As reported by the Bradford West Gwillimbury Times, on March 26, 2010 at the lovely Club at Bond Head (which didn’t look this good in March).
South Simcoe launched their Green Economy Transition Centre. The South Simcoe Green Economy Transition Centre will be a centre of excellence for local businesses and a model for communities throughout Canada. A partnership representing all levels of government, businesses and universities, led by York University, the Centre will provide up-to-date research and resources to companies, residents, non-profits and the public sector within South Simcoe. Businesses will be helped to reduce costs and become more competitive in an increasingly global market. Leaner and greener, companies capitalizing on the Centre’s resources will be more efficient and, therefore, more profitable, while reducing their environmental footprint.
Nottawasaga Futures was last seen in this blog post on January 7, when ResearchImpact York and Nottawasaga announced their collaboration on this exciting green initiative. On March 26, ResearchImpact York’s David Phipps and Michael Johnny were accompanied by FES Students Michael Weaver (who was accompanied by his supervisor Mark Winfield) and Susan Swail who talked about their research with South Simcoe partners and presented posters at the ResearchImpact booth.
York will support the Green Economy Transition Centre by linking local business and municipalities to research and expertise to help green decisions. Working through the MITACS Accelerate program (which supports Susan Swail), graduate student interns will have the opportunity to work with businesses who are seeking ways to go green. York has over 130 researchers working in diverse aspects of climate change. Multiply that by the five other ResearchImpact universities and South Simcoe will have potentially over 700 university researchers available to provide research to South Simcoe.
York was happy to share the podium with South Simcoe municipal and provincial politicians, local businesses and Hartford Murdoch. We heard from the decision makers of today and then we heard from Hartford, a future decision maker. As past president of YNOT (Youth Nottawasaga), he represented the youth voice in South Simcoe and made a passionate case for investing in the environment in which he will be living tomorrow. Hartford has already starting to make good decisions. He starts his undergrad at York in September.
This is an excellent opportunity for academic researchers and graduate students to put their research to use. This is an excellent opportunity for York to partner with one of its local communities. This is an excellent opportunity for South Simcoe to GET ahead of the curve in green business.
Oh and Hart, drop by and visit the KMb Unit when you arrive on campus in September.
