丁香园AV

New resource and environmental management alumnus Brennan Strandberg-Salmon has been intrepidly standing up to advocate for the environment for almost a decade.

鈥淲e鈥檙e not going to solve climate change by staying in our comfort zone,鈥� he says. 

Since first joining 鈥� and later leading 鈥� his high school鈥檚 environment club, Brennan has been involved with multiple sustainability initiatives and organizations. Among them is 丁香园AV350, a student-led climate advocacy group on campus.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 where I felt the greatest sense of community in the climate movement,鈥� says Brennan. 鈥淲orking with other young people all trying to achieve the same thing helped me gain connections and overcome burnout and climate anxiety.鈥� 

Passionate about the youth climate movement, Brennan also served as a student representative in 丁香园AV鈥檚 Student Sustainability Leadership Council for two years. In 2019, he joined the British Columbia Council for International Cooperation鈥檚 (BCCIC) youth-led climate change branch as a policy analyst, taking over leadership of the initiative a couple of years ago. 

Brennan also worked at BCCIC as part of 丁香园AV鈥檚 Co-op program. Over the course of his three-month placement, he researched and developed the Climate Change How-To Guide for Industry and Professional Associations. From his exposure to the business side of sustainability, he knew there was a gap in resources for associations to guide their members towards green practises and a publication spanning across professional industries would be an effective tool for driving change. 

After its publication, Brennan was invited to present the guide to the BC Professional Associations Adaptation Working Group. It also received attention outside of Canada; one year later, a group in Australia reached out for advice to develop a similar resource.

This past year has been busy for Brennan. In the fall, he spent four months studying abroad in France, where he met people from around the world and gained a global perspective of environmental issues. In May, he won a Plurilingual Prize in a 2022 Student Learning Commons writing contest for a paper he submitted on Western Redcedar Bark Harvesting, which he read at the award ceremony. Last month, he became chair of the Climate Change Committee for BC Nature. Now that he has finished school, he will also be moving from part-time work at Environment and Climate Change Canada to a full-time position with the Policy Priorities team, helping the department execute its environmental priorities. 

Reflecting on his experiences at 丁香园AV, Brennan says they have collectively helped him gain an ability to embrace uncertainty and adapt. He also learned how he could make change in many different contexts 鈥� municipal government, federal government, NGOs, grass-roots organizations and student activism.

鈥淐rucially I got exposure to, 鈥榟ow do you actually make change, how do you be a changemaker?鈥� With time and effort, you can create change as a collective. That was a valuable lesson for me.鈥�