As a sustainability engagement coordinator with the University of Alberta’s Sustainability Council and Campus Saint-Jean, Nada Baali is connecting students, faculty and staff to tackle big issues on campus and beyond.
Her job (among many other things!) involves supporting the U of A’s Campus as a Living Lab initiative. The program supports research projects that use the university’s campuses to pilot sustainability initiatives, like proposing ways to reduce the university vehicle fleet’s carbon footprint. (More on this cool program below!)
Thanks to programs like Campus as a Living Lab, the U of A was recognized as one of Canada’s top 100 greenest employers. More recently, the U of A was recognized as one of the world’s 100 most sustainable post-secondary institutions.
In this week’s Innovator Spotlight, Nada shares how a job at a golf course led her to the work she’s doing now.
What’s one big problem you want to solve through your work?
Our objective is to make sustainability education accessible to students across all disciplines and academic backgrounds. We aim to prepare the next generation of leaders to challenge dominant systems and apply a systems-thinking approach to design new ones that are more sustainable, resilient, inclusive and just.
What does the word “innovation” mean to you?
Testing ideas. Solving problems. Improving systems. Pushing boundaries. Innovation is the engine of human development.
What’s been your biggest a-ha moment — in life or work — so far?
I have had a few. One of them was when I accidentally stumbled upon sustainability as a “discipline” many years ago. At the time, I was living in Dubai working at a golf club. Yes, golf in a desert environment. Not very sustainable, you might think. It got me curious about sustainability topics and issues, which led me to pursue further education in this field and allowed me to find work that I feel passionate about. Nowadays, my golf handicap is far from impressive — not by a long shot.
Another “aha moment” was when I realized that you can turn cauliflower into pretty much anything, including pizza crust.
Do you have a role model at the U of A? How have they influenced you?
I feel very inspired by so many researchers and faculty who work very hard to make a difference in their respective fields. I am also fascinated by how creative and innovative our students are. This year, I was involved with the Festival of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities and I got to see students present their brilliant research ideas. Two students won the FURCA Sustainability Awards. You can learn more about their sustainability research projects here and here.
Do you have any new projects on the horizon?
A few actually. With our colleagues from Energy Management and Sustainable Operations, the Sustainability Council is working to expand and to strengthen Campus as a Living Lab, a program that connects the U of A’s primary academic functions — education and research — to campus operations. These projects use the university campuses (including grounds, buildings, biodiversity and communities) as a testing bed for innovation and knowledge generation with the aim of developing innovative solutions to existing and emerging sustainability challenges. Campus as a Living Lab is uniquely suited to link academics and operations by connecting the classroom or laboratory to the real world and creating opportunities for solution-based teaching, research and experience.
Following the U of A’s recent participation in the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings (we ranked 64th in the world on our first submission!), which assess universities’ success in advancing and delivering the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, I will be working alongside colleagues from the Sustainability Council and U of A International to analyze performance results in preparation for this year’s upcoming submission. If your area of work or research touches on one of the seventeen SDGs, there is a good chance that you may hear from me in the next few months!
This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Innovator Spotlight is a weekly feature that introduces you to a faculty or staff member whose big ideas are making a big difference.
Do you know someone who’s breaking boundaries at the U of A? (Maybe it’s you!) We’re interested in hearing from people who are creating new solutions to make our world better. We want to feature people working across all disciplines, whether they’re championing bold ways of thinking, driving discovery or translating insights from the lab into the market.
Get in touch at blog@ualberta.ca.