On March 8th and 9th, Concordia faculty, students, staff, and members of the larger community came out in force to attend the Sustainability Across Disciplines Conference hosted by the Loyola College for Diversity and Sustainability (LCDS) and the Loyola Sustainability Research Centre (LSRC). Chaired by LSRC Acting Director Raymond Paquin and organized by LSRC/LCDS coordinator Rebecca Tittler with the help of EHS Sustainability Coordinator Chantal Forgues and LCDS students Matthew Leddy and Kailin Mailly, the conference featured presentations on a diverse range of sustainability-related research topics, ranging from work on the Arctic Council (presented by LSRC Junior Associate Leif Schenstead-Harris) to research on roads, urban sprawl, and wildlife (from LSRC Junior Associate Benjamin Brunen and his colleagues Ariel Spanowicz, Jonathan Cole, and Mehrdokht Pourali from the lab of LSRC fellow Professor Jochen Jaeger). The conference opened in the Loyola Jesuit Hall and Conference Centre on Thursday with a keynote address from Professor Jeannine-Marie St-Jacques on historical variability in river flows and climate change, with the professor ending with an inspiring call for scientists to be actively engaged as agents for change. The day continued with research presentations from faculty, staff, and students from across the University, as well as presentations on sustainability internship from LCDS students. Friday, the conference opened in the new conference centre on the 9th floor of the MB building with a thought-provoking panel on the politics of sustainability, followed by a round-table discussion on definitions of sustainability across disciplines featuring LSCR fellows from Biology (Professors Pedro Peres-Neto,and James W. A. Grant), Political Science (Professor Amy Poteete), Philosophy (Professor Matthias Fritsch), and the INDI program (Cheryl Gladu). The afternoon round-table discussion on careers in sustainability featured Concordia’s own Chantal Forgues and Maude Lecourt, as well as Colleen Thorpe (Director of Educational Programming at Equiterre) and Andrew Ross (manager at PwC Canada’s Sustainable Business Solutions) for a sneak peek into various options for careers in sustainability. The closing keynote address featured inspirational words of wisdom about sustainability and trans-disciplinary research from Dr. Kamal Bawa, Distinguished Professor of Biology at the University of Massachusetts Boston and Founder-President of the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), one of India’s top-ranked environmental think tanks. The conference closed with prizes being awarded to Ashlee Prevost and LSRC Junior Associate Stefania Strantza for the best presentations in the graduate student category, and to LCDS students Chris Aitkens and the group made up of Cynthia Fozin-Kengni, Cléa Montanari, Eric Warner, and Margaret Webb for the best presentations in the undergraduate student category. All in all, it was an inspirational and thought-provoking two days of discussion.Thank you to all those who participated in and supported this event. We look forward to next year!
2nd Annual Concordia Sustainability Across Disciplines Conference
March 8-9, 2018
Concordia University
Jesuit Hall and Conference Centre (7141 Sherbrooke St O., Montreal) (March 8)
John Molson Building (1450 rue Guy, Montreal) (March 9)
Dr. Kamal Bawa, who gave the keynote address at this year's Sustainability Across Disciplines conference
Schedule
| THURSDAY, MARCH 8TH, 2018 | |||
9h30-10h30
|
Welcome and opening address Jeannine-Marie St-Jacques and Alex Pace: Long-term trends and low-frequency variability of river flows in the North American West |
|
|
| 10h30-10h45 | Break: Coffee, tea, and snacks provided | RF-120 |
|
10h45-11h30
|
Panel Ia: The Importance of Place in Sustainability 10h45: Monica Mulrennan: Sea Space as Home Place: Indigenous Womens’ Perspectives on Sustainability 11h00: Cheryl Gladu: Cooperative Co-Housing and Sustainability 11h15: James W. A. Grant: Territories and Local Communities: the Secret to Cooperation and Sustainability? |
|
|
| 10h45-11h30 |
Panel Ib: Where can a sustainability internship lead you? 10h45: Kayla Miller: City Farm School Internship: Permaculture and Policy |
RF-120 | |
| 11h30-11h45 | Break: Coffee, tea, and snacks provided | RF-120 | |
11h45-12h30
|
Panel II: Reconciling the Three Pillars of Sustainability 11h45: Cynthia Fozin-Kengni, Cléa Montanari, Eric Warner, and Margaret Webb: Plan Nord or Plan Mort? 12h00: Chris Aitkens: The Environmental Impact of a Smartphone |
|
|
| 12h30-13h30 | Lunch provided | RF-120 |
|
13h30-14h30
|
Panel IIIa: Potential Solutions to Problems of Sustainability 13h30: Ashlee Prevost, Nicole Hill, James W.A Grant, William R. Ardren, and Dylan J. Fraser: Reproductive Success of Landlocked Atlantic Salmon in Two Lake Champlain Tributaries 13h45: Matthew C. Yates and Dylan J. Fraser: Experimentally Replicated Population Translocations Reveal the Relative Importance of Habitat and Genetic Risks to Novel Change in a Vertebrate 14h00: Melissa Robertson, Zara Pardiak, Kailin Mailly, and Nicolas Chevalier: Sustainability and the Olympics 14h15: Karina Akulovich, Juliette Carman, Asia McDowall, Mattea Mahut, and Brenna Beith de Montbrun: Ski Resorts and Sustainability: The Case of Mont Tremblant |
|
|
| 14h00-14h30 | Panel IIIb: Where Can a Sustainability Internship Lead You? 14h00: Alexey Malyshev: DIY Sustainability: At Home Vermicomposting & Microgreens |
RF-120 | |
| 14h30-14h45 | Break: Coffee, tea, and snacks provided | RF-120 | |
14h45-15h45
|
Panel IVa: The Politics and Industrial Implications of Sustainability 14h45: Isabelle Jolin and Shannon Lloyd: Benchmarking Canadian Airports on Environmental Performance: A New and Improved Sustainability Ranking Index 15h00: Matthias Heppa, Shannon Lloyd, and Onur Kuzgunkaya: Economic and Ecologic Impacts of Industry 4.0: A Case Study Exploring Supply Chain Configurations with Distributed Production Capabilities in the Aerospace Sector 15h15: Effrosyni Diamantoudi, Eftichios Sartzetakis, and Stefania Strantza: International Environmental Agreements - Stability with Transfers among Countries 15h30: Karolyn Martin: Ethical Textile Design: Towards a Montreal Portrait |
|
|
| 14h45-15h45 |
|
RF-120 | |
| 15h45-16h00 | Break: Coffee, tea, and snacks provided | RF-120 | |
16h00-17h00
|
Panel V: Landscape Ecology Perspectives on Sustainability 16h00: Ariel Spanowicz, Fernanda Zimmermann Teixeira, and Jochen A.G. Jaeger: Mitigating Roadkill: A Multi-scale Analysis about Wildlife Fencing 16h15: Benjamin Brunen, Caroline Daguet, and Jochen A.G. Jaeger: Analyzing the Effects of a High-Traffic Highway on Wildlife Movement in Proposed Wildlife Corridors 16h30: Jonathan Cole and Jochen A. G. Jaeger: Past, Present and Future Land-use in the Adirondack - Laurentians Ecological Corridor: Identifying Risk Areas for Loss of Connectivity due to Roads and Development and Proposing Proactive Mitigation Measures 16h45: Mehrdokht Pourali and Jochen A. G. Jaeger: Multi-scale Analysis of Urban Sprawl in Canada since 1971 |
|
|
| FRIDAY, MARCH 9TH, 2018 |
|||
| 9h30-10h15 |
Panel VI: The Politics of Sustainability 9h30: Maura Martinez: Mining in the Dominican Republic 9h45: Thibaud Henin: Standards as Strategies: Using Sustainable Forestry Standards as a Non-Tariff Barrier 10h00: Leif Schenstead-Harris: Sustainability at the Arctic Council: The Curious Case of the Sustainable Development Working Group |
||
| 10h15-10h30 | Break: Coffee, tea, and snacks provided | ||
| 10h30-12h00 |
Round-Table Discussion I: What, if Anything, is Sustainability?* Featuring Matthias Fritsch, Cheryl Gladu, James W.A Grant, Pedro Peres-Neto, and Amy Poteete |
MB-9AB | |
| 12h00-13h30 | Lunch break (lunch not provided) | ||
| 13h30-14h15 | Panel VII: The Role of Innovation in Sustainability 13h30: Hami Yousefdehi: System Innovation vs Innovation Systems in Sustainability Transition Pathways 13h45: Mark Underwood: Social Innovation and Sustainability 14h00: Cameron Stiff: Outside the Classroom, Outside the Box: Innovating Learning for Sustainability |
MB-9AB | |
| 14h15-14h30 | Break: Coffee, tea, and snacks provided | ||
| 14h30-15h45 | Round-Table Discussion II: How to Build a Career in Sustainability Featuring Maude Lecourt (Internship Coordinator for the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment), Colleen Thorpe (Director of Educational Programming at Equiterre), Andrew Ross (manager at PwC Canada’s Sustainable Business Solutions), Jamie Nicholls (Mayor of the City of Hudson), and Chantal Forgues (Sustainability Coordinator at Environmental Health and Safety, Concordia) |
MB-9AB | |
| 15h45-16h00 | Break: Coffee, tea, and snacks provided | MB-9AB | |
| 16h00-17h00 | Dr. Kamal Bawa: Institutions of Sustainability Science: Lessons from ATREE, India | MB-9AB | |
| 17h00-17h15 | Student Awards Ceremony and Closing | MB-9AB | |
* To listen to the panel entitled What, if Anything, is Sustainability, tune in to The Worlds We Want podcast.
Contact
Raymond Paquin, Interim Director of the Loyola Sustainability Research Centre
Adeela Arshad-Ayaz, Interim Principal of the Loyola College for Diversity and Sustainability
Rebecca Tittler, Coordinator of the Loyola College for Diversity and Sustainability and the Loyola Sustainability Research Centre
This year’s Sustainability Across Disciplines Conference was brought to you by the Loyola College for Diversity and Sustainability and the Loyola Sustainability Research Centre, with the support of the Office of the Vice President of Research and Graduate Studies, the John Molson School of Business, the Departments of Applied Human Sciences; Biology; Communication Studies; Economics; Geography, Planning and Environment, and Sociology and Anthropology, and the Sustainability Team of Environmental Health and Safety at Concordia University.
