Join discussion on nuclear energy’s role in a net-zero future

Late afternoon scene with view on riverbank with nuclear reactor Doel, Port of Antwerp, Belgium

As part of the Globe and Mail‘s East-West Energy Series of events, Professor Mark Winfield of York University’s Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change (EUC) will present a talk titled “New Nuclear: Where does it fit in a net-zero nation?” on Friday, Oct. 20 from 1 to 3:30 p.m. The event is free and open to all, and can be attended either virtually or in person at the Globe and Mail Centre at 351 King St. E. in Toronto.

Mark Winfield
Mark Winfield

As urgency around climate action continues to build, Canada and other nations are becoming more attuned to the role of nuclear energy in curbing emissions. The push is on to transition away from coal and fossil fuels, while at the same time meet rising demand for energy in the era of electrification. Provinces such as Ontario are investing in new nuclear development and interest is growing in small modular reactors for industry and to shift remote communities off diesel.

Join the Globe and Mail and Winfield for a discussion on nuclear energy in view of net-zero emissions goals, electrification and the shift away from fossil fuels.

Winfield is a professor and the co-chair of the EUC’s Sustainable Energy Initiative and co-ordinator of the Joint Master of Environmental Studies/Juris Doctor program offered in conjunction with Osgoode Hall Law School. He has published articles, book chapters and reports on a wide range of climate change, environment, and energy law and policy topics. Winfield has acted as an advisor to the environmental commissioner of Ontario and federal commissioner for environment and development. He is a member of the Conseil d’administration (board of directors) of Transitions energetique Quebec, a Crown corporation established in 2017 to implement a low-carbon energy transition strategy for Quebec.

For more information about the event series and to register, visit globeandmailevents.com/newnuclearlive/speaker. Event registration will close at 9 a.m. on Oct. 20.

York to address climate impact on vulnerable communities

Climate change ecololgy global warming

A groundbreaking social innovation initiative that aims to drive positive change at the intersection of climate change, housing and poverty reduction will launch at York University’s Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change (EUC), thanks to funding from Gore Mutual Foundation and a partnership with Social Innovation Canada (SI Canada).

The $1-million fund, announced Oct. 12, will support the development of the Climate and Equity Lab at York to better understand the impacts of climate change on vulnerable Canadians in urban environments.

In Canada, climate change is imposing an increasingly disproportionate impact on vulnerable groups, and factors such as poverty significantly impact the likelihood of recovering from extreme weather events.

As part of the project, EUC has appointed Niloofar Mohtat, a full-time postdoctoral Fellow, to work to identify gaps through existing research and assist in developing new research to explore how the effects of climate change may exacerbate inequalities faced by Canada’s most disadvantaged populations. A small team of EUC graduate students will also be engaged in the project, which will include research design, scoping reviews and facilitated discussions with participants in Canada.

“In Canada, low-income communities are at a disproportionate risk of loss and damage due to extreme climate events, such as heat and flooding,” said Mohtat. “Many of them live in old rental buildings with old infrastructure, located in neighbourhoods with limited access to green spaces and services. They spend a high proportion of their income on housing, so they do not have sufficient financial resources to invest in insurance or retrofit their settlements.”

The collaborative project aligns with the University’s Academic Plan and priorities for action, and supports its commitment to build a more just and sustainable future.

This year, Gore Mutual Foundation introduced its $1-million Equity Acceleration Fund to support charitable organizations focusing on the interconnection of poverty, equity and climate change.

“We quickly identified a troubling lack of investment in the understanding of the impact climate change is having on vulnerable groups,” said Gaby Polanco Sorto, vice-president and head of purpose and sustainability at Gore Mutual Insurance Company. “Our partners in the Climate and Equity Lab share the same values, urgency and vision to make our findings public and inspire others to take action alongside us. We are thrilled to embark on this journey together.”

Gore Mutual Foundation will act as the lead sponsor of the Climate and Equity Lab, while SI Canada, a national charitable organization working to address complex challenges and create transformational change, will act as the project lead, responsible for the management of the project’s deliverables and leading the facilitation of the labs. As the academic partner, EUC will provide the research team that will work to mobilize research into climate action.

“The research from the Climate and Equity Lab will serve as a crucial tool to inform policymakers, offering clear innovation and investment opportunities developed in collaboration with the communities most affected by climate change,” said Alice Hovorka, dean of EUC.

After a year of planning, phase one of the Climate and Equity Lab’s multi-year initiative has begun, with stakeholder workshops set to take place in Vancouver, the Waterloo Region and Toronto over the next nine months.

“This collaborative effort marks a significant step toward comprehending the complex connection between climate change and vulnerable groups. In collaboration with these communities, we will work towards creating a more equitable and resilient future for all Canadians,” said Andrea Nemtin, chief executive officer of SI Canada.

Contribute to York’s new Sustainability Strategy

Keele campus bikes trees Lassonde

La version française suit la version anglaise. 

Dear colleagues,

We are happy to announce the launch of a community consultation period to help inform the renewal of York University’s Sustainability Strategy. Originally published in 2017, this strategy is critical to ensuring we meet our bold sustainability commitments and uphold our collective responsibility for environmental stewardship.

We are seeking your input to help us develop a data-driven strategy to drive our whole-institution approach to sustainability. Consultations will be led by Mike Layton, chief sustainability officer, and will be open to all students, faculty, instructors, staff and alumni. Through renewal of the strategy, we hope to build awareness, create opportunities to engage all members of our community on sustainability-related topics, promote sustainability as one of our core values, generate feedback to inform the new strategy and inspire lifelong commitment to create positive change through environmental sustainability.

We encourage all community members to review our previous strategy before providing feedback through the following channels:

Please note that personal information shared throughout the consultation process will remain confidential. Feedback will be used to guide and inform strategy development in advance of the renewed strategy’s anticipated launch in 2024.

Aligned with the University’s mission of the pursuit, preservation and dissemination of knowledge, York is also releasing its own detailed emissions data and ecological footprint assessment. With its release, York becomes the first Canadian institution to compile and publicize its own comprehensive emissions data and Ecological Footprint assessment.

As the third largest university in Canada, York has an extensive history of demonstrating a commitment to sustainability that has garnered much recognition, including a spot on Canada’s Greenest Employers list for 11 consecutive years and consistent annual high scores for the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings. Our commitment to sustainability touches every aspect of life on our campuses, from research to teaching and learning to how we heat our buildings and dispose of our waste. This new report from the Ecological Footprint Initiative provides us with more information than ever before to identify opportunities to reduce our emissions and develop innovative sustainability solutions.

Our plan to create positive change affects every corner of our campuses and shapes decision-making at every level of the institution. We look forward to co-creating this strategy with you to advance York’s sustainability goals across our network of campuses and ensure sustainability as our core value is embedded all aspects of university life.

Sincerely,

Carol McAulay
Vice-President Finance and Administration

Amir Asif
Vice-President Research and Innovation


Contribuez à la nouvelle Stratégie de développement durable de York

Chers collègues, chères collègues,

J’ai le plaisir d’annoncer le lancement d’une période de consultation afin que la communauté puisse contribuer au renouvellement de la Stratégie de développement durable de l’Université York. Publiée à l’origine en 2017, cette stratégie est essentielle pour garantir le respect de nos engagements audacieux en matière de développement durable et pour honorer notre responsabilité collective en matière de gestion responsable de l’environnement.

Nous sollicitons votre contribution pour nous aider à élaborer une stratégie fondée sur des données afin d’orienter notre approche du développement durable à l’échelle de l’Université. Les consultations seront ouvertes à tous les membres de la population étudiante, des corps professoral et enseignant, du personnel et de la communauté des diplômés. Il y aura plusieurs façons de fournir de la rétroaction. En renouvelant la stratégie, nous espérons faire de la sensibilisation, créer des occasions d’engager tous les membres de notre communauté sur des sujets liés au développement durable, promouvoir le développement durable comme l’une de nos valeurs fondamentales, générer une rétroaction pour alimenter la nouvelle stratégie et inspirer un engagement à vie pour susciter des changements positifs par le biais du développement durable.

J’encourage tous les membres de la communauté à prendre connaissance de notre stratégie précédente avant de nous faire part de leurs commentaires sur les canaux suivants :

Veuillez noter que les informations personnelles partagées tout au long du processus de consultation resteront confidentielles. Les commentaires seront utilisés pour orienter et étayer le développement de la nouvelle stratégie avant son lancement prévu en 2024.

Conformément à la mission de l’Université, à savoir la recherche, la préservation et la diffusion des connaissances, York publie également ses propres données détaillées sur les émissions et l’évaluation de son empreinte écologique. Avec cette publication, York devient le premier établissement canadien à compiler et à publier ses propres données complètes sur les émissions et son évaluation de l’empreinte écologique.

En tant que troisième université du Canada en matière de taille, York démontre depuis toujours sa détermination d’agir en faveur du développement durable, ce qui lui a valu de nombreuses accolades, notamment une place sur la liste des employeurs les plus verts du Canada pendant 11 années consécutives et des résultats annuels élevés au classement Impact du Times Higher Education. Notre engagement en faveur du développement durable touche tous les aspects de la vie sur nos campus, de la recherche à l’enseignement et à l’apprentissage, en passant par la manière dont nous chauffons nos bâtiments et dont nous éliminons nos déchets. Ce nouveau rapport de l’initiative pour l’empreinte écologique nous fournit plus d’informations que jamais pour définir les possibilités de réduction de nos émissions et pour développer des solutions innovantes en matière de développement durable.

Notre volonté d’être susciter des changements positifs touche chaque recoin de nos campus et façonne la prise de décision à tous les niveaux de l’établissement. Nous nous réjouissons de créer cette stratégie avec vous afin de faire progresser les objectifs de durabilité de York sur nos campus et de garantir que la durabilité fasse partie intégrante de tous les aspects de la vie à l’Université.

Sincères salutations,

Carol McAulay
Vice-présidente des finances et de l’administration

Amir Asif
Vice-président de la recherche et de l’innovation

Osgoode Fellow to focus on environmental law, Indigenous land rights

Trowbridge Conservation Area Thunder Bay Ontario Canada in summer featuring beautiful rapids and Canadian Forest with blue sky on summer

Osgoode Hall Law School master’s student Julia Brown, the 2023-24 Environmental Justice & Sustainability Clinic (EJSC) Fellow, hopes she can play a part in ensuring the development of Ontario’s mineral-rich Ring of Fire region, on First Nations land in the environmentally sensitive Hudson Bay Lowlands, does not take place without the free, prior and informed consent of the Indigenous people who live there.

Julia Brown
Julia Brown

Brown will work with leaders of Neskantaga First Nation in an effort to draft the terms of a workable partnership with the Government of Canada as it prepares to undertake a regional environmental assessment prior to any mineral development. The assessment is taking place under Canada’s Impact Assessment Act, which replaced the Environmental Assessment Act in 2019.

Brown said the original terms of reference for the regional assessment gave First Nations in the area only token participation in the process. After strong pushback, the federal agency involved agreed to review the terms.

“That was disappointing,” she explained, “because this legislation was supposed to be a real improvement in terms of the roles that First Nations would play.

“That was a glaring omission,” she said. “Whether development should go ahead really should be up to the people who live there and whose land it is.”

While various levels of government have recognized the importance of reconciliation, they are still reluctant to give up control – especially when it comes to mineral wealth, Brown remarked.

The federal assessment will be among the first to look at a whole region; environmental assessments are typically project specific. Brown said the Ontario government has, to date, declined to participate in the federal process and is carrying out separate assessments focused only on proposed roads connecting the area to the provincial highway system.

“There is no precedent for the federal government in terms of how this regional assessment has to be structured,” she explained. “So we’ll be working on how it could be structured so there is a real partnership between First Nations and the federal government.”

Last year, Neskantaga First Nation marked its 10,000th day of being under a hazardous drinking water advisory, despite federal commitments to fix the problem. Located 463 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, Ont., the fly-in community is situated amid a vast wetland that acts as a huge carbon sink.

Some have called the region the “lungs of Mother Earth,” and the First Nations people there call the region the “Breathing Lands.” In total, the Ring of Fire region spans about 5,000 square kilometres and is rich in chromite, nickel, copper, platinum, gold, zinc and other valuable minerals – some of which are required for battery production.

Brown, who previously worked as a lawyer for Toronto-based OKT Law, the country’s largest Indigenous rights law firm, said she feels fortunate to be working with the Environmental Justice & Sustainability Clinic and its current director, Professor Dayna Nadine Scott – and the feeling is mutual.

“We feel very fortunate this year at the EJSC to have someone with Julia’s depth of knowledge and experience to be stepping into the role of clinic Fellow,” said Scott.

As part of her graduate research, Brown will focus on the issue of emotion in judicial reasoning and how that influences Indigenous title cases. Her research adviser is Professor Emily Kidd White.

Inaugural BEST Bridge to Startup projects innovate

diverse group of people collaborating

BEST Bridge to Startup (BB2S), the four-month Bergeron Entrepreneurs in Science and Technology (BEST) summer entrepreneurship experience that launched in the summer of 2023, has empowered students from York University’s Lassonde School of Engineering to build United Nations Sustainable Development Goal-friendly startups based around artificial intelligence (AI), accessibility, energy consumption and more.

BB2S was created to provide a crucial stepping stone for students transitioning from university to the professional world, imparting critical skills that go beyond the classroom, with undergraduate students able to turn their final-year capstone projects into ventures, or graduate students turning their research into a business.

Members of the BEST Bridge to Startup program
Members of the BEST Bridge to Startup program.

“Through our BB2S program, we aim to guide aspiring entrepreneurs on their path to self-discovery,” said Maedeh Sedaghat, BEST program manager. “The program offers a transformative experience that allows students to embrace a journey of curiosity and boundless learning, where success is the fruit of collective wisdom. The emotional rollercoaster that comes with this journey helps the students become more resilient, and they emerge with a personal and professionally rewarding entrepreneurial mindset that will enable them to make a positive impact in all their future endeavours.”

Aiming to bridge the gap between academic and practical application by offering participants hands-on practice instrumental to shaping future tech leaders, students were immersed in a professional setting where they could gain insights into the intricate workings of startup ecosystems, from ideation to market entry. Furthermore, as part of the program, each team worked with a Schulich School of Business master of business administration intern who helped the team develop business strategy, go-to-market strategies, product roadmaps and competitive reports.

The resulting inaugural projects are:

Chatbase
Created by computer science students Yasser Elsaid and Pegah Fallah, Chatbase is an AI chatbot builder that trains ChatGPT on an individual’s data and lets them add a chat widget to their website. 

Reefers
Created by mechanical engineering students Mhd Youssef Demashkieh and Jad Zeitoun, Reefers is an energy recovery system that uses the exhaust gases to create electricity to power the refrigeration system of refrigerated truck trailers.

Handifuel
Created by computer science alum Abbas Qassim and computer science student Solomon Ukwosah, Handifuel automates the fuelling process by building a robotic arm that will eliminate the need of mobility-challenged individuals to manually complete the process.

PoweRanger
Created by mechanical engineering alum Rizwan Bhatti, electrical engineering student Christopher Korfmann and software engineering student Mohammed Fulwala, PoweRanger is an autonomous, remote power line inspection robot that helps minimize production downtime and prevent unexpected power outages by quickly identifying faults, pinpointing their locations and understanding their causes.

MechTronX
Created by mechanical engineering students Mohammad Shamail, Muhammad Ali Toor and Eric Wong, MechTronX is a tech company that specializes in providing cost-effective, customized solutions that cater to the unique technical requirements of early-stage companies.

“BEST Bridge to Startup is a unique entrepreneurial opportunity that allows graduating students to experience the life of an entrepreneur by working exclusively on their startup for four months,” said Professor Andrew Maxwell, Bergeron Chair in Technology Entrepreneurship. “Our hope is that many of them turn their capstone projects into viable businesses supported by BESTLab.”

EUC Climate Seminar examines populist environmentalism

image shows a forest and stream

The next instalment of York University’s Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change (EUC) 2023-24 Climate Seminar, taking place on Oct. 19 from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. in 140 Health, Nursing & Environmental Studies Building, features geographer Kai Bosworth speaking about the role of populist environmentalism in contemporary struggles for climate justice.

Kai Bosworth
Kai Bosworth

Bosworth, an assistant professor of international studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, will present a talk titled “Pipeline Populism and the Climate Cycle of Struggles: 2010-2020,” which will describe the rise and demise of left-populist environmentalism as one tendency within the “cycle of struggles” over climate in the 2010s. This tendency, he says, can be found in Upper Midwest pipeline opposition movements, in moves towards mass mobilization such as the People’s Climate March, and in student and youth movements advocating for a Green New Deal.

Bosworth’s book, Pipeline Populism: Grassroots Environmentalism in the 21st Century (University of Minnesota Press, 2022), examines pipeline opposition movements in the central U.S. and the ways they have transformed the politics of climate justice. It argues that while a form of environmental populism challenges the climate movement’s history of elitism, it also remakes hierarchies of race, class and nation to compose its political subjects.

York University’s Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change is bringing climate crisis scholars and activists to the University on a regular basis through its Climate Seminar. All are welcome to attend, either in person or virtually via livestream. Those interested in attending can register at tinyurl.com/4zshzzw5.

UNESCO Chair to speak at global conference

York University UNESCO Chair Charles Hopkins will speak at the 2023 Global Conference on Sustainable Development on Oct. 4 and 5 in Hong Kong to discuss how to transform higher education towards embracing sustainability and elevate action to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Charles Hopkins
Charles Hopkins

This is the first international conference organized by the Hong Kong Chapter of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). The centre of discussion during the conference will be about strengthening the world’s commitment to the SDGs in all sectors of society and finding solutions to current and future climate and societal challenges.

Hopkins will speak on the potential of education for sustainable development (ESD) in promoting transformative, holistic change in universities, as higher education can play crucial roles in reorienting student learning, supporting a sustainable future with evidence-based knowledge, and providing support for local and global communities.

“Since ESD has been recognized by the United Nations as a key enabler of all SDGs, it is imperative to be implemented at all levels of education, in particular in higher education, as universities are important influencers within society,” says Hopkins.

In August, Hopkins, as well as Katrin Kohl, executive coordinator to the UNESCO Chair, were appointed members of the High-Level Advisory Council for the SDG Academy, representing SDSN’s education and training division.

At the upcoming conference, Hopkins will join a group of world-renowned speakers, including Ban Ki-moon, the former United Nations secretary general, and co‐chair of the Ban Ki‐moon Centre for Global Citizens, as well as Professor Jeffrey Sachs, SDSN president. Both will share their visions for a sustainable future and discuss practical solutions from around the world for the implementation of the SDGs.

The event will take place as a hybrid event in-person at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and will be streamed live on Oct. 4 and 5. Online registration is free. More details can be found at gcsd2023.sdsn-hk.org.

Lassonde researchers pursue sustainable change

Aspire lightbulb idea innovation research

Researchers from the Lassonde School of Engineering at York University are gearing up for new interdisciplinary research projects that address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with support from the Lassonde Innovation Fund (LIF), an initiative that provides faculty members with financial support.

This year’s projects aim to find innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges, including climate change, access to clean drinking water, issues in health diagnostics and more. Nearly 80 per cent of this year’s LIF projects involve interdisciplinary work, 50 per cent are led by women and six per cent address multiple SDGs.

Learn more about this year’s LIF projects below.

Project: “Smart contact lenses (SCL) as promising alternatives to invasive vitreous sample analysis for in-situ eye disease studies” by Razieh Salahandish and Pouya Rezai

Razieh Salahandish
Razieh Salahandish

Salahandish from the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science at Lassonde is collaborating with Mechanical Engineering Professor and Department Chair Rezai along with Dr. Tina Felfeli, a physician at the University Health Network, on an initiative aimed at fabricating smart contact lens (SCL) systems as a non-invasive tool that can detect and analyze disease-indicating biomarkers in human tears. For clinicians, examining biomarkers is an important part of monitoring eye health that can help improve disease detection and patient outcomes.

Pouya Rezai
Pouya Rezai

The SCL systems will be designed to examine two clinically relevant eye condition biomarkers, vascular endothelial growth factor and tumour necrosis factor-alpha. Typically, these biomarkers are isolated from gel-like tissue in the eye, also known as vitreous fluid, using invasive surgical methods. This LIF project poses a convenient alternative that is less complex for medical professionals and more manageable for patients. It also sets a strong foundation for future investigations in this unexplored field.

Project: “Electric gene sensor for disease diagnostics purposes” by Ebrahim Ghafar-Zadeh

Ebrahim Ghafar-Zadeh
Ebrahim Ghafar-Zadeh

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests are considered the gold standard for detecting genes associated with diseases and were widely used throughout the COVID-19 pandemic for diagnostic purposes; however, PCR tests lack portability and cost-effectiveness, so there is a need for more accessible options.

To address this issue, Ghafar-Zadeh, associate professor in Lassonde’s Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, is developing a novel PCR-like mechanism, which offers several advantages for detecting existent and emerging diseases over traditional detection methods. Advantages include low cost, high sensitivity and user friendliness.

With support from the LIF, Ghafar-Zadeh will explore the use of innovative electronic sensors to detect genes associated with different viruses. Substantial preliminary work shows the sensors’ output is significantly affected by the presence of a virus gene, thereby indicating its corresponding disease. Building on this discovery, experiments will be conducted using known genes to develop electronic software and hardware that can prove the presence of a specific virus gene and its respective disease.

Through successful research outcomes, Ghafar-Zadeh aims to secure future funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to support the implementation of this technology in clinical settings.

Project: “Controlling biofilm formation and microbial recontamination in secondary water storage containers with UV light emitting diodes and targeted cleaning procedures” by Stephanie Gora, Ahmed El Dyasti and Syed Imran Ali

Ahmed El Dyasti
Ahmed El Dyasti
Stephanie Gora
Stephanie Gora

Continuous access to clean running water is a privilege that many global communities do not have. In areas such as refugee and internally displaced persons (IDP) settlements, as well as rural and underserved regions in Canada, community members must collect water from public distribution points and store it in secondary containers for future use.

This stored water is highly susceptible to recontamination by various microbial species, including biofilm-forming bacteria, which are microbial colonies that are extremely resistant to destruction.

Syed Imran Ali
Syed Imran Ali

Ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are a promising, yet underexplored, method that can be used to inactivate microbial colonies in biofilms and prevent their formation. Civil engineering rofessors Gora and El Dyasti have teamed up with Ali, a research Fellow in global health and humanitarianism at York University’s Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, on a solutions-driven project to improve water quality in underserved communities using UV LEDs and targeted container-cleaning procedures.

With support from the LIF, the research team will design and develop UV LED-equipped storage containers and analyze their ability to disinfect water in containers with biofilms. Experiments will also be performed to examine the potential benefits of combining UV LEDs with targeted container-cleaning procedures.

Successful results from this project may help ensure clean and safe water for refugee and IDP communities, as well as other underserved regions.

Project: “Smart vibration suppression system for micromobility in-wheel-motor electric vehicles for urban transportation” by George Zhu

George Zhu
George Zhu

Traffic congestion is not only a nuisance for road users, but it also causes excessive greenhouse gas emissions. Recent advances in electric vehicle (EV) technology have found that microvehicles, which are lightweight and drive at speeds up to 35 miles per hour, are a sustainable and convenient alternative to many traditional modes of transportation.

Specifically, micromobility EVs using in-wheel motors (IWMs) are becoming increasingly popular considering their benefits such as high energy efficiency and roomy passenger space. However, these vehicles are susceptible to unwanted vibration and tire jumping, which compromise driving safety and user comfort.

Through his LIF project, Zhu, from Lassonde’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, will design and develop a novel vibration-control technology for micromobility EVs with IWMs. The project will use a SARIT EV to test a smart suspension system, which includes active and passive vibration suppression and absorption systems. This work aims to develop new vibration-control technology, improve user experience and address deficiencies of micromobility IWM EVs. Zhu, who is a co-founding director of the Manufacturing Technology Entrepreneurship Centre, will also use this work to leverage Lassonde’s ongoing collaboration with Stronach International on the SARIT EV project.

Project: “Multifunctional building envelopes with integrated carbon capture” by Paul O’Brien and Ronald Hanson

Paul O’Brien
Paul O’Brien

Global warming is, in part, caused by the energy consumption and generation needed to support daily life, including the operation of buildings. In fact, the building sector accounts for 30 per cent of global energy consumption.

To help reduce greenhouse gas emission from building operations, mechanical engineering professors O’Brien and Hanson are developing and testing energy-efficient building envelopes using Trombe walls.

Ronald Hanson
Ronald Hanson

Trombe walls are a unique technology that can utilize solar energy to provide buildings with passive heat, thereby reducing heating energy consumption of buildings by up to 30 per cent. Inspired by previously conducted studies, this LIF project will explore the multifunctionality of a modified Trombe wall with water-based thermal energy storage, which demonstrates the potential to provide indoor lighting, heated air, heated water and building-integrated carbon capture.

Sustainable transportation earns York new designation

Bike share station on York University's Keele campus
Bike share station on York University’s Keele campus.

York University is the first Canadian institution to earn the designation of a “Best University for Commuters” for its many sustainable travel options available to the community.

The designation was awarded on Sept. 13 by Best Workplaces for Commuters, the North American authority for recognizing and assisting workplaces that provide exceptional commuter benefits to employees.

With this designation, York joins institutions such as Harvard University, Princeton, Stanford and Yale, which have also been commended for options available to travellers.

“York has spent many years building a strong transportation network, working with city partners to ensure our campuses are well-connected and accessible, and considering the ways we can lower our carbon footprint with sustainable travel options,” said Carol McAulay, vice-president finance and administration. “This new designation is a celebration of that work and a reflection of what’s to come. We’re continuing to invest in sustainable travel options and are committed to working with municipal and provincial partners to advocate for more affordable transit options, including fare integration, to improve benefits for our community.”

To earn this designation, York was recognized for the variety of benefits and options it provides to students, faculty, instructors and staff who travel to and from campus. These are:

  • Bike share – York was the first university in the Greater Toronto Area to partner with Bike Share Toronto and offer three bike share stations on the Keele and Glendon campuses.
  • Secure bike parking and repair stations – two secured bike enclosures on the Keele Campus offer peace of mind to cyclists and four do-it-yourself repair stations on the Keele and Glendon campuses provide tools for quick fixes.
  • Carpool incentives – a partnership with Zipcar enables easy car sharing, and preferred parking at a lower rate is available for those who regularly carpool to campus through the Diamond Pool Parking program.
  • Electric vehicle charging stations – there are currently more than 30 charging stations available at the Keele and Glendon campuses.
  • Glendon-Keele Shuttle – the shuttle offers service from 7:10 a.m. to 10:45 p.m. to all community members with a valid YU-card.

These benefits are made available through Transportation Services, which has a mission to support the University community through smart transportation options that are consistently evolving.

“The transit options to York have improved enormously since I was a student, with two subway stations to get you to class easier and faster,” said Mike Layton, chief sustainability officer. “Choosing sustainable travel is a great way for community members to contribute to York’s net-zero commitment and reduce their personal carbon footprint.”

To learn more about transportation options at York, visit the Transportation Services department’s website.

Watch a video about the award and York’s sustainability efforts here:

Schulich appoints inaugural CIBC Chair in Sustainable Finance 

Glass cup filled with coins, with a green plant sprouting out of it.

York University’s Schulich School of Business announced last week that Schulich Professor Olaf Weber has been appointed as the inaugural holder of the new CIBC Chair in Sustainable Finance.

Olaf Weber
Olaf Weber

The research Chair was established last year as the result of CIBC’s commitment to enable a more sustainable future, working in partnership with stakeholders and clients.

Weber has had a distinguished career in the field of sustainable finance, marked by cutting-edge research on the intersection of business and financial institutions’ sustainability. As the inaugural CIBC Chair in Sustainable Finance, he will pursue pioneering research that generates actionable solutions within the global finance sector.   

Recognized internationally as a thought leader in the areas of sustainability and responsible business, Schulich is home to the Centre of Excellence in Responsible Business, one of the world’s largest academic centres dedicated to sustainability research and knowledge development.

“We are pleased to welcome Dr. Olaf Weber as the new CIBC Chair in Sustainable Finance,” says Detlev Zwick, dean of the Schulich School of Business. “The CIBC Chair will expand our school’s expertise in sustainable finance while carrying out important new research that will help in the transition to a low-carbon economy.”