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Posted Jan. 11/07
In attempting to answer how we can embrace science and technology without destroying the environment in the process, the public policy scholars in the Carleton Research Unit for Innovation, Science and Environment (CRUISE) have taken an interdisciplinary approach.
- Public policy scholars in the Carleton Research Unit for Innovation, Science and Environment include (left to right), Stephan Schott, James Meadowcroft, Bruce Doern, and Glen Toner.
Formed in 1997 with the introduction of the innovation, science and environment stream of the master’s program in the School of Public Policy and Administration, CRUISE is a program of teaching and research. In collaboration with the policy and science and technology communities in both the public and private sectors, CRUISE, under director Bruce Doern, MA/66, helps fashion public policy through research as well as public engagement in workshops and conferences. It also educates Carleton students about how science and technology have to change and how to modernize the public policy that governs these changes.
CRUISE’s student network, called SIGNALS (for students, Interested parties and Graduates Networking And Liaising around Sustainability), brings together students, alumni, and professors who are concerned about sustainable development issues. Formed in 2003 by professor Glen Toner, PhD/84, membership in SIGNALS requires the completion of one of the courses related to sustainable development. Its goal is to create networking and information-sharing opportunities for members, and to facilitate initiatives aimed at furthering sustainable development.
Together CRUISE and SIGNALS have a full roster of activities that put environmental policy at the forefront.
Sending a clear signal
Every gathering of SIGNALS is an opportunity for networking and to meet leading thinkers in sustainability. Whether visiting an innovative organization or attending the annual January banquet, SIGNALS’ more than 100 members are exposed to sustainable development-related topics. Past banquet speakers include Bob MacDonald, host of CBC’s Quirks and Quarks; Avrim Lazar, president of the Forest Products Association of Canada; and Len Good, CEO and chairman of the Global Environmental Facility, previous Deputy Minister of Environment Canada.
On November 9, SIGNALS’ environment roundtable, organized by associate professor Stephan Schott, examined energy policy, the challenges of climate change, how Canadians can shift to different systems of energy, and how the government can support (or at least not constrain) innovation.
Conference call
CRUISE conferences bring the community together to discuss issues such as Canadian nuclear policy, science-based regulatory bodies and energy. Recent and upcoming conferences include:
# Universities and the Powering of Knowledge: Policy, Regulation and Innovation! The two-day conference held in Ottawa in October examined ways in which Canadian universities have been changed, willingly or unwillingly, by federal and other policies and regulation and by efforts to make universities into an innovation engine of the knowledge-based economy.
It explored likely future issues and forces that will influence Canadian universities in the coming years, set in the context of other competitor countries, economies and societies.
# CRUISE will host a major conference on sustainable development in October 2007. Led by James Meadowcroft, Canada Research Chair in Governance for Sustainable Development, the conference will examine Canada’s progress in sustainable development since the 1987 publication of Our Common Future, the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development that called for fundamental change to systems of production and consumption.
The conference will look forward 20 years, focusing on energy and climate change, living in cities, and industrial innovations and the required changes in public policy.
Read all about it
Publications play an important role in sharing the findings of CRUISE researchers and presenting conference materials.
The first edition of the innovation, science and environment stream’s student journal ISEMA: Perspectives on Innovation, Science and Environment Policy, was launched in April. Created by students, the journal is an opportunity for them to experience the rigors of the peer-review process. Top essays are nominated by faculty members and reviewed by professional members of SIGNALS in a double blind process. Until the journal is made available on the web, hard copies are available from editor Kelsey Nutland at knutland@connect.carleton.ca.
Glen Toner edited the 2006 book Sustainable Production: Building Canadian Capacity, which focuses on the systems by which industrial economies produce goods and services and the ways in which investment and production decisions are influenced by public policy. It is available from the University of British Columbia Press.
Edited by Bruce Doern, Innovation, Science, Environment: Canadian Policies and Performance, 2006-2007 is the first volume in a series of interdisciplinary essays on innovation, science and the environment and related sustainable development policy priorities of the federal government. The next annual publication will be released in February by McGill-Queen’s University Press.
For more information, visit carleton.ca/spa/research/cruise.htm.