GLOBE 2020

Professor Leslie King attends GLOBE 2020 in Vancouver, BC

I attended the 30th GLOBE Forum at the Vancouver Convention Centre from February 10 to 13, 2020 and the GLOBE Innovation Showcase trade show, where we had a booth (staffed by our School of Environment and Sustainability School Manager, Erin Edwards) promoting RRU offerings especially this year the new Graduate Certificate in Science and Policy of Climate Change. Our partners in delivering the Environmental Practice programs, ECO Canada, also had a wonderful booth at the showcase graced with a living wall of broccoli which made me hungry every time I went by! The innovation showcase hosted about 125 booths dedicated to cutting edge environmental technologies and organizations such as Livable Cities and World Tree as well as Universities, countries and regions (notably, the Netherlands, Taiwan, Washington State and Ontario). My favourite was the hydrogen-powered Toyota Mirai (problematic since I could never get it fueled).

Matt Dodd, Professor in SES, also attended and test drove some of the plugin, EV cars available on site. The forum featured several talks and panels about the energy transformation and circular economies. I particularly enjoyed the “lightning talk” series including “Weathering Climate Change” by psychologist Dr. Britt Wray, “Communicating Climate: Why facts are not enough” with Dr. Katherine Hayhoe and "Designing for our Future" with Dr. Umberto Fugiglando.

Ministers, the Honourable Seamus O’Regan (Natural Resources, Canada) and the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson (Environment and Climate Change, Canada) both gave talks and later visited our booths where I button-holed them to talk about the new Climate Certificate. GLOBE has always been a little too industry-focused for me but I enjoy seeing our students, alumni and faculty there as well at the art and photography exhibits! It was a great opportunity to talk to prospective students, many of whom visited the booth and collected information about our programs, and I look forward to seeing them in the programs of the School.