Tag: Environment

York members interested in attending COP 19 need apply by Sept. 30

The 19th United Nations climate change conference and the Conference of the Parties (COP 19) will be held from Nov. 11 to 22 in Warsaw, Poland.

York community members interested in attending COP 19 should e-mail Annette Dubreuil, coordinator of York’s Institute for Research & Innovation in Sustainability (IRIS), by Monday, Sept. 30 at noon at afdubreu@yorku.ca.

Note that delegates will be responsible for their own funding.

For more information about COP 19, visit the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change website.

Students help inform design of eight sustainable housing models

What will the highly sustainable features of eight prototype homes at the Kortright Centre’s Living City Campus look like? That’s what about 41 students, mostly from York’s Faculty of Environmental Studies, were exploring during a recent Design for Sustainability Workshop course.

The three-week intensive course wrapped up with a one-day Building Research Establishment (BRE) Innovation Park Design Charrette in which students worked with experts to develop recommendations based on five themes: First Nations housing, affordable sustainability, assisted living and health and the aging DesignCharretteGrouppopulation, passive house and sustainable retrofits.

Students and experts come together to discuss recommendations

“We’re training the champions and decision makers of sustainability,” says Arlene Gould, who has taught the course for the past five years and is a part-time faculty member. “The charrette is a great teaching tool. The students love it and often tell me they found it transformative.”

About 20 experts – architects, landscape designers, Toronto & Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) staff – joined the charrette. Toronto is an important design hub, one of the biggest next to New York and Boston. “We’re also a hub for green building, but we’re ArleneGouldnot really using the talents of designers at a high level,” says Gould. She hopes to change that by helping students to become more aware of the sustainable design possibilities.

Arlene Gould

Each year, the design charrette looks at something different. It’s one of the design tools explored in the course to get students thinking about sustainable solutions and opportunities that will change people’s lives.

This year, it was the BRE Innovation Park Canada. BRE, a U.K. organization that does research on the built environment, joined with the TRCA to create the park to promote sustainable construction, bridge trial concepts to large-scale implementation, field test new and advanced technologies and get industry involved in more sustainability research.

DesignCharretteGroup2The park will test and showcase best practices, new methods and materials suited to the Canadian built environment.

The various groups discussed five themes to inform the future design briefs for the housing prototypes

Participants had a first glimpse at the site plan and engaged in a series of breakout sessions. It was in those sessions that the students helped to develop the themes and outline the performance standards and targets that will inform the future design briefs. BRE has done similar projects in other parts of the world, including China and Scotland.

Industry will be asked to step forward and build the houses to showcase what’s new in design sustainability and green innovations. The park will then be open to industry and the public to see what’s possible.

In another course project, the students worked in groups to conduct a design audit of the Keele campus construction sites. They developed ideas for how to improve the current DesignCharretteIdeawalking experience on campus and how to tell stories in public space about the transformation that each construction project will bring about.

A model by environmental studies student Jonathan Tavone illustrating one student group’s idea for telling the construction story on campus, part of the course design audit

The hands-on course takes students on several field trips. This year, those included a trip to the Kortright Centre to see first-hand where the eight houses for the BRE Innovation Park would be built and a guided tour and talk by the architect at St. Gabriel’s Passionist Parish – the first church in Canada to be awarded a gold certification from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

International political economy and ecology summer school looks at food and hunger

Every year since 1991, York University has been hosting the International Political Economy and Ecology (IPEE) Summer School organized by the Department of Geography, the Department of Political Science and the Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES).

Each IPEE Summer School presents a unique interdisciplinary opportunity for graduate students at York – but also students and activists across and beyond Canada – to investigate a salient issue within the field of political economy and ecology.  The particularity of the IPEE Summer School is also that it invites an internationally-Nikrecognized scholar/activist as guest instructor therefore providing access to the most vanguard scholarship on the topic but also offering students a rare opportunity to engage with such leading scholarship and scholar.

Nik Heynen. Photo by Niveen Saleh

This year’s IPEE Summer School on Radical Food and Hunger Politics in the City was led by Nik Heynen, a radical geographer based at University of Georgia in Athens who is following the steps of other IPEE guest instructors with international reputation such as Saskia Sassen, Vandana Shiva, Alain Lipietz, Mike Davis, Peter Marcuse, Patrick Bond, among many others.

Heynen is well-known for his work in urban political ecology, social movements, and food and hunger politics. His main research foci relate to the analysis of how social power relations, including class, race and gender are inscribed in the transformation of urban nature/space, and how in turn these processes contribute to interrelated and interdependent connections between nature, space and social reproduction. He is also a prolific author and editor at Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography.

The IPEE Summer School course stands apart as an interdisciplinary learning experience in many ways. A prime objective of the course is to bridge the gap between theory and practice, and between ecology and democracy. This year’s course is organized around two complementary poles: problematizing hunger and organizing around hunger. In the intensive two-week course, graduate students and NikIPEEeactivists learned about food justice, food security, hunger and the politics of charity, social reproduction and food activism.

The two-week course attracted a full crowd. Photo by Niveen Saleh

To support its commitment to merge theory and practice, the IPEE Summer School also includes a public event. This year, the event was organized on Thursday, June 13 with the theme of Radical Food and Hunger Politics in Toronto. Held at FoodShare Toronto, the event was a forum attended by more than 100 persons to discuss issues of food justice and security. Panellists included Utcha Sawyers from FoodShare, Damion Adjodha, (a FES student) from the Black Creek Community Farm Project, Anan Lololi, (a FES alumnus) from AfriCan FoodBasket, Melissa Addison Webster from Put Food in the Budget, Lauren Baker (a FES alumna) of Toronto Food Policy Council and Heynen.

Study finds songbirds risk missing peak food supply

A mismatch between the departure schedules of songbirds and higher spring temperatures at their breeding sites is putting them at risk, according to a new study out of York University.

The study, “A Trans-Hemispheric Migratory Songbird Does Not Advance Spring Schedules or Increase Migration Rate in Response to Record-Setting Temperatures at Breeding Sites”, published in the journal PLOS ONE, tracked the spring migration of purple martins over five years from the Amazon basin to two breeding sites in eastern North America. Researchers outfitted the birds with tiny geolocator “backpacks” to record data on their movements and found that the birds’ departure times between years were surprisingly consistent, despite variation in temperature at their final destination.

PurpleMartinGeolocatorA purple martin with a geolocator pack

“We found that purple martins migrating between the Amazon Basin and North America did not adjust their migration timing even during the hottest spring on record in 2012,” says study author Kevin Fraser, a postdoctoral Fellow in York’s Department of Biology, Faculty of Science. “This means that they arrived ‘late’ for the advanced spring, and likely missed out on peak food they need to be productive breeders.”

Aerial insectivores, like purple martins and other swallows, are experiencing strong population declines, particularly species migrating longer distances and populations breeding further north. Scientists have shown in a European species that declines may be due to an inability to advance arrival schedules to match a warming climate. This study provides the first direct evidence of a discrepancy between higher spring temperatures at breeding sites and departure schedules of individual songbirds.

“Our results suggest that long-distance migrants may receive limited or conflicting environmental cues about conditions at the breeding grounds while still at overwintering sites or along migration routes,” says Fraser. “Once en route, the birds received no temperature cues of the warm spring until they reached the US Gulf coast, at which point it was likely too late to get to breeding sites earlier.”

Fraser says such mistiming is an active area of new research, and with climate change may be an important contributing factor to migratory songbird declines.

“Some migratory songbirds may not have the flexibility they need to respond quickly to earlier springs and more variable weather with climate change, which could contribute to the strong population declines we see in many species. Identifying which species or populations may be at greatest risk will be very important for guiding effective conservation action.”

He says the study suggests that migration timing and rate in purple martin is not highly sensitive to short-term variation in temperature and rainfall, and that multiple years of increasing spring temperatures may be required to shift the birds to an earlier breeding arrival time through natural selection for earlier departure from tropical overwintering sites.

Second annual conference of The World in the City looks at empire, city and nature

The International Graduate Research Program – The World in the City: Metropolitanism and Globalization from the 19th Century to the Present – is holding its second annual Conference looking at the theme of “Empire, City, Nature”.

Thirty-six PhD students will present on urban themes in a broad spectrum of disciplines, along with senior urban CITYConfPosterresearchers and scholars from Berlin, New York and Toronto. The three-day conference will run from May 30 to June 2 with the first day taking place at York University’s Keele campus and the following two days at the University of Toronto.

This year’s conference theme, “Empire, City, Nature”, is a direct reference to the life and work of geographer Neil Smith, who died on Sept. 28, 2012 at the age of 58. He was one of the most distinguished international scholars of human geography and related disciplines and his research centred on the themes of imperial expansion and urban redevelopment as well as nature, space and society.

The conference program will include a reception and launch Thursday at the York University Bookstore of the book, The Oak Ridges Moraine Battles: Development, Sprawl, and Nature Conservation in the Toronto Region (University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division), by three York Faculty of Environmental Studies professors: Anders Sandberg, Gerda Wekerle and Liette Gilbert. There will also be urban and suburb tours on Friday and Sunday.

The following speakers will deliver the conference keynotes:

Distinguished Research Professor Leo Panitch, a Canada Research Chair in York’s Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies will discuss, “Rethinking Empire with Neil Smith”, while Stefan Krätke of the European University will talk about “Cities in Contemporary Capitalism”. Damaris Rose of the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique’s Centre Urbanisation LeoPanitchCulture Société will look at “Whither Critical Gentrification Research?”.

Leo Panitch

Dorothee Brantz, director of the Center for Metropolitan Studies at the Technische Universität Berlin, will deliver an address on “Uneven Natures: An Historian’s View on the Environmental Production of Urban Spaces”. Roger Keil, director of The City Institute at York, will talk about “The Urban Political Ecology of Ontario’s Greenbelt”. For a complete program, RogerKeilbtrclick here.

Roger Keil

The World in the City is a collaboration of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt Universität Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, City University of New York, Columbia University, Fordham University, New York University and University of Toronto, as well as York University. Local organizers Jennifer Jenkins, Ute Lehrer, Kanishka Goonewardena and Roger Keil welcome students and faculty from the participating universities to Toronto.

DorothyBrantzDorothee Brantz

For more information about The World in the City collaboration, headed by Dorothee Brantz and sponsored by the German Research Foundation Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, see the Sept. 28, 2012 YFile article.

The conference is open to the public but there is limited capacity. RSVP at acharnaw@yorku.ca by May 29 at noon. For more information, contact Roger Keil at 416-736-2100 ext. 22604.

Join Smart Commute – North Toronto, Vaughan and celebrate Bike to Work Day on Monday, May 27

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biketoworkStudents, staff and faculty at York University are invited to join Smart Commute – North Toronto, Vaughan and celebrate Bike to Work Day on Monday, May 27

The event will take place on the Keele campus at the Harry W. Arthurs Common (near the fountain) from 10am to 3pm on May 27. Enjoy a delicious breakfast donated by Great Canadian Bagel and receive a free bicycle safety check. Talk to the Smart Commute team about cycling trails in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area and get a free Bike Month 2013 t-shirt.

Make the pledge to cycle during Bike Month (June 2013) for your chance to win great prizes, including one of three VIA Rail trips or a Welcome Cyclists Getaway Package.   

Why cycle?

  • It is a great way to save money on gas, insurance and vehicle repairs.
  • You can benefit from extra exercise. After cycling for a few weeks you’ll start to feel energized and less stressed.
  • Save the environment! Rest assured that you are not contributing to poor air quality and the traffic congestion that is a problem in the Greater Toronto Area.

For more information, contact Smart Commute NTV by e-mail to info@smartcommutentv.ca or call 416-650-8205.

Glendon professor examines water privatization in new book

Who should control water? It is as essential for life as air, but also holds deep emotional, social, cultural and spiritual significance, says York’s Glendon College sociology Professor Joanna Robinson.

Robinson tackles this critical and contested issue of control in her new book, Contested Water: The Struggle Against Water Privatization in the United States and Canada (MIT Press), which examines the emerging politics of water today, BookContestedWaterfocusing on two local social movements against water privatization. It is the first scholarly examination of the social processes that underlie movements against water privatization. It reveals important insights about the mechanisms that shape local movements in a global context.

“We all need clean, safe drinking water, but there are struggles about who should control water resources. The question of who has access to and who controls water is perhaps the most important policy issue of our time,” says Robinson. “As the world’s water crisis worsens, policy makers around the world must grapple with issues of scarcity, pollution and the unequal distribution of water resources.”

It’s only going to get worse. Already, local governments are under increased pressure to outsource water services to the private sector as investment in infrastructure and services declines and multinational water companies emerge.

“This growing commodification of water has spurred the mobilization of anti-water privatization movements in communities around the world,” says Robinson. Activists are challenging the notion that water is an economic good and are questioning the ability of the private sector to deliver resources equitably.

The book compares two social movements opposed to water privatization in Stockton, Calif., and Vancouver. JoannaRobinsonAlthough these movements emerged in response to similar global forces and institutions, they developed differently and had divergent outcomes.

While the movement in Vancouver successfully prevented the privatization of local water services, the movement in Stockton failed. It took an eight-year legal battle to return the Stockton water system to public control.

Joanna Robinson

Robinson draws on extensive interviews with movement actors, political leaders and policymakers, and detailed analysis of textual material. By doing so, she shows that the successful campaign in Vancouver drew on tactics, opportunities and narratives from the broader anti-globalization movement, with activists emphasizing the threats to local democracy and accountability. The less successful movement in Stockton centred on a ballot initiative that was made meaningless by a pre-emptive city council vote.

Robinson finds that global forces are reshaping local movements, particularly those that oppose neoliberal reforms at the municipal level. She argues that anti-water privatization movements that link local and international concerns and build wide-ranging coalitions at local and global levels offer an effective way to counter economic globalization. Successful challenges to globalization will not necessarily come from transnational movements but rather from movements that are connected globally, yet rooted in local communities.

As the book demonstrates, what happens at the local level matters for the outcomes of globalization and for the regulation of environmental resources. The findings challenge the growing tendency of social movement scholars to conceptualize the responses of social movements to globalization as a scale shift: a shift away from domestic modes of organization and contention to transnational protest.

“In contrast, I argue that successful challenges and alternatives to neoliberal globalization will not necessarily come from movements operating at the transnational level, but rather from locally situated counter-hegemonic movements that are connected globally, but rooted in local communities,” says Robinson.

The stories of anti-water privatization activists in Stockton and Vancouver demonstrate that “one-size-fits-all” globalization is not inevitable, and that alternative visions are made possible through the power of social movements and the strengthening of local democracy.

For more information, visit the MIT Press website.

 

Faculty of Environmental Studies’ new internship program gives York grads an advantage

In the current economic climate, securing a job can be difficult, but York’s Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES), in partnership with the Career Centre, is finding ways to give students an advantage through a new internship program.

This year’s crop of fourth-year students, who will soon be graduating, had the opportunity to be the first participants of the Environmental Studies Internship Program (ESIP) in their third year of studies. This provided them with valuable career experience they would not have had otherwise, benefiting them as they head into the next phase of their lives.

“As we all know, the job competition for recently graduated students is fierce. An internship will certainly set you apart…and expand your outlook on your career,” says FES student James Marzotto, who is completing his Honours BES in environmental management. JamesMarzottoYFILEHe joined ESIP because he felt “it would allow me access to practical work experience opportunities directly related to my study area of concentration”. He wasn’t disappointed.

James Marzotto

Marzotto worked as an environmental assistant at PowerStream Inc., an energy services company, in a position that was related to corporate environmental responsibility. It is a field Marzotto really enjoys working in, which is why he knew exactly what he wanted to pursue in grad school.

“My supervisors at PowerStream were very encouraging in allowing me to develop my own environmental initiatives within the company and take on large roles in already existing ones,” says Marzotto. “They gave me a lot of responsibility. Having been successful at PowerStream, a company that employs some of the best, I am now bursting with confidence knowing I will be successful wherever I go.”

Some of the major projects Marzotto worked on during his internship included conducting a thorough investigation of hazardous waste management document control within the company and leading an investigation into, as well as enhancing, a spill response process.

“The skills and knowledge I developed, people I met, experience I gained were, of course, also of immense value,” says Marzotto.

Before joining the internship program, he wasn’t as aware of how many different environmental management positions existed or the career options that were open to him. He emerged encouraged to continue pursuing his dream of starting his own environmental consulting firm in the future.

In its inaugural year, the FES internship program saw three students go out on work term, including Marzotto. One student landed an internship as a Humber River project intern at the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, while another became a hazardous waste operator intern with the Region of Peel. There are now 21 students in the program.

“This program is an excellent fit for FES, as it reinforces the hands-on and technical aspects of the curriculum taught in courses like GIS and sustainable energy,” says Jan Anderson, internship coordinator & liaison. “Students are able to utilize their coursework experience on the job, giving them new perspectives on the scope and significance of their scholastic efforts. As James has demonstrated, ESIP is a progressive step toward a green career.”

All students in the program have to be a full-time, third-year honour students in FES. Students are required to attend an information session and a job search workshop facilitated by the Career Centre prior to joining the internship program. Once enrolled in the program, students can go out on work term for four, eight, 12 or 16 months, and return to school for their final year of studies. The Career Centre works with students to articulate a Learning Agreement and liaises with both students and employers during the work terms to ensure the experience is both relevant to their program of study and successful.

For more information about ESIP, contact Jan Anderson, internship coordinator & liaison, at janander@yorku.ca or ext. 44680.

Two awarded title of University Professor

Two York professors will be awarded 2013 University Professorships for their scholarship, teaching and participation in University life or contribution to the University as a community.

Stan Shapson of the Faculty of Education and Paul Wilkinson of the Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES) were selected by York University’s Senate Committee on Awards to be given the honorific title – University Professor.

A University Professor is a long-serving, tenured faculty member who has made an extraordinary contribution to the University as a colleague, teacher and scholar, including significant long-term contribution to the development or growth of the University or its parts; significant participation in the collegium through mentorship, service and/or governance; sustained impact over time on the University’s teaching mission; and recognition as a scholar.

StanShapsonStan Shapson
In his years at York, Professor Stan Shapson has been dean of the Faculty of Education, associate vice-president of strategic academic initiatives and vice-president of research & innovation (VPRI). In all these roles, his goal has been to increase York’s reputation as a comprehensive, research-intensive University built on international standards of excellence.

His contribution to the teaching mission of the University was not in the classroom, but through the transformation of the Faculty of Education into a research Faculty with innovative programs for the diverse GTA population. Among his accomplishments as dean was the establishment of a PhD program that ended OISE’s long monopoly on doctoral programs in education in Ontario.

During Shapson’s tenure as VPRI, York’s research performance increased dramatically on almost every metric and York’s visibility in Canada and internationally was considerably enhanced. He built on relations developed while dean of education with York’s community– particularly York Region and Markham–establishing links with industrial and health organizations. He produced organizations that were useful for both the business and civic communities and for York students and faculty.

As a member of the Governing Council of the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada from 2001 to 2007, and as interim president in 2005 to 2006, he provided leadership to universities across Canada in key areas such as knowledge mobilization, community engagement and social innovation.  In addition to internal support for research, as VPRI he also developed York’s Knowledge Mobilization unit– the first at a Canadian University– to better connect the impacts of social science and humanities research to policy makers and practitioners. In all his work, Shapson has demonstrated commitment to the University and to all its members.

PaulWilkinsonPaul Wilkinson
Wilkinson (BA ’70) joined the FES in 1973 as an instructor. In his almost 40 years as a faculty member, he has been an outstanding citizen and champion of the University. It is noted that he “lives and breathes York University”, wrote the Senate Committee on Awards.

His colleagues appreciate his integrity, dedication, enthusiasm and wisdom, and the persistent sense of humour he brings to all he does. His administrative and collegial service is exemplary in every respect. He has chaired every important committee and been associate dean, undergraduate and graduate program director, and PhD program coordinator, playing a pivotal role in expanding the Faculty’s academic programs. He has also been active in Senate, as a member for most of his time at York, with terms as vice-chair and chair, and on numerous Senate committees and sub-committees. He spent two terms representing Senate on the University Board of Governors.

Wilkinson is well-known and frequently sought out as a superb teacher and mentor. He has supervised almost 100 graduate students and has a network of former students around the world, many of whom he keeps in touch with. A highly productive and award-winning scholar, his research over the past two decades into the impacts of recreation and tourism on the carrying capacity and ecological integrity of natural areas, and environmental systems more broadly, is highly regarded.

He is a core member of a group in FES that has developed and implemented a string of highly successful linkages funded by Canadian International Development Agency beginning in the 1970s. For his extraordinary contributions to the University as a colleague, teacher and scholar, Wilkinson is truly worthy of the title of University Professor.

York University named one of Canada’s Greenest Employers

York University has been named one of Canada’s Greenest Employers in an announcement released today by Mediacorp Canada Inc.

The University was named along with 54 other organizations in a competition organized by the editors of Canada’s Top 100 Employers project.

“This award recognizes the incredible efforts of York students, faculty and staff who take action every day to raise awareness and reduce our impact on the environment,” says York President and Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri.  “We have made significant strides to date and will continue to lead by example in achieving results that make a meaningful difference.”

green_roof_York_UniversityThe green roofs on the Petrie Science & Engineering Building and the Lassonde Building are a big part of sustainability initiatives underway at York University

Employers were evaluated and ranked on their unique environmental initiatives and programs, success in reducing environmental footprints and employee involvement in sustainability efforts. The Canada’s Greenest Employers distinction specifically recognizes York University for creating the President’s Sustainability Council, its Green Office and Sustainability Ambassador programs, and the “Res Race to Zero” competition in which student residences across campus attempt to reduce energy consumption.

Other notable accomplishments include the following:

York University has invested $40 million in its Energy Management Program reducing energy usage by 25 per cent. In real terms, the energy savings over the course of the program equal 100 million kilowatt hours of electricity, which is enough energy to power the University’s Keele and Glendon campuses for almost an entire year.

zerowastevehicleYork University’s ZeroWaste initiative has been successful in diverting 65 per cent of the University’s waste from landfill

The University’s ZeroWaste initiative provides a comprehensive, multi-faceted approach to waste management that encourages faculty, staff and students to divert waste from landfills through recycling and composting. “‘Tri-bins”, with designated containers for recycling and garbage, are located across both campuses, along with organic digesters and several battery recycling bins. For 2012, the waste diversion rate surpassed 60 per cent, with the University achieving its target diversion rate of 65 per cent by 2013.

Staff in York’s Transportation Services department actively encourages commuting to the University through alternative transportation such as public transit, carpools, bicycling or walking. More than 75 per cent of York University students, faculty and staff use alternative means of transportation to campus according to a survey done in 2012 by Smart Commute North Toronto Vaughan. These results have been achieved through expanded and enhanced bus service (including the creation of the priority busway), improved cycling infrastructure such as bike lanes and secure lock-up areas, carpool programs (in cooperation with Smart Commute) and car share programs (in cooperation with Zipcar). The University also offers a shuttle service between the Glendon and Keele campuses, between the Keele campus and the GO Station, and from the Keele campus to the Village residential community south of the University.

On the academic front, the Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES) at York University was the first of its kind in North America. It was founded in 1968, and remains the largest environmental studies program on the continent with nearly 1,300 graduate and undergraduate students. Through FES and other Faculties, the University offers approximately 350 courses that focus on sustainability and the environment, including the Erivan K. Haub Program in Business and Sustainability at the Schulich School of Business (also one of the first programs of its kind in North America).

tribinsThe University community uses tri-bins to sort recycling

The University actively encourages research into sustainability and environmental initiatives. The Institute for Research & Innovation in Sustainability (IRIS) was established by York University in 2004 to create an interdisciplinary University-wide research institute that is a focal point for the sustainability-related activities of all 10 Faculties at York. IRIS supports the sustainability related research of York faculty and brings academics together, encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration.

Community involvement in the York University Sustainability Ambassadors Program empowers volunteer leaders (staff, faculty or students) to act as role models, change agents and committed friends of the environment. They assist with the Green Office program, Campus Clean-up Days and other outreach opportunities, and are champions of sustainability within their departments.

The Green Office program at York makes it easy for faculty, staff and students (with office space) to incorporate a wide variety of sustainable practices into the day-to-day operations of work spaces across the University.

Now in its seventh year, employers who make the Canada’s Greenest Employers list have developed exceptional, earth-friendly initiatives and are actively attracting people to their organizations because of their environmental leadership.

greenest2013_english_70greenest2013_francais_70-1York U community members can now include the Canada’s Greenest Employer logo in their e-mail signatures. To do so, save the Canada’s Greenest Employers logo ( English left, French right) to your desktop and then in Lotus Notes, click “more” in the top navigation bar. Select “preferences”, click “signature” and place the computer cursor on the line immediately following your contact information. Click on the “T” icon at the end of your signature and choose “graphic”. Click again to select the image and then click “import”. Click “OK” to save and close the window.

To learn more about York University’s initiatives in sustainability, visit the Sustainability @ YorkU website.