Adams Sustainability Celebration

U of T entrepreneurs credit Adams Sustainability Innovation Prize for energizing sun-care startup

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 24 Feb 2023 22:31:55 +0000

U of T entrepreneurs credit Adams Sustainability Innovation Prize for energizing sun-care startup

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 02/24/2023 - 17:31

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Kristina Knox and Stephanie Tien, co-founders of sun-care startup Arbre, say their second-place finish in last year's Adams Sustainability Innovation Prize competition paved the way for the launch of their debut product (photo courtesy of Arbre)

Adina Bresge

Topic

Our Community

Adams Sustainability Celebration

Alumni

Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Sustainability

Kristina Knox and Stephanie Tien say the feedback they’ve received from pitch competitions has only made their sustainable sun-care brand Arbre better – and that includes the rejections.

As second-place winners at the ��Ƶ’s Adams Sustainability Innovation Prize competition last year, Knox and Tien say the experience paved the way for the upcoming launch of Arbre’s debut sun-care product, Spruce, a mineral-based powder dry shampoo with SPF that protects the scalp from sunburns.

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The co-founders stress it was their second time vying for an Innovation Prize – and are encouraging this year’s participants not to get discouraged if they don’t take home a win during the next contest on March 3. The same goes for those who weren’t selected as finalists.

“For people who didn't make it into the competition, just keep trying. Just because you got rejected doesn't mean your idea isn't good,” says Knox, a PhD student in cognitive psychology.

“It's an opportunity to learn from that and figure out how you can better refine your business – and how you communicate it.”

The annual competition, hosted by the President’s Committee on the Environment, Climate Change & Sustainability (CECCS), awards a total of $25,500 in prizes to support ��Ƶ students’ ideas for a more sustainable future.

In the case of Arbre, Knox and Tien – who earned her master’s degree in pharmacology in 2020 – are betting that their SPF dry powder shampoo will be a hit with consumers. Made with reef-safe ingredients and recyclable packaging, Knox says the first orders are set to be shipped out in biodegradable mailers this spring.

It’s a milestone that the two friends have been working toward since a skin-peeling burn during a 2019 beach getaway spawned the idea for their sustainable, innovative and inclusive sun-care brand.

Tien says Arbre – which received support from U of T Mississauga’s ICUBE incubator and the Hub at U of T Scarborough – used the $7,500 in Innovation Prize money to pay for the process of obtaining for Health Canada approval and the early stages of manufacturing.

The duo’s participation in the Adams Sustainability competition also helped them prepare for the 2022 Startup Global Pitch Competition, where their third-place finish came with a $10,000 cheque and exclusive in-kind support.

“We were so grateful to be able to participate in the [Adams Sustainability Innovation Prize],” says Tien. “The funds went a long way for us, and we’re really appreciative of that and excited for all the other finalists that get to participate this year.”

The 2023 Adams Sustainability Celebration Innovation Prize pitch competition and award ceremony, which is supported by the donation of Wendy Adams, takes place on March 3 in Hart House’s Great Hall.

This year’s finalists are:

Inwit: Billed as Toronto’s first zero-waste takeout-ordering platform, Inwit allows customers to order food from restaurants in metal containers that are returned and reused in exchange for rewards.
EVOLVERE Mental Health: A digital mental health platform that offers resources and support tailored to the student experience.
Mission-E: A web app designed to help recommend to farmers the optimal amount of fertilizer application in their fields. The platform helps farmers save money on excess fertilizers and reduces nitrous oxide emissions
Negup Chufa: A venture working with small-scale farms in Ghana to produce sustainably grown tigernut oil. The oil is packed with heart-friendly monounsaturated fats and has a similar profile to olive oil.
Sparked: This startup says its palm-sized device can screen for the risk of cardiovascular disease using a saliva sample, providing rapid results without relying on a traditional laboratory.
Tuuli: A building material data platform that serves as a one-stop solution for consultants, architects and suppliers to discover, manage and share environmental data, making it easier to select sustainable materials amid a boom in the green building market.

'Making an impact': U of T to scale sustainability efforts in 2023

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 08 Feb 2023 20:31:23 +0000

'Making an impact': U of T to scale sustainability efforts in 2023

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 02/08/2023 - 15:31

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(Photo by David Lee)

Adina Bresge

Topic

Our Community

Adams Sustainability Celebration

The ��Ƶ has planted the seeds of climate action – and sustainability more broadly – and expects to see them flourish in the year ahead.

Kristy Faccer

Kristy Faccer, director of the President’s Committee on the Environment, Climate Change & Sustainability (CECCS), says that U of T can be an even greater agent for sustainable change by strengthening and expanding our work with community members and partners across its three campuses, in Toronto, Canada and globally.

“We've made this great investment and it is paying returns in terms of impact across and beyond U of T,” Faccer says. “Now it’s time to think more about how our work is advancing a more sustainable world and improving the lives of society around us.”

The university’s progress to date is outlined in the 2022 CECCS annual report – an effort that contributed to U of T being ranked second in the world in the inaugural QS Sustainability Ranking.

Faccer spoke to U of T News about how U of T is building on the five-year foundation laid by the CECCS to scale up its ambitions in the years ahead.

U of T recently ranked second in a global sustainability ranking. What do you take away from that achievement?

The big takeaway for me is how much U of T has really accomplished since CECCS started its work five years ago, and that the impact that we're having on the community is being felt. The ranking is a great validation that we have earned our place among a group of very well-respected peers internationally, and that we're headed in the direction we envisaged.

What are some of the highlights of U of T's sustainability journey thus far?

In terms of specific initiatives, we struggled to narrow down the ones to list on our five-year milestone map in the 2022 report because we had so many developments to celebrate.

One example is the introduction of the sustainability pathways program, which clusters courses and co-curricular activities with a common theme of sustainability to allow students to explore the subjects from various perspectives. When fully mature, the program will offer every student at the ��Ƶ the opportunity to gain from and be recognized for their sustainability learning, engagement experience and their leadership skills. The scholar tier is already available to most undergraduate students at U of T on two of the three campuses and in the largest faculties.

We also have a database of Campus as a Living Lab projects and an inventory of courses that provide students, partners and staff with the opportunity to experiment and contribute to real-world pressing sustainability and climate solutions and to build on the foundation of others.

We've introduced the Climate Positive Campus plan to have the St. George campus reduce more emissions than it emits by 2050 – and we've already made rapid progress. That’s a pretty exciting thing that’s attracting a lot of attention and some new partners, including the Canada Infrastructure Bank.

The Scarborough campus is host of SDGs @ U of T, a proposed Institutional Strategic Initiative working to advance the 17 Sustainable Development Goals outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. We have a very wide range of faculty members doing research around the SDGs at U of T and the initiative has exciting plans to connect interdisciplinary expertise and leadership to relevant work on every single one of the 17 goals.

U of T Mississauga will be launching a scholar program this fall, and already hosts the master of science in sustainability management program. Around the world, business schools are often criticized for not really taking the realities of sustainability into account when teaching future leaders. This master's program really takes that to heart by training people not just to be skilled managers, but also sustainability agents and leaders.

How will U of T build on this progress in the years ahead?

Whenever you start something new at a large university like U of T, you first need to plant “a thousand flowers,” as CECCS co-chair John Robinson says, then help them grow and branch out. We've built initiatives that are already centres of activity on campus – and that are making an impact. We now need to focus on fostering further growth – bringing in more members of our community, broadening our reach and scaling initiatives so that they're more widely accessible.

At the United Nation’s COP27 climate conference, U of T co-convened a meeting of university networks that collectively represented more than 900 institutions from around the world. We realized that if global universities partner and collaborate we can drive climate action at a different scale and make a real impact on pressing climate issues. I think you’re going to see a lot more coming out of this area of our work.

What specific initiatives can we look forward to at U of T this year?

For students, we’re really excited about the recent launch of the sustainability citizen program, one of the three tiers in the sustainability pathways program, which recognizes students for sustainability-related co-curricular activities. The goal is to give students, regardless of what degree they’re pursuing, a chance to engage in sustainability issues at their own pace with more opportunities for experiential and interdisciplinary learning and engagement. We will also pilot the leader tier of the sustainability pathways program, which will support students become agents of change and leaders in sustainability after they leave the university.

And we have our annual Adams Sustainability Celebration, which recognizes sustainability impact being made by students, faculty and staff and an Innovation Prize Pitch Competition on March 3 at Hart House when six teams vie for $25,500 in prizes.

For emerging scholars, we’ll have a transdisciplinary co-production workshop focusing on research and developing solutions to real-world research problems in partnership with community members, governments or businesses.

We also, of course, have more and more coming out to the Climate Positive Campus plan, including an air travel emissions initiative launching any day now from the Sustainability Office at U of T St. George.

What role do you expect universities to play in the years to come?

The next step is really thinking creatively about what is needed and what we could do better together. In Egypt, we had representatives from over 900 universities from around the world. How do we really activate our collective potential in a way that hasn’t been done before and moves the dial on climate action? How can we engage more actively to advance the implementation of climate goals across all sectors and parts of society, including but not limited to national government policy?

One of the real strengths that came out in those conversations is that universities like the ��Ƶ are very sought-after partners. We are test-driving physical climate solutions and new financial instruments on campus, we are thinking about how to influence financial flows to address the climate challenge, we are actively developing new climate-proof technologies and have extensive expertise across so many fields. We have super active and engaged students that are helping to shine the light in the right direction. And we have a real interest in doing what we can to facilitate impact through our combined assets in ways that drive toward a better future for all.

Student-run program helps redirect surplus food to those in need

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 26 Apr 2022 15:02:56 +0000

Student-run program helps redirect surplus food to those in need

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 04/26/2022 - 11:02

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Ana Laura Noda González, a second-year student, is co-leading the U of T chapter of MealCare, which partners with campus eateries and grocery stores to collect, redistribute and deliver surplus food to local shelters and meal programs (photo by David Lee)

Tina Adamopoulos

Topic

Our Community

Adams Sustainability Celebration

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Entrepreneurship

Faculty of Arts & Science

Upon moving to Toronto, Tamara Altarac and Ana Laura Noda González were shocked by the mountain of food thrown away every day in Canada’s largest city – even as many residents face ongoing barriers to food access.

“Coming to the city, I got to see how people interact with food here and how it is taken for granted,” says Altarac, who is studying criminology and cognitive science at the ��Ƶ.

She adds that it is a similar story on campus, where “I saw a similar pattern as in the wider city.”

So, she and Noda – both second-year undergraduate students in the Faculty of Arts & Science – sought a way to tackle the problem.

Enter MealCare, a non-profit organization whose mission is to decrease food waste and fight food insecurity in Canada. MealCare teams up with partners such as campus cafeterias, restaurants and grocery stores to collect, redistribute and deliver surplus edible food to shelters and soup kitchens, while ensuring food safety. Volunteers also sort, weigh and record food waste data to help businesses track waste-management and their weekly, monthly and yearly trends.

The initiative was originally founded by Sanchit Gupta and Milton Calderon Donefer when they were first-year undergraduate students at McGill University. Similar to Altarac and Noda, the two co-founders wanted to build a sustainable solution while helping people in need.

“We wanted to address these two large social issues of food waste and insecurity,” says Gupta, who is now operations lead at MealCare and a second-year medical student in U of T’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

“In having conversations with other large-scale food donations companies like Second Harvest, we found that there is still a gap in cutting food waste for small and medium-sized grocery stores and university cafeterias.”

One in seven Canadians face food insecurity, yet a study for Second Harvest found that nearly $49.5 billion worth of food is wasted annually in this country – enough to feed every person living in Canada for five months. MealCare is hoping to break this cycle by ensuring surplus food doesn’t end up in landfills – and by building awareness about how Canadians can reduce their food waste footprint through workshops and events.

“MealCare is providing a meaningful solution by contributing to sustainability while helping people find food security, a basic human right,” says Noda, a 2020 Pearson Scholar from the Faculty of Arts & Science who will lead U of T’s MealCare chapter with Altarac.

“We also want to spread awareness and education about how to maintain practices to reduce waste – and it's all a community effort.”

MealCare recently took home the top $10,000 award from the Adams Sustainability Innovation Prize Competition. The annual competition – which offers $25,500 in prizes and is part of the annual Adams Sustainability Celebration – was established to fuel U of T start-up companies that present innovative solutions to sustainability. The second-place $7,500 prize in the competition went to Arbre, an environmentally-friendly sun care brand producing dry shampoo for all hair types. The $5,000 third-place prize was scooped up by the Yayra-Si Youth Foundation, an early-stage NGO which seeks to empower women and youth in Ghana with equal access to economic, educational and health development through the manufacture of Banana Fiber Bags, a sustainable alternative to plastic bags.

The three $1,000 runner-up prizes, meanwhile, were awarded to: Reper Technologies, which turns post-consumer plastic waste into polyethylene precursors, providing waste collectors with landfill alternatives for contaminated plastic waste and plastics manufacturers with recycled material identical to virgin plastics; BioBlends Diesel Solutions, a biofuels and diesel company providing Albertan farmers with high-quality recycled fuels at discounted prices; and Lente, a one-stop-shop for ethically produced slow-fashion brands.

As for MealCare, the startup has delivered more than 50,000 meals to people in need since inception – and continues to function in the midst of a global pandemic. The initiative is operated by more than 100 student volunteers at universities in eight cities in Ontario and Quebec.

“We decided to create hubs around universities and leverage young talent who are passionate about these issues and want to address them in their local communities,” Gupta says.

Altarac and Noda are building a team of volunteers to help operate the project before expanding to U of T Scarborough and U of T Mississauga.

The pair have already secured a partnership with U of T Food Services and hope to secure another one with the ��Ƶ Students’ Union (UTSU). That, in turn, would allow them to create a program that will see surplus food donated back to the U of T community, including the U of T Emergency Food Bank.

The university’s food bank currently provides fresh food to 50 students per week – but Altarac and Noda want to help more people.

“We believe we can help expand this program,” Altarac says.

From the university’s perspective, the MealCare partnership is part of a broader U of T effort to contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and build a sustainable, climate positive St. George campus. By addressing the often invisible – and stigmatized – barrier of food insecurity among students and reducing hunger, MealCare is helping contribute to the second SDG of zero hunger.

“When MealCare approached us, it was an important opportunity to work with a student-led organization on campus that would address something that is real and happening in our community, which is food insecurity,” says Colin Porter, executive director of U of T’s ancillary services.

“Food Services continues to look at how we can play our part in building towards a climate-positive campus and this is one for us in terms of reducing our environmental impact and salvaging food for its intention – to feed people.”

MealCare plans to use the money raised through the Adams Sustainability Innovation Prize to develop analytics software for food vendors to track their food waste efforts. It also hopes to expand into eight new cities and grow the footprint of its current chapters – including at U of T.

To that end, the Toronto-based team will purchase essential equipment for handling and transporting food, including packaging, coolers and backpacks.

As Altarac and Noda work to launch MealCare’s U of T chapter, they are already thinking about its potential long-term impact.

“The main thing we want to do is establish a sustainable relationship with the university and make a difference, not just on campus but in the city,” Altarac says.

“The goal is to look back years from now and know we’ve made a difference.”

Adams Sustainability Celebration 2022: Four key events focused on building a sustainable future at U of T

rahul.kalvapalle — Tue, 22 Feb 2022 21:20:40 +0000

Adams Sustainability Celebration 2022: Four key events focused on building a sustainable future at U of T

rahul.kalvapalle Tue, 02/22/2022 - 16:20

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(Photo by Johnny Guatto)

Rahul Kalvapalle

Topic

Our Community

Adams Sustainability Celebration

Climate Positive Campus

Sustainable Development Goals

Climate Change

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Faculty of Arts & Science

Undergraduate Students

From innovative ideas to climate positive plans, the ��Ƶ’s institution-wide focus on sustainability will be in the spotlight over the next few months during the annual Adams Sustainability Celebration.

The event, hosted by the President’s Advisory Committee on the Environment, Climate Change and Sustainability (CECCS), runs until April and aims to recognize the university’s progress on sustainability-related issues, envision its future and mobilize sustainability-minded students, faculty and staff across the three campuses.

President Meric Gertler said he is looking forward to a “productive and inspiring” celebration that will highlight success stories and inspire new initiatives.

“Universities have a crucial role to play in responding to the climate crisis,” President Gertler said in a video message. “This extends across every aspect of our mission – research, education and innovation – and across every discipline, in the sciences, humanities, social sciences and professions.

“Members of the U of T community have a lot to be proud of as global champions of this truly vital cause.”

He went on to highlight U of T’s many achievements on the sustainability front, including the commitment to divest from all direct investments in fossil fuel companies within the next 12 months, and the detailed plan to make the St. George campus climate positive by 2050.

He also thanked CECCS both for organizing the Adams Sustainability Celebration and for its central role in driving U of T’s progress in recent years.

In a separate video message, CECCS Co-Chair John Robinson noted U of T is taking steps to expand its sustainability pathways program so that more students will have the opportunity to “be an agent of change in their respective workplace and in society after graduation,” regardless of their programs.

A professor in the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy and in the School of the Environment, Robinson encouraged students to check out the Adams Sustainability Celebration event schedule and thanked donor Wendy Adams, whose support made the Adams Sustainability Celebration possible.

This year’s program comprises an array of events, including panel discussions on key sustainability issues such as divestment and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, virtual showcases and student group exhibits. It culminates with the Adams Sustainability Innovation Prize pitch competition, which offers $25,500 in prizes to reward and accelerate innovative sustainability ideas. The March 31 event will also see the awarding of $30,000 in faculty and student grants to support sustainability-related coursework and projects. The deadline to apply for the Adams Sustainability Innovation Prize as well as the faculty and student grants is Feb. 28.

Ron Saporta, U of T’s chief operations officer, property services and sustainability and co-chair of CECCS, said he hopes the Adams Sustainability Celebration inspires community members to come up with new activities, build relationships and deepen their engagement around sustainability issues.

“We’re building a sustainable future, and the university is uniquely positioned to play a leadership role when it comes to developing research, innovation and the leaders of tomorrow that will meet the climate change challenge,” Saporta said in the video message.

He added that U of T is actively reducing its carbon footprint through more efficient buildings and infrastructure.

“Innovation is very much what we do and ingrained in our plans moving forward.”

Here are four key events to look forward to as the Adams Sustainability Celebration gets underway:

From 17 Rooms to SDG Booms

Feb. 23, 3 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

This panel discussion will introduce the actions adopted by U of T since the 17 SDG Rooms event held in Dec. 2020, which featured discussions around how to advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals at the university.

The discussion will feature an overview of the original event followed by an in-depth exploration of initiatives, including the SDG Institutional Strategic Initiative, the U of T Scarborough 17 Rooms event, the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings and more.

The panel will end with a Q&A that invites members of the audience to discover the various SDG-centred methods U of T has adopted to respond to the imperative change necessitated by the goals and work towards achieving a sustainable future.

Speakers:

Amanda Harvey-Sánchez (moderator) – PhD candidate and CECCS member
Nicola Foster – associate director, sustainable development, Office of the Vice-President, Research & Innovation
Patricia Escobar – sustainability manager, sustainability office, U of T Scarborough
Simon Pratt – director, research strategy and excellence, Office of the Vice-President, Research & Innovation
Gwen Burrows – executive director, international, Office of the Vice-President, International

U of T Leading the Way on Climate Change with the Climate Positive Plan

March 2, 2 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.

This panel discussion will involve an overview of the Climate Positive Plan, released last fall, which includes a commitment to achieving climate positivity (or net negative emissions) on the St. George campus by 2050.

It will also address details about the plan’s execution, research perspectives from the Climate Positive Energy Institutional Strategic Initiative, and details from representatives of the U of T Scarborough and U of T Mississauga campuses on how their initiatives will complement the vision of climate positivity.

Speakers:

Ron Saporta (moderator) – chief operations officer, Property Services & Sustainability
David Sinton – Climate Positive Energy ISI lead; professor, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering
Marc Couture – director, sustainability and energy management, Facilities & Services
Jeff Miller – director, facilities management and capital projects, U of T Scarborough
Ahmed Azhari – director, utilities and sustainability, U of T Mississauga

Fossil Fuel Divestment: What Comes Next?

March 30, 10:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.

This student-initiated panel will be an opportunity to build connections between students, faculty, staff, and other community members who care about the impact of U of T’s investments on the environment.

The discussion will celebrate the landmark commitment to divest endowments from the fossil fuel industry, discuss the role of university endowments and pensions in creating new norms for responsible investing and explore next steps for the university and the divestment movement. It will be followed by a Q&A with audience members.

Speakers:

Amanda Harvey-Sánchez (moderator) – PhD candidate and CECCS member
Patrick DeRochie – senior manager, Shift Action for Pension Wealth and Planet Health
Rivka Goetz – fourth-year undergraduate student, divestment organizer, Leap U of T
Matthew Hoffman – professor, Faculty of Arts & Science; member of Divestment & Beyond
Rebecca Sinclair – research and policy analyst, Indigenous Climate Action

Adams Sustainability Innovation Prize pitch competition and awards ceremony

Mar. 31, 1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Candidates shortlisted for the Adams Sustainability Innovation Prize will present five-minute videos followed by a five-minute Q&A with a panel of judges to compete for $25,500 in prizes.

The event will also include the announcement of the winners of the Adams Sustainability Faculty Grants and Adams Sustainability Student Grants, totaling $30,000; and the tri-campus Sustainable Action Awards, featuring $300 in gift card awards and $200 in donations to sustainability organizations chosen by the winners.

The deadline to apply for the Adams Sustainability Innovation Prize, Faculty Grants, Student Grants and Sustainable Action Awards is Feb. 28 at 11:59 p.m.

Those interested in attending these and other virtual live panels are asked to register at the Adams Sustainability Celebration website.