2013 Winners
Western celebrated its sixth annual Green Awards Ceremony this past April. The Green Awards recognize contributions to sustainability on campus and help raise awareness about great initiatives, projects or habits. Each year, one to three individuals or groups who work or study at Western are recognized.
Winners
Tom Cull – Thames River Rally
Tom Cull created and runs an organization called Thames River Rally. This organization, which is in its second year, holds monthly rallies to clean up garbage in and along the Thames River.
Thames River Rally has removed an impressive - and troubling - amount of garbage from the river. Tom and the Rally volunteers have also picked up hundreds of used needles from the river and its banks. Based on Tom’s appeals, the City of London is, with the London-Middlesex Health Unit, considering a program to install safe needle disposal sites under bridges on the river.
Tom has helped to raise public awareness about the importance and health of the Thames River, a vital part of Western’s campus.
Gideon Bell – Environmental Commissioner, Huron University College
Gideon has worked tirelessly to try and get students involved in environmental initiatives. He has teamed up with EnviroWestern for a tree planting event in September, spent two summers building and growing a beautiful Reading Garden at Huron that students and faculty can enjoy, threw a fundraiser in support of ReForest London and Friends of the Coves, organized events for three days in late January to support environmental sustainability and he has engaged in discussion with administration at Huron in order to provide feedback and ideas that the College can use to improve environmental awareness and sustainability on campus.
Gideon has made it his personal mission to bring a greater focus to the environment at Huron.
Irena Creed – Great Lakes Futures Project
Dr. Irena Creed is the creator and co-lead of an initiative called the Great Lakes Futures Project which truly exemplifies and celebrates Western University’s leadership in sustainability, international excellence and engagement, trans-disciplinary research and innovative thinking. This project, involving academics, government, non-government organizations, industry, and private citizens, in both Canada and the United States, will forge consensus on the desired future of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Basin. The effort will analyze the future that current policy is leading towards and, if different, construct actionable recommendations to bring public policies closer to achieving socio-ecological sustainability in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Basin. The actions of Dr. Creed aim to develop a holistic vision for the Basin and the tools to move towards a socio-ecologically sustainable future for the entire Great Lake-St. Lawrence River Basin, a precious resource that the Western University community, the inhabitants of Southern Ontario, the Basin and by extension the world, rely upon.
