McMaster hosts international meeting of the minds on sustainable policy leadership

Future leaders from postsecondary institutions around the world have put their heads together to share ideas about tackling the escalating climate crisis during this year’s U21 School for Sustainable Policy Leadership programming at McMaster. The global program, hosted by the university between July 13 and 17, brought international postgraduate students from diverse academic backgrounds to [...] Read More... The post McMaster hosts international meeting of the minds on sustainable policy leadership appeared first on McMaster News .

Future leaders from postsecondary institutions around the world have put their heads together to share ideas about tackling the escalating climate crisis during this year’s U21 School for Sustainable Policy Leadership programming at McMaster. The global program, hosted by the university between July 13 and 17, brought international postgraduate students from diverse academic backgrounds to McMaster for an immersive experience focused on sustainability, leadership and policy innovation. Students received practical exposure to real-world sustainability challenges and solutions through activities like workshops, field visits, case study analyses, collaborative projects and keynote lectures like “Canada’s Thermal Energy Transition: Warming Communities with Waste Heat” by Jim Cotton, professor of Mechanical Engineering.

“Changing regulatory standards is probably the biggest roadblock to innovation,” said Cotton, who is also CEO of the engineering startup Harvest Systems , which helps restaurants turn waste heat into sustainable energy solutions. He said Canada has a prime opportunity to learn from other countries that have already implemented infrastructure for thermal networks that reduce carbon emissions and energy costs by recycling waste heat. Currently, Canada has just over 200 thermal networks in place, making up only 2.2 per cent of the country’s existing heating supply, but Europe has more than 6,000 of these types of systems serving over 100 million people.

The challenge, Cotton explained, is that it is not possible to meet increasing energy demands through electrical grid expansions alone. He said Ontario has more than double the resources to meet heating demand through existing waste heat if governments and private entities could be swayed into pursuing thermal networks, but said there is often hesitation from regulatory bodies when it comes to adopting new technology. “We were taking a risk 60 years ago when we built the McMaster Nuclear Reactor (MNR) and think about how many people’s lives it has saved; in particular, people with prostate cancer,” said Cotton.

“Think about all of the research going into new isotope production because of that risk.” Throughout the week, students from 14 postsecondary institutions within the U21 network heard from a wide variety of McMaster experts and gained experiential learning in settings like the MNR, McMaster Carbon Sink Forest, and Six Nations Polytechnic in Brantford. They also partook in a case study competition evaluating the pathway to McMaster achieving a net-zero carbon campus.

McMaster is the only Canadian institution that is a part of the U21 network and is uniquely positioned as a meeting ground for conversations about global efforts toward a sustainable future, said Maureen McDonald, provost and vice-president (Academic). “The challenges of sustainability are too complex for any one discipline, institution or country to solve alone,” MacDonald said. “This program challenged students to tackle a real sustainability issue facing our campus, while learning from experts in engineering, business, health sciences, social sciences and Indigenous knowledge.”

“That’s how meaningful solutions are developed, by bringing together diverse perspectives that can be adapted and scaled well beyond McMaster.” Planetary health and the intersection of climate, policy, economics and human well-being was the thread connecting the week’s events, highlighting the ways in which cross-disciplinary research is integral to sustainability goals. “Interdisciplinary collaboration is one of McMaster’s great strengths, and programs like this allow us to work with global partners to turn sustainability knowledge into practical policy leadership,” said Elkafi Hassini, associate dean at the DeGroote School of Business.

Learning more about how McMaster is advancing sustainability research in different areas was an illuminating part of the program, said Master of Global Health candidate Ravital Kofman, whose passion for sustainable health care helped her forge connections with her fellow student participants. She also appreciated the opportunity to learn about different health policy and leadership approaches, comparing and contrasting the shared sustainability challenges between public and privatized health-care systems. “A new insight I have gained is that it can be hard to sway public opinion and persuade people to favour something new — something different,” said Kofman.

“It’s important to remember that the tough part may not only be coming up with a feasible solution, but also convincing people to adopt it.” The post McMaster hosts international meeting of the minds on sustainable policy leadership appeared first on McMaster News .