Robyn Hall

Robyn Hall headshot
Robyn Hall
Based in Toronto, I am a graduate of the Masters of Information (MI) program at the University of Toronto, and the former Communications Manager at Canadian Business for Social Responsibility and Ontario-based Alterna Savings credit union. Most recently, I had the opportunity to be a project media archivist at TVOntario, working with legacy film and video on a wide range of social and environmental topics at Ontario's educational broadcaster. I'm long-time believer that businesses of whatever type - co-op, private, public - are critical to the process of social and environmental change.

Posts by This Writer

5 years 10 months ago
A quarter of the energy supply in Ontario is provided by renewable waterpower (1). On the flip side “generating steam and pumping, treating and heating water consume 40% of Ontario’s natural gas and 12% of our electricity usage.” (2)  
 
The water/energy nexus is all around us here, but like the lost rivers that used to run through the City of Toronto, the energy intensive nature of water provision is invisible to most people. A 2011 RBC water attitudes survey notes that “Only four in 10 (40 percent)...
6 years 1 week ago

The sustainability challenges facing Canadian business leaders and water experts are unsurprisingly similar:

“How can companies design resilient sustainability programs that can survive leadership changes, economic downturns, political shifts and other setbacks?”

How can Canadian municipalities become ideal water sustainable cities--soon?

Two new reports, Blue City: The Water...
6 years 3 weeks ago
If you had to pick just four areas of social/environmental challenge in your country for which to build prototype innovation solutions, what would you choose? It sounds exciting, but when forced to narrow your choices to a small number of priority topics of workable scope and definition, the process could take some time.
 
The MaRS Solutions Lab in Toronto is in the enviable, and challenging, position of having the opportunity to do just that. In applying the...
6 years 1 month ago
The oil sands/pipeline debate carries on in Canada at the start of 2014. Two environmental protesters slipped past security to deliver a climate change message to Prime Minister Stephen Harper on stage as he discussed resource development and environment at an event in Vancouver this week.1
 
Not all of that green debate is happening on the...
6 years 3 months ago
When I first reported on Farm Credit Canada’s (FCC) Drive Away Hunger Campaign in the spring, the agricultural lender was aiming to collect five million pounds of food to be distributed through Food Banks Canada. In the end, the 10th anniversary campaign, which wrapped up recently, outdid the target and increased donations by 108 percent over last year.
 
Food was collected through 100 FCC offices across the country, and through the collection and donation of food by partner organizations. As well, tractor tours wound their way through...
6 years 4 months ago
(3BL Media/Justmeans) - “We are running this planet in a very illogical way – we are on a collision course with a set of global shifts that very few companies understand and very few are managing effectively” - Gil Friend. 
 
Friend, the CEO of Natural Logic, noted that those who are ready for these shifts will make the great fortunes of the 21st century. He spoke at Sustainability Applied 2013, hosted by the Bloom Centre for Sustainability in Mississauga, ON earlier this month, and moderated a panel...
6 years 4 months ago
(3BL Media/Justmeans) - It’s not often in the middle of the workday, or at a business conference, you see a circle of colleagues in suits participating in a session of meditation practice. But that is exactly the type of activity some organizations, such as Google, are beginning to use to empower and de-stress employees. How much can this practice contribute to shifting organizations to the next low carbon economy?
 
Dr. Bronwen Rees, Director, Centre for Transformational Management, at the Lord Ashcroft International Business School in the UK, recently presented her research on mindfulness and business...
6 years 4 months ago

Bloom Centre Conference to be held Oct 1 & 2, Mississauga, ON

(3BL Media/Justmeans) - How does the work of sustainability get done? That’s the question that keynote speakers will address at next week’s Sustainability Applied conference in Mississauga, just outside Toronto. They bring many collective years of experience and wisdom to focus on the acceleration of integrated sustainability solutions. I had a sneak preview of some of the discussions to come.

Scott Deugo, Chief Sales and Sustainability Officer at...
6 years 5 months ago
How can mindfulness practice be applied to systemic change for sustainability? What is the role of the CFO in assessing sustainability risks and opportunities in the firm? Answering questions such as these with practical tools, paths and information is at the core of the upcoming Sustainability Applied: Unlocking Hidden Value conference to be held October 1-2 in Mississauga, Ontario. 
 
Hosted by the Bloom Centre for Sustainability, advisors to government and business in the area of applied...
6 years 8 months ago

A low carbon apartment complex prototype. A social mobile app that allows homeowners with smart meters to compare their energy use with other consumers. Small scale, energy efficient, independent homes that sustainably add density to neighbourhoods. These Canadian innovations were awarded top honours at a gala event honouring innovations in home energy efficiency. The Scotiabank EcoLiving Awards are a cornerstone of Scotiabank’s consumer-facing EcoLiving Program, and are designed to inspire consumers to reduce...

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