Moving the Youth

Gen Z faces more precarious job prospects and cost-of-living challenges than prior generations. They are also among the most active public transit users, accounting for up to two-thirds of city users. Recent survey data indicates high pessimism among Gen Z regarding not only their future, but also climate change. During 2025-26, we will engage with Gen Z students from the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC), the Metropolitan Autonomous University of Xochimilco (UAM-X) and California State University San Bernardino (CSUSB). Listening sessions and photovoice will provide a collaborative platform for college students’ knowledge co-production of visions for the future and system (inter)dependencies, assets, and agency to foster equity in the transition to net-zero futures.

Community Capacity to Foster Equity in Climate Action

Underserved communities experience discrimination and exclusion across economic, political, social, environmental, and cultural dimensions, resulting in poverty, unemployment, and negative environmental impacts. Although they have the least responsibility for climate change, marginalized communities in these areas are most at risk from climate impacts. In 2025-26, we will work with underserved communities in Toronto’s Keelesdale-Eglinton West, South Los Angeles and Xochimilco, Mexico City. We will combine listening sessions with community science, a procedural justice and community-driven method to enhance underserved communities’ capacities to measure and mitigate community risks from climatic stressors. We will also chart a course prioritizing community well-being and the capacity to envision and catalyze flourishing and resilient neighbourhoods.

Community Resilience

This project investigates how community-driven perspectives can be integrated with systemic analysis to foster equitable sustainability transitions. A key focus of the study is the role of community hubs, such as Mexico’s UTOPÍAS or Toronto’s neighborhood centers, as spaces for long-term support and climate protection. This initiative focuses on co-creating actionable knowledge that resonates with the lived experiences of marginalized and underserved populations. We use Listening Sessions across all three cities to engage residents directly in uncovering the systemic barriers hindering climate justice while identifying the household agency and social networks that residents leverage daily. As part of these sessions, we use tools such as Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping (FCM), community science, and asset mapping to analyze daily routines, aspirations, and interactions with urban systems (energy, housing, and transport). The project aims to empower community-driven solutions and ensure that sustainability policies and practices are socially just, accessible, and rooted in the specific cultural and material realities of the communities they serve. The expected date of completion is Winter 2026-2027.

Photovoice

This project seeks to understand the everyday mobility experiences of university students to foster equitable transportation. Focusing on three commuter campuses in the city-regions of Toronto, Los Angeles and Mexico City, this project centers students’ lived experiences. This project centers on youth’s lived experiences around everyday travel and mobility. By using art-based methods, students have captured photos of their commute and provided captions to discern how the state of transport infrastructure or lack there of affects them in myriad ways. We use photovoice as a means of empowering young students – stakeholders who are traditionally not a part of decision-making spheres – so that they can showcase how these decisions affect their everyday lives. This project aims to co-create a photovoice exhibition that showcases students’ experiences through their own photos and in their own voices to propose and advocate for solutions that are tailored to their commuting patterns.

St. Lawrence Retrofit

The climate crisis, rising living costs, and aging buildings are placing new pressures on urban communities. Retrofits, which involve upgrades to the buildings, and are slow and expensive, and may reinforce inequities in who receives benefits and supports from climate initiatives. This project is a partnership between CERC NEST, the Lawson Climate Institute, the St. Lawrence Neighbourhood Association, and Toronto Community Housing. Through listening sessions held in the St. Lawrence Neighbourhood, we are exploring the needs, desires, and barriers that community members face in pursuing healthy and livable buildings across the neighbourhood. Our goal is to better understand potential pathways to retrofits or alternative solutions that meet the needs of the neighbourhood. The expected date of completion is Summer 2026.