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- [Overview](/index%2Ephp/research-and-innovation/research-projects-labs)
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- [Inclusive Design Research Centre](https://idrc.ocadu.ca/)
# Global Centre for Climate Action
Explore
- [Overview](/index%2Ephp/research-and-innovation/research-projects-labs)
- [Global Centre for Climate Action](/index%2Ephp/research-and-innovation/research-labs-centres/global-centre-climate-action)
- [Inclusive Design Research Centre](https://idrc.ocadu.ca/)
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## Climate Justice through Creative Practice
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### *A creative centre for sustainability through art, design, and research*
### Contact us
[climateaction@ocadu.ca](climateaction@ocadu.ca)
Follow us [@ocadugcca](https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com%2Focadugcca%3Figsh%3DYWR2eWUyMTNjb2M4&data=05%7C02%7Cwebsupport%40ocadu.ca%7C547ffbd18912493ce0cd08de967fa6c7%7C06e469d12d2a468fae9b7df0968eb6d7%7C0%7C0%7C639113672178926207%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=DuhY%2BbzuXRGQlK4PJQ1KleBI6qV4FDeQaB41sWEc6zc%3D&reserved=0)
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*OCAD University acknowledges the ancestral territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Haudenosaunee, the Anishinaabeg and the Huron-Wendat, who are the original owners and custodians of the land on which we live, work and create.*
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#### Who we are
The Global Centre for Climate Action (GCCA) is a research centre at OCAD University that draws on creative vision, sustainable design, and artistic practice to imagine new approaches to sustainability, climate justice, and decolonization.
We are a vibrant community of artists, designers, and scholars building cultural communities, creating arts projects, curating exhibitions, supporting creative action and research, and cultivating a global network for creative climate justice.
Our work is committed to fostering regenerative relationships between people and land and to Indigenous knowledge on sustainability. We are committed to a decolonial, social justice framework that highlights both the origins of ecological crisis and the disproportionate impacts on Indigenous and marginalized communities.
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#### What we do
We urgently need interventions that are not simply technical but that are also cultural, social and creative. We are working to create:
- A global network for research and creative practice
- Research, exhibition and programming projects
- A virtual resource for creative climate action
- A community gathering and education space
This ecosystem of physical and virtual spaces, programs, and activities will cultivate the profound cultural shifts, resilience, and creative design solutions that we urgently need to respond to the climate crisis and to amplify calls for cultural transformation.
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## News and Updates
[  
### Open call for projection artists for Nuit Blanche 2026
The call is being issued by the EU and Global Centre for Climate Action at OCAD U with a deadline of May 11.
April 9, 2026
](/index%2Ephp/news/open-call-projection-artists-nuit-blanche-2026)
[  
### Call for Applications: 2025–26 BMO Sustainable Futures Faculty Fellowship
The Global Centre for Climate Action (GCCA) is now accepting applications for the 2025–26 BMO Sustainable Futures Faculty Fellowship (SF3), made possible through the generous support of BMO.
August 8, 2025
](/index%2Ephp/news/call-applications-2025-26-bmo-sustainable-futures-faculty-fellowship)
[  
### 2024 NUIT BLANCHE: OCAD University co-presents two events that will bridge the distance between Toronto and Kenya and create connection to navigate the climate crisis
"Riparia" will transform the Canada Malting Silos into an aquatic temple with two mythical goddesses, made and performed by Lithuanian-born artist and filmmaker
September 25, 2024
](/index%2Ephp/news/2024-nuit-blanche-ocad-university-co-presents-two-events-will-bridge-distance-between-toronto)
[### Living Frames
October 8, 2026 6 p.m. - 9 p.m.Main Building & Rosalie Sharp Centre for Design (MCA)Event ](/index%2Ephp/events-and-exhibitions/living-frames-0)
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### Jana Macalik, Director, GCCA (Associate Professor, Environmental Design, Faculty of Design)
*Jana Macalik is a designer, educator, and academic leader with over 25 years of experience shaping built and cultural environments. She holds a graduate degree in Architecture from Dalhousie University and is completing a doctorate in Higher Education at the University of Toronto’s OISE, focusing on studio-based art and design schools. Jana has held several leadership roles at OCAD University, including Associate Dean of the Faculty of Design and Acting Dean of the Faculty of Art. From 2023 to 2025, she served as Interim Provost and Vice-President (Academic & Research) and then Interim President of NSCAD University. For the academic year 2025/26, she returns to OCAD University as Director of the Global Centre for Climate Action. Her creative work explores “discursive spaces” that bridge tangible and intangible forms of expression to break down societal barriers. She is LEED ID+C accredited, NCIDQ certified, and serves on the editorial board of Curator: The Museum Journal, reflecting her commitment to creative, sustainable, and inclusive learning environments.*
### Victoria Ho, Associate Director, GCCA
Victoria Ho is OCAD University’s Advisor of Strategic Sustainability, Facilities & Studio Services. Victoria’s role is to work collaboratively across disciplines and departments to embed sustainability into curriculum, building operations, and administration. Victoria researches and provides advice on the nexus of sustainability and equity, campus as a living lab approaches, and constituent engagement models to facilitate sustainability strategies, projects, and participation.
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### BMO Sustainable Futures Faculty Fellows
We're excited to introduce the 2025-26 cohort of BMO Sustainable Futures Faculty Fellows, whose work embodies the critical role art and design play in addressing the climate crisis. These fellows are advancing sustainability research across three interconnected themes: Pedagogy, Materials and Materiality, and Cultural Impact. Their projects demonstrate how interdisciplinary approaches that span multiple forms of knowledge and practice can drive meaningful change. The fellowship supports faculty in developing innovative, community-based research that leverages OCAD U's unique strengths in creative practice, cultural insight, and material innovation to tackle the root causes and cultural dimensions of environmental challenges.
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### Ursula Handleigh
***Faculty of Art***
**Ursula Handleigh** (she/her) is a Tkaronto Scarborough-born artist and educator of Filipino/a/x mixed-ancestry working within expanded photography, moving image and alternative processes of image making. While challenging traditional methods of documentation, Handleigh's practice explores questions of identity and how the role of memory, ancestral knowledge and storytelling can be used to reconstruct archives and preserve histories. In support of her research, Handleigh has received grants from the SSHRC and Canada Council for the Arts. She has participated in numerous residencies and exhibited widely in group and solo exhibitions throughout Canada and internationally including the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Harbourfront Centre and Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier21. Handleigh is currently an Assistant Professor at OCAD University.
Photography’s impact on the environment and the footprint it leaves behind is a growing global issue. Manufacturing digital cameras involve extracting and refining heavy metals and saving images on data hubs adds to technology-generated greenhouse gas emissions. Analogue photography requires environmental pollutants in the form of chemicals and uses a large amount of water in the process. Responding to the environmental impact of photography, my research asks: How can we embed sustainable and eco-conscious approaches to image making while maintaining print standards across multiple modes of Photography? Through process and material exploration with the goal of minimizing the impacts of photography, my research centres on reducing processes that rely on heavy water usage, utilizing processes with fewer, to no chemical and integrating biodegradable papers.
### Ian Clarke
***Faculty of Arts and Science***
**Ian Clarke** is an Associate Professor of sustainability and biology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the School of Graduate Studies at OCAD University. He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Queen’s University and an AOCAD (printmaking) from OCADU. He trained as a Biologist at the Design Table (BaDT) and has been a Biomimicry Education Fellow at the Biomimicry Institute. He has taught at OCAD University since 2003, was part of drafting the first OCADU Sustainability Policy, and was one of the founding Co-Chairs of the OCDU Sustainability Committee. Prior to his appointment as Associate Dean in 2013 he was also a cancer stem-cell researcher at the Arthur and Sonia Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre at the Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto). He has co-authored numerous peer reviewed scientific articles, which have received over twenty-two thousand citations, in journals such as Nature, Cancer Cell, Cancer Research, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (USA) and Cell Stem Cell. He teaches courses in biology, biotechnology, climate change and sustainability sciences. His research at OCAD University focuses on sustainable art & design materials, urban agriculture and ecology, with a specific focus on cultural adaptation to the climate crisis.
This research project will develop protocols and applications for the use of wood waste and non-edible fungal cultures as sustainable structural materials, dyes, and pigments, for both art and design practice. Most folks are familiar with the most visible part of fungi, the mushrooms, however, the non-fruiting growth of fungi is mycelium networks of fibers containing the strong water-insoluble biopolymer chitin. Many fungi have evolved to utilize the dead cellulose fibers of plant materials as a food source. The species of focus will be widely distributed and locally adapted native shelf mushrooms (polypore shelf fungi), that are not commercially grown but are best suited to produce biomaterials that can be used for non-food purposes. In collaboration with the staff at the OCADU wood studio, this research utilizes a circular economic approach, where waste materials such as sawdust & wood shavings will be used to grow fungi, where the mycelium connects, binds together, and creates strong biomaterials with a variety of useful properties for artists and designers. Students in the wood studio contribute to research-creation through this project, and this can be used as pedagogical entry into discussions of waste, creative reuse, and the circular economy.
### Michael Lee Poy
***Faculty of Design***
**Michael Lee Poy** is an Afro-Caribbean artist-activist and architect from Trinidad and Tobago and Canada. His practice and interests are centered on post-colonial Caribbean design and fabrication in the festival arts – specifically Carnival. He is currently developing pedagogy to address the absence of masquerade design, construction, and presentation in curriculum through the Carnival Architectonics course. Michael has been incubating Moko Jumbie (stilt dancer) Mascamp workshops in Trinidad, Cleveland and Toronto for the last decade. Similar to a studio learning ecosystem, mascamps are socially conscious design build fabrication laboratories for innovation. The Moko Jumbie Mascamp focuses on the sustainable design and fabrication of costumes (regalia) in a co-creative and safe environment.
The SF3 fellowship research project will investigate material sustainability, safety, and cultural heritage in Caribbean Carnival costume design and production. A central focus is the creation of an assessment framework for material composition to document and evaluate costume materials, ensuring transparency and ecological awareness. Complementing this, a material transformation resource will establish safe practices for working with Carnival materials. The project also examines sustainability criteria for costumes, foregrounding ecological, cultural, and social dimensions in Carnival. Research extends to traditional fabrication methods beyond wire bending, preserving and reimagining heritage techniques. In parallel, the project explores bio-based costume design, introducing renewable and biodegradable materials to large-scale presentation contexts. Findings and student innovations will culminate in an exhibit and performance at a GGCA event, advancing knowledge and practice in Carnival design while bridging sustainability, culture, and spectacle.
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### Research Associates
Faculty members actively engaged in climate-relevant research regardless of funding source, who demonstrate sustained commitment to the Centre's interdisciplinary approach and participate fully in governance and programming decisions.
### Nabil Harfoush
Professor, Continuing
Faculty of Design + School of Graduate Studies
Nabil Harfoush is Full Professor, founding faculty of the Strategic Foresight & Innovation master’s program, and Director of the Resilience Design Lab at OCAD University, Toronto. He is member of the Advisory Council of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Digital Science ([CiDS](https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftu-dresden.de%2Fcids&data=05%7C02%7Cwebsupport%40ocadu.ca%7Ce9aced30d5ca4684523208de9fb0f516%7C06e469d12d2a468fae9b7df0968eb6d7%7C0%7C0%7C639123779548333097%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=BM%2FWN6Yhma1y459Ytc4j7gv3UIyyM%2FSuoFfaPx%2B7Yec%3D&reserved=0)) in Germany. He taught at Harvard University's School of Engineering and Graduate School of Design and at Jefferson University. He has developed a methodology for teaching the leadership skills needed in highly diverse multidisciplinary teams solving complex problems. He is co-founder of the Strongly Sustainable Business Models Group (SSBMG) that led to the Flourishing Enterprise Institute. Nabil has founded/co-founded four companies, served as CIO of three technology companies, and has advised national governments and international organizations such as UNESCO, WHO, the World Bank and IDRC. He holds a master's in computer engineering and a PhD in data communications from Germany's TU Dresden.
**Key Publications & Creative Works:**
• Lehoux, P., Silva, H.P., Denis, J.-L., Morioka, S. N., Harfoush, N., Sabio, R.P. 'What Entrepreneurial Skillsets Support Responsible Value Creation in Health and Social Care? A mixed methods study'. Journal of Business Ethics, The Environment and Responsibility. December 2023. Wiley.
• Harfoush, N., Burelle, A., Basha, F., Rho, E., 'Exploring the Potential of Multi-Stakeholder Co-Creation Approaches in Urban Planning'. Living Cities NYC Conference 2023.
• Harfoush, N., Schindhelm, W.G., Hegazy, N., and Sharma, K. (2017) Synthesizing and Visualizing Climate Vulnerability Assessments Data for the Region of Peel. The Peel Climate Alliance.
• Bertola, P., Harfoush, N., and Vacca, F. 'Charting Interdisciplinary Innovation Programs: Map of Experiences.' Chapter in Creating Innovation Leaders: A Global Perspective. Springer, 2016. 105-123.
• Harfoush, N. 'Developing Sustainable Business Models.' Chapter in Disrupt Together: How Teams Consistently Innovate. Pearson Education, 2013. 167-178.
**LinkedIn / ResearchGate:**
https://ca.linkedin.com/in/nabilharfoush
**Website:**
[https://resiliencedesignlab.com](https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fresiliencedesignlab.com%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cwebsupport%40ocadu.ca%7Ce9aced30d5ca4684523208de9fb0f516%7C06e469d12d2a468fae9b7df0968eb6d7%7C0%7C0%7C639123779548358936%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=wEmdF%2FeV1WlSYi78dUjxJub7d9J9xTVYKP%2Fi0bcHUlQ%3D&reserved=0)
**Research Focus:**
Resilience of communities & organizations; sustainable business design; circular business models; visualization of complex data for decision makers.
**Keywords:**
Resilience; flourishing enterprises; regenerative business models; dynamics of highly diverse multidisciplinary team; prerequisites for significant organizational change.
**Collaboration Interests:**
Project Consultation
**Climate Action Interests:**
Scaling up green energy production while minimizing the embodied environmental impact of its production. Behavioural changes to reduce rampant consumerism.
**Current & Upcoming Projects:**
Currently developing a simple-to-use resilience assessment tool for SMEs and considering a Continuing Education leadership course that enhances skills for leading or participating in highly diverse multidisciplinary teams.
### Sarah Tranum
Associate Professor, Tenured
Faculty of Design
Sarah Tranum is an Associate Professor of Social Innovation Design at OCAD University and Founder/Design Strategist with TrickleUp Design. She is an expert in participatory design projects for women's economic empowerment and has collaborated with a broad range of international stakeholders to develop systems-based solutions to complex challenges. Sarah co-led a SSHRC-funded project focused on implementing a systems-based approach for delivering menstrual hygiene products and education in low-resource communities in Zimbabwe, and is part of a SSHRC-funded multi-disciplinary research team investigating food waste and exploring opportunities for creating a circular food economy in Canada.
**Key Publications & Creative Works:**
• NO WASTE? KNOW MORE! Co-Designing Solutions Workshop Report. Fall 2025. Lead contributor in a national co-design workshop focused on reducing food loss and waste in Canada's retail food sector.
• Episode 9: Rebooting Social Media and Shaping AI. Designing a Humane Future Podcast Series. August 2025. Creator, producer, and host.
• Featured in The Globe and Mail: Participatory Design Course project highlighted in a national article exploring inclusive co-housing models for LGBTQ+ seniors. June 17, 2025.
**LinkedIn / ResearchGate:**
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-tranum-99153215/
**Website:**
https://www.trickleupdesign.com/
**Research Focus:**
Work sits at the intersection of social innovation, design, and political economy, grounded in circular design, regenerative approaches, and participatory practice.
**Keywords:**
Social Innovation Design, Participatory Design, Systems Thinking, Circular Economy, Humane Futures, Political Economy, Inclusive Development, Field-Based Learning & Entrepreneurial Education, Interdisciplinary Research, Applied Research & Community Empowerment.
**Collaboration Interests:**
Knowledge Sharing/Workshops
**Climate Action Interests:**
Energized by the shift toward circular practices and grounded, community-based work that helps communities thrive sustainably.
**Current & Upcoming Projects:**
Currently developing a book proposal that synthesizes research and outlines principles for designing a humane future, including case studies and actionable solutions on circular economy, regenerative practices, community-building, and human-centered approaches to climate resilience.
### Maya Desai
Associate Professor, Tenured
Faculty of Design
Maya Desai is Chair of Environmental Design at OCAD University and a hybrid researcher-practitioner working at the intersection of public health, climate resilience, and the built environment. Her work explores how everyday social and cultural practices influence both human and ecosystem health, and how design can support healthier, lower-carbon futures for cities and campuses. Supported by grants from SSHRC, Canada's Sustainable Development Goals Funding Program, and the Centre for Aging & Brain Health Innovation, she collaborates with communities, municipalities, and health partners on projects addressing public space, mobility, and environmental health through participatory methods.
**Key Publications & Creative Works:**
• Creative Works: Campbell Heights East Business Park Phase 1 & 2 — Lead Urban Designer, 2015. Integrated network of parks, natural systems, and infrastructure advancing sustainable green infrastructure.
• Revisions to the Minimum Green Building Standards for Waterfront Toronto — Urban Designer & Planner, 2020.
• Wilfrid Laurier University Market Square Master Plan, Brantford, Ontario — Lead Urban Designer, 2017. Adaptive reuse, low-carbon urban revitalization, and climate resilience.
• The University of Lethbridge Campus Master Plan, Lethbridge, Alberta — Lead Urban Designer, 2014. Climate- and health-focused campus framework developed with Indigenous partners.
• Planning for Post Covid-19 Futures of Public Space: Grounding Decision-Making in Community Perceptions and Insights. SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant, 2020-2024 — Principal Investigator.
• Sustainable Development and Electrification of Transit V3. Co-author (2022). SSHRC Knowledge Synthesis Grant.
• Innovating for Inclusive & Equitable Post-Secondary Education: A Pathway to Realizing the SDGs. Government of Canada SDGs Grant Program — Faculty Lead and Project Co-lead.
**LinkedIn / ResearchGate:**
www.linkedin.com/in/mmahgoubdesai
**Research Focus:**
Healthy, climate-resilient cities and campuses; green and blue infrastructure in urban design; accessibility, disability inclusion, and spaces of care; community-engaged and participatory design; design education for climate and health.
**Keywords:**
Architecture & Urban Design, Healthy Cities, Public Health and the Built Environment, Socio-Cultural Urbanism, Climate Resilience & Ecological Futures, Environmental Health & Health Equity, Accessibility & Inclusive Urban Design, Community-Engaged Design & Participatory Planning.
**Collaboration Interests:**
Research Partnership & Advisory Role
**Climate Action Interests:**
Especially interested in climate action that treats cities and campuses as public health infrastructure — focused on extreme heat, air quality, and mental health through the design of public spaces and learning environments, and how climate adaptation can be genuinely inclusive of disability and access needs.
**Current & Upcoming Projects:**
Design Approaches to Enhancing Resilience in Urban Heat Emergencies (NSERC Discovery Horizons, Co-Applicant); upcoming application for a second SSHRC phase 2 of 'Planning for Post Covid-19 Futures of Public Space.'
### Nicole Collins
Associate Professor, Tenured
Faculty of Art
For over 35 years, Nicole Collins' art practice has engaged deeply with materials, collaborating with their ability to reflect meaning. She completed the BFA Hons in Fine Art at University of Guelph (1988) and the Master of Visual Studies at University of Toronto (2009). Since 1994 she has exhibited extensively in commercial and public galleries in Toronto, Waterloo, Hamilton, St. Johns, New York, Miami, London, Zurich and Tokyo. Collins' current research focuses on sustainable material practices for artists, specifically making colour and binder from accessible and ethically foraged local plants, minerals and waste stream materials. She is founder and co-director of the OCADU Sustainable Colour Lab.
**Key Publications & Creative Works:**
• Exhibition: The Colourmakers. October 21 - November 2, 2025. Ada Slaight Gallery, OCAD University. Outcomes from the OCADU Sustainable Colour Lab Summer Intensive.
• Press: 'The OCADU Sustainable Colour Lab: A Paradigm Shift in Art, Education, and Ecology' by Stanzie Tooth. October 30, 2025. format.com/magazine.
• Exhibition: TENXTEN, Ten Collections/Ten Years. 2025. Griffin Art Projects, North Vancouver BC.
• Exhibition: Being, Knowing, Willing: Drawings by Nicole Collins. 2023. Midori.so Bakuroyokoyama Gallery, Tokyo Japan. Curator Karella Mara Raffinan.
**Website:**
https://www.ocadusustainablecolourlab.ca/
**Research Focus:**
Sustainable materials and art practices, circular economy, community building.
**Keywords:**
Sustainable studio practice and materials, biodegradable, ethical foraging, circular economy, waste stream source.
**Collaboration Interests:**
Research Partnership
**Climate Action Interests:**
Developing materials, methods and practices to support artists and designers; especially interested in the impact of these materials on the meaning of works realized and the capacity for materials to convey meaning within a created object or event.
**Current & Upcoming Projects:**
Faculty in the OCADU Sustainable Colour Lab are conducting ongoing research and outreach through related workshops. Second annual Summer Institute scheduled for May/June 2025.
### Angelika Seeschaaf Veres
Associate Professor, Tenured
Faculty of Design
Angelika Seeschaaf Veres' research seeks to democratize futures literacy by developing tangible future artifacts that enable communities to collaboratively sense-make, generate futures scenarios, and translate imagination into action. Her background in Industrial Design grounds her approach to making futures actionable and tangible. Speculative Design, as a materially grounded and future-oriented discipline, is uniquely positioned to cultivate the capacity to envision, articulate, and prototype transformational futures.
**Key Publications & Creative Works:**
• Signs of Change (2020-ongoing). Co-creation of hyperlocal tangible climate scenarios in the form of urban street signs. Engages a broad audience in exploring possible future climate scenarios and collaboratively developing product-service and systems responses to activate change.
**LinkedIn / ResearchGate:**
https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelika-seeschaaf-veres-a9565717/
**Website:**
https://www.signsofchange.io/
**Research Focus:**
Speculative Design, Circular Design, Climate Emergency responses, Activating UN Sustainable Development Goals.
**Keywords:**
Speculative Design, Inclusive Design, Foresight and Innovation, Future Literacy, Democracy building through design.
**Collaboration Interests:**
Research Partnership
**Climate Action Interests:**
Using tangible artifacts to activate climate action.
**Current & Upcoming Projects:**
'Signs of Change: Pedaal' — a physical installation exploring the future of cities and mobility through street signs. Design TO 2026 exhibition.
### Natalie Waldburger
Associate Professor, Tenured
Faculty of Art
Natalie Majaba Waldburger's research investigates the interconnectivity of artmaking, materiality, and land-responsive practices. Through collaboration with Peter Morin, Dr. Ian Clarke and BADlab researchers, this research examines how process-based methodologies can cultivate ecological mindsets through different modes of cultural engagement. Foregrounded in anti-colonial and decolonial approaches, this work centres cultural narratives, lived experience, and intergenerational knowledge to consider how ecosystem-thinking and relational methodologies can emerge through cultural production collaboration.
**Key Publications & Creative Works:**
• BAD Lab (Biomaterials Art and Design Lab): Facility for Interdisciplinary Research, 2025-present. Lead researcher with Peter Morin and Dr. Ian Clarke.
• Sustainable Futures Faculty Fellowship SF3, Research Fellow, OCAD U, 2023/24. With Julia Rose Sutherland and Lori Riva.
• School of Visual Arts, NY, The Art at the Edge of Nature Think Tank. Artist/Researcher Participant.
• Tessellation 13.02.2025, February 13, 2025. Durational performance. Vantage Point, Sotheby's Institute of Art, NY.
• \_OTHER TONGUES, June 19-November 30, 2024. Group show curated by Ryan Rice. Onsite Gallery, Toronto, ON.
• Tessellation 11.11.2024, September 11, 2024. Durational performance. Onsite Gallery, Toronto, ON.
**LinkedIn / ResearchGate:**
www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-waldburger-37789024
**Website:**
http://nataliewaldburger.squarespace.com
**Research Focus:**
Biomaterials-based research grounded in relational, land-based methodologies; interdisciplinary art practice rooted in care, sustainability, and cultural knowledge systems; living materials as sites of ecological, cultural, and pedagogical inquiry; intergenerational, non-extractive approaches to art and design research.
**Keywords:**
Biomaterial and Ecological Material Culture, Interdisciplinary Research-Creation, Relational Methodologies, Land-Based Practices, Non-Extractive Sustainability, Care-Based Pedagogy, Diasporic Anti-colonial/Decolonial Art Practices, Intergenerational Pedagogies.
**Collaboration Interests:**
Research Partnership
**Climate Action Interests:**
Climate action grounded in material practices, care, and cultural knowledge; approaches that rethink how materials are sourced, used, and returned to ecosystems through non-extractive, regenerative, and land-based practices; integrating anti-colonial and Indigenous methodologies.
**Current & Upcoming Projects:**
Confirmed new BADLab (Biomaterials Art and Design Lab) at 100 McCaul launching April 26, 2026 — addressing the role of art in driving climate action and promoting the Indigenization of research practices. Leads: Peter Morin, Ian Clarke, Natalie Waldburger. Also: a collaborative hide tanning/drum making project for OCAD University's 150th Anniversary.
### Fellows
Faculty members who have successfully received funding administered by the Centre, including competitive internal seed grants, external grants with the Centre or industry partnerships facilitated through GCCA networks.
### Bill Leeming
Associate Professor, Tenured
Faculty of Arts and Science
Bill Leeming is an associate professor teaching in the Design for Health Program. His research of the last fifteen years has focused on innovation and technological adoption in medicine, notably the diffusion of genetic visualization technologies in clinical settings in Canada and the UK. He has recently embarked on new research topics related to 'aging in place' — individuals remaining in residences of choice as they age and avoiding unwanted relocation — including the design of continuing care retirement communities. Financial support for his research has been provided by the Hannah Institute for the History of Medicine and by SSHRC.
**Key Publications & Creative Works:**
• Leeming, W. 'Negotiating Pluriversality.' Public (Special Issue: 'Making Worlds in the Pluriverse') (2023), v. 34,68: 19-27. https://doi.org/10.1386/public\_00160\_1
• Leeming, W. 'Toward a comparative history of medical genetics as a medical specialty in North America.' History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences (2022), v. 44(3): 42-62.
• Leeming, W. 'On shaping expectations of new normals for living in a post-COVID-19 world.' History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences (2021), v. 43(2): 65-70.
• Leeming, W. and Barahona, A. 'Synthesis, Convergence and the Early Adoption of Cytogenetics in Medicine: A Comparative Study of Canada and Mexico.' Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (2018), v. 71: 8-16.
**Research Focus:**
Sociology, Technology Adoption, Climate Resilient Home Retrofitting, Aging in Place, Community-centred Grassroots Organization, Co-Design.
**Keywords:**
Information design, Co-design, Community, Grassroots Organization, Climate resilience, Home retrofitting, Aging in Place.
**Collaboration Interests:**
Research Partnership
**Climate Action Interests:**
Climate resilient home retrofitting, Aging in Place.
**Current & Upcoming Projects:**
'Co-Designing Guidelines for A Homeowner's Journey': An Exploratory Collaboration with the Toronto Home — supported through a BMO Sustainable Futures Microgrant awarded by the GCCA.
### Cindy Poremba
Associate Professor, Tenured
Faculty of Arts and Science
Cindy Poremba is a digital media researcher, gamemaker and curator. They are an Associate Professor (Digital Futures) at OCAD University and Co-Director of OCAD's game:play Lab. Dr. Poremba has presented internationally on topics relating to game art and curation, capture in postmedia practices, and interactive documentary. Their award-winning game and 'New Arcade' work, independently and as a member of the kokoromi experimental videogame collective, has been featured in both international game and digital art exhibitions.
**Key Publications & Creative Works:**
• Poremba, C., Stone, K., Garrett, I., Abraham, B. 'Exploring Sustainable Gamemaking Through an Artgame Residency,' in The Game Needs to Change: Towards Sustainable Game Design. eds. Prax, P., Whittle, C., York, T. CRC Press, 2025 (November 2025).
• Poremba, C. and Stone, K. 'A Renewable Artgames Residency: exploring sustainable practices for art game design,' DiGRA 2024. https://dl.digra.org/index.php/dl/article/view/2261
**LinkedIn / ResearchGate:**
https://orcid.org/my-orcid?orcid=0000-0001-9516-7185
**Website:**
https://gameplaylab.ca
**Research Focus:**
Sustainable videogames, solar media, postmedia climate storytelling.
**Keywords:**
Videogames, ecomedia, postimages, interactive documentary.
**Collaboration Interests:**
Research Partnership
**Climate Action Interests:**
Games and playful media, climate postmedia images, solarpunk.
**Current & Upcoming Projects:**
Solar Playshop: an upcoming workshop for the OCAD U community exploring sustainable games and playful media.
### Ala Roushan
Associate Professor, Tenured
Faculty of Design
Ala Roushan is an artist/curator whose work explores artificial environments at the intersection of art, architecture, and technology. Her project Shaping Atmospheres was presented Fall 2024 as an exhibition and symposium exploring the critical implications of today's solar politics and speculations on solar geoengineering. Most recently, she co-directed A Shroud Woven of Solar Threads, commissioned for MUDAC Museum, Lausanne 2025. She held a research position at the University of Tokyo in 2023 and is an Associate Professor in Environmental Design at OCAD University.
**Key Publications & Creative Works:**
• A Shroud Woven of Solar Threads. Solar Biennale Exhibition, MUDAC Lausanne. March-October 2025. https://mudac.ch/en/projects/a-shroud-woven-of-solar-threads/
• Shaping Atmospheres: Curated Exhibition & Symposium. Architecture Gallery, UofT, Oct-Dec 2024.
• Solar Exchange: On the prehistory of solar geoengineering. Artforum, Online & Print, November 2024.
• Alter Life. Gropius Bau Journal, 2024. www.berlinerfestspiele.de/en/gropius-bau/programm/journal/2024/alaroushan
• Shaping Atmospheres: From Terraforming Land to Geoengineering Air. Afterall Journal. University of Chicago Press. Issue 55/56 Fall 2023. https://www.afterall.org/articles/shaping-atmospheres-from-terraforming-land-to-geoengineering-air/
**Research Focus:**
Art/Design, Climate Change, Solar Geoengineering.
**Keywords:**
Air, Atmosphere, Solar Geoengineering, Climate Change, Environment.
**Collaboration Interests:**
Project Consultation
**Climate Action Interests:**
Considering the future of our planetary atmosphere.
**Current & Upcoming Projects:**
Developing a planetary scheme of currents and speculated Geoengineering projects.
### Julia Rose Sutherland
Assistant Professor, Tenure-Track
Faculty of Design
Julia Rose Sutherland is passionate about Land-based colour research, ethical foraging, and Land collaborations. As a participant in the Sustainable Future Fellowship, she enriched student inquiry on sustainability by exploring dyeing techniques through a decolonized, land-based lens using Indigenous plants from the Tkaronto area. She is co-director of the OCADU Sustainable Colour Lab, which explores relational approaches to place, space, and time, emphasizing sourcing pigments and materials from local, ethically produced sites and fostering collaborative partnerships with Indigenous communities and makers.
**Key Publications & Creative Works:**
• Marshall, J.E., and Skibba, C., eds. Trauma-Informed Pedagogy: Addressing Gender-Based Violence in the Classroom. Bingley, England: Emerald Publishing, 2022.
• Forthcoming: Chapter titled 'Reflections on Npuinu: The Labour of Decomposition' in 'Things We Lost in the Fire' edited by Miranda Campbell.
**LinkedIn / ResearchGate:**
www.linkedin.com/in/julia-rose-sutherland-bb44bb74
**Website:**
https://juliarosesutherland.com/ \| https://www.ocadusustainablecolourlab.ca/
**Research Focus:**
Sustainable Design and making, Land-based pedagogy, circular economy, Indigenous practices, Trauma-informed pedagogy, Lake Pigments.
**Keywords:**
Land-based, Sustainability, Community, Natural dyeing, Laking.
**Collaboration Interests:**
Research Partnership
**Climate Action Interests:**
Climate action rooted in land-based practices, material sustainability, and community collaboration; connecting climate justice with Indigenous knowledge systems; transforming material supply chains in art and design; advancing water stewardship; building community capacity; exploring climate action through pedagogy.
**Current & Upcoming Projects:**
Co-directing the OCADU Sustainable Colour Lab; leading the Sustainable Colour Lab Summer Institute (2025); collaborating with Small Spade Farms and the Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario on a flax-growing and fibre-production trial.
### Affiliates
Internal and external faculty members seeking collaboration opportunities who participate in seminars, networking events, and have access to information about funding opportunities, creating a pathway to higher membership levels.
### Emma Westecott
Associate Professor, Tenured
Faculty of Arts and Science
Dr. Emma Westecott is a feminist game studies scholar, Associate Professor in Game Design, and Co-Director of the game:play Lab (with Cindy Poremba). She has worked in the game industry for over 25 years in development, research and the academy, achieving international recognition for working closely with Douglas Adams as producer for Starship Titanic (1998, Simon & Schuster). Emma's funded research connects the aesthetic, expressive, and political potential of digital game form to a longer tradition of critically informed research creation practice.
**Key Publications & Creative Works:**
• Westecott, E., Uzun, F. & Micak, K. (2023). 'Connections: An intergenerational feminist game art timeline'. DiGRA 2023 Limits and Margins of Games. University of Seville, Spain.
• Westecott, E. (2020). 'Game sketching: Exploring approaches to research-creation for games'. Virtual Creativity, 10(1), 11-26. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1386/vcr\_00014\_1.
• Westecott, E., Stein, S., Cheryl, H., & Kashfia, R. (2019). In Situ: Researching corporate diversity initiatives with game developers. DiGRA '19.
• Westecott, E. (2018). 'Feminism and Gameplay Performance' in Feminism in Play. Palgrave Games in Context.
• Westecott, E. (2016). 'Playing with Gender: Promoting Representational Diversity with Dress-up, Cross-dressing and Drag in Games' in Diversifying Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat. ETC Press.
**LinkedIn / ResearchGate:**
https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmawestecott/
**Website:**
https://www.gameplaylab.ca/
**Research Focus:**
Feminist game design, design justice, equitable design practices.
**Keywords:**
Feminism, game design, game sketching, ideation games.
**Collaboration Interests:**
Knowledge Sharing/Workshops
**Climate Action Interests:**
Sustainable game development.
**Current & Upcoming Projects:**
Nothing yet in progress — the request for affiliation is intended to help scaffold connections to GCCA and ongoing research.
### Peter Jones
Associate Professor, Continuing
Faculty of Design
Peter Jones is an associate professor in Graduate Studies at OCAD University and original curriculum designer for the MDes programs SFI and Design for Health. He is recently appointed as Distinguished Professor of Systemic Design at Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico City. His research focus is in methods and studies to advance systemic social and service innovation, especially for healthcare systems, and in social systems and business models to promote socioecological flourishing. He is co-founder and vice-chair of the Systemic Design Association, Editor in Chief of the journal Contexts, and founder and Academic Director of the Flourishing Enterprise Institute.
**Key Publications & Creative Works:**
• Kenter, J., Martino, S., ..., Jones, P., et al. (2025). Ten principles for transforming economics in a time of global crises. Nature Sustainability. doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01562-4
• Riemer, M., Sa'd, R., ..., Jones, P., et al. (2025). Systemic management practices — Enabling local governments to adapt in response to complexity. World, 6(2), 72.
• Hogeboom, O., Hoveskog, M., Upward, A., Jones, P.H., & Fath-Kolmes, E. (2025). Lean startup supporting sustainability-as-flourishing during early enterprise development. Journal of Business Models, 13(1), 47-88.
• Jones, P.H. & Christakis, A.N. (2024). Limits to Modeling: Design lessons from the World Problematique. She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation, 10(3), 351-379.
• Upward, A. & Jones, P.H. (2015). An ontology for strongly sustainable business models. Organization & Environment, 29(1), 97-123.
**LinkedIn / ResearchGate:**
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Peter\_Jones13
**Website:**
https://designdialogues.com/publications/
**Research Focus:**
Systemic design, healthcare systems, prevention strategies in patient-centred and community health contexts, strategic innovation management, qualitative system modeling, flourishing business economics.
**Keywords:**
Systemic design, healthcare systems, innovation management, system mapping and modeling, flourishing economics, business models.
**Collaboration Interests:**
Network building and collaborative funding with FEI (Flourishing Enterprise Institute)
**Climate Action Interests:**
Community level projects and municipal level strategy and planning. Co-founded the Toronto Drawdown program, transitioned to Regenerating Toronto, which continues in environmental education and high-leverage climate projects.
**Current & Upcoming Projects:**
Multiple proposals and projects underway through the FEI, now closely affiliated with Wilfrid Laurier University and partnered with VERiS Institute at Waterloo.
### Angus Mok
Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream
Faculty of Arts and Science
Dr. Mok has a background in astrophysics, with a focus on understanding the star formation process in nearby galaxies. He is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Arts and Science at OCAD University and employs creative practices to help teach the origins, processes, and effects of climate change as part of several undergraduate courses. He also works to educate community members about the latest advances in scientific research and their impacts on daily lives.
**Research Focus:**
Climate education, scientific outreach.
**Keywords:**
Climate education, scientific outreach.
**Collaboration Interests:**
Knowledge Sharing/Workshops
**Climate Action Interests:**
Climate education, scientific outreach.
### Karin Cope
Associate Professor, Tenured
Chair of Art History and Co-Director of the MFA Program
NSCAD University
Karin Cope is a Canadian poet, activist, artist and professor at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design who spends part of each year at sea developing collaborative cultural and environmental projects. Her publications include Passionate Collaborations: Learning to Live with Gertrude Stein What we’re doing to stay afloat, and What seas sing through our bones: Passages through Canada, the United States and Mexico Teaching and mentoring outcomes and local institutional change are crucial outcomes of my work, as well as publications, websites, podcasts and so on.
**Key Publications & Creative Works:**
*What seas sing through our bones (poems)*. Lawrencetown: Pottersfield Press, 2026.
*What seas sing through our bones* is a journey poem and a queer love story co-created and recounted by beloveds to one other as they voyage together during a time of war and environmental devastation. Repurposing the bravado and longing of an almost entirely masculine-heroic history of sea-faring stories, logbooks and poems to its own feminist ends, *What seas sing* asks, what difference does it make who speaks or listens, and in and to which languages and tones? Travelling from Nova Scotia to San Diego, then along the Pacific coast of Mexico’s Baja peninsula into the Sea of Cortez, the poem’s narrators relate the wonders and disasters they encounter as they move from one language to another, and between land and sea.
*Given Water Video and Performance Works* by Karin Cope (2015-2018) Edited by Jordan Beaulieu. Halifax: Countermemory Activism, 2022.
*\#walkwithmominmyheart* x 3 (Spring 2020; Fall 2020; Winter 2021)
When my mother suffered a massive hemorrhagic stroke in the basal ganglia region of her brain in April 2020, we could no longer communicate as we had through daily exchanges of texts and images. I began to gather images from my daily walks that I could tell her about. Later I collected some of these images into three photo books that I made for her that she keeps on her table so that we may #walktogether daily. The project now involves collaborators who also #walkwith others in their heart, building and maintaining relationships with others who have lost some communicative capacities through walking, slow observation and artmaking.
*Ex votos for a broken world.* Chapbook. 2019.
*Flows (Given Water) Site* linked to October 2015 solo exhibition of the same name, exploring links between notions of water, nature and poetry.
KEY COLLABORATIVE Funded projects
Sustainability and the Arts (SATA). “No Culture, No Future: Developing Strategic Research Frameworks for Sustainability and the Arts Scholarship” (2022-ONGOING) Collaborator with Tarah Wright (Dalhousie Environmental Education), Ian Garrett (York Theatre Dance and Performance), and other climate-focused scholars in a national environmental project funded by SSHRC, $186,300.
**LinkedIn / ResearchGate:**
**Website:**
[https://substack.com/@karincope](https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack.com%2F%40karincope&data=05%7C02%7Cwebsupport%40ocadu.ca%7Cc5d46dfabb624e3cf59108debc28cd9f%7C06e469d12d2a468fae9b7df0968eb6d7%7C0%7C0%7C639155080614963446%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=zv8olZCSkT0KqYcZP1FPxOM2QMhFVZybzfVKfr4RTmA%3D&reserved=0)
[https://visiblepoetry.ca](https://visiblepoetry.ca/)
**Research Focus:**
Sustainability and circular design in art practices and education; nurturing inter-generational field-based creative practices; creative practice as environmental research
**Keywords:**
Environmental art practices; fieldwork; activism; coastal communities;
**Collaboration Interests:**
Research Partnership; Advisory Role; Project Consultation; Knowledge sharing/Speaker/Workshop;
**Climate Action Interests:**
How can art schools become centers of thoughtful sustainable investigation and practice? So teaching and mentoring outcomes and local institutional change. I've been doing a series of workshops on this question--glad to share more information on that.
**Current & Upcoming Projects:**
I will be teaching a climate focused graduate seminar in the fall of 2026 entitled Living on the Edge--Climate Catastrophe and Care. The course asks: How do artists respond problems as large, “wicked” and diverse as Climate Change? Living on the Edge is a designed as a collaborative research-creation and practice space attuned to theoretical and practical climate concerns. In particular, the course aims to bring environmental questions and care focused activism, policy, philosophical, theoretical, art historical and speculative material into conversation with contemporary arts, media and craft practices. I am also continuing large collaborative grant projects with colleagues at Dal and elsewhere (SATA and other organizations), co-supervising a PhD project focused on the intersections of climate change and war (with the Ukraine as a particular example), and reanimating field-based projects in coastal BC, as well as completing another volume of poetry that investigates and documents links between tacit war, neocolonialism and environmental shift in Mexico.
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### Current Partners
*Trans Europe Halles*, an international, social incubator based in Sweden that has created a European network of grassroots arts and cultural centres created from preserved and restored abandoned buildings [https://teh.net](https://teh.net/).
*ERA Architects*, specialists in adaptive reuse and urban cultural planning
*Local Environmental Organization (TBD)*
*Heritage Building Construction*
*On-going exploration of Indigenous community partners*
### Anticipated External Revenue
*City of Toronto*
*The City of Toronto has committed approximately $10 million in external funds to renovate the structure and surrounding plaza. The City’s agreement to, on completion of the renovations, provide a 5-year lease to OCAD U at a nominal fee also represents a significant contribution that helps to ensure the financial health of the Centre*
Contact:
### The GCCA will be going through a strategic review in the Fall 2025, to support a revitalization focusing on:
1. Governance Renewal
2. Research Intensification
3. Public Engagement
4. Equity and Accountability
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## Our sites
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The primary sites for the Centre are the main OCAD U campus and the Bathurst Quay Silos, originally the Canada Malting Silos.
Precipitated by a partnership with the City of Toronto, which owns the site and is leading its ongoing renovation, the Silos will eventually form a symbolic hub and physical site for the Global Centre for Climate Action. The plan is for the Centre to animate the North Silo with interior exhibitions and exterior access for public art programming and projections.
As our first major creative project, we will be activating the Silos with a series of three exhibitions in spring, summer and fall 2024. Each series will celebrate intergenerational and interdisciplinary practices that highlight climate action through art, design and research in a way that invites public engagement.
##### *The Waterfront BIA and The Bentway The Essentials Project, featuring artist Erika DeFreitas at former Canada Malting Silos (GCCA new physical site).*