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Sustainability Movement(Nov 4)

Published by

Published October 23, 2009

by iris_author

SCHULICH TORONTO ALUMNI CHAPTER PRESENTS

Sustainability - Beyond the Hype Opportunities for your Business and your Career

Join us for a panel discussion to learn how you can benefit from the Sustainability movement. Find out:

  •  
    • What are the opportunities
    • Where to find them
    • How to take advantage of them
    • What it takes to be successful

Our distinguished panel includes:

Garrick Ng - Vice President Sustainability, Innovolve Group
Innovolve has a passion for merging social, environmental and business imperatives. It is on the front lines of green innovation from green building, packaging, and behavior modification to transportation and green meetings. As societies around the world recalibrate we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to get it right.

James Downham - President & CEO, Packaging Association of Canada
PAC promotes responsible environmental practices across all aspects of the packaging industry. In 2009 PAC and Wal-Mart formed a strategic partnership to train Wal-Mart executives and buyers as well as manage the Wal-Mart Sustainable Packaging Exposition. PAC is also in negotiations to launch S-PAC; a sustainability rating tool for the packaging industry.

Michael Crawley - President & CEO, Aim PowerGen
AIM has quickly grown to become one of Canada's largest wind power developers. Its Erie Shores Wind Farm won the Ontario government's first ever renewable power tender. AIM is currently developing dozens of other projects throughout Canada.

David Bacon - CFO & Michelle Chislett - VP Solar Project Development, SkyPower Corp
SkyPower is on a mission to become the leading independent renewable energy utility in Canada. SkyPower has interests in a substantial number of renewable energy projects at various stages of development, representing thousands of MW of potential capacity. It drives all phases of project development including exploration, construction and operation.

Wednesday November 4th
Courtyard by Marriott Downtown Toronto
475 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario M4Y 1X7
(1 block north of Carlton Street, closest TTC station is College)

6 pm - Light Refreshments & Networking
7 pm - Panel Discussion
8 pm - Q & A
8:30 pm - Networking

TO REGISTER: www.schulich.yorku.ca/alumninov2009

Posted in: Events

Sustainability and exhaustion – don’t let it get you down

Published by

Published October 23, 2009

by dbazely

[photopress:Messy_desktop1.jpg,thumb,pp_image][photopress:Messy_desk2.jpg,thumb,pp_image][photopress:messy_study_3.jpg,thumb,pp_image]Being a director of a sustainability institute and an academic is very tiring - even for a hyper Type A personality who can still put in a 16 hour field day. Not only am I always having to think about my ecological and carbon footprints, and where to buy good offsets, but in a world of greenwashing, scrutinizing everything for its authenticity is also de rigeur.  Uggh - AND THEN THERE'S THE BLOGGING. I have always had two settings - on and off. I like to jump out of bed and hit the ground running, but these days, I often feel like a car engine that's starting on a cold winter's morning. So, it's time for a mechanical overhaul. Here's what I have used  in the past, and will again, to fix the stalled engine:

These may also be helpful for those of you out there who feel overwhelmed by your life, the state of the world and the fact that Terence Corcoran in the National Post is still insisting that the science of climate change is suspect:

1. A life coach (I wrote about this in the article, Coaching for My Life, University Affairs, 2005) (I don't have time for this, these days, but you might).

2. Some great organizational and behavioural modification (often, from business) books. My ipod is filled with audiobooks such as Eat that Frog by Brian Tracy, The Golden Rule of Schmoozing by Aye Jaye, Ready for Anything by Dave Allen, The 60 Second Procrastinator by Jeff Davidson (may be out of print, so borrow it from the library), Your Management Sucks by Mark Stevens, Women and Money by Suze Orman, Crucial Confrontations and Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson and colleagues, Making Work Work by Julie Morgernstern (Oprah's organizing guru - and my favourite organization person to read, including her other book, Never Read Email in the Morning), What got you here, won't get you there! by Marshall Goldsmith (and, of course, The Art of War).

3. Podcasts. If you are a poor student and can't afford to pay for a life coach or audiobooks, then download some podcasts, such as Motivation to Move's Daily Boost, The Suze Orman podcast (on itunes), Marcus Buckingham (big time life coach) and Oprah's Take Control of Your Career and Your Life (itunes), and while you are at it, grab some Yoga lessons from Yogamazing (itunes), plus the Manager Tools podcast (itunes) will give you all kinds of sound advice on organizing things.

4. Other people who are more swamped than me: and, you can see the incredible mess on my computer screen and in my home office (above), and feel a sense of superiority. I find that it's always comforting to know that someone else is worse off. Here's what I will be using today, in my surroundings to give me motivation and energy:

The 2006 farewell Globe and Mail article by Ken Wiwa about his decision to return with his family to the UK and to work with the Nigerian government,  pinned to the wall in front of me. The dried edelweiss flower that my former student, and current research collaborator, Andrew Tanentzap gave me as a gift, from a trip to Europe. The photos of past and present grad students and family that are part of the clutter: they make me smile and feel guilty at the same time - a great carrot and stick, combined into one item!

[photopress:desk_calm3.jpg,thumb,pp_image][photopress:desk_calm1.jpg,thumb,pp_image][photopress:desk_calm2.jpg,thumb,pp_image]

Dawn Bazely

Posted in: Blogs | IRIS Director Blog

Schulic Ranked No. 1 In The World

Published by

Published October 23, 2009

by iris_author

Headline News Schulich ranked No. 1 in the world
The Schulich School of Business at York University was yesterday ranked No. 1 in the world in a global ranking of the top 100 MBA programs that are preparing future leaders for the environmental, social and ethical complexities of modern-day business. It is the first time a Canadian business school has ever ranked first in a global survey of management education.The Beyond Grey Pinstripes ranking, conducted every two years by the Washington, DC-based Aspen Institute, rates the top 100 MBA programs in the world that are equipping future business leaders with a comprehensive and integrated understanding of social and environmental issues impacting business – everything from increased consumer activism and climate change to corporate social responsibility.Schulich placed first overall, ahead of the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, the Yale School of Management, the Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Haas School of Business at the University of California Berkeley and the Columbia Business School in the world’s top 10. A full description of the ranking, its methodology and individual MBA program ratings is available online at the Beyond Grey Pinstripes Web site.“The Beyond Grey Pinstripes ranking measures how well business schools are preparing students for this new reality, and Schulich is proud to be rated number one in the world when it comes to graduating managers who have the tools necessary to lead in the new world of business,” said  Dezsö Horváth (right), dean of the Schulich School of Business. “Schulich began laying the groundwork for research and teaching in the areas of business ethics and sustainability back in the early 1990s when few other business schools were doing so. [Today's] No. 1 ranking is recognition of close to two decades of research, innovation and curriculum development at our school.” Canadian schools did exceptionally well in the ranking: Canada outperformed all other countries in the world on a per capita basis in terms of the total number of business schools that made the ranking. In addition to Schulich, a total of six other Canadian schools made the top 100 ranking – three of which finished in the top 50. The Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University was ranked 31st overall; the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University was ranked 34th; the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia was ranked 49th; the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary was ranked 51st; the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario was ranked 53rd; and the Dalhousie School of Business Administration was ranked 80th.Some 149 business schools from 24 countries took part in the ranking. Business schools were rated in four equally weighted categories:  

  • Student Opportunity, which measures the number of MBA courses offered that contain social and environmental content;
  • Student Exposure, which measures the percentage of MBA course time dedicated to social and environmental issues;
  • Course Content, which measures the extent to which courses illustrate the value of integrating social and environmental considerations into business decisions;
  • Faculty Research, which measures the number of relevant articles published in leading management journals.

Right: The Seymour Schulich Building on York University's Keele campus is home to the No. 1-ranked Schulich School of Business

“The global corporate landscape has changed more in the last year than ever before. And what has changed most of all is the nature of expectations and demands placed on corporations. The narrow shareholder model is being replaced by a much broader stakeholder model – one that considers the implications of strategic decisions on all of a company’s stakeholder groups,” said Horváth. “The watershed events of the past year are making it imperative for companies to deal seriously with the triple bottom line of social, environmental and economic issues.” 

"Scholars are questioning whether the established models of business are broken,” said Rich Leimsider, director of the Aspen Institute’s Center for Business Education. “The schools in the Beyond Grey Pinstripes ranking are thoughtfully pursuing new approaches. They are preparing students who take a more holistic view of business success, one that measures financial results as well as social and environmental impacts.”

The Aspen Institute Center for Business Education equips business leaders for the 21st century with the vision and knowledge to integrate corporate profitability and social value. It helps business educators incorporate issues of social and environmental stewardship into teaching and research by offering targeted resources, networks and a platform to share cutting-edge practice among peers.

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in: Sustainability News

International Day of Climate Action (Oct 24)

Published by

Published October 22, 2009

by iris_author

Now is the time to

Make history by coming together on

Parlimant Hill this Octobrt 24

Canadian residents from all walks of life will speak in a collective voice

For more information click on this link .

Posted in: Events

19th Annual Harold I Schiff Lecture Faculty of Science and Engineering (Dec 4)

Published by

Published October 19, 2009

by afdubreu

Presented by:

David D. Parrish

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Boulder, Colorado

Air Quality Across Large Temporal and

Spatial Scales

Friday, December 4th, 2009

2:30 p.m.

Senate Chamber, N940, Ross Building

York University

When considering air quality we often limit our thoughts to a particular place at a particular time, usually the present.  The goal of this talk is to provide a wider temporal and spatial context for our considerations.  Temporally, photochemical smog (i.e. ozone pollution) in Los Angeles has been the subject of research and control efforts for five decades.  The progress that Los Angeles has made will be reviewed, and the temporal trends of ozone and other pollutant concentrations there will be compared with those from other metropolitan areas of the world.  This review may usefully inform air quality policy decisions in developing cities throughout the globe.  On the broadest spatial scale, the limited available data sets indicate that “background” ozone at northern mid-latitudes increased substantially over the past century, and this increase continues today.  Current global chemical transport models cannot accurately reproduce the observed trend, indicating that our understanding of the tropospheric ozone budget is incomplete.  A significant component of particulate matter observed locally also has been transported on intercontinental scales.  On regional spatial scales, transport between adjacent urban areas or air basins can be quite important.  Consequently, as local air quality standards are tightened, long-range and regional transport of “background” concentrations contribute an increasing fraction of allowable pollutant concentrations for both ozone and particulate matter, and the “background” concentration may be increasing, particularly for ozone.   In summary, effective control strategies for local air quality must encompass local, regional and hemisphere-wide scales and consider changing “background” concentrations as well as changing local emissions.

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Organized by the York University Centre for Atmospheric Chemistry.  Email:  cac@yorku.ca

Posted in: Events

Book Launch: City Durables: Encounters, Worries, and Their Devices (Oct 29)

Published by

Published October 16, 2009

by afdubreu

The City Institute at York University (CITY),
the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research
and the York University Bookstore

invite you to a lecture and book launch on
Thursday October 29, 2009

Professor Harvey Molotch
Sociology, New York University

"City Durables: Encounters, Worries, and Their Devices"

6:30 to 7:30 pm
7th Floor Lounge, York Research Tower

Harvey Molotch is a Professor of Sociology and Metropolitan Studies, as well as a Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University. His research covers urban studies, including sidewalk interaction, urban growth and development, and urban environmental issues. With John Logan, he is author of Urban Fortunes, recently released in a 20th Anniversary edition.  His most recent book, Where Stuff Comes From, is on industrial design. He has also made contributions to the analysis of news media, the sociology of art, and race studies.

The presentation will be followed by a book launch
featuring recent publications from CITY members

7:30 to 9:00 pm
7th Floor Lounge, York Research Tower

Leviathan Undone? Towards a Political Economy of Scale
By Roger Keil & Rianne Mahon (Eds.)
UBC Press (2009)

Changing Toronto: Governing Urban Neoliberalism
By Julie-Anne Boudreau, Roger Keil & Douglas Young
University of Toronto Press (2009)

Networked Disease: Emerging Infections in the Global City
By S. Harris Ali & Roger Keil (Eds.)
Wiley-Blackwell (2008)

These events are generously sponsored by Wiley-Blackwell,
The International Journal of Urban and Regional Research and
the York University Bookstore.

Thursday October 29, 2009
6:30 pm to 9:00pm
7th Floor Lounge, York Research Tower

Refreshments will be served. Everyone is welcome.

Posted in: Events

Mothering and the Environment: The Natural, The Social, The Built (Oct 22-25)

Published by

Published October 16, 2009

by afdubreu

The following appeared in the Thursday, October 15, 2009 edition of Y-File:

U50 conference to look at mothering and the environment

Ecologist, author and cancer survivor Sandra Steingraber will deliver the keynote address at the Association for Research on Mothering's (ARM) 13th annual conference, Mothering and the Environment: The Natural, The Social, The Built, which runs from Oct. 22 to 25 in celebration of York’s 50th anniversary.

The conference will include over 150 papers and 45 panels, performances and workshops by about 250 international scholars, students, activists, environmental agencies and workers, environmental educators, artists and mothers.

Steingraber, an internationally recognized expert on the environmental links to cancer and human health, will present “The Environmental Life of Children: Effects of Endocrine Disruptors on Child Health and Mothering Practices”. Her new book, Having Faith: An Ecologist’s Journey to Motherhood, explores the intimate ecology of motherhood and the alarming extent to which environmental hazards now threaten each crucial stage of infant development. This is particularly important as, in the eyes of an ecologist, the mother’s body is the first environment for human life.

Right: Sandra Steingraber

Having Faith is a continuation of Steingraber's first book, Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment, which presented cancer as a human rights issue. Living Downstream was the first book to bring together data on toxic releases with newly released data from US cancer registries.

Steingraber will speak on Thursday, Oct. 22, from 7:30 to 9:30pm in Lecture Hall A, Vari Hall, Keele campus. Tickets are limited. They can be purchased by visiting the ARM Web site or at the door for $20 plus GST & PST.

Professor Heidi Hunter of the State University of New York's Stony Brook University, will also speak on Oct. 22, presenting “Contexts of Ecofeminism, Mothering and Pollution in Contemporary Film and Literature”, while Sherilyn MacGregor (PhD '02) of Keele University in the United Kingdom will present “Care, Citizenship and Climate Change: New/Old Challenges for Ecofeminist Politics” on Friday, Oct. 23.

Mothering and the Environment: The Natural, The Social, The Built will cover a diverse array of crucial mothering issues as they relate to the environment, including maternal health issues, maternal environmental activism and global citizenship, sustainability and technology, mothering and environmental education, reproductive issues, breastfeeding and environmental toxins, mothers and social justice, mothering and HIV/AIDS, as well as environmental activism through the arts.

In addition to the main conference, there will also be an international embedded conference ? A Motherworld is Possible: Two Feminist Visions: Matriarchal Studies & The Gift Economy ? presented by the International Academy for Modern Matriarchal Studies & Matriarchal Spirituality (HAGIA) and the International Feminists for a Gift Economy network. The embedded conference will run from Oct. 23 to 25.

The embedded conference will feature panels and sessions with invited keynote speakers from all over the world, including: Professor Barbara Mann of the University of Toledo; Professor Pilwha Chang of Ewha Womans University in South Korea; Genevieve Vaughan of International Feminists for a Gift Economy; Heide Göttner-Abendroth of the HAGIA in Germany; Professor Valentina Pakyntein of North-Eastern Hill University in Shillong, India; and Agnes Fay Williams, a founding mother and advisory board president of the Indigenous Women's Network.

Marina Meneses Velazquez, a municipal councillor for ecology for Ecológico Juchiteco in Juchitàn, Mexico, known as the city of women, will talk about her work, as well as the relationship between protecting the cultural archeological heritage on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, while still protecting the biodiversity. She was featured in the film Blossoms of Fire, which celebrated the lives of the Isthmus Zapotecs of southern Oaxaca, Mexico.

Sobonfu Somé, a lecturer, activist and author, and a voice of African spirituality in the West, will also speak at the embedded conference. She is the founder of Wisdom Spring, which fundraises for wells and schools in West Africa and is the author of several books, including The Spirit of Intimacy: Ancient Teachings in the Ways of Relationships and Welcoming Spirit Home: Ancient Teachings to Celebrate Children, and Community.

Professor Wahu Kaara will talk about her work. She is a former ecumenical coordinator for the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, a Kenyan social activist and founding coordinator of the Kenya Debt Relief Network. She is also one of the 1,000 women nominated for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize and was the Dame Nita Barrow Fellow at the University of Toronto in 2008.

Topics in the Gift Paradigm section of the embedded conference include:

  • Mothering and Gift Economy
  • Gift or Exchange?
  • Indigenous Peoples and the Gift Economy
  • Generalizing Gift Giving
  • Gift Economy and the Environment
  • The Gift in Africa, Asia and the Arctic
  • Gift Economy, Feminism, Anarchy
  • Political Significance of the Gift

Topics in the Matriarchal Studies section of the embedded conference include:

  • Matriarchies as Mother-Centred Societies
  • Mothers in Indigenous Matriarchal Societies: Iroquois in the USA, Berber-Kabyle in North Africa, Palau in Micronesia, Khasi in India, Juchitecas in Mexico
  • Aspects of Matriarchal Spirituality: Andean Spirituality, Holy Birth in Ancient Greece, Mother and Daughter Star Constellations, World Icons of Mothers and Grandmothers
  • What Can we Learn from Matriarchal Societies?
  • Matriarchal Visions of a Future of Peace

Both the Mothering and the Environment conference and the embedded conference will take place at McLaughlin College, Keele campus. For more information or to register, contact Renée Knapp, director of marketing, at arm@yorku.ca. For the full programs of both conferences, online registration or information, visit the ARM Web site.

Posted in: Events

“Why Woody?” – for an honorary degree

Published by

Published October 16, 2009

by dbazely

A very nice reporter from the Toronto Star asked me this question on the phone yesterday, as I was standing in a field in Milton, Ontario, next to 16-Milgiant 2e Creek. I was collecting seeds from Giant Hogweed, an invasive and somewhat toxic plant (see right).

Tomorrow, York University will confer an honorary degree on Woody Harrelson. Back in January, when I wrote my nomination letter, I had no idea that the announcement of this would coincide with the recent release of a popular commercial movie, starring him! I also had no idea as to how receptive the university committee responsible for Honorary Degrees would be to our nomination! After all, universities are very conservative institutions, as I found out from the raised eyebrows, back in the mid 1990s, when I had the temerity to suggest to some colleagues that we ought to consider nominating Oprah Winfrey for an honorary degree. At the time, she was dictating what America and my local Mum's Book Club was reading, through her book selections.

There have been a lot opinions offered about York conferring this degree on Woody Harrelson, in response to the CBC story. In the wake of my interview with the Star reporter, I think there's a few things worth mentioning from my answer to her question "Why Woody?"

1. The whole idea can be traced back to 2006 and the conversation that IRIS started about making York's course kits carbon neutral. Along the way, not only did we discover a huge interest amongst our students in the issue of climate change, but we also learned a lot about how unsustainable the publishing and printing industry is, in terms of how it produces books:  inks, paper, and the energy footprint of shipping books; akin to shipping bricks, a friend in publishing has told me.

2. Then, in August 2008, I was invited by the committee organizing our Fall Green Week, to suggest environmental and sustainability-related documentaries for screening. Since I am always forcing my family to watch educational docs, I had lots of ideas, as did others, and we had a lively discussion. I thought that An Inconvenient Truth was too ubiquitous to have much appeal at the time, and that Who Killed the Electric Car, was just a wee bit too boring. But Go Further was different from anything that I had ever seen, and might just be the ticket for an undergraduate audience. It was not at all preachy and took a very different approach to engaging youth than  found in the standard lecture.

3. When we screened the film, through a colleague at York, who turned out to have a brother in publishing, we also learned about the companion book to the documentary, which is incredibly sustainably produced. From him, we learned that the appearance of these kinds of books tends to have limited appeal to the purchasing public. This is why the books in stores don't tend to look like the Go Further book: they don't really sell that well. In other words - environmentally friendly, unshiny, dull-looking books don't cut it on the shelf - YET.

So there you have it, the boring story of why I got involved in this nomination. We did a bunch of research into and learning about a couple of key items of academic life - documentaries and books and learned about Woody Harrelson, too. And, as a good academic should be, I was also rather skeptical about the nomination venture. As I  wrote in my  letter:

"Mr. Harrelson has turned out to be an embodiment of our new York slogan and our old motto, that the way must be tried. Who would have thought that the goofy bartender from “Cheers” would turn out to be such an important environmental leader and activist?"

If universities are to be leaders, then we must be receptive to different modes of teaching and learning, and be prepared to recognize and honor them.

Dawn Bazely

Posted in: Blogs | IRIS Director Blog | IRIS News

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