Organized by McGill’s Sustainable Growth Initiative (SGI), and funded by Gildan Activewear, the Annual Grand Challenge on Sustainability, a competition that invites interdisciplinary groups of students to develop projects and solutions addressing major societal issues, held its third edition in March.
This year’s theme, “Resilience by Design: Strengthening Climate Resilience for Coastal Communities and Commerce,” focused on the growing risks that climate change poses to coastal regions, including rising sea levels, intensifying storms and chronic flooding, all of which are serious threats to communities, infrastructure and global supply chains.
On March 17, the evening before the competition, the SGI hosted a screening of two thematically aligned documentaries at Cinéma du Parc. The program included Tuktoyaktuk: Où aller quand l’océan nous engloutit ? by Maxime Corneau, which explores climate-driven displacement in the Arctic, and All Eyes on the Water by CBC journalist Leila Beaudoin, an examination of the effects of storm surges and rising seas on Newfoundland’s coastal communities.
The challenge
Following the screenings, the five finalist teams gathered on March 18 for the day of the competition. Selected for the strength of their research and the specificity of their proposals, each team addressed a nuanced issue in coastal resilience, focusing on human systems — governance, policy, planning and collaboration — over technical engineering solutions.
Projects were evaluated based on feasibility, financial structure and community impact by a panel of judges: Leila Beaudoin of CBC Newfoundland and Labrador; Claudine Couture-Trudel of QSL, who leads ESG policy and strategy; Evan Henry of the McGill Sustainable Systems Initiative; and Mitch McEwen (MMF'20) of Wawanesa Insurance, who works on sustainability and climate resilience. Each team was to present for 15 minutes, followed by a question period.
The day began with a breakfast spread, as professionally dressed students gathered ahead of the competition. After brief introductory remarks from SGI director Brian Wenzel and associate director Adam Turcotte, the pair thanked the SGI team, giving special recognition to program officer Katie Wilson, who led the initiative. Turcotte then introduced the teams, reiterated the rules and presentations began.
The presentations
The first team to present, Lorax Speaks for the Seas, proposed a financing model to address infrastructure gaps in the Arctic, a region warming up to four times faster than the global average. They argued that limited infrastructure — where emergency response can take days instead of hours — greatly increases vulnerability. Their solution, a sovereign-backed "Polar Bond Commission," would pool public and private funding to support climate resilience, including renewable energy, search and rescue and oil spill response.
Judges questioned whether such a model could work across a vast and uneven region, and whether tying returns to reduced disaster losses might prioritize investors over communities. The team emphasized flexibility and Indigenous involvement in decision-making, while acknowledging the challenge of balancing financial and local priorities.
On Thin Ice focused on revitalizing the town and port of Churchill in northern Manitoba, positioning it as a key site for climate adaptation, economic independence and Arctic sovereignty. Their proposal linked port development to concerns about reliance on U.S. trade routes and food insecurity in northern communities. They proposed a mix of solutions, including renewable energy, climate-resilient housing and real-time monitoring systems, all co-ordinated through a Climate and Community Council with strong Indigenous leadership.
Judges questioned whether renewable energy systems could realistically operate at scale in harsh northern conditions. The team suggested integrating existing hydroelectric infrastructure in Manitoba and maintained that community and environmental priorities would guide decision-making, while acknowledging difficult trade-offs, particularly around fossil fuel involvement.
Oceans Five presented a coastal resilience strategy centred on mangrove restoration in the Philippines, focusing on the Port of Cebu, a critical hub in one of the world’s most disaster-prone regions. They proposed a hybrid system combining mangrove reforestation with submerged breakwaters to reduce wave energy and stabilize coastlines. This was supported by monitoring toolsn such as satellite data, GPS tracking and community reporting, and a financial model linking restoration to carbon credits and insurance, allowing for faster payouts after disasters.
Judges questioned whether the financial model could work in practice, particularly how carbon credits would be verified and whether meaningful returns could be achieved in a busy port environment. They also raised concerns about conflicts with tourism and land use. The team argued that combining environmental restoration with financial incentives could make the system sustainable, but acknowledged the need to balance environmental, economic and community priorities.
Seas the Opportunity, the winning team, proposed a “triangular cooperation” model linking Bangladesh and Sri Lanka through shared infrastructure, ecological restoration, and knowledge exchange, facilitated by the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSCO). Anchored in the ports of Chattogram and Colombo, the 10-year strategy emphasized a mentor-style partnership and a strong focus on South–South collaboration. It included plans for a hybrid coastal protection system – combining community-led mangrove restoration with engineered infrastructure – within a coordinated governance framework involving joint committees and international partners. The project was pitched in an innovative “skit” form, in which some of the students performed as engineers or experts from each of the ports, adding what Beaudoin called a “lovely human element” to the presentation.
Judges raised questions about the transferability of solutions between distinct environmental and political contexts, as well as how risk would be managed in the interim period before ecosystem restoration produced measurable results. There were also concerns around the durability of long-term financing structures across multiple jurisdictions. The team positioned triangular co-operation as a way to share risk, knowledge and capacity, arguing that co-ordinated implementation would strengthen resilience across both regions, even as uncertainties remained.
TrueNorth Consulting: Closing the Resilience Gap centred their proposal on Vancouver International Airport (YVR), a critical economic hub situated at sea level and increasingly exposed to climate risk. Framing resilience as a question of governance rather than engineering alone, the team identified a fundamental disconnect between who benefits from infrastructure, who pays for it and who makes decisions. Their solution, the Sea Island Resilience Compact (SIRC), proposed a layered model combining dynamic governance, long-term bond financing, a shared "digital twin" of the island and targeted infrastructure investments such as living dikes, intelligent drainage systems and hardened perimeters. Central to the framework was Indigenous co-governance, alongside a rotating structure designed to expand resilience beyond YVR to the wider region over time, supported by a "digital twin" providing real-time data to identify where and how the island requires intervention.
In discussion, judges pressed the team on how this model would differ in practice from existing governance structures, particularly given that YVR already funds its own resilience initiatives. The team argued that SIRC would fundamentally restructure incentives — shifting from fragmented, stakeholder-specific decision-making to a shared system in which responsibility, risk and returns are collectively managed. Questions also emerged around political feasibility, especially in navigating federal involvement and public resistance to large-scale funding mechanisms such as a passenger levy. The team pointed to the long-term, self-sustaining nature of the proposed resilience fund and the role of the digital twin in enabling data-driven prioritization. Ultimately, they framed the project less as a technical upgrade than as a necessary shift in how resilience is governed, positioning it as a scalable model for national adaptation.
Resilience by design: A panel
The panel discussion, moderated by Leila Beaudoin, brought together perspectives from insurance, municipal government, rail transport and port operations to explore what "resilience by design" looks like in practice. Speakers included Claudine Couture-Trudel, vice-president of ESG policy and future initiatives at QSL; Mitch McEwen, director of sustainability, climate resilience and community impact at Wawanesa Insurance; Sophie Mauzerolle, municipal councillor in L'Île-Verte and former member of Montreal's executive committee; and Sarah Favel, who leads sustainability reporting at CN.
Across sectors, panellists emphasized that climate risk is no longer abstract but immediate and systemic: what was once considered exceptional, like flooding, derailments, extreme weather, is now recurring, with impacts cascading across infrastructure, supply chains and communities. As McEwen noted, climate risk is quickly becoming "climate certainty," with rising insurance costs already reshaping who and what can be protected.
A central tension emerged around scale and coordination. While municipalities are often on the front lines – managing floods, infrastructure strain, and emergency response – they lack the financial and political leverage to act alone. At the same time, large systems such as rail and port networks face increasingly complex and unpredictable risks, from temperature-induced rail failures to shifting water levels and ecological constraints. Panellists repeatedly returned to the challenge of aligning decision-making across local, national and industry levels, with Sophie Mauzerolle describing the difficulty of balancing highly localized needs with broader strategic priorities.
The discussion also reflected a shift away from siloed thinking toward collaborative, multi-stakeholder models. Panellists pointed to growing integration between environmental, economic and social considerations, as well as increased public engagement in infrastructure decisions. Yet this shift remains uneven. While corporations are increasingly responsive to consumer and shareholder pressure around sustainability, tensions persist between long-term resilience and short-term profit, and between regulatory ambition and political feasibility. As several speakers noted, meaningful progress will likely require difficult decisions shared across governments, industries and communities.
Financing and responsibility were recurring themes in the discussion. Traditional insurance models, designed around predictable risk, are struggling to adapt to climate volatility, prompting interest in alternatives such as parametric insurance and blended finance. At the same time, panellists debated who should bear the cost of resilience — individuals, governments or private actors — highlighting the inequities embedded in current systems. As Couture-Trudel suggested, resilience is ultimately shaped by who benefits, who pays and who is protected.
Despite these challenges, the panel closed on a note of optimism, emphasizing the need for adaptability, collaboration and new ways of thinking across disciplines. For students in the room, panellists stressed the importance of communication, systems thinking and the ability to work across differences, skills as essential as technical expertise in navigating an uncertain climate future.
Award recipients
Selected from 33 initial submissions, the five finalist teams each represented a significant achievement. Prizes were awarded with support from Gildan Activewear. Oceans Five (University of Toronto) took third place, On Thin Ice (McGill) second and Seas the Opportunity (McGill) first, recognized for their triangular co-operation framework linking Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Sustainable Growth Initiative (SGI)
The SGI is dedicated to building practical, constructive, and applies solutions for key issues challenging sustainable growth. SGI was launched in 2022 as a cross-faculty partnership that presently also involves the Faculty of Law, the Department of Economics, and the Max Bell School of Public Policy, the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and the Department of Geography.
