk into multiple ecological disasters have to act responsibly and accept that nuclear power is one of the few ways we have of maintaining standards of living while reducing the CO2 production from electricity generation.

Jose

Nuclear plants need to be phased out because they are dangerous, toxic and impede the adoption of the three key options needed to build a carbon-free energy future: conservation, efficiency and renewable energy

So what do we need to globalize a sustainable energy path?

Massive creativity, courage and political will – plus we need to design global deployment strategies for renewable energy that have tangible local social benefits.

For example, farmers who can own or at least benefit directly from wind turbines see them as a desirable cash crop. Schools with solar roofs see them as versatile teaching tools. Hospitals that can have lower fuel bills and cheap hot water via district energy see biomass CHP technology (combined heat and power) as a smart investment.

Our biggest obstacle to solving climate change with renewable energy, conservation and efficiency is the limited experience that most people have with these options. For all of us the most crucial strategy is to get directly involved in ‘learning by doing’ – and to fully use our creativity, which is itself a renewable and unlimited resource.

 

Goodall, Chris, and Jose Etcheverry. "Is nuclear power necessary for a carbon-free future?." New Internationalist Magazine 1 June 2011: n. pag. www.newint.org. Web. 14 June 2011.

Acadian artistic icon Herménégilde Chiasson and renowned environmental economist Peter Victor win Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prizes

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Ottawa, June 8, 2011 – Winners of this year’s Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prizes Herménégilde Chiasson and Peter Victor have forever changed their respective fields through their innovative and important artistic and scholarly contributions.

 

Mr. Chiasson, winner of the Molson Prize in the arts, has had exceptional achievements in many disciplines including literature, theatre, film and visual arts and is the first Acadian to win this award. Through his research, Peter Victor, winner of the Molson Prize in the social sciences, paved the way for a new discipline called ecological economies. He continues to find new ways to manage economic growth that are easier on the planet and the population.

 

Read the complete news release here or by copying and pasting the following URL into your web browser’s address bar: www.canadacouncil.ca/news/releases/2011/un129519436996714950.htm

Ethical thinking: York professor’s book shows how it can work in business

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The following is from the Tuesday June 7, 2011 edition of YFile

In the wake of disasters such as the BP oil spill, the term “corporate social responsibility” (CSR) is prevalent. But what does it mean and why is it important? And how does it relate to businesses, stakeholders and the public?

In his new book, Corporate Social Responsibility: An Ethical Approach (Broadview Press, 2011), Professor Mark Schwartz (right) clarifies the fundamentals and importance of CSR and details how a conscientious way of doing business is possible in today’s profit-driven world.

As a teacher of business ethics and corporate social responsibility at the School of Administrative Studies in York’s Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, Schwartz felt that students needed a book that examined the ethical obligations of a business and which approach is the most appropriate for a company.

“Business students – when they end up becoming managers, executives and CEOs of their company – are going to be making important decisions,” explains Schwartz. “It’s critical for them to have a theoretical position on this debate, which will help guide them to more ethical and socially responsible decisions.”

In his book, Schwartz focuses on several aspects to clarify CSR: the key moral standards that need to be applied in a business decision; the debate between narrow (or profit-based) CSR and broader (or ethics-based) CSR; an examination of the separate and intertwined economic, legal and ethical obligations of a company; and the belief that companies need to engage in providing goods and services that generate value to society in a balanced manner, while remaining accountable to stakeholders.

Looking at four classic, high-profile case studies – the Ford Pinto case, Union Carbide’s Bhopal disaster, Johnson & Johnson’s Tylenol crisis and Merck’s river blindness cure – students can apply their own ethical beliefs to decide on the best outcome. “Many students may discover their theoretical position doesn’t match what they would do when faced with a real business case,” says Schwartz. “That’s the main goal of the book: to force students or managers to realize there are implications with their position on social responsibility.”

Movie villain Gordon Gekko’s “greed is good” credo and the rise of Wall Street showed us the conflict between making money and being ethical; it’s a constant struggle in business. With MBA graduates entering the workforce in unprecedented numbers, how can we expect business people to choose? In his book, Schwartz proves they don’t have to.

“Business students should make money – it’s OK to make money. I think the real question is prioritization,” says Schwartz. “Are you maximizing profit at the expense of harming others? Students need to recognize that they have ethical obligations when they go out into the workplace.”

Although Schwartz recognizes that “good CSR does not always maximize the bottom line,” it’s the long-term effects on the business, its employees, customers and the environment that should be taken into consideration. “Ethics should still take priority to the bottom line when there is a conflict,” he says.

CSR can be complex, with room for potential misinterpretation. By demystifying the topic, Schwartz has provided students with information they need to grasp the concepts and understand how to implement them successfully. Armed with this knowledge, students choose their own way of achieving ethics in business.

“There is a need for a greater awareness in terms of what the ethical obligations are. It’s not simply maximizing the bottom line and abiding by the law. Ethics goes beyond the law.”

Peter Victor appointed head of Greenbelt Council of Ontario

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The following appeared in the Thursday, June 2, 2011 edition of Y-File. Peter Victor is an IRIS Senior Fellow.

The provincial government announced Tuesday that Professor Peter A. Victor of York’s Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES) has been appointed chair of the Greenbelt Council of Ontario. The greenbelt permanently protects 1.8 million acres of agricultural and environmentally sensitive land around the Greater Golden Horseshoe – an area larger than Prince Edward Island.

An economist who has worked on environmental issues for 40 years as an academic, public servant and consultant, Victor teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in ecological and environmental economics and management at York.

Right: Peter Victor

“Dr. Victor brings a wealth of knowledge, experience and insight to the Greenbelt Council,” said Rick Bartolucci, minister of municipal affairs & housing. “I look forward to working with Dr. Victor and council as they provide advice on the ongoing implementation of the greenbelt.”

Victor said he is looking forward to working with the council, which advises the Ministry of Municipal Affairs & Housing, on the greenbelt and related issues. “We have come to understand economies as subsystems of the biosphere and realize that a healthy environment and a strong economy go hand in hand,” said Victor.

From 1996 to 2001, Victor was dean of FES, and before that an assistant deputy minister at the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. He continues to provide advice to public, private and non-governmental organizations on areas such as air pollution and health, emissions trading, emerging issues, and full cost accounting at national and corporate levels.

From 2000 to 2004, he was president of the Royal Canadian Institute for the Advancement of Science, Canada’s oldest science organization, and from 2004 to 2006, he was chair of Environment Canada’s Science & Technology Advisory Board. Currently, he is a member of the Advisory Committee on the National Accounts for Statistics Canada, the Academic Advisory Panel of TruCost, the Ontario Government’s Advisory Committee on Transboundary Science and the board of the David Suzuki Foundation. In addition, he is author of Managing without Growth: Slower by Design, not Disaster (Edward Elgar, 2008).

IRIS Senior Fellow awarded 2011-2012 Labrador Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship

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Dr. Rachel Hirsch has been awarded the 2011-12 Labrador Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship <http://www.mun.ca/arts/research/labradorPostdoc.php> .

Dr. Hirsch holds a PhD (Geography) from the University of Western Ontario and is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University. Her research areas of interest include Arctic food insecurity, health and environmental governance, community resiliency, and knowledge sharing. In her work she is also concerned about issues of ethics and cooperation so that engagement with the public on policy issues can be made as transparent and equitable as possible.

Dr. Hirsch will be co-supervised by Dr. Trevor Bell (Geography, Memorial) and Dr. Chris Furgal (Indigenous Environmental Studies, Trent University). Her research will be conducted through the Labrador Institute, and it is funded by the Faculty of Arts, the Labrador Institute, and Drs. Bell and Furgal. Dr. Hirsch hopes to reside in Nain where she will work closely with Tom Sheldon (Nunatsiavut Government) for the duration of her fellowship. She will also be teaching a course for the Labrador Institute.

Dr. Hirsch’s postdoctoral research is entitled “Sharing research findings in Nunavut and Nunatsiavut: Assessing the integration of community-based knowledge in policy communications about climate change related food insecurity.” The main goal of her postdoctoral research is to determine how community-level indigenous knowledge is being integrated into local, territorial, and national climate change adaptation policy decisions about country food access insecurities in the Canadian Arctic.

Dr. Hirsch is currently affiliated with several other projects, her associated roles include:

  1. Coordinator of a virtual forum and workshop being co-hosted by York University’s Institute for Research and Innovation in Sustainability (IRIS <http://www.irisyorku.ca> ) and the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS <http://www.apecs.is/> ) in preparation for the 17th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties in Durban, South Africa (COP 17).
  2. Collaborator with Damian Castro (Memorial University), Glen Lesins (Dalhousie University), and Kaz Higuchi (Environment Canada and York University) on a project titled: “Cooperative food sharing in Sheshatshiu: Uncovering scenarios to support the 'emergent capacity' of Northern communities”.
  3. Postdoctoral Associate with working groups on intellectual property issues in cultural heritage (IPinCH at Simon Fraser University), the science to policy interface (ArcticNet at Laval University) and the promotion of interdisciplinary collaboration on climate change (CC-RAI at York University).

IRIS Core Faculty Member’s Book Nominated for Prestigious Prize

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  The following appeared in the Monday, May 16, 2011 edition of Y-File. Stepan Wood is a core faculty member of IRIS.

A new book by Osgoode Hall Law School Professor Stepan Wood (LLB '92) and University of Toronto political economist Stephen Clarkson has been nominated for the Canadian Political Science Association's prestigious 2011 Smiley Prize for the best book on Canadian politics.

Examining Canadians’ complicated roles as agents and objects of global forces, A Perilous Imbalance (UBC Press, 2010) shines an urgent light on the dangerous imbalances in contemporary forms of globalized law and governance. From French and British colonial politics to the SARS epidemic, Canadians have long known how it feels to be objects of global forces. But they are also agents who have helped build structures of global governance that have highly uneven impacts on prosperity, human security and the environment.

Left: Stepan Wood

The winner of the 2011 Smiley Prize will be announced at the Canadian Political Science Association Annual Conference in Waterloo, Ontario, on May 17.

A Perilous Imbalance examines Canada's experience of globalization in the context of three interlinked trends: the emergence of a neoconservative global “supra-constitution”, the paradoxical retreat and expansion of the Canadian nation-state and the growth of unconventional forms of governance beyond the state. It advocates a revitalization of the state as a vehicle for pursuing human security, ecological integrity and social emancipation, and for creating spaces in which progressive, alternative forms of law and governance can unfold.

With its critical analysis of the challenges faced by middle powers such as Canada in a globalizing world, A Perilous Imbalance further cements Osgoode's pre-eminence in the study of international and transnational legal issues, says Wood. The book has been very well received. Reviewers have praised it as “sophisticated, bold and accessible,” “important reading for anyone seeking to assess Canada’s legal and political engagement with globalization” and “a comprehensive account of Canada’s entanglement with globalization’s legal rules and institutions.”

The Smiley Prize honours the life and work of the late Donald V. Smiley (1921-1990), a leading Canadian political scientist and former Professor Emeritus at York University. It is awarded each year to the best book published on Canadian government and politics – one award for an English-language book, one for French. “I took an advanced seminar with Professor Smiley when I was an undergraduate political science major at York in the 1980s,” recalls Wood. “He fostered a challenging yet friendly atmosphere that brought out the best in his students. I feel particularly honoured to be associated with his name again after so many years.”

The book was the fruit of a cross-disciplinary collaboration that began when Wood and Clarkson were both virtual scholars in residence at the now defunct Law Commission of Canada. Working with Clarkson, whose contribution to the study of Canadian and North American political economy was recently recognized with the Order of Canada, was a highly rewarding experience for Wood. “Collaborating with Stephen was a pleasure from start to finish,” says Wood. “Our very different knowledge and expertise complemented each other nicely and Stephen has been an exceptionally generous and supportive colleague and friend.”

Close to 200 volunteers participate in York clean-up, includig IRIS interns

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The following is from the Tuesday, April 19th edition of Yfile. We've added pictures of the IRIS Graphic Design Interns.

York’s Keele and Glendon campuses are cleaner and fresher today thanks to the efforts of volunteers who participated in the City of Toronto’s 20-Minute Makeover on Friday in celebration of the upcoming Earth Day.

IRIS Graphic Design Interns Daniel & Anita by the Pond

Some 188 volunteers scoured the Assiniboine and Passy Gardens Sportsfield, the Arboretum, the Boyer Woodlot, the Danby Woods and the Boynton Woods on the Keele campus, as well as all around Glendon campus.

“This was a fantastic turn-out, more than double from last year,” says Nicole Arsenault, manager of Transportation & Student Services. “Sports & Recreation had a large turn-out. They had about 50 people and it was great to see their team spirit as many of them even had their York attire on.”

Above: A slide show of some of the 188 volunteers who came out last Friday to clean up Keele and Glendon campuses

What volunteers found sometimes surprised them. One found a disintegrating 1,000-dollar bill amid the garbage. Another found an intact 20-dollar bill. Someone else came across a road sign in their clean-up travels.

Niko, the 3rd Intern, all of which are from the York University/Sheridan College Joint Program in Design

As an added incentive this year, Food Services sponsored the event, giving out $2 YU cards good at several of the on-campus retailers to many of this year’s participants.

The event was organized by Campus Services & Business Operations.

For more information, visit the City of Toronto's 20-Minute Makeover website. For further earth-friendly initiatives, visit the Yorkwise website.

 

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