The Master of Environmental Sustainability has a mandatory research component whereby students work with a supervisor to complete a Major Research Paper or Thesis. Please browse our collections to learn more about the type of research our students are conducting.

Furthermore, the Capstone Seminar in Environmental Sustainability provides students in the Research Paper option with the opportunity to work in teams and partner with local organizations where they conduct research on a current sustainability issue, evaluate a set of candidate solutions, and recommend an approach.

Also, if you are planning on presenting a publication directly related to your thesis at a conference, you may be eligible for a travel grant. Eligible students include Master’s with thesis option students; doctoral students and students enrolled in a “fast-track” program, subject to the availability of funds. Consult the relevant section below for more details on eligibility criteria.

What are the Capstone Seminar in Environmental Sustainability projects?

The Capstone projects course integrates and applies the foundational knowledge students have learned thus far in their program.

It involves partnering with organizations in the community that are working on a sustainability issue. The students work in teams to identify the scientific, economic, legal and social dimensions of the particular environmental problem, then evaluate a set of candidate solutions, and recommend a final approach to their organization.

What are they doing?

In the past, the Environmental Sustainability Master’s Program has partnered with organizations in the community to create different projects:

• The Greystone Village Development: Analysis of Multi-Stakeholder Decision Making - partnering with the community citizens groups Sustainable Living Ottawa East
• Scaling up Action on Parks and Protected Areas in Canada - partnering with the national conservation organization Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.
• Nature for All: Motivating Non-Traditional Partners in Nature Conservation- partnering with Parks Canada
• Watershed sustainability indicators – partnering with the Ottawa Riverkeeper
• Residential Solid Waste Plan assessment – partnering with Waste Watch Ottawa
• Assessment of Canada’s neonicotinoid approval process – partnering with the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment
• Identifying management issues associated with persistent organic pollutants in the Arctic – partnering with ScienTissiME/Inuit Circumpolar Council (Canada)

The Institute of the Environment is proud of the depth and breadth of research that is undertaken by students in our Research Paper option. In order to recognize and showcase the efforts of our best students, we have created a collection on the University of Ottawa uO Research Website to showcase excellent research papers produced by students in our program.

To be eligible, students must have received a final grade of A or A+ and have provided consent to the University of Ottawa’s Non-Exclusive Distribution Licence.

The University of Ottawa encourages public dissemination of, and unrestricted access to, graduate research. All graduate students must submit the final version of their thesis online using uO Research within a month of their defence.

In order to recognize and showcase the efforts of our thesis students, the Institute of the Environment has created a collection on the University of Ottawa uO Research website so that all the thesis submissions for the Master of Environmental Sustainability can be found in one place.