(December 21, 2022) - Greater Sudbury’s regreening story is one that has captivated people from across the globe. Especially in the last three decades, Sudbury’s environmental landscape has drastically changed, demonstrating to the world how a community can achieve incredible feats in ecological recovery.
On December 19, 2022, Laurentian University student delegates, Avery Morin (Students General Association President) and Anastacia Chartrand (Environmental Sustainability Committee Chair), attended the United Nations Biodiversity Convention, COP15, with Vale Living With Lakes Director and Canada Research Chair, Dr. John Gunn. They shared the Sudbury environmental success story with international audiences who gathered in Montreal to help global communities benefit from the valuable environmental knowledge gained through our history and ongoing research.
“It was important for us to share the Sudbury story of hope at COP15,” said Dr. John Gunn. “The world is in desperate need for at least a few such positive examples of where severe environmental damage has been reversed.”
Added Morin about this experience, “I’m so proud to be a global advocate for the Laurentian community and my hometown of Greater Sudbury. The regreening story of Sudbury is an important story of hope and I am confident that our work this week can help other communities address their environmental challenges.
According to Chartrand, “It was an honour to represent a student body that values biodiversity and recognizes the need to protect it. Sharing the success of Sudbury’s landscape restoration on the final day of the COP15 conference was an inspiring message of hope for delegates as they headed home to implement strategies of their own.”
The Sudbury community-led project won the Local Honours Award from the UN when the Convention on Biological Diversity was first established and signed by 150 nations at the 1992 Earth Summit. Now and thirty years later, Sudbury was invited to share updates on the project to inspire other communities worldwide to learn and benefit from Sudbury's history and ongoing research.
About COP15:
Delegates from around the world gathered at the conference of parties to the convention on biological diversity. A wide range of stakeholders from over 190 governments gathered, including business and finance communities, academics, Indigenous People, local communities, and youth representatives, with the goal of developing strategies for the management, conservation, and protection of ecosystems and biodiversity.
About the Environmental Sustainability Committee:
The ESC is committed to assisting in the education, awareness and promotion of a campus-wide culture of sustainability. The committee is working towards carbon neutrality and restoration of Laurentian University’s campus and its lakes by 2030 in response to the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. We want to help Canada, Sudbury, and Laurentian University restore our land and water in the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss.