David Suzuki anchors McGill sustainability conference

Renowned environmentalist and activist Dr. David Suzuki delivered the keynote address during the fourth annual McGill Business Conference on Sustainability, organized by McGill University's Management Undergraduate Society early this month.

"The goal of the conference was to spark and nourish interest among students in the role that business plays in the environmental and social sphere," said Sadaf Kashfi, conference co-chair, along with student Katy Wang, both students in McGill's Desautels Faculty of Management. The theme of the conference, was "Looking Backward to Move Forward."

"The idea was to look at what's been done in the past in the business world and to learn from what's worked and what hasn't to ensure a more sustainable future," explained Kashfi. "We wanted to demonstrate how business can be more environmentally friendly while still remaining profitable."

In keeping with the conference theme, Dr. Suzuki explored how evolution has given human beings the memory, curiosity and creativity to conceive and create our own future based on what we do in the present – and yet, he said, we have turned our backs on the very survival strategy that got us to where we are today.

In addition, organizers planned three full days of workshops and seminars, including seminars with Hugh Hough, partner and president of Green Team USA, on green marketing; Tom Szaky, CEO of Terracyle, on creating a company that makes products using only waste; and Derrick Blay, managing director of Environmental Standards Inc. (ESI), on the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEEDS) certification program and building green infrastructure.

The workshop leaders were James Gross, visiting professor from Cornell University, on labour policy and arbitration; McGill professor Louis Chauvin on "happiness and consumption"; Alain Ménard, co-founder of the Green Beaver Company, on the production of toxin-free cosmetics; Danny Lourenço, founder of retailer Rien à Cacher, on ethical clothing production; and Jeff Woodrow of the Joy Project, on socially conscious T-shirts that promote peace and equality.