Skip to main content

IRIS & Toronto Net Impact Professional Chapter March Event

Published by

Published March 7, 2008

by iris_author

March Event: Renewable Energy Panel Discussions

Join Tom Heintzman, the co-founder and CEO of Bullfrog Power, leading provider of 100% green electricity; Kerry Adler, CEO of SkyPower, the leading independant renewable energy developer in Canada; and Jose Etcheverry, a respected researcher with the Institute for Research and Innovation in Sustainability ("IRIS"), as they discuss the future of renewable energy in Ontario.

TNIPC is proud to partner with IRIS for this, our first co-hosted speaker panel. Thanks to IRIS' generous support, there will be no fees for TNIPC and IRIS members and only a nominal - $10 fee – for non-members.

Who:

  • Tom Heintzman, President, Bullfrog Power;
  • Kerry Adler, CEO, SkyPower;
  • Jose Etcheverry, Institute for Research and Innovation in Sustainability (IRIS) and the David Suzuki Foundation (DSF)

What: Growing Renewable Energy in Ontario - TNIPC and IRIS speaker panel
When: Thursday, March 27, 2008 (6-8 PM)
Where: Osgoode Professional Development (Osgoode Hall Law School of York University),1 Dundas Street West Suite 2602 (at Dundas and Yonge), Room E
Cost: Free for all TNIPC and IRIS members, $10 for non-members
RSVP for this event is required – toronto@netimpact.org

Posted in: Events

Linda Lundström announces bankruptcy

Published by

Published February 29, 2008

by dbazely

Just over a year ago, I attended the Green Carpet Series, an event promoting sustainable fashion. The evening was aimed at an audience of younger people who work in the downtown Toronto core, and who might not normally be prone to thinking about their ecological footprint. Numerous young women were lured there by the presence of George Stroumboulopoulos, host of CBC's The Hour , who acted as a co-host for the fashion show (I had no idea that he's considered such a sex symbol - I simply admire his in-depth interviews with authors, when I manage to stay up late enough to watch his show!). The fashion show featured lots of cool, environmentally-friendly fashion, including some amazing recycled dresses, along with local food, wine and biodegradable spoons and forks. The gorgeous designs of Canadian, Linda Lundström were also featured. She has been actively involved in and leading efforts to reduce the environmental impact of the textile industry. Her clothes are made locally, and her latest lines featured many organic materials. I was very disappointed to hear, just one year after this event, the sad announcement, that her business has failed. It's incredibly disheartening that she hasn't been able to make it in the current business environment. I very much hope that Linda Lundström will be able to make a come back, and to continue to provide much needed leadership on the fashion and clothing front with respect to sustainability.

Dawn Bazely

Posted in: Blogs | IRIS Director Blog | Shopping the Talk

Blogging on IRIS

Published by

Published February 29, 2008

by dbazely

Hello everyone. This is an exciting time for both sustainability in general and York University in particular. More and more people in North America are realizing how important it is to be aware of our ecological footprint, and to actively reduce it (check out http://calc.zerofootprint.net/). At IRIS we are exploring ways to increase York's sustainability profile. In this new BLOG, we will be bringing you updates of what's going on at York. IRIS affiliates - students, faculty and staff - are constantly in touch with our many colleagues and friends both in Canada and across the world, learning about what's going on with sustainability initiatives, and we are going to write about what we hear.

To kick off, I want to introduce the resident members of the IRIS blogging team. Myself (Dawn Bazely, Director), Melissa Leithwood (Acting IRIS Co-ordinator), Duane Lakin-Thomas (IRIS Co-ordinator - occasional blogger), Rajiv Rawat (IRIS webmaster) and Annette Dubreuil (International Polar Year Project Manager). We will also be having guest bloggers.

Posted in: Blogs | IRIS Director Blog

Hydrogen Talk

Published by

Published November 11, 2007

by iris_author

IRIS presents the following talk:

The Social Benefits of Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology: Creating a Sustainable Infrastructure in the GTA
A Talk by Rymal Smith of Hydrogen Village

Ry has done extensive work in the fields of natural gas vehicles and hydrogen/fuel cell vehicles, and is a recipient of the Michael Grant Technology Award from Natural Resources Canada.

Wednesday, November 28, 4:30 p.m.
Room 013, Accolade East Building (At the east end, downstairs)
Refreshments will be served.

Posted in: Events

Lecture: The Culture of Flushing

Published by

Published October 12, 2007

by iris_author

IRIS is pleased to announce a forthcoming lecture:

The Culture of Flushing
A social and legal history of sewage presented by University of Ottawa professor Jamie Benidickson.

At a time when water issues are rapidly gaining world-wide importance, even in an area so apparently well-endowed with water as the GTA, this lecture promises to be timely, informative and even entertaining (!). Please join us in the first of four anticipated IRIS lectures this year -- including ones on Hydrogen Fuel, Dirty Gold and, we hope, on Living Without Garbage.

Wednesday, October 17, 4:30 p.m.
Room 0016, TEL Building

York University refreshments and a book signing session (to mark the release of the paperback edition of the book) will follow the presentation.

Click here for a map of the campus. The Technology Enhanced Learning building is in the row behind (south of) the Centre for Film and Theatre and Accolade buildings which line the south side of the commons area (buses stop on the north side of the commons). Room 0016 is in the basement level.

For more information, download the poster (PDF).

Posted in: Events

York University and the National University of Mongolia

Published by

Published June 8, 2007

by dbazely

[photopress:group.jpg,full,centered]

From left to right in Dalanzadgad, Mongolia: Jargal, Gail, the leader of the local herder's group and her son, Joni, Bataar, the two other sons of the local leader, Uska, Dawn and Bagii.

by Dawn Bazely & Carol Irving
SWiM Team Project Newsletter, March 2007

Water is essential for life on earth. As global warming increases, many areas of the world will become much drier. Sonya Nergui, a Botany Professor at the National University of Mongolia (NUM), visited York University in Spring 2006. She has been charged with heading and developing NUM's Water Research Centre in Ulaanbaatar, which will be vital in allowing Mongolia to cope with pressures on water resources.

Sonya's visit was part of an international agreement between the National University of Mongolia and York University, Canada. In the Fall of 2005, Adrian Shubert, York University's Associate Vice-President, International, signed the agreement in Mongolia.

The agreement also provides for student exchanges between the two universities. At York, Sonya was hosted by Prof. Gail Fraser in the Faculty of Environmental Studies and by Associate Dean of Science & Engineering, Paula Wilson. Dawn Bazely led a grant application to AUCC. We settled on a project about Human Security and Water. In addition to Sonya's visit, there has also been an exchange of Administrative staff between York and NUM.

How did six York University students and faculty come to be in the Little Gobi desert in Fall 2006? And, how did four Mongolian visitors come to be looking at Niagara Falls in November 2006, and commenting on it being "a lot of water!"? We all participated in the Sustainable Water in Mongolia (SWiM) project, a Students for Development project of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) that is funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). We thank the AUCC and CIDA for their strong support of our project.

More stories like this one are included in the first SWiM (Sustainable Water in Mongolia) Team Project Newsletter available here for download in PDF format.

Posted in: IRIS News

City recognizes David Bell with 2007 Green Toronto Award

Published by

Published May 28, 2007

by iris_author

Randy McLean (left) of Toronto Community Foundation, David Bell and Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone

(Y-File, May 28) David Bell, York professor emeritus in the Faculty of Environmental Studies, has been honoured with a Green Toronto Award for individual leadership. The immediate past Chair of Downsview Park, a former dean of York’s Faculty of Environmental Studies and a York alumnus (BA '65), Bell was one of 10 award recipients named by Mayor David Miller and Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone at a ceremony May 1.

Bell won in the Leadership category sponsored by the Toronto Community Foundation. Each award winner received $5,000 to donate to the environmental organization of their choice, courtesy of the award sponsors. Bell plans to donate his prize to Learning for a Sustainable Future, the educational organization which he currently chairs.

The 2007 Green Toronto Awards program, which honours local environmental efforts and achievements, received 178 nominations. A large panel of judges selected three organizations or individuals as the finalists in each of the 10 award categories, then selected the winners, who were announced at the event.

"It is fair to say that Dr. David Bell, through his guidance as Chair of the board at Downsview Park, and his immense involvement and influence in the field of sustainability, has helped to chart the direction for the future growth of Downsview Park," said Tony Genco, president & CEO of the park – and a former student of Bell’s – in his nomination letter.

Bell was Chair of the board of Downsview Park from 2003 to 2006. He served as a member of the executive committee of the National Round Table on the Environment and Economy (NRTEE) from 2003-2006. Bell founded the York Centre for Applied Sustainability in 1996 and was its director until 2003; the centre has now evolved into the York University Institute for Research & Innovation in Sustainability (IRIS). In addition to being Chair of Learning for a Sustainable Future, Bell is co-chair of the Education Alliance for a Sustainable Ontario and of the National Education for Sustainable Development Expert Council.


Bell was also a founding core faculty member of the Sustainable Enterprise Academy (SEA), the executive development program associated with the Haub Program on Business and Sustainability at the Schulich School of Business.

Bell became involved with the nascent Downsview Park while dean of York’s Faculty of Environmental Studies; his interest in creating a green oasis in the heart of Metropolitan Toronto as a showcase of sustainability was a logical consequence of his work running the York Centre for Applied Sustainability (now IRIS).

First as a board member, and then as Chair, his commitment to building a national park based on the triple imperatives of environmental, social and economic sustainability has informed the direction of the park from its inception. His philosophy continues to guide every aspect of park development, wrote Genco, while his vision of creating a model of sustainable development in the heart of Toronto will help to grow a dynamic sustainable community, with a mix of public open space, recreational, cultural, residential, commercial, institutional, sports and entertainment uses.

For more on Bell and Downsview Park, see "The Downsview Vision" in the October 2006 issue of YorkU magazine.

Posted in: IRIS News

Peter Victor joins Board of David Suzuki Foundation

Published by

Published April 8, 2007

by iris_author

[photopress:petervictor.jpg,thumb,alignright]
We are pleased to announce that York University Professor Peter Victor has been elected to the Board of Directors of the David Suzuki Foundation (they have a very useful website, at www.davidsuzuki.org). Dr. Victor is with the Faculty of Environmental Studies, applying his Ph.D. in Economics (University of British Columbia) to a variety of issues central to ecological economics, including: measures of progress (i.e. revising the national income accounts, ecological footprinting); measuring the full cost of companies and their products; and simulating the prospects for renewable energy and conservation to smooth out the transition away from dependency on oil. Dr. Victor is also on the Executive board of IRIS.

Congratulations, Peter!

Posted in: IRIS News

Changes at IRIS

Published by

Published January 1, 2007

by iris_author

Including a new Director and expanded facilities for student use

"I wanted the job," says Bazely, "because, as an ecologist, everything I do is about understanding how to manage ecosystems in ways that will sustain them into the future." She also sees her three-year appointment as a chance for York "to show the world how to use true interdisciplinary collaboration to make sustainability real and give York's interdisciplinary branding guts and legs."

Over the past 25 years, Bazely has done field research in many ecosystems, including arctic tundra, sub-arctic and temperate salt-marshes, deciduous forests, temperate managed grasslands and prairies and her research findings on white-tailed deer and lesser snow geese have informed wildlife and conservation management in Canada. In 2003 she published a book on the ecology and control of invasive plants with Judy Myers of the University of British Columbia. She is currently leading an interdisciplinary project based in Canada, Norway and Russia on human security in the Arctic, specifically the impact of oil and gas development on people and ecosystems. Bazely has collaborated with many other scientists outside her field and says communication is key to implementing sustainable solutions. "We already have much of the scientific know-how essential for achieving sustainability," she says. "Sure, there will always be a need for innovative scientific research, but the chief barrier to progress is communicating the science in meaningful ways that motivate people to alter their behaviour. Achieving sustainability will require enormous amounts of innovative thinking, learning to listen to people's concerns about their security, confronting their differences and reaching a consensus for change," says Bazely. "The challenge facing academics is not just to step out of our silos and talk to each other about our research, but also to work with outside communities."

Stan Shapson, York's vice-president research and innovation, announced the appointment. "Dr. Bazely is an internationally renowned scientist, dedicated to York University and keen to provide the leadership and ideas necessary to move our research agenda forward. I'm confident that she will help set in motion the growth of IRIS into Canada's preeminent centre for sustainability research." York established IRIS two years ago. Sustainability is one of four University-wide research priorities and the institute brings together researchers from many disciplines, including environmental studies, science and engineering, business, law, education, social sciences and humanities to produce sustainable solutions to a broad array of political, economic, scientific, social and environmental challenges. The institute not only promotes interdisciplinary collaboration among academic researchers, but partnerships with policy-makers, industry and non-governmental organizations.

The IRIS offices, in York Lanes (rooms 347 and 349) have been little-used for the past two years, but Dawn has furnished 349 with comfy chairs, a growing library and computers, and hopes that it will become a home-base for a wide range of undergraduate and graduate students with interests in sustainability.

Posted in: IRIS News

css.php