The MSSI SSH-Ideas Fund provides seed funding to explore bold projects and novel ideas led by researchers from the social sciences and humanities which, if successful, will have significant positive impact on sustainability challenges.

2023

Preferences over Sustainable Trade Policies: Building Sustainability Coalitions in Canada

Carrying out international trade with an eye to its environmental and social impact entails costs for the average Canadian citizen. This trade-off between economic goals and sustainability-related objectives is at the core of this project. In particular, we aim to understand individual preferences regarding sustainability in international trade, especially among communities that are vulnerable to climate change and social inequalities. The results of this project will help facilitate the design of policies that minimize market distortions, while taking into account the distributional consequences of trade sustainability. Lead researcher: Leonardo Baccini (Political Science).

Museum Climate Infrastructure in the Tropics

This project sits at the interface of architecture and art history, environmental humanities, and curatorial practice. Its aim is to bring the latest research on environmental histories of art and architecture in Southeast Asia to bear on the development of policy and institutional design recommendations for art museums in the tropics. While current 鈥渨orld class鈥� standards for museum climate control rely on energy-intensive HVAC systems to regulate temperature and humidity in minute intervals, tropical history points to an alternative genealogy of climate technology rooted in passive systems and organic construction materials. Through interviews and engagement with industry practitioners, the project will produce new paradigms for infrastructural and curatorial practices rooted in the climatic realities of the tropics. Lead researcher:听Chanon Kenji Praepipatmongkol (Art History and Communications Studies)

2022

Measuring heat islands in Accra, Ghana, to inform climate resilience strategies

Higher temperatures, longer heat waves, and heat islands pose challenges to urban ecosystems and population health, and are exacerbated by climate change and urbanization. Cities in the Global South are starting to implement policies and practices to mitigate urban heat and strengthen heat resilience and adaptation, especially among vulnerable residents. However, most lack the fine-scale intra-urban environmental data needed to inform evidence-based decisions. This team will measure indoor and outdoor temperatures in more than 150 locations throughout Accra, the capital and largest city in Ghana. They will also combine these temperature measurements with satellite images and census data to develop a model for estimating indoor temperature for residential locations throughout the city. The study鈥檚 findings will contribute to a citywide monitoring system that will identify neighbourhoods and people at the highest risk of heat stressors and enable more cost-effective decision-making on heat resilience and adaption in Accra. Lead researcher: Jill Baumgartner (Epidemiology, Biostatistics & Occupational Health)

Investigating the role of post-decision messages in promoting sustainable investment choices

Retail investors 鈥� individuals who invest their own money 鈥� are scattered and often inexperienced, but they have the potential to pressure public equity firms into adopting more sustainable practices. Most research on sustainable investment marketing has focused on pre-decision evaluation tools available to investors as they make choices about their assets. However, little has been done to explore the role of post-decision nudges to shift individuals toward sustainable investments. This project will investigate the effects of text message reminders that encourage retail investors to make more sustainable investment choices. Specifically, this research will test the theory that nudging investors through mobile trading apps after a successful and profitable sustainable equity acquisition can promote more sustainable investing through positive reinforcement. Lead researcher: Laurette Dub茅 (Management)

Understanding the effects of conservation efforts on ethnic minority farmers in Vietnam

Faced with growing threats to biodiversity, the desire to create 鈥済reen sanctuaries鈥� has become an increasingly powerful rhetoric in many countries. However, this vision of intact and uninhabited natural spaces is fraught with human consequences. This project focuses on the creation of the Bat Xat Nature Reserve in northern Vietnam, which is being developed in an area where ethnic minority farmers cultivate black cardamon under the forest canopy to gain income for their semi-subsistence livelihoods. Such activities will be banned in the reserve. Researchers will investigate the impacts of this ban and other restrictions on surrounding ethnic minority communities, and how these farmers are responding. Lead researcher: Sarah Turner (Geography)

Assessing the accessibility of urban sustainability initiatives in Montreal

Cities are currently faced with the large-scale challenges of rapidly decarbonizing their economies and infrastructure, increasing their accessibility to persons with disabilities, and meeting the complex needs of an ageing population. However, little is known about the intersection of these efforts. To address this gap, researchers will complete a case study of the accessibility of urban sustainability initiatives in Montreal. Their analysis will focus on capturing the lived experience of disabled and elderly people interacting with the concrete outcomes of four pivotal climate mitigation policies in Montreal related to transportation, housing, green spaces, and phasing out carbon-intensive products. The project鈥檚 findings will help identify opportunities to increase the accessibility of the transition to a low-carbon economy in urban environments, as well as improve the ways in which the needs and perspectives of disabled and elderly persons are considered in efforts to reduce carbon emissions in Montreal and beyond. Lead researcher: S茅bastien Jodoin (Law)

2021

Urban Sustainability in the Wake of Disasters: Community-based Food Production in听Beirut

This project supports the development of an urban garden in Beirut where financial crisis, and ecological and infrastructural collapse have led to deepening food insecurity. It underscores the relevance of alternative food production systems for building resilient urban communities and demonstrates the significance of sustainable transitions in cities where poverty and hunger threaten human development.听Lead researcher: Diana Allan.

Quantifying and characterizing energy poverty: a community-based survey

This project conducted a community-wide survey in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, with the goal to provide an in-depth quantification and characterization of residential energy poverty and of its impacts on the well-being of households. The work contributed to research and policies at the intersection of housing, public health, sustainability, and climate change.听Lead researcher:听Mylene Riva

Knowledge co-creation for inclusive decision-making to protect the Chateauguay watershed

This project will develop a knowledge co-creation alliance between Indigenous (Kanien鈥檏eh谩:ka) and non-Indigenous communities, organizations and researchers in the Chateauguay watershed. The goal is enhanced stewardship of the biocultural diversity of the watershed as a 鈥榯erritory of life鈥� 鈥� involving deep cultural and historical connections between the territory and custodian communities, and decision-making through governance arrangements that contribute both to conserving nature and to community well-being. Chateauguay Valley allies will also compare experience with like-minded groups in the global networks of the research team.听Lead researcher:听Colin Scott

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2020