¶¡ÏãÔ°AV

What We Do

¶¡ÏãÔ°AV Climate Innovation overcomes disciplinary silos and knowledge fragmentation within and between adaptation, mitigation, and sustainability research and in community planning. We do this in three main ways.

handshake CatalyzING Interdisciplinary Collaboration

We support researchers to overcome disciplinary silos within and between adaptation, mitigation, and sustainability research areas. We remove barriers to collaboration by convening researchers, distributing seed funds, and enabling and incentivizing collaborative research clusters. 

partner_exchange Co-CreatING with Community Partners

We link researchers with community partners to advance co-creation research approaches. We include partners in research design, building shared learning and accountability throughout the research process, and evaluating community-centred outcomes and innovations.  

public MOBILIZING KNOWLEDGE AND SCALING CLIMATE INNOVATION

We bridge the gap between communities, decision-makers, and researchers. We mobilize knowledge, best practice, and innovation for others to learn from, with the goal of accelerating climate action and innovation that can be tailored for other communities.  

Who We Are

¶¡ÏãÔ°AV Climate Innovation is a collaboration among units from across ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV dedicated to providing services in support of effective and impactful community-centred climate action and innovation.

Co-creators include:

• ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV Sustainability
• ACT - Action on Climate Team
• ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV Partnerships Hub
• Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue
• Community-Engaged Research Initiative
• Research Intelligence Office
• ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV Knowledge Mobilization Hub
• Institutional Strategic Awards
• ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV International

By aligning existing capacities and supports, ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV Climate Innovation is reaching across the University to overcome silos. The community-centred climate innovation research priority provides a focus and direction to align efforts and deliver the services needed to ensure the success of this priority.

Together these units will convene researchers, advance co-creation methods between researchers community partners, use diverse knowledge mobilization channels, and support with the iterative evaluation of impact of the platform and its outcomes in the shift toward low carbon, resilient and sustainable communities.

Our Vision

¶¡ÏãÔ°AV Climate Innovation is orienting ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV's capacities as a research University and its world-leading researchers toward accelerating high-impact community-centred climate action and innovation as a crucial response to the global climate change challenge. 

Our Goal

¶¡ÏãÔ°AV Climate Innovation aims to drive research-for-impact. We work with researchers and community partners to catalyze, co-create, and mobilize solutions that advance low carbon, resilient, and sustainable communities locally and globally. We do this by using approaches that bridge with Indigenous knowledges and rights, that advance justice and equity, and that aim to scale climate actions and innovations that:

• support, buffer, and protect communities against real and projected climate impacts,   

• reduce emissions and decarbonize communities to achieve net zero emissions goals, and  

• multi-solve across other community priorities, providing additional sustainability benefits such as increased biodiversity, avoided costs, clean economic development, etc. 

We recognize that each of these approaches, taken together, are crucial elements of systemic and impactful solutions-building at community and regional scales.

Our Team

James Raymond

Director, ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV Climate Innovation

As a data analyst, strategist & innovator, James Raymond brings over two decades experience in strategic planning, partnership development, and mobilizing high-impact funding.

After graduating from one of Europe’s Top 10 Business Schools, James has gained unique experiences working in public, private and non-profit sectors for leading-edge organizations around the world such as Innovate BC, the Vancouver Economic Commission, the New South Wales Government and Dunnhumby.

Before joining ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV Climate Innovation, James worked as the Director of Data & Policy at Innovate BC where he was responsible for directing the research, data & policy work of this provincial Crown Corporation. Prior to this, he worked for 13 years at the Vancouver Economic Commission, the city’s economic development agency, heading up their research efforts which were geared towards making Vancouver the most sustainable and prosperous economy in North America. In this time, Vancouver became the fastest growing economy in Canada, doubled its numbers of green jobs, and successfully decoupled its greenhouse gas emissions from its economic growth. Other career highlights include producing the Vancouver Economic Commission’s ‘Beyond GDP Economic Framework’ which has been recognized as global best practice for cities by C40 for centering sustainability, indigenous knowledge and equity within a traditional economic framework. James also led the regional Metro Vancouver bid for the Amazon HQ2 project, with the proposal directly resulting in an additional 3,000 high paying jobs for the region. While at Dunnhumby, an early pioneer of the concept of ‘big data’, James managed the largest targeted marketing campaign in Europe, distributing over 100 million coupons each year, generating over $125m in revenue for the company.

At ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV Climate Innovation, working closely with Dr. Alison Shaw - the Executive Director - James will be responsible for advancing the strategic plan for this enabling platform set up to connect high impact climate solutions with communities in Canada, and beyond. He’ll also be responsible for developing new internal and external relationships, including funding & research opportunities, as well as overseeing the platform’s brand & marketing efforts.

james_raymond@sfu.ca