Created to further engage the 180 Canadian youth who attended Impact! The Co-operators Youth Conference for Sustainability Leadership; The Co-operators Foundation – Impact Fund offers financial support to spur our participants’ sustainability solutions to positively impact Canadian organizations and communities. Only students who attended the conference are eligible to apply for funding. Each grant will be [...]

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Dr. Alastair Summerlee, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Guelph quoted Nelson Mandela:“I have walked that long road to freedom. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill. One only finds that there are many more hills to climb…But I can rest only for a moment. I dare not linger [...]

There were many requests for access to the powerful presentations made during our Thursday night issues panel. Bob Willard – The Secret Benefit of Sustainable Strategies: Employee Engagement   During the Q&A session, Bob, a noted author on sustainability issues, graciously invited students to obtain a copy of his e-book: The Sustainability Champion’s Guidebook which [...]

Student Presentations Podcast Length: 1 Hour and 21 Minutes

Peter Schiefke Podcast. Length: 1 Hour

Two hundred people filled the glass cathedral-like atrium of the University of Guelph’s Science Complex yet you could have heard a pin drop as students took a moment to contemplate and take note of what inspired them most during the conference. This was the first step of the personal commitment exercise led by Chad Park [...]

“Keep thinking big and big things will happen.” That’s just one gem Peter Schiefke had to offer the participants. In his candid address, Peter outlined the challenges behind some of his most successful initiatives which include The Flag Project, Concordia Volunteer Abroad Program and the 1% Campaign. Candidly, he told stories of perseverance, hard work, [...]

“Killele. Killele. Oye, oye, killele”. The african song taught to us last night by Fule Badoe rang through the beautiful atrium and energized the early morning crowd. Lou Hammond-Ketilson of the University of Saskatchewan’s Centre for the Study of Co-operatives then took the stage.  She outlined the commitment of the organisations behind the conference. Among all partners, a [...]

Students spent the entire day crafting solutions for the problems and barriers to change they identified the previous day.  Each sector presented short and long term actions they could take to create change.  Themes that emerged from multiple sectors included better information and labeling of products helping consumers to make informed decisions, more accurate costing [...]