BSMI Team Presents at UTM's STTPA

On October 28, 2025, Professors Rasoul Yousefpour, Shashi Kant, Tamer El-Diraby, and Research Assistant, Yasser Elfahli, represented the Bioeconomy and Sustainable Materials Institute at the Sustainability: Transdisciplinary Theory, Practice, and Action Conference (STTPA), held at the University of Toronto Mississauga.  

Bringing together over 200 participants representing academia, advocacy groups, industry, and community organizations, STTPA 2025 featured two days of interactive programming designed to spark dialogue and meaningful exchange about sustainability leadership, technological innovation, environmental communication, educational initiatives, and grassroots activism, among many other themes and topics.  

Participants included University of Toronto faculty, students, and alumni, industry representatives from Siemens, Clearlight Energy, Minogi, Gore Mutual, Kruger Products, and Works Design, policy experts from the Resource Productivity and Recovery Authority, C.D. Howe Institute, Lawson Climate Institute, and Iron and Earth, researchers from Wilfrid Laurier University, University of Waterloo, Western University, Toronto Metropolitan University, and University of Regina, as well as Indigenous representatives, community leaders, and sustainability professionals from across Ontario and beyond. 

The conference was an opportunity for internal and external exchange on current and developing initiatives at the University of Toronto and its not-for-profit and community partners. Through its panel titled “Forest Bioeconomy in Uncertain times of Climate Change and International Trade,” the BSMI team spurred dialogue and connections on how the forest bioeconomy can address trade and climate change risks, ways to incorporate Indigenous knowledge into biomass innovation, and how to balance economic growth, planetary boundaries, and northern livelihoods.