Looking back, 2010 was an exciting year for the Emerging Leaders Program. It was our inaugural year of programming and involved much planning and relationship building!

We worked with the universities of Western Ontario and Waterloo in supporting students through their sustainability co-op placements, participated in the Sierra Youth Coalition’s Sustainable Campus Conference, created our own Leadership Café in Toronto in partnership with AIESEC Canada and Corporate Knights Magazine, and had the opportunity to train students from Concordia and McGill’s business programs.

We also created a new mission statement for the program which better reflects our youth focus: “Unleash the ferocious and unrelenting passion of youth to catalyze systems change toward sustainability and create a generation of competent leaders.”

We thank our funders, the Ontario Trillium Foundation, TD Friends of the Environment Foundation, and The Co-operators for their generous support.

Youth are leaders, they are passionate, and they need to be unleashed to create the change we need for sustainability—which is why The Natural Step Canada will continue to support youth through our Emerging Leaders Program.

In 2011, we will be proceeding with many of the same projects, as we continue to develop and improve them. We’ll be looking for new partners (universities, student organizations, students, funders, etc.), as well as new project ideas. 

Some interesting initial ideas include developing a closer partnership with AIESEC through an Ambassadors Program, and launching a comprehensive training program for MBA students. 

If you are interested in being a part of this exciting program in 2011, please learn more or contact us to discuss. We look forward to hearing from you!