Issues in sustainability across disciplines

The broadest parameters of what we can even imagine are always set by our ongoing engagements with a particular world. The artist may push at and stretch those boundaries but all art ultimately is also a reflection or epiphenomenon of the structures and processes of that specific world. What does that mean for art in the Anthropocene? That is the question to be explored in this presentation.

Dr. Peter Graham is a part-time faculty member and an interdisciplinary social scientist with ongoing research on the challenge of societal transformation for sustainability. His work begins from an understanding of the negative consequences of the overly reductionist perspective typical of contemporary sustainability research.

Roads pose a major threat to wildlife, yet effective mitigation is costly to implement. However, bridges and water culverts are regularly built into the roadway, which are used by various mammals to traverse. We hypothesise that mammal use may be influenced by the terrestrial or semi-aquatic nature of species, as well as water-based predictor variables. Using camera traps, we monitored 2 bridges and 8 water culverts for 17 months (July 2022 - November 2023) underneath two major roads in the Laurentides region of Quebec. Additionally, we evaluated nearby species with track boxes for 5 months. Unexpectedly, we observed no large mammals besides white-tailed deer, suggesting a potential lack of connectivity in this region. Using generalised linear mixed models, we found that water tolerant species were better modeled by these predictor variables than water intolerant species, with nearby tracks increasing model accuracy. These findings have implications for species-specific wildlife passages and fencing to increase road permeability.

Valérie Bolduc is an MSc student and Junior Associate of the Loyola Sustainability Research Centre working in under the supervision of Professor Jochen Jaeger in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment.

Presentation of a sustainable architecture research project conducted as an independent study as part of the Sustainability studies Minor. Showcases the innovative ways the built environment can be designed for occupant well being in the face of a warming climate.

Julia Calabro is a Concordia student completing a Minor in Sustainability Studies at the Loyola College for Diversity and Sustainability.

In recent decades, Iran has experienced drastic urban growth. Tehran, the capital of Iran, can be considered the epitome of this expansion; from 1965 to 2016, the urban population increased more than tenfold. Smart growth, as an alternative to sprawl, aims at enhancing urban sustainability by encouraging high-density, mixed-use, and access to diverse transportation and housing options. This study applies literature-derived indicators to demonstrate Tehran neighborhoods’ spatial, statistical, and analytical status quo of smart growth indices and indicators with the help of GIS and SPSS. The smart growth trends based on the age of neighborhoods have been surveyed through PCA and temporal analysis. Due to the lack of practical smart growth visions in Tehran’s official planning documents, a coordinated policy in transportation and urban master plans can promote smart growth conditions in the newer-built neighborhoods.

Melika Safari is a PhD student and Junior Associate of the Loyola Sustainability Research Centre working in under the supervision of Professor Jochen Jaeger in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment.

Transportation infrastructure has caused significant adverse effects on biodiversity by diminishing and fragmenting natural habitats and increasing wildlife mortality through wildlife-vehicle collisions. This study examines to what degree transportation agencies worldwide have incorporated biodiversity considerations into their mission statements since the ratification of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1992. We hypothesize that countries that have signed the CBD should have biodiversity considered in their transportation mandates by now, 30 years after the original document was signed by 168 government leaders. Following the “polluter pays principle,” this study argues that transportation agencies, responsible for the design, construction, and maintenance of roads, should bear the responsibility for mitigating their effects on biodiversity. The study investigates whether transportation mission statements have improved by integrating biodiversity and explores current opportunities and challenges for incorporating biodiversity into these mission statements. We additionally want to understand if there have been any shifts in how transport ministries view biodiversity and if their mandates reflect newer and more ‘ecologically advanced’ ways of integrating biodiversity. By analyzing 77 regions globally, including Canada, the U.S., and selected European countries, we use cluster analysis with the Jaccard index to create four dendrograms using the Complete, Average, Single, and Ward linkage methods and to evaluate differences and gaps in biodiversity consideration. The most important purpose of the research is to identify leadership models and push for better biodiversity conservation strategies at higher levels of government through policies and legislation, including the mandates of relevant ministries. Our findings reveal a predominant focus on driver safety with very little integration of wildlife concerns apart from France whose mission statement explicitly mentions the conservation of biodiversity, which can be used as a model for future mission statements. Despite the adoption of the CBD in 1992, progress in considering biodiversity in transportation mission statements is still lacking almost everywhere. Results highlight the need for more involvement of transport departments in biodiversity conservation and for accepting their share of responsibility.

Sabrina Mruczek is a MSc student working in under the supervision of Professor Jochen Jaeger in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment.

Electronic waste is a growing environmental and equity problem, globally. As more people have greater access to more electronic devices, we must inquire about the eventual fate of these devices. E-waste is frequently sent to locales without ready access to formal e-waste recycling technologies and techniques. Workers there crudely dismantle and dissolve electronic parts for valuable materials. This often comes at a health and ecological cost. Wealthier regions can process e-waste more safely, but even so, safety measures may not be evenly applied. This is an overview of many topics: global e-waste flows and Canadas place in them, the dangers of improper e-waste recycling, why communities in the Global South may welcome e-waste processing despite these dangers, the emergence of global e-waste recycling hubs, what's being done about e-waste in Canada, and a proposal for an improved model of recycling.

Matthew Segal is a software engineer and graduate of Concordia's Gina Cody School. His interest in technology inspired examining global sustainability issues from a technological lens.