My name is Connor Wilkins, I’m an Urban Development Photographer focused on capturing transportation sustainability and a student at the Ivey School of Business. I merge my passion for urban landscapes and sustainability by posting captures outlining low impact forms of travel in bustling urban environments. In addition to my sustainability exploration, my previous work at Maple Leaf Foods had been integrating local charities with a carbon neutral corporation highlighting two UN sustainable development goals (No Poverty & Partnerships for Goals). Moving forward I will be taking a role in demand planning sciences to better understand sustainability and carbon neutrality through the supply chain process at Maple Leaf Foods.

What is your personal definition of sustainability? 

I define sustainability as working in the present to become regenerative and forward thinking in our economic, environmental, and social practices while maintaining a stakeholder perspective. These three pillars are the success to sustainable practices under any domain, irrespective if it’s at a corporate level or individual practices at home. For example, urban expansion needs to be developed at the heart of the future community and meeting their needs through; accessibility to public transportation, allocated space for entrepreneurial development, and considering input/outputs for zero emission.  

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

Sustainability has already played a significant role in my career development as being the motivation in my first community driven internship. In addition, my corporate experience at Maple Leaf Foods enabled me to understand what sustainable practices need to happen in the CPG industry at a corporate level. Considering a relative understanding or sustainability in economic practice, I have come to understand what role I see it playing in my professional career. In general business management, sustainability will play a role in corporate social responsibility strategies across all industries where reducing carbon footprints to preserve the environment is a top of line topic in today’s society. To promote new corporate level strategies, there is a challenge of educating an entire work force, including myself, on eco-conscious behaviors in their spaces which take time and capital investment into new programs. Specifically, I wish to explore the realm of project finance where increases in funding through green financing is a practice aimed at sustainability in the industry. Many government incentives through bonds as an example, promote returns on environmentally beneficial infrastructure projects. As someone who values a macroeconomic perspective, the long-term impacts of sustainability will be prioritized in my workplace decisions.

What sustainability projects have you been engaged in?

I ran a sustainability passion project during the covid-19 pandemic which proposed the challenge of how to keep a distanced approach in solving one of the UN sustainability goals. After assessing general trends in society, hunger was a massive issue due to lost income streams and over current capacity demand for foodbanks in Toronto. I then created a low touch community pick up partnered with our fire station’s food bank. Our model operated around a community centric approach with an aim for members helping members as those generously donating food abundance can help a neighbour in need. UN’s zero hunger goal was the basis for our community pickup in trying to coordinate a sustainable food drive.

Another project I was involved in was an entrepreneurial focused where we created clothing from recycled fabrics and created it in an all-female sustainable printing facility. Our challenge was decreasing the cost of our clothing as we had not reached economies of scale and sustainable development is a premium. As a result, we sold our clothes at a premium and had a percentage of revenues be donated to the evergreen brickworks environmental initiative.

Please list any sustainability-related interests you want to explore during the certificate. 

• Green Financing (Specifically Debt Markets, Green Bonds)
• Urban Development Sustainability
• Regenerative Gardening in Urban Centres
• CPG Companies and CSR Responsibilities