Projection on a concrete building

Climate Action

Climate Justice through Creative Practice

A creative centre for sustainability through art, design, and research

OCAD University acknowledges the ancestral territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Haudenosaunee, the Anishinaabeg and the Huron-Wendat, who are the original owners and custodians of the land on which we live, work and create.

Who we are

The Global Centre for Climate Action (GCCA) is a research centre at OCAD University that draws on creative vision, sustainable design, and artistic practice to imagine new approaches to sustainability, climate justice, and decolonization. 

We are a vibrant community of artists, designers, and scholars building cultural communities, creating arts projects, curating exhibitions, supporting creative action and research, and cultivating a global network for creative climate justice.

Our work is committed to fostering regenerative relationships between people and land and to Indigenous knowledge on sustainability. We are committed to a decolonial, social justice framework that highlights both the origins of ecological crisis and the disproportionate impacts on Indigenous and marginalized communities.

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What we do

We urgently need interventions that are not simply technical but that are also cultural, social and creative. We are working to create: 

  • A global network for research and creative practice
  • Research, exhibition and programming projects
  • A virtual resource for creative climate action
  • A community gathering and education space

This ecosystem of physical and virtual spaces, programs, and activities will cultivate the profound cultural shifts, resilience, and creative design solutions that we urgently need to respond to the climate crisis and to amplify calls for cultural transformation. 

News and Updates

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BMO Sustainable Futures Faculty Fellows

We're excited to introduce the 2025-26 cohort of BMO Sustainable Futures Faculty Fellows, whose work embodies the critical role art and design play in addressing the climate crisis. These fellows are advancing sustainability research across three interconnected themes: Pedagogy, Materials and Materiality, and Cultural Impact. Their projects demonstrate how interdisciplinary approaches that span multiple forms of knowledge and practice can drive meaningful change. The fellowship supports faculty in developing innovative, community-based research that leverages OCAD U's unique strengths in creative practice, cultural insight, and material innovation to tackle the root causes and cultural dimensions of environmental challenges.

Ursula Handleigh

Ursula Handleigh

Faculty of Art

 

Ursula Handleigh (she/her) is a Tkaronto Scarborough-born artist and educator of Filipino/a/x mixed-ancestry working within expanded photography, moving image and alternative processes of image making. While challenging traditional methods of documentation, Handleigh's practice explores questions of identity and how the role of memory, ancestral knowledge and storytelling can be used to reconstruct archives and preserve histories. In support of her research, Handleigh has received grants from the SSHRC and Canada Council for the Arts. She has participated in numerous residencies and exhibited widely in group and solo exhibitions throughout Canada and internationally including the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Harbourfront Centre and Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier21. Handleigh is currently an Assistant Professor at OCAD University.

Photography’s impact on the environment and the footprint it leaves behind is a growing global issue. Manufacturing digital cameras involve extracting and refining heavy metals and saving images on data hubs adds to technology-generated greenhouse gas emissions. Analogue photography requires environmental pollutants in the form of chemicals and uses a large amount of water in the process. Responding to the environmental impact of photography, my research asks: How can we embed sustainable and eco-conscious approaches to image making while maintaining print standards across multiple modes of Photography? Through process and material exploration with the goal of minimizing the impacts of photography, my research centres on reducing processes that rely on heavy water usage, utilizing processes with fewer, to no chemical and integrating biodegradable papers.

Ian Clarke

Ian Clarke

Faculty of Arts and Science
 

Ian Clarke is an Associate Professor of sustainability and biology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the School of Graduate Studies at OCAD University. He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Queen’s University and an AOCAD (printmaking) from OCADU. He trained as a Biologist at the Design Table (BaDT) and has been a Biomimicry Education Fellow at the Biomimicry Institute. He has taught at OCAD University since 2003, was part of drafting the first OCADU Sustainability Policy, and was one of the founding Co-Chairs of the OCDU Sustainability Committee. Prior to his appointment as Associate Dean in 2013 he was also a cancer stem-cell researcher at the Arthur and Sonia Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre at the Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto). He has co-authored numerous peer reviewed scientific articles, which have received over twenty-two thousand citations, in journals such as Nature, Cancer Cell, Cancer Research, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (USA) and Cell Stem Cell. He teaches courses in biology, biotechnology, climate change and sustainability sciences. His research at OCAD University focuses on sustainable art & design materials, urban agriculture and ecology, with a specific focus on cultural adaptation to the climate crisis.

This research project will develop protocols and applications for the use of wood waste and non-edible fungal cultures as sustainable structural materials, dyes, and pigments, for both art and design practice. Most folks are familiar with the most visible part of fungi, the mushrooms, however, the non-fruiting growth of fungi is mycelium networks of fibers containing the strong water-insoluble biopolymer chitin. Many fungi have evolved to utilize the dead cellulose fibers of plant materials as a food source. The species of focus will be widely distributed and locally adapted native shelf mushrooms (polypore shelf fungi), that are not commercially grown but are best suited to produce biomaterials that can be used for non-food purposes. In collaboration with the staff at the OCADU wood studio, this research utilizes a circular economic approach, where waste materials such as sawdust & wood shavings will be used to grow fungi, where the mycelium connects, binds together, and creates strong biomaterials with a variety of useful properties for artists and designers. Students in the wood studio contribute to research-creation through this project, and this can be used as pedagogical entry into discussions of waste, creative reuse, and the circular economy.

Michael Lee Poy

Michael Lee Poy

Faculty of Design
 

Michael Lee Poy is an Afro-Caribbean artist-activist and architect from Trinidad and Tobago and Canada. His practice and interests are centered on post-colonial Caribbean design and fabrication in the festival arts – specifically Carnival. He is currently developing pedagogy to address the absence of masquerade design, construction, and presentation in curriculum through the Carnival Architectonics course. Michael has been incubating Moko Jumbie (stilt dancer) Mascamp workshops in Trinidad, Cleveland and Toronto for the last decade. Similar to a studio learning ecosystem, mascamps are socially conscious design build fabrication laboratories for innovation. The Moko Jumbie Mascamp focuses on the sustainable design and fabrication of costumes (regalia) in a co-creative and safe environment.
The SF3 fellowship research project will investigate material sustainability, safety, and cultural heritage in Caribbean Carnival costume design and production. A central focus is the creation of an assessment framework for material composition to document and evaluate costume materials, ensuring transparency and ecological awareness. Complementing this, a material transformation resource will establish safe practices for working with Carnival materials. The project also examines sustainability criteria for costumes, foregrounding ecological, cultural, and social dimensions in Carnival. Research extends to traditional fabrication methods beyond wire bending, preserving and reimagining heritage techniques. In parallel, the project explores bio-based costume design, introducing renewable and biodegradable materials to large-scale presentation contexts. Findings and student innovations will culminate in an exhibit and performance at a GGCA event, advancing knowledge and practice in Carnival design while bridging sustainability, culture, and spectacle.
 

Research Associates

Faculty members actively engaged in climate-relevant research regardless of funding source, who demonstrate sustained commitment to the Centre's interdisciplinary approach and participate fully in governance and programming decisions.

Fellows

Faculty members who have successfully received funding administered by the Centre, including competitive internal seed grants, external grants with the Centre or industry partnerships facilitated through GCCA networks.

Affiliates

Internal and external faculty members seeking collaboration opportunities who participate in seminars, networking events, and have access to information about funding opportunities, creating a pathway to higher membership levels.

Current Partners

Trans Europe Halles, an international, social incubator based in Sweden that has created a European network of grassroots arts and cultural centres created from preserved and restored abandoned buildings https://teh.net. 

ERA Architects, specialists in adaptive reuse and urban cultural planning https://www.eraarch.ca/profile/ 

Local Environmental Organization (TBD) 

Heritage Building Construction 

On-going exploration of Indigenous community partners 

Anticipated External Revenue

City of Toronto
The City of Toronto has committed approximately $10 million in external funds to renovate the structure and surrounding plaza. The City’s agreement to, on completion of the renovations, provide a 5-year lease to OCAD U at a nominal fee also represents a significant contribution that helps to ensure the financial health of the Centre 

Contact: climateaction@ocadu.ca 

The GCCA will be going through a strategic review in the Fall 2025, to support a revitalization focusing on:

  1. Governance Renewal
  2. Research Intensification
  3. Public Engagement
  4. Equity and Accountability  

Our sites

The primary sites for the Centre are the main OCAD U campus and the Bathurst Quay Silos, originally the Canada Malting Silos.

Precipitated by a partnership with the City of Toronto, which owns the site and is leading its ongoing renovation, the Silos will eventually form a symbolic hub and physical site for the Global Centre for Climate Action. The plan is for the Centre to animate the North Silo with interior exhibitions and exterior access for public art programming and projections.

As our first major creative project, we will be activating the Silos with a series of three exhibitions in spring, summer and fall 2024. Each series will celebrate intergenerational and interdisciplinary practices that highlight climate action through art, design and research in a way that invites public engagement.

Projection on a concrete building
The Waterfront BIA and The Bentway The Essentials Project, featuring artist Erika DeFreitas at former Canada Malting Silos (GCCA new physical site).