For the fourth year in a row, we asked the Sheridan community to recognize a peer or colleague whose contributions – big or small – show they are passionate about making a positive impact on the environment and their community.
We are thrilled to introduce you to this year’s Mission Zero Heroes. Read on to learn how these seventeen honorees are making a difference and inspiring others across the Sheridan community!
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Nazifa Afroz
Nazifa Afroz
Nazifa Afroz, a student in the chemical engineering technology program, has demonstrated a keen interest in finding innovative solutions to combat plastic waste through her efforts as a research assistant on the Generator-funded plastic-eating mushroom project. Her direct contributions have been fundamental in evaluating and advancing this innovative research at Sheridan, and she has taken initiative to share her research findings and knowledge at several Sheridan events including the 2023 Generator Showcase and the SDG Week 2024 Sustainability Networking & Showcase. Additionally, Nazifa serves as an executive member of Sheridan's Chemistry Club and her peers have commended her efforts to promote the approachability of chemistry though activities both at Sheridan and in the wider community. Nazifa is passionate about the environmental and engineering fields and is a great inspiration and example of what students can achieve when they direct their passion and education towards achieving larger sustainability and environmental goals.
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Samir Agic
Samir Agic
Samir demonstrates his commitment to environment sustainability and health through his everyday activities. Samir chooses to walk to work every day no matter the weather conditions, and he also enjoys biking. Samir has been an avid participant in the annual Tour de Sheridan event, which is a group ride that celebrates biking in the Sheridan community and promotes biking as a low impact mode of transportation.
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Tatyana Ali and Ayushi Satish Prajapati
Tatyana Ali and Ayushi Satish Prajapati
Throughout the year, Tatyana and Ayushi have been generously contributing their time and marketing skills outside of their academic studies to help raise awareness of Trafalgar's Art Hive, encouraging the Sheridan community to join the Art Hive every Wednesday in the Learning Commons! What makes their involvement in Art Hive so inspiring is that neither has yet been able to participate in the Art Hive as their class schedules have not afforded them time to attend. However, once they learned that the Art Hive was about how to recycle, reuse, and repurpose materials for creative exploration, whilst also supporting equity, diversity, and inclusion, they did not hesitate to offer their marketing skills to support the initiative. They remind us that there are many ways we can make a positive difference and support sustainability through offering our time and talents.
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Gulsher Singh Cheema
Gulsher Singh Cheema
Gulsher has demonstrated commitment to environmental sustainability through both academic and volunteer involvement. For example, he participated in a tree planting event within the Brampton community as a way to give back and learn more about the importance of reforestation efforts. In addition to his environmental volunteering endeavors, Gulsher is currently pursuing a Software Development course, where he's channeling his passion for sustainability into practical solutions. Specifically, his capstone project will focus on water filtration software that can detect water contaminates, aiming to address an important environmental concern.
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Mary Del Mar
Mary Del Mar
Mary has been exploring new vegetarian recipes and set a goal to incorporate more meatless meals into her diet to reduce her carbon footprint. Mary took the initiative to reach out to her plant-based colleague to request more recipe inspiration and tips to ensure a smooth transition. She started with Meatless Mondays and realized how easy that was to achieve, so she has been going strong with adding more meatless days each week than her initial goal! On the side, Mary is continuously finding ways to choose more sustainability lifestyle choices.
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Art Hive Monitor Team
Sophia Deluca, Ella Grass, Alex Garcia, Colin Carriere, and Iman Omar Saleh
The Art Hive Student Monitor Team (left to right): Sophia Deluca (Art Fundamentals), Ella Grass (Art Fundamentals), Alex Garcia (Educational Support), Colin Carriere (Art Fundamentals), and Iman Omar Saleh (Animation).
These five enthusiastic students assist in running the Trafalgar Art Hive at Sheridan every Wednesday, helping to inspire recycling, reuse, and repurposing of materials for creative exploration, while also promoting wellness, equity, diversity, and inclusion. Working as a team, they generate ideas for special Art Hive projects/events such as Sheridan’s SDG week, and always warmly welcome, demonstrate, and encourage participants in applying the three R’s with second-hand materials each week. Each of these students sets a great example about the importance of sustainability and reducing our individual carbon footprints, both within the Sheridan community and beyond, by being resourceful in the use of community second-hand stores.
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Lisa Eschli
Lisa Eschli
Lisa Eschli, as Manager for the library’s Technical Services team, has ensured that digital formats are fully accessible through Page 1+, and reduced the reliance on print formats that degrade over time and have a higher carbon footprint in production. Lisa also prioritizes sustainability when it comes to the disposal or reuse of retired library furnishings and equipment, working with vendors to ensure that new furnishings are made from durable materials to reduce future waste. Her love of plants brings vibrant greenery to study spaces, and during the pandemic, she even rescued and nurtured plants from all three campus libraries to keep them healthy at home. Furthermore, Lisa has collaborated with the Sheridan Bike Hub team to optimize the bike circulation Excel tracker, promoting sustainable commuting to work and school. In her free time, Lisa is an avid hiker and captures the beauty of provincial parks through photography.
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Maleeha Farooq
Maleeha Farooq
Maleeha is a key member of the Procurement team and plays a major role in pushing Sheridan towards sustainable procurement. Her unwavering commitment to environmental stewardship is evident in every initiative she champions. From fostering partnerships with socially responsible organizations to spearheading the upcoming sustainable procurement procedures, Maleeha ensures that sustainability is not just an afterthought but the guiding principle of her endeavors. Her efforts extend beyond the Procurement department and ripple throughout the college. With a keen focus on advancing eco-friendly practices, Maleeha collaborates closely with the Office for Sustainability, propelling Sheridan towards a greener and more conscientious future. You’ll even see the fruits (and flowers!) of Maleeha’s green practices in Sheridan’s Trafalgar Community Garden with the “Procure-Mint” team. Maleeha’s sustainability-focused actions are helping to catalyse change and shape a better tomorrow for Sheridan and beyond.
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Aiden Forage
Aiden Forage
Aiden cares deeply about the environment and is always looking to make a positive impact. In the summer of 2023, he was hired by the Long Branch Neighbourhood Association (LBNA) to conduct urban forestry research and special event planning. LBNA parented with the University of Toronto Faculty of Forestry to conduct this important research, and Aiden’s role involved helping to measure trees, meet local residents, and plan the Long Branch Tree Fest 2023 event. Aiden also serves as a Peer Mentor and Tutor at Sheridan and enjoys riding his bike to campus rain or shine.
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Finance, Assets & Business Management Team, Information Technology
Aakarshan Gandhi, Lydia McCormick, and Paul Kuehni
Members of the Finance, Assets & Business Management (FABM) team within IT, comprised of Aakarshan Gandhi, Lydia McCormick, and Paul Kuehni, have demonstrated commitment to promoting environmental stewardship and supporting the community through their efforts to reuse/repurpose technology equipment. For example, in February 2024 the FABM team learned of a local school in need of technology equipment. Without hesitation, they sprang into action and swiftly located 22 monitors that were no longer in use within our organization. Rather than allowing these monitors to go to waste, the team worked to enable them to be repurposed and donated to the school, where they could continue to be utilized and benefit others. The team's efforts not only diverted electronic waste from the landfill, but also contributed to enhancing educational opportunities for students in our surrounding community.
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Jacob Gow
Jacob Gow
In the short time Jake has been working with Theatre Sheridan, he has taken the initiative to develop a department-wide materials tracking workflow that allows Theatre Sheridan to more accurately quantify progress against its sustainability goals. Jake’s efforts have provided a pathway to better-quantify all the environmentally friendly work Theatre Sheridan has built into their process for several years, and his continued collaborative approach to this project has led to across-the-board buy-in from his team. This new workflow aligns with the team’s ingrained process of reusing, repurposing, and recycling materials wherever possible, and serves as a guiding light within Theatre Sheridan toward more informed, responsible, and sustainable choices when it comes to material use!
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Genevieve Kenny
Genevieve Kenny
Genevieve Kenny is a professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science and Technology (FAST). Along with imparting valuable knowledge in the fields of environmental processes and remediation she is actively involved in diverse research projects at Sheridan, including projects related to the separation and processing of plastic waste among others. She notably leads a Generator-funded initiative investigating the potential of oyster mushrooms to degrade plastic waste, aiming to redirect plastic away from landfills or incineration. Her research has found promising results and was featured in the Sheridan Newsroom, 2023 Generator Showcase, Sheridan’s SDG Week Canada 2024 Sustainability Networking & Showcase event, and the Spring 2024 Open House. Her research not only advances knowledge in waste management but also demonstrates Sheridan's commitment to advancing sustainability through research and innovation.
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Ben Kosterman
Ben Kosterman
Ben has contributed to the success of Sheridan's Repair Cafe initiative by volunteering as a fixer during multiple Repair Cafe events. An electrician by training, he generously offers his skills and knowledge to help community members safely evaluate and repair their broken household electronics and small appliances, while also teaching them some basic skills of repair at the same time. Ben's work as a Fixer has helped prevent many fixable items from ending up as needless waste in a landfill, and he has brought joy to many people after getting their devices working again!
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Ronnie Natra
Ronnie Natra
Ronnie Natra is committed to bridging sustainability and design using her Honours Bachelor of Interior Design from Sheridan (graduating April 2025) and her previous York University degree majoring in Environmental Management. While at Sheridan she has used her sustainability knowledge to assist students finding sustainable materials at the Material ConneXion Library, hosted the Creative Cities of the Future Lecture Series at the Mississauga Public Library, and is currently looking into improving sustainability policies in design through her thesis. In the past, Ronnie has collaborated with small organizations, aiding them in various sustainable projects. This included assisting a local business in raising awareness among clients about their sustainable initiatives and developing a species conservation action plan for a community garden.
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Harjeet Sanghera
Harjeet Sanghera
Harjeet Sanghera is a passionate student who embodies the spirit of the Sheridan community and has been a champion of the Mission Zero volunteer program by always spreading positive word of mouth to his fellow students. As a volunteer himself, Harjeet has participated in many engagements with Mission Zero throughout the year, from pollinator garden maintenance to campus clean up events to Freeuse Pop Up shop support. Incoming volunteers come speaking of how they were inspired to join because of how passionately Harjeet spoke of the opportunity and the impact Mission Zero volunteering has had on him.
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Team of Professors in Chemical/Environment Sciences
Manju Sunil-Varghese, Andjela Abu Rabi-Stankovic, Agnieszka Sochalska, Diana Wati, Genevieve Kenny, Anita Usas Neving, Roxan Richards-Johnson, and Neranjala Herath
The School for Applied Chemical and Environmental Sciences (ACES) Faculty team (composed of Manju Sunil Varghese, Andjela Abu Rabi-Stankovic, Agnieszka Sochalska, Diana Wati, Genevieve Kenny, Anita Usas Neving, Roxan Richards-Johnson, and Neranjala Herath) is recognized collectively for their outstanding contributions to environmental science education. Through impactful research projects – such as Battery Recycling at Sheridan, Utilizing Oyster Mushrooms for LDPE Waste Decomposition, Water Pollution in Indigenous Communities, and Eliminating Plastic Bottles on Davis Campus – the ACES team has ignited students' interest in making a tangible impact on the environment. These research projects merge chemistry principles with environmental science and provide practical solutions to real-world environmental issues. By instilling a passion for sustainability and equipping students with the necessary skills, professors in ACES continue to shape the next generation of environmental leaders.
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Brian Zhao
Brian Zhao
Brian's passion for bikes has encouraged him to get involved with the Sheridan Bike Hub to learn repair skills with the goal of hosting a few bike repair events at his home campus, Trafalgar. He volunteered at the HMC Bike Hub throughout summer 2023 and encouraged his friends to join him. Brian also created an SSU Trafalgar Bike Club to go on rides with others and further enhance the cycling culture on campus. Brian’s efforts have played an important role in promoting and inspiring his peers to consider cycling as another mode of transportation, and he continues to take many trips by bike while supporting others to ride more.