Laurier researcher Manuel Riemer honoured as Sustainable Waterloo Region’s Champion of the Year

June 11, 2021

Manuel Riemer, professor of Psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University, has been honoured by Sustainable Waterloo Region (SWR) as the organization’s 2020 Champion of the Year. The award recognizes Riemer’s partnership in SWR initiatives including the ClimateActionWR program, which facilitates cross-sector efforts to reduce greenhouse gases in Waterloo Region, and his sustainability research at Laurier.

“As a community-engaged scholar, this award means a lot to me because SWR has been one of my longest-standing and most important community partners,” says Riemer. “For the organization to recognize our partnership in this way is great confirmation that we have developed a strong collaboration for the advancement of a regional and national sustainability agenda.”

SWR is a social enterprise non-profit that helps the local business community, and Waterloo Region as a whole, become more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable.

Riemer’s research focuses on the intersections of community, environment and justice. In partnership with SWR, Riemer is studying the development and impact of a culture of sustainability at evolv1, Canada’s first commercial net-positive energy multi-tenant building. As director of Laurier’s Viessmann Centre for Engagement and Research in Sustainability (VERiS), he is working with municipalities to integrate equity and accessibility into their climate action planning, which includes work on the recent TransformWR community climate action strategy.

“In his own work and as a partner of SWR, Manuel has worked toward climate justice and applied an equity lens to sustainability transformations and the cultural, behavioral and personal well-being elements of the creation of a low-carbon future,” the SWR team wrote in a tribute to Riemer.

Riemer is proud to continue his partnership with SWR.

“SWR is not only one of the most important and influential environmental non-governmental organizations in the region, but it has also generated impact well beyond our regional boarders,” says Riemer. “SWR is highly innovative, very effective and attracts very likable and committed staff and volunteers. With SWR’s leadership, Waterloo Region has become a sustainability leader in Canada and I am happy to support those efforts with my applied research.”