2020 Top 25 Environmentalists Under 25
2020’s Top 25 Environmentalists Under 25 represent some of the incredible young people making deep impacts across the country. Despite the impacts of COVID-19, each of our Top 25 Environmentalists Under 25 shows all of us how no matter the circumstances, we can mobilize and create a just recovery that is equitable for both people and the planet.
You’ll find each winner and their corresponding bio below. Over the next few months, we’ll have a bounty of opportunities for them to connect with each other and with our community, including mentorship, storytelling events, connections to elected officials, and more.
Each winner was asked to recognize the traditional territory they reside on. Their answers are with their bios, and we want to honour and name the traditional territories that comprise Turtle Island and thank Indigenous peoples for their continued stewardship of their land. Territory acknowledgements are one of many steps to take to ensure we work meaningfully towards reconciliation effort with all Indigenous, First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples.
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Provinces
Alberta
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Kiya Bruno, 15
Kiya Bruno is a Cree and comes from Samson Cree Nation in Maskwacis, Alberta. She is a protector of Mother Earth, Indigenous rights advocate, actress, singer, dancer, performer, climate change activist, and Canadian National Anthem Cree singer. As the co-owner of Stay Rooted Apparel ᑲᓇᐁᐧᔨᐦᑌᑕᐣ ᒥᑐᓴᐠ , created by Nêhiýaw (Cree) Mother daughter duo Kiya Bruno and Barbara Dumigan-Jackson. Her mission is to help spread awareness to help save our kikâwînaw askiy (Mother Earth). Their hope is to inspire others on their journey to continue giving back to the land, protecting our nipiy (water) and help end the First Nation water crisis within Canada. Kiya most recently had the honor of sharing her Cree language by singing the Canadian National Anthem all in Cree for CBC The National Canada Day Special 2020 and for the Vancouver Canucks and Vegas Knights 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs game in September of 2020. Kiya has a deep passion for her culture, language, teachings, helping others and raises awareness for climate change and our kikâwînaw askiy (Mother Earth).
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Taylor Maton, 24
Taylor consistently seeks ways to engage the public in conservation and stewardship. She is the Conservation Outreach Coordinator with the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) Northern Alberta Chapter, a not-for-profit wilderness protection organization. Her work has focused on the Defend Alberta Parks campaign, one of the biggest swells of grassroots support for a conservation initiative that Alberta has ever seen. She hopes that the campaign will help keep Alberta’s parks public, protected and accessible for generations to come.
British Columbia
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Jamie Hunter, 20
Jamie is the co-founder of Stop Ecocide Canada and a leading member of Fridays for Future - West Kootenay chapter. He is, and has been, involved with many campaigns to protect our planet in different ways. When he sees environmental destruction, Jamie cannot help but act. He feels that we have to come together to save our planet, and in doing this we must listen to everyone's voices.
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Jason Liao, 18
Jason Liao is a pollinator advocate in the Metro Vancouver Area. He and his friends began the Pollinator Project Association in 2017 to raise awareness about declining bee populations and support local pollinators. Since then, they've been able to plant over 30 residential green spaces and 20 pollinator gardens, bringing together over 500 volunteers in the process. He also served on the board of directors for BeeCity Canada earlier this year, where he lead a campaign to increase West Coast municipal commitments to pollinator conservation. Outside of his advocacy work, Jason is a karate nerd, student at the University of British Columbia, and wannabe musician.
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Harry Bajwa, 21
Harry Bajwa is the Director of Operations for Mannkind Charity, and he manages projects in Cambodia, India, Syria, Nepal, and Canada. Harry has led multiple initiatives to plant over 15,000 trees in communities worldwide that have lost wildlife due to deforestation. He has also helped embed environmental education in the curriculum for young children in India and Nepal. Harry is working with the Government of British Columbia and various others to investigate how mass timber can be used as a renewable building material to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
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Kate O’Connor, 18
Kate believes that in order to take meaningful climate action, we need elected officials who understand the urgency of the climate crisis. When the provincial election was called in B.C. this September, Kate ran as the Green Party candidate in Saanich South, and became the youngest candidate in provincial history. Over the course of her campaign, she advocated for a transition to a just and green economy through ending oil and gas subsidies and reinvesting in tech and renewable energy sectors. She is also a leader and advocate for intergenerational leadership and youth participation in politics. Kate firmly believes that engaging young people in the political process and electing leaders who understand the urgency of the climate crisis are crucial parts of the fight to save the natural environment.
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TJ Turenne, 24
TJ is an advocate for the power of transformative experiences in the outdoors. His environmental work includes being a youth organizer for a multi-day fundraising walk from Vancouver Island to Burnaby, B.C. that raised over $25,000 for the Pull Together Campaign supporting First Nations environmental legal defence funds. In his current work with Fireside Adventures and the Vancouver Outdoor School, he led the development of youth programs that combine self-propelled adventure travel and climate change education. As an aspiring educator, he believes every Canadian should learn about climate change through real world experiences beyond the classroom.
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Myia Antone, 24
Ta néwyap! Nilh ta ents, Myia Antone kwi n sna. Sḵwx̱wú7mesh chen. Tiná chan tl’a Ḵ’íḵ’elx̱en úxwumixw iy St’á7mes úxwumixw. Welh, chen wa ém̓ut na tḵwa Elḵsn úxwumixw. Myia Antone is from the Squamish Nation and currently living in Vancouver, B.C. She is a student in an advanced Sḵwx̱wú7mesh sníchim (Squamish language) program, where she learns, speaks and thinks in the language of her ancestors. She founded Indigenous Women Outdoors, a community breaking down barriers for Indigenous folx to get out on the land. She believes in getting Indigenous folx back out on their lands/waters and (re)connecting communities to their traditional territories, as well as connecting Indigenous folx to the territories they are occupying. For Myia, Indigenous sovereignty is at the centre of her environmental work.
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Hailey May, 24
Hailey is a policy-changer and good governance advocate. As the Managing Director of Youth4Nature - a global youth-led nonprofit focused on nature and climate - she works to create sound environmental policy in Canada and across the globe. Hailey has advocated for stronger governance at many levels: from the international scale at the UNSG Climate Action Summit in New York and UNFCCC COP25 in Madrid, to the provincial scale through her work with the B.C. Green Caucus and the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. She knows that a brighter future for everyone requires systems change, and she is dedicated to making it happen in the environmental policy world.
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Joelle Moses, 23
Joelle considers herself to be one of the luckiest people in the world. She grew up in beautiful Vancouver, B.C., surrounded by a loving family and friends. Now, Joelle is committed to using her privilege and experience to make this world a more just and sustainable place for all. Specifically, she works to make climate action more accessible and inclusive to young people, utilizing an intersectional and justice-based approach to activism. Increasingly, Joelle believes that her purpose here is to bring people together, and to uplift voices and causes greater than her own. She wholeheartedly believes that bringing people together is one of the most powerful ways to change the world. It is through collaboration and empowerment that we can make magic, help our planet, and inspire others to do the same.
Manitoba
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Justin Langan, 22
Justin is a Métis Youth advocate from the rural town of Swan River, Manitoba. Justin is producing an elder and youth interview series to help educate about the effects climate change has on Indigenous lands. He sits on the Northwest Youth Advisory Committee and the Provincial Youth Advisory Committee within the Manitoba Metis Federation and is involved with Youth leadership in Manitoba's friendship centre movement. Justin is currently studying at the University of Manitoba and has interests in politics, filmmaking, photography, and painting.
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Nicholas Pasieczka, 20
Through his passion for fitness and sustainability, Nicholas Pasieczka ran 100km in one day to raise money for a renewable energy charity that helps women and children. He is heavily involved at the University of Manitoba by being part of the first ever Sustainability Committee for the Faculty of Engineering, where he helped to implement a composting program, town hall speaker series, and innovation jam. He created a biking video to promote sustainable transportation in Winnipeg and is part of the United Nations Sustainable Develop Goals Working Group. He has also had the opportunity to represent Canada as a renewable energy advocate on an international level. After Engineering, Nich wants to play a pivotal role in implementing environmental legislation on a federal level. Some of his interests include biathlons, triathlons and flying.
Nova Scotia
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Isaac Greenberg, 24
Isaac grew up on an organic farm in Nova Scotia, where the importance of accessible, appropriate, affordable good food is embedded within their way of living. They contribute to their community wherever they're needed including starting an urban farm, organizing a meals-on-wheels operation, and building agri-tech start-ups. Isaac currently works for the Government of Nova Scotia, helping co-create solutions for our province's most pressing complex challenges.
Ontario
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Maggie Chang, 22
Maggie is a poet, writer, and artist whose environmental journey started in first grade when she learned about deforestation of the Amazon in school. Since then, Maggie has led campus secondhand clothing sales for sustainable fashion, organized a UN Sustainable Development Goal training, and helped establish EcoSchools Canada’s first ever Youth Advisory Council, leading her to be named one of the first WWF Canada Living Planet Leaders. Currently completing a Bachelor of Environmental Studies, Maggie is passionate to be living her values to build an intersectional environmental movement. In 2018, she published her poem “Do Not Be Complacent” to call academia to environmental action. She is particularly honoured to have had the opportunity to practice international solidarity working with Fairtrade Organic Café Femenino Coffee communities in Peru during the summer of 2019.
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Alienor Rougeot, 21
Allie has been concerned about environmental and human rights-related issues from a very young age, but has been focused on climate justice specifically since high school. After advocating for more sustainability on her campus at University for two years, she co-founded the group Fridays for Future - Toronto chapter. With her co-organizers, she lead the large climate strikes that took place in March, September and November 2019. She is a public speaker and workshop leader, using these opportunities to raise awareness on the urgency of the climate crisis, discuss the potential solutions that are available to us as a society and empower others to become advocates for the cause in their own way. She studies Economics and Public Policy at the University of Toronto.
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Manvi Bhalla, 23
Manvi is an experienced community organizer who takes an intersectional approach towards addressing inequities in health and wellbeing for under-served groups. In the past year alone, she co-founded the national youth-led non-partisan nonprofit Shake Up The Establishment, which advocates for climate justice, climate literacy, and encourages youth to participate in political action. Manvi is also the Graduate President of the Interdisciplinary Centre on Climate Change (IC3) at University of Waterloo. Alongside her activism, she is an MSc Candidate at the University of Waterloo's School of Public Health & Health Systems, where her research aims to discern the knowledge/understanding of climate change-related health risks by public health authorities, and to evaluate local mitigation, adaptation and risk communication strategies. Manvi was recently an expert reviewer on the latest Federal Government report on climate change and the health of Canadians.
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Sophia Mathur, 13
Sophia started lobbying politicians in Canadian Parliament and US Congress through Citizens Climate Lobby since the age of seven, encouraging them to follow the science and cooperate with all climate experts. She started the Fridays for Future movement in Canada after being inspired by Greta Thunberg and has striked weekly, including politicians when possible, to protect future generations and social justice. Sophia has organized events and used social media to spread the facts about climate change and will not stop her activism until the planet is safe.
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Samantha Casey, 18
Samantha is a changemaker in her community. She is an avid champion for meaningful youth engagement and actively works to create opportunities and platforms for youth to develop solutions to tackle pressing sustainability issues. Samantha works to improve campus sustainability through her work at the University of Guelph. Outside of work, she co-founded the Community Climate Council, a not-for-profit organization promoting climate literacy and political advocacy in Peel Region, Ontario. She also volunteers as the Fundraising and Outreach Manager at Shake Up the Establishment and sits on the Board of Directors of 10 Carden, a hub for changemakers in her community.
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Sarah Hanson, 24
Sarah is an Anishinaabe youth from Biigtigong Nishnaabeg in Northwestern Ontario. She actively works in creating safe places for Indigenous youth in the climate field. During her role as Director of Member Engagement for Leading Change Canada, she led a delegation of 14 Indigenous youth to the GLOBE Forum, increasing Indigenous engagement from previous years. This has led to the creation of a Director of Indigenous Relations for their Steering Committee. This new role blends well with her new position as Youth4Nature’s North America Regional Director, as Indigenous engagement is top of her list of regional priorities.
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Sidney Shaw, 17
Sidney is a student who can't make up her mind about what field of environmentalism to focus on! After taking part of the 2018 Students on Ice Expedition and learning about all the ways youth can make a difference, Sidney got involved with the BlueDot movement, speaking at the BlueDot Day of Action and approaching her MP to sign the BlueDot pledge. Since then, she's advocated for sustainable solutions in her city, ran a community repair cafe, started an urban agriculture blog and is chair of her school's environmental council. In the future, she is interested in pursuing sustainable technology and agriculture.
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Beth Eden, 24
Beth is an avid communicator and mobilizer who has been working with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), focusing on SDG 13 (Climate Action) for numerous years in entrepreneurship and strategic planning. She recently co-wrote a climate report for the City of Waterloo, resulting in a climate emergency declaration and action plan. She also works with mobilizing communities and institutions to implement the SDGs across Canada. Her recent work focuses on social-psychology research and communicating environmental issues, science, and evidence-based solutions through media. She believes collective action and evidence-based communication are integral to move forward the climate agenda in Canada and beyond, and that bridging the gap between environmental research and art communication can get us there.
Saskatchewan
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Samia Sami, 22
Samia intends to combine her passion for the environment with a love of design and technology. She has researched in the area of using artificial intelligence to predict the security status of renewable micro-grids in remote communities across Canada. She has used a data-driven approach to improve the observability of solar integrated distribution systems. She is one of the founding members of the Saskatoon Solar Shelter, a project that would implement solar-powered heated bus stop shelters in the downtown bus terminals. She is serving as the Chair of the IEEE Power and Energy Society - USask Student Branch Chapter, empowering the youth of Saskatchewan for a sustainable renewable energy future. She is selected from Canada to be the 2020's Top IEEE Power and Energy Society Scholar.
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Siobhan Takala, 24
Siobhan is a prairie girl who fell in love with the ocean. Siobhan is originally from Saskatoon, but has lived in Mi’kma’ki for many years. Her passion to bring solutions to the world has energized her youth-led community organizing and social justice work, most recently as Co-Director of Let’s Sprout. Often found dancing on waves or in the streets, or dreaming up a creative project, she loves chatting with others about their ideas and connecting people together.
Yukon
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Kalia Kathan McFadyen Graham, 14
Kalia Graham considers herself privileged to live on the traditional territory of the Kwanlin Dun and Ta'an Kwäch'än in Whitehorse, Yukon. Along with a few friends, Kalia started a climate group three years ago and ever since then, they organize strikes, write letters, speak to the public, and go to City Hall to push for what they believe, including pushing for Whitehorse to declare a climate emergency. Kalia is very interested in honouring the health of the Earth and in upcoming generations having a bright future to look forward to, and she will continue to do her best to create that.
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Callah MacGillivray, 13
Callah MacGillivray is Anishinaabe and calls Yukon home. Although she may be young, Callah has made a significant impact as a leader in the fight against climate change. Callah has been a youth leader in the Fridays for Future climate strikes where she helps to organize her peers to protest the lack of meaningful action on climate change, and calling on all levels of government to treat climate change as the emergency that it is. As a result of her advocacy work with fellow youth activists, both the City of Whitehorse and the territorial government declared states of emergency for climate change in 2019.