Environmental Applied Science and Management

Restoration, replenishment or respite- we all have words that indicate how we like to retreat and ‘fill our cup’ to be ready for the next day. We know that spending time in nature helps calm our minds and improve our response to stress and expectations. We even bring nature indoors through biophilic design, recognizing that images of nature can have a similar effect. Restoration is also part of our daily cycle of coming home. This idea of replenishment and renewal begins and ends our day in the comfort of our homes. Keeping our homes safe and healthy supports our advocacy for our own well-being.

There are very exciting new clean technologies being developed - solar and wind power, battery storage and electric vehicles – but the solution to the climate crisis might just be some boring, unsexy accounting tools like Internal Carbon Pricing.

Have you ever thought about where all the materials used to keep surgical instruments sterile end up? The reality is that hospitals generate massive amounts of waste, much of it from the sterilization process. Many hospitals currently rely on polypropylene wrap (a type of plastic) to keep surgical tools clean and safe. Some of this wrap is reusable, but much of it is single-use—meaning it's used once and then discarded. Given that hospital operating rooms alone produce up to a third of a hospital’s total waste, it’s clear that a better system is needed. That’s where hard case sterilization containers come in. These reusable aluminum and metal containers could be a game-changer, slashing waste and even saving hospitals money in the long run. But are they really as effective as the traditional sterilization wraps? That’s what my research aims to find out, using Sunnybrook Hospital as a case study.

In Canada, about 30% of people depend on groundwater as a source of drinking water, whereas 80% of rural Canadians depend on it for the same purpose. Due to rapid industrialization and the invention of new chemicals, our environment is constantly contaminated with these new chemicals — one of the most critical emerging contaminants is Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).