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Collaborative Initiatives with the United Nations

The Centre for Environment has recently been involved in two new collaborative United Nations initiatives: one with the City of Toronto and other local organizations, and another with the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Education Alliance for a Sustainable Toronto (EAST)

A JOINT INITIATIVE FROM 2006 TO 2009


By Tim Welsh and Ingrid Leman Stefanovic

For more information the United Nations University world-wide Regional Centre of Expertise network, please visit  www.ias.unu.edu/sub_page.aspx?catID=108&ddlID=183

The Education Alliance for Sustainable Toronto (EAST) began in 2006 as a joint initiative between the Centre for Environment, the United Nations University, the City of Toronto, and several other local organizations.  This unique partnership was created to further the mandate of the United Nations' Decade for Education for Sustainable Development.  One of the key resolutions put forth by the UN was the establishment of a worldwide network of Regional Centres of Expertise (RCEs) to promote local sustainability education.  The EAST partnership was created to address this need, and to "empower students, the general public, and professionals to transform the Toronto region into a sustainability-oriented society" and was co-chaired by Ingrid Leman Stefanovic (Director, Centre for Environment) and Roy Paluoja (Chair, Centre for the Built Environment, Seneca College). 

EAST has been engaged in a number of projects including:

  • A comprehensive survey of over 400 local organizations offering Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) programs, which identified areas of concern: a general lack of focus on the links between ESD and environmental justice/poverty alleviation issues, a specific lack of training directed towards the social services sectors, a need for more online training modules.
  • Best Practices Case Studies. A Centre for Environment undergraduate student compiled several case studies identifying ESD initiatives within the Toronto area.
  •  An online "Sustainability Map" (www.toronto.ca/livegreen). Some work began under the auspices of RCE; it has been completed through the Toronto's "Live Green" initiative.

  • A Toronto RCE website (no longer active). Imran Hasan, then IT Manager at the Centre for Environment, led the design and development of this comprehensive website detailing the RCE's activities. It continues to be a useful hub for links to local green organizations and initiatives, and for information about the UN Decade for Education for Sustainable Development project in general.

As the Co-Chairs' term wound up this year and the formal Memorandum of Understanding expired, there was a general consensus among the Steering Committee members that a formal RCE designation was not bringing significant added value to the collaborative relationships already in existence amongst participants.  For this reason, we decided to draw the initiative to a close, while recognizing the need to maintain the website for communication and networking purposes for the time being.  The working relationships that developed out of this project continue to be vital, and individual stakeholders are currently in the process of re-assessing how their shared expertise can best serve the community.

Tim Welsh is a former Research Coordinator at the Centre for Environment.  Ingrid Leman Stefanovic is former Director of the Centre for Environment.

For a previous article (January 2008) on Toronto RCE survey of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) programs in the Toronto region, please visit: http://www.environment.utoronto.ca/News/SurveyEducationSustainableDevelopmentprograms.aspx

 

United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity

In 2007, the Centre for Environment signed on as a member of a collaborative agreement between the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity of the United Nations Environment Programme and Canadian universities and research centres.  Ratified at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit by 150 government leaders, the Convention on Biological Diversity is dedicated to promoting sustainable development.  Through stronger collaboration with the academic and research community, the Secretariat aims to enhance the quality of scientific and technical advice in the Convention’s work and the implementation of policy directives.      

For more information on the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, please visit http://www.cbd.int/.