This story was submitted by Maxwell Brem, external relations director for York’s Faculty of Environmental Studies.
Austrian university students and their professors learned about Canadian renewable energy projects and environmentally sustainable management during a visit to York in mid-April.
At York, the group of 40 students and eight faculty from the University of Applied Sciences in Wieselburg, Austria – plus a journalist with a leading Austrian newspaper – heard presentations about Faculty of Environmental Studies research projects from hosts Rob Macdonald (right), FES associate dean Roger Keil (below left), undergraduate program director, and Jenn Gaudet, an MES student who does work 
on community-based renewable energy. The visitors were in Toronto for a week to visit environmental and energy-related agencies such as Pollution Probe, Recycling Ontario, Ontario Power Generation and Ontario’s Ministry of Environment.
The Wieselburg university is unique in Austria for offering an applied science degree program in project and product management specializing in business promotion, product development of food and non-food resources (including bio-fuels and renewable energy) and special rural-related activities.