It is with great pleasure to announced that a York University group is one of four winners of the first ever TD $100,000 Go Green Challenge Awards. The project entitled, Greening Urban Community Centres: Public Inspiration and Education for a Sustainable Future, was one of 87 submitted by universities across the country. According to TD, nearly 300 students participated in all.

The York team consisted of Karen Petkau, Ian Malczewski, and Ellen Field, with our very own IRIS executive member Professor Arlene Gould serving as faculty advisor. The judges summarized the salience of their project as such:

In many major cities community centres are social gathering places for youth and loci of education. This team from York University wants to act on Toronto's vision of being a sustainable city by transforming the spaces where many of the next generation spend their time into models of green living. Proposing to employ a design charette, the team outlined a number of retrofits that could be made to community centres across the city. By transforming these popular community spaces into green spaces, the team convinced the judges that the leaders of tomorrow will eventually take for granted that all buildings should be sustainable.

A hearty congratulations to our team and all students who participated. Also, many thanks to the TD Friends of the Environment Foundation for starting up this competition. Grants like this can go a long way towards giving student initiatives the chance they deserve to get off the ground.