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Meet Environmental Lawyer & Politician Dianne Saxe: #SUSTXGLOBAL50 2022 Awardee

The SustainabilityX® Magazine Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards 2022: #RedefiningPower - Dianne Saxe, Ph.D. in Law, GCB.D, Deputy Leader Of The Green Party Of Ontario, Canada


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“Women’s leadership is essential because women are more likely to take these crises seriously and to collaborate with others to find solutions.” - Dianne Saxe, Deputy Leader, Green Party of Ontario

Dianne is an internationally recognized Canadian lawyer rated among the top 25 environmental lawyers in the world, Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, Canada from 2015 to 2019, current Deputy Leader of the Green Party of Ontario serving with Abhijeet Manay, and a former Green Party of Ontario candidate who ran for the 2022 election in the downtown Toronto riding of University-Rosedale. Currently, she is running for Toronto City Council.


As one of the world’s leading environmental lawyers that has been recognized provincially and globally for her work, Dianne currently practices law through her firm, SaxeFacts, focusing on the climate crisis, and serves as the Chair of Toronto City Council’s climate advisory committee. As the Province of Ontario's environmental watchdog, Dr. Saxe was the guardian of the Ontario Environmental Bill of Rights, delivering 17 reports on the environment, energy, and climate. The Ford government passed special legislation to abolish her position after she criticized its destructive climate policies. As a practicing lawyer, she represented community groups protesting acid mine drainage and logging of old-growth forests, obtaining $115 million for municipalities in a bitterly contested arbitration over the Blue Box program.


Q: What is the importance of women's leadership in today's society plagued by the triple crises of COVID, Climate, and Conflict, and their deadly consequences?


Women’s leadership is essential because women are more likely to take these crises seriously and to collaborate with others to find solutions.

Q: What role do you believe women in leadership positions have to play in helping companies and brands transition towards sustainability and circularity, and why is this important?


Organizations and communities led by women have a track record of better responses to climate, COVID, and conflict. Women tend to be less focused on their personal status, wealth and power, and more focused on making a positive difference in the world.


Q: What can be done to improve women’s participation in corporate and leadership positions? How do we achieve this?


As Invisible Women documented, women are routinely discriminated against based on their physical and emotional differences from men and their caregiving responsibilities. Changing this long-standing pattern will take concentrated effort, data collection and monitoring of progress. It also requires women to make a more concentrated effort to support other women.


Q: What does this award mean to you and what significance does it hold to you personally and/or professionally, and your company?


I hope that this award helps to inspire other women to fight for the natural world that we love and upon which we depend. There is no one else to do it for us.

 

The SustainabilityX® Magazine Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards 2022


The SustainabilityX® Magazine proudly announced the release of The SustainabilityX® Magazine’s inaugural Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards™ 2022 on Oct 4th, 2022, an inaugural annual list celebrating the powerful work of women in sustainability leadership around the world.


The non-profit digital magazine’s Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards™ high-level, invite-only program graciously sponsored by the award-winning Canadian construction and engineering firm Belnor Engineering Inc., recognizes achievements of the world’s powerful, groundbreaking female sustainability leaders who’re bridging the gender gap by breaking barriers, shattering traditional stereotypes, and taking the world of sustainability by storm. This campaign is in line with the magazine’s third pillar of sustainability upon which SustainabilityX® is based: social inclusion, which involves marginalized populations and vulnerable communities such as women, persons with disabilities, unemployed youth, LGBTQ+, the elderly, and BIPOC minorities.


“As both a female and one of Canada’s Top 30 Under 30 In Sustainability Leadership myself, I know how important this is,” says Supriya Verma, founder of The SustainabilityX® Magazine. “The number of women in positions of leadership – from business to politics – are relatively few. With society plagued by the triple crises of COVID, climate, conflict, and their deadly consequences, how can the world advance and achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals without having women in decision-making positions at major organizations, political parties, and academic institutions?”


In The SustainabilityX® Magazine’s quest to ‘redefine power’, this is the first international power-list bringing together women around the world involved in sustainability celebrating the power of their work – not their position. This list brings together a diverse group of accomplished women across business, entertainment, academia, law, politics, and beyond ranging from some of the world's leading companies, to independent unsung heroes with one thing in common: using their power with purpose –the power to create change and influence lives to make the world a better place. After all, that's what sustainability is all about. The meaning, or ‘the power’ of one’s work matters, not one’s position in a corporate hierarchy, particularly during this crucial era.


 

About The SustainabilityX® Magazine


The SustainabilityX® Magazine is an award-winning, digital, female-founded, and female-led non-profit initiative bringing the environment and economy together for a sustainable future through dialogue. Founded on May 8, 2016 and inspired by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals by Canada’s Top 30 Under 30 in Sustainability Leadership awardee, Supriya Verma, the digital media initiative focuses on approaching the world’s most pressing challenges with a holistic, integrated, systems-based perspective as opposed to the traditional and ineffective siloed approach with a single lens on interdisciplinary topics like climate and energy. This initiative ultimately seeks to explore how to effectively bring the environment and economy together through intellectual, insightful dialogue and thought-provoking discussion amongst individuals across sectors taking an interdisciplinary and integrated approach to untangling the intricate web of sustainability.


The SustainabilityX® Magazine is based upon the four pillars of sustainability: Environmental Stewardship which emphasizes improved environmental health, Economic Prosperity which emphasizes economic growth without the element of capitalism, Social Inclusion which emphasizes EDI for BIPOC and LGBTQ communities and marginalized, vulnerable populations, and Just Governance which emphasizes the equal rule of law via responsible political leadership to create fair systems for all. Identifying the diverse factors involved in sustainability, how they interact and how the disciplines are interconnected will help accelerate local, national, and international sustainability goals – in simpler words, aligning with The SustainabilityX® Magazine’s mission of bringing the environment and economy together for a sustainable future through dialogue for a sustainable future. Whether you have a background in science, engineering, business, law, politics, media and entertainment, or beyond, your voice matters.


Show your support for independent, high-impact publications by becoming a subscribing member and help power international conversations that matter.


The SustainabilityX® Magazine is a proud member of the Sustainable Journalism Partnership, serves as a cause-based media partner for various events such as Circular City Week New York, and officially delivers remarks at international conferences such as UNESCO’s annual World Press Freedom Day Conference. SustainabilityX® is a brand of the non-profit social business SPSX Group.


SUSTAINABILITYX AND SUSTAINABILITYX DESIGNS ARE REGISTERED TRADEMARKS. ®



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