Quantifying Economic, Environmental and Social Sustainability Impacts of organizations and initiatives is challenging, particularly for the environmental and social legs. Enviro-Stewards recently introduced a shared savings based project approach in addition to its conventional (lump sum) based service approach. Quantification of impacts is particularly relevant to the shared savings approach wherein, Enviro-Stewards’ compensation is based […]

While we know how many mobile phones get recycled through the Recycle My Cell program in Canada, we know much less about the ones that don’t make it into these type of take-back programs. Over the past few years academic research on the topic of mobile phone waste has increased dramatically, although a recent study […]

The Aboriginal housing situation in Canada is in crisis with a lack of culturally and environmentally appropriate housing. A Participatory Approach towards Housing Solutions (PATHS) Framework has been developed that recognizes and visualizes the strengths and limitations of communities, and assesses pathways with which they may achieve their housing goals. Communities are actively engaged in […]

Projected climate change is expected to alter fire regimes across the boreal forest, which in turn will affect forest community structure, composition and diversity. The intern will examine the effects of changes in climate, and by extension, fire cycle, on the presence of three most common tree species in the boreal forest of Canada. Specifically, […]

The research includes the development of a device that will measure the water content in soils. This device will be pushed into the soil and will provide a reading related to the volume of water stored within the soil. The device senses the dielectric properties of the soil, properties that are strongly controlled by the […]

There is growing pressure from intergovernmental organizations, governments and consumers to reduce the quantity of greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere. Investments in green technology such as renewable energy sources, battery technology and carbon capture and sequestration can often yield significant reductions in carbon emissions. However, the corresponding economic costs of these projects can […]

In boreal and temperate regions, dams are mainly constructed to provide ecosystem services such as hydroelectricity production. River impoundment and the alteration of natural hydrological regimes are suggested to be major disturbances to aquatic ecosystems. To meet long-term environmental objectives for sustainable development, Hydro-Quebec recently adopted the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach. LCA is an […]

The number of children being driven to school has substantially increased over the past few decades—fewer children are walking or bicycling to school. There is good evidence to suggest that programs promoting walking or cycling to school may increase physical activity in children’s lives. With limited funds available, it is important to document the effectiveness […]

Dynamic Systems Analysis develops and markets dynamic modeling tools like ProteusDS to predict the behavior of mechanical systems in service in the ocean and marine environments. ProteusDS relies on empirical loading coefficients to predict system loads to calculate the dynamic response of mechanical systems. DSA sees a growth opportunity to apply ProteusDS to predict dynamic […]

Many reservoir engineering studies are based on simplified equations to analyze the production data. However, in many situations such as shale gas reservoirs, these approaches cannot provide the accurate results in presence of non-homogeneous complexities. This project is aimed to use numerical simulation and novel workflows to tackle the limitations of the current analytical methods. […]

There is an urgent need to develop and evaluate an affordable, reliable, real-time variable rate smart sprayer, using affordable sensors/cameras and controllers for spot-specific application of agrochemicals in the wild blueberry cropping system. The main objective of this project is to evaluate the performance of the developed smart sprayer for spot-applications of agrochemicals in wild […]

As one of the oldest forms of agriculture, apiculture (i.e. beekeeping) plays an essential role in contributing to people’s livelihoods and the survival of the environment. However, beekeepers are faced with challenges such as Colony Collapse Disorders (CCD), swarming (queen bee leaving with the majority of the worker bees), and queen loss. Unfortunately a constant […]