The Green Academy at Telfer is an interdisciplinary initiative designed to shape the next generation of sustainable leaders. Launched in Fall 2025, the Academy prepares students to tackle global environmental challenges through experiential education, hands-on learning, cross-faculty collaboration and real-world projects.
The Academy is fostering sustainable thinking at Telfer Competitions Committee through their sponsorship of the current Jeux du Commerce Sustainability Team. They are also empowering students through sustainability-driven research, community engagement and hands-on learning. More than just a program, the Academy serves as a vibrant hub that bridges business education with actionable sustainability. We are excited to showcase a few of The Green Academy's innovative initiatives below!
Each March, the Green Academy helps lead Telfer's SDG Week, a university-wide celebration of sustainability in action. This year, the week included interactive workshops, community panels, zero-waste challenges and upcycling projects. The 2025 edition spotlighted themes from sustainable cities to food security and included a panel on "Feeding Communities, Not Landfills". This was a vibrant reminder that innovation thrives when empathy and collaboration meet purpose.
Read more about the Academy's involvement in SDG week here!
In summer of 2025, the Green Academy sponsored four Telfer students to participate in the C4 Cross-Campus Capstone Course on Homelessness, an international collaboration between universities in Canada and Brazil. The course challenged students to address the root causes of homelessness, from youth housing access to public policy design. For many, it was a transformational experience built on empathy, leadership, and systems-thinking skills. The Academy's support ensured business students could contribute meaningfully to one of society's most complex issues.
Read more about this extraordinary experience here!
In partnership with Professor Darlene Himick, The Green Academy sponsored Telfer's Undergraduate Poster Competition, where finance students stepped beyond spreadsheets to explore ethics, sustainability, and the human side of finance. Students designed research projects aligned with the UN SDGs and presented academic posters that challenged traditional norms of value creation. The competition not only celebrates creativity but highlighted how finance can combine with social good.
Learn more about the vibrant showcase of this student-led inquiry here!
The Green Academy is also championing Telfer's new Innovation Sprints. The sprints are three-day, credit-rewarding challenges where interdisciplinary and bilingual student teams tackle real societal issues in collaboration with community subject matter experts.
October 26, 2025 marked the inaugural sprint, "Seeds of Change: A Sustainable Food Systems Innovation Sprint". The event kicked off with a morning of insightful speeches from Marie-Eve Sylvestre, President and Vice-Chancellor, University of Ottawa; Devinder Gill, Regional President, Ontario North & East, RBC; Dean Stéphane Brutus, Telfer School of Management; and Professor Daina Mazutis, Telfer School of Management. The morning continued with a high-impact panel on the topic of sustainable food systems and a networking lunch. In the afternoon, sprint participants gathered for an educational lesson on sustainable food systems and effective risk management. On the second day of the sprint, students gathered in bilingual, interdisciplinary teams to present an innovative proposal which tackles a key pain-point in sustainable food systems. On the third day of the sprint, teams presented their solutions to their peers for an insightful thought-sharing exercise.
Read more about the first innovation sprint here!
By bringing together students across different faculties, backgrounds and experiences, The Green Academy continues to nurture the next generation of change-makers who are ready to sprint from ideas to action. With future sprints fast approaching, we look forward to seeing how these immersive experiences continue to inspire creative problem-solving and social innovation across the University of Ottawa.
Whether through research, experiential learning or Interdisciplinary dialogue, The Green Academy exemplifies how students can lead with purpose. Their initiatives remind us that innovation is not just about new ideas but about building a more sustainable world.
The Telfer Competitions Committee extends our sincere gratitude to The Green Academy for their continued support. Through their sponsorship of the Jeux du Commerce Sustainability Team, The Academy is helping us foster sustainable thinking and empower students to bring positive change beyond the classroom.