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York U./U. of T. Program Wins $750,000 to Link Environmental Research to Community Action
Called Promoting Community Sustainability: Linking Research and Action, the program aims to encourage better decision making at the community level by improving understanding of environmental and social issues and involving both community groups and researchers in the decision-making process. It consists of nine projects over three years that include:
The projects are all based in Toronto, but can be replicated in other major urban centres across the country.
"This program will be a model for forging alliances between university researchers, governments, and community leaders to encourage sustainability and protect and preserve the environment," said Dr. David Bell, co-director of the joint program, and Director of the York Centre for Applied Sustainability (YCAS). Since the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992, the concept of sustainable development has been increasingly incorporated into policy discussions at all levels of government, from the global to the local. At Rio, more than 170 countries signed onto the summit's Agenda 21, a blueprint for integrating economic, social and environmental values into decision-making.
Bell said that since governments have downsized, communities have had to fill in the gap by addressing environmental, social and health-related problems. But they need information to develop solutions. To fill this need, the York Centre for Applied Sustainability will work with U.of T.'s Environmental Studies Program at Innis College to provide research support for the nine projects.
Two leading civil sector organizations will also take part: the Canadian Institute for Environmental Law and Policy (CIELAP) and the Toronto Environmental Alliance (TEA). Another key participant is the City of Toronto represented by city councillor Dr. Jack Layton, who holds a York Ph.D. in Political Science and is Vice-President of the Canadian Federation of Municipalities.
Bell will co-direct the program with Dr. Beth Savan, Director of the Environmental Studies Program at Innis College, U. of T. Both are members of the City of Toronto Environmental Task Force, which has been working for the past 22 months to encourage the City to adopt sustainability as a core value in its policies and planning.
The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) is funding the program under its new Community-University Research Alliance (CURA) program, and Environment Canada will provide additional support for creation of the model charter and bylaws on sustainability.
Other York scholars participating include:
Dr. Deborah Barndt, a professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES), who will provide research support for Seeds of our City, a project with FoodShare (Toronto) looking at the viability of urban agriculture and raising awareness of the looming crisis in food production and the significance of genetically modified foods.
Dr. Grant Sheng of the York Centre for Applied Sustainability and FES will work with Dr. Beth Savan on the project, Monitoring for Sustainability: Community Environmental Mapping. This will combine a U. of T. project -- supplying monitoring kits for water sampling to citizens and high school students -- with a York project that is developing software to enable high school students to use the Internet to share the results of water quality and other forms of monitoring in their community with other students and community groups.
Dr. Lewis Molot, Associate Dean of York's Faculty of Environmental Studies, will work with CIELAP Director Anne Mitchell, and Dr. Virginia MacLaren of U. of T. on the project, Ontario's Community Right to Know Initiative. This project will extend the work of CIELAP to develop a comprehensive Internet-based report detailing toxic pollutant release information as well as provincial law, policy and budgetary changes likely to have an effect on the health and environment of Ontarians.
David Anderson, a professor in the Faculty of Education at York will lend academic support to the project, Professional Development for Sustainable Learning. This project will be led by the Ontario branch of the pan-Canadian organization, Learning for a Sustainable Future (LSF-O), whose mandate is to promote the integration of the concepts of sustainable development into school curricula at all grade levels. The project, which has been given significant financial support by the Trillium Foundation, will develop and deliver a series of 10 two-day Professional Development Institutes throughout Ontario to look at current sustainability issues and engage students, teachers, parents, community and business leaders to set priorities and strategies for their communities. LSF-O is housed in McLaughlin College at York. Dr. Bell chairs its Advisory Committee.
Additional projects include: Promoting Education and Awareness of the Links between Health and Environment, a project with Toronto Public Health and U. of T.'s Dr. Alan Abelsohn (M.D.); Building the Management Capacity of the Environmental Non-profit Sector, led by Paul Bubelis, manager of the Sustainability Network; Understanding Shifts in Canadian Environmental Governance, led by U. of T. professor in Environmental Studies, Dr. Doug Macdonald with support from TEA; and Building Effective Leadership, led by Lois Corbett, Executive Director of TEA, with research support from Dr. Macdonald.
York's Centre for Applied Sustainability was founded in 1996 by Dr. David Bell, who is the former Dean of Environmental Studies. Its central goal is to make the concept of sustainability a reality in all sectors of society and in people's daily lives. The centre is housed in York's Faculty of Environmental Studies, Canada's oldest and largest such faculty.
For further information, please contact:
Dr. David Bell
Susan Bigelow |
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