I have a strong interest in working on cars and I enjoy watching and playing basketball. I also love to explore and learn about new technologies as well as meet new people. While I enjoy learning about business (especially operations and management), I would like to explore other options within the business field while I work to build my career. I spent my first two years of university in Western’s engineering program, and currently I am in my third year at the Ivey School of Business. I plan on working to combine business and engineering in my future career journey.

What is your personal definition of sustainability?

Sustainability can be broken up into profits, planet, and people. For any organization to become sustainable, they must focus on all three aspects which are centered around economic, environmental, and social sustainability. Combined, these three pillars can allow an organization to focus on meeting the needs of today without compromising any future generation’s ability to meet their own needs. Big companies often make promises for sustainability; however, this is easier said than done and requires time and effort to achieve.

What role do you see sustainability playing in your professional career?

As an entrepreneurially minded individual, I view my professional career as one where I can work to solve problems within society. My goal is to leverage and create sustainable businesses, solving issues that might otherwise be sidelined as problems for charities or those that care for change.

Businesses are responsible for working towards improving the environments in which they operate. While the bottom line is quite important, it is not the only facet that businesses need to consider. Manufacturing, agriculture and construction are all industries, which at first glance, seem very different from one another. The issue in common, is the absurd amount of water that is wasted and polluted by commonly used practices. This happens regularly not because there is no work-around to prevent negative repercussions, but because organizations get lazy and avoid cost increasing practices that incorporate sustainability into their daily operations.

Change needs to occur around the world, be it new government regulation or innovative design improvements, and businesses must give importance to sustainability. I want to make this a highlight of my career as an advocate for change, but also as an individual who develops new solutions for problems that no one cares to solve.

What sustainability projects have you been engaged in?

During my time at Western, I have been a part of sustainability projects that range many different areas of interest, working to solve many problems and needs that exist in today’s world. In my first year I was engaged in sustainability projects in the area of environmental engineering design as well as improving the quality of life (QOL) for individuals with disabilities.

The Western Campus Waste Reduction initiative, one sustainability project that I have been involved with (September 2017 – January 2018). For this project, my engineering team and I designed a prototype device as part of an innovative solution to reduce waste generated on campus.

Another project was Increasing Quality of Life for Individuals with Paraplegia (January 2018 – April 2018). When presented by this challenge, I led an engineering design team to solve a QOL issue that had been looked over in the past within the sports industry. Our team worked directly with the London Blizzard Sledge Hockey Team to develop an assistive device to improve mobility off the ice. We successfully designed, tested and implemented an assistive device at the Western Fair Sports Centre in London. We managed to receive an honorable distinction at the Western Engineering Project Competition.