Randy McLean (left) of Toronto Community Foundation, David Bell and Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone

(Y-File, May 28) David Bell, York professor emeritus in the Faculty of Environmental Studies, has been honoured with a Green Toronto Award for individual leadership. The immediate past Chair of Downsview Park, a former dean of York’s Faculty of Environmental Studies and a York alumnus (BA ’65), Bell was one of 10 award recipients named by Mayor David Miller and Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone at a ceremony May 1.

Bell won in the Leadership category sponsored by the Toronto Community Foundation. Each award winner received $5,000 to donate to the environmental organization of their choice, courtesy of the award sponsors. Bell plans to donate his prize to Learning for a Sustainable Future, the educational organization which he currently chairs.

The 2007 Green Toronto Awards program, which honours local environmental efforts and achievements, received 178 nominations. A large panel of judges selected three organizations or individuals as the finalists in each of the 10 award categories, then selected the winners, who were announced at the event.

“It is fair to say that Dr. David Bell, through his guidance as Chair of the board at Downsview Park, and his immense involvement and influence in the field of sustainability, has helped to chart the direction for the future growth of Downsview Park,” said Tony Genco, president & CEO of the park – and a former student of Bell’s – in his nomination letter.

Bell was Chair of the board of Downsview Park from 2003 to 2006. He served as a member of the executive committee of the National Round Table on the Environment and Economy (NRTEE) from 2003-2006. Bell founded the York Centre for Applied Sustainability in 1996 and was its director until 2003; the centre has now evolved into the York University Institute for Research & Innovation in Sustainability (IRIS). In addition to being Chair of Learning for a Sustainable Future, Bell is co-chair of the Education Alliance for a Sustainable Ontario and of the National Education for Sustainable Development Expert Council.

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We are pleased to announce that York University Professor Peter Victor has been elected to the Board of Directors of the David Suzuki Foundation (they have a very useful website, at www.davidsuzuki.org). Dr. Victor is with the Faculty of Environmental Studies, applying his Ph.D. in Economics (University of British Columbia) to a variety of issues central to ecological economics, including: measures of progress (i.e. revising the national income accounts, ecological footprinting); measuring the full cost of companies and their products; and simulating the prospects for renewable energy and conservation to smooth out the transition away from dependency on oil. Dr. Victor is also on the Executive board of IRIS.

Congratulations, Peter!

Including a new Director and expanded facilities for student use

“I wanted the job,” says Bazely, “because, as an ecologist, everything I do is about understanding how to manage ecosystems in ways that will sustain them into the future.” She also sees her three-year appointment as a chance for York “to show the world how to use true interdisciplinary collaboration to make sustainability real and give York’s interdisciplinary branding guts and legs.”

Over the past 25 years, Bazely has done field research in many ecosystems, including arctic tundra, sub-arctic and temperate salt-marshes, deciduous forests, temperate managed grasslands and prairies and her research findings on white-tailed deer and lesser snow geese have informed wildlife and conservation management in Canada. In 2003 she published a book on the ecology and control of invasive plants with Judy Myers of the University of British Columbia.