 Offering a land acknowledgement and welcome at the opening of the 2024 TEA Greener City Celebration. Photo: Howard Wan Something special happened to me in 2024. One year after joining the TEA (Toronto Environmental Alliance) board. I was nominated and accepted the role of Chair. Becoming Chair at TEA is somewhat of a full circle moment for me. Way, way, way back in 2001 still an Environmental Science student at University of Toronto, I took my first ever interview for my first ever environmental role. At. TEA. I didn't get the job, but that experience is a core memory for me. I have always been grateful to TEA and the work they do, interacting with them as a donor, fan, collaborator and volunteer over the years. I've known and worked with many of their staff on various projects related to waste reduction, environmental health, and climate preparedness. So, when the chance to join the board came up - that was an easy yes for me. Then just a short 12 months later I was happy to accept the role of Board Chair. With a little chuckle to myself, I thought back to that very first interview a couple of decades ago, and how far - or maybe not that far - I have come.
It should be no surprise to anyone who knows me that I enjoy board work, I was chair of Greenest City in Toronto from 2005-2009 and founding board chair of the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care from 2007-2015. Not-for-profit governance is complicated and under resourced and creative and important and loaded with brilliant people, generously offering their skills. And it's fun. Nerdy fun. But still fun. As a life long environmentalist, I consider myself very lucky. I loved my degree in physical geography and environmental science. A degree I choose after meeting, and becoming friends with Henry Kock the internationally recognized horticulturalist, known for his expertise "Growing Trees from Seed". Also the name of the book he authored. Henry was the first person to show me that work and values and having wild ideas could be a good life. He happened to leave out the part about how hard it would be to find work at first. And if Henry hadn't blown wind in my sails in those early days...I might have given up on the environment altogether and become a house painter or something. Henry wouldn't let me give up, because he knew I didn't want to give up either. And that's where luck meets determination and preparation. I didn't get that internship at TEA but I got one at University Health Network (UHN). A role that would set the direction of my life. After I graduated, with the encouragement of Henry and many others, I was committed to keep working in the environmental field. Which, at the time, meant taking odd unrelated contract jobs, factory work, teaching English and many other random things until the right position showed up. That was at the Canadian Center for Pollution Prevention where my experience at UHN made me a great fit to lead a cohort of hospitals implementing Environmental Management Systems (ISO 14001 if you know, you know). By then, six years had passed and UHN came calling. Ed Rubinstein, the visionary leader of the Energy and Environment department, who gave me that first chance as an intern, hired me back full time to double the department. To two. It has been decades, a variety of different roles and many wild ideas since then. But everything I do professionally (and personally too) has been done with Mother Earth and all her creatures in mind. Of course, the counter forces over the years; domination, extraction, colonialism have been strong and today seem stronger than ever. In many cases environmental and ecological workers have seen ecosystems, landscapes, communities, deteriorate, or worse, collapse around us, as we actively work to protect them. There is no doubt that this work has been really difficult, physically, mentally, economically, and even emotionally. Yet, here we are. Doing the work. Showing up for the environment, climate, biodiversity, each other. To carry on, we must take care of ourselves, our environmental and climate workers, land defenders, civil servants, activists, engineers, policy makers, scientists, artists, students. We must, because there are still many ways out of this mess. And the solutions aren't going to look anything like the past. Instead, this time, let's start with building relationships, connections, community bonds. It's time: to give to share to notice to be with to feel to create belonging for humans and our beyond human kin to reduce fear to believe in abundance take risks embrace the discomfort be yourself start somewhere. I was 19 years old when I met Henry Kock and decided what I would do next. Who knew that you don't have to figure out your whole life when you are 19. Instead, by focusing on the next best step, it will lead you exactly where you need to go. I was devastated when I didn't get that role at TEA. Little did I know, it opened a portal that has brought me right back to where I need to be now. It looks a little different (I look a little different). But circles have a way of taking us back to exactly what isn't quite done yet. I think it is safe to say, our environmental, ecological, climate work is not quite done yet. And I thank my lucky circles everyday, I get to do what I love in service to what matters most. Life. To donate to TEA follow this link https://www.torontoenvironment.org/donate
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