Fighting the environmental issues affecting its state and the globe is a top priority for the environmental organizations in Ontario, Canada. These organizations thrive on finding solutions to these issues as soon as possible.
In Ontario, numerous groups were established to protect and improve the environment. It may be done by raising awareness among residents and teaching citizens about the best ways to save our world.
You might be curious about these environmental groups’ identities and activities. You could wonder what their goal is specifically and how they go about achieving it. Read the following list of environmental organizations in Ontario.
Table of Contents
Environmental Organizations in Ontario
- Nature Conservancy Ontario, Canada
- Climate Action Network (CAN)
- Sierra Club Canada
- Environmental Defence Ontario Office
- Pollution Probe
- Ontario Nature
- Ontario Environment Network
- Citizen Environment Alliance
- Ontario Environment Industry Association
- Conservation Ontario
- International Institute of Sustainable Development (IISD)
- GreenUP
- Friends of the Earth Canada
1. Nature Conservancy, Ontario, Canada
The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), Canada’s top non-profit private land conservation group, has been defending Ontario’s most significant natural regions and the species they support since 1962. 15 million hectares of land have been protected by NCC and its collaborators from coast to coast since 1962.
Nature Conservancy Canada, located in London, Ontario, has collaborated with its partners to protect more than 243,000 hectares in Ontario. The most important natural landscapes in the province are protected by the NCC, which works from the north side of Lake Superior to Pelee Island in Lake Erie.
They are a private, non-profit organization that collaborates with people, businesses, foundations, Indigenous communities, other non-profits, and governments at all levels to safeguard their most priceless natural resources, the wilderness areas that support Canada’s flora and animals.
Long-term property management begins with securing properties (via donation, acquisition, conservation agreements, and the surrender of other legal rights to land).
2. Climate Action Network (CAN)
One of the largest environmental organizations in Canada is Climate Action Network, a global nonprofit network with more than 1,300 NGOs spread across over 130 nations.
The Climate Action Network was established in 1989 and is based in Bonn, Germany. It presently employs roughly 30 people, including Tasneem Essop as executive director.
Members of CAN coordinate information exchange and non-governmental organization strategy on global, regional, and national climate challenges to accomplish this goal.
The goal of the Climate Action Network is to unite all environmental organizations so they can collaborate more effectively. They have been successful in doing this by bringing together various Canadian climate change organizations and assisting them in realizing their goals.
A healthy environment and development that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” are both highly valued by CAN members.
The goal of the Climate Action Network is to safeguard the environment while promoting just and equitable development around the globe, as opposed to unsustainable and harmful development.
3. Sierra Club Canada
John Muir founded the Sierra Club Canada Foundation, which has its main office in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1969 and started operating fully in 1992. About 10,000 of its employees are located in Canada.
The Sierra Club, one of Canada’s organizations addressing climate change, was founded as a hiking group but quickly developed an interest in environmental preservation.
The Sierra Club has been functioning as a watchdog, presiding over environmental issues in Canada, and sounding the alarm. They are the voice of nature and the environment.
The Board of Directors of Sierra Club Canada is composed of nine members, three of whom are elected each year in an election where all SCC members can vote. Youth Club members are entitled to two of the seats.
A coalition of business and environmental organizations, coordinated by Sierra Club Canada, has pushed the government to enhance air quality while lowering smog pollution.
They are without a doubt among the best climate change organizations in Canada. Sierra Club Canada and Sierra Club Prairie also helped create awareness among the general public about the negative environmental effects of oil sands development.
4. Environmental Defence Ontario Office
A Canadian environmental organization called Environmental Defence works to protect and ensure that everyone has access to clean water, a safe environment, and healthy communities.
The organization’s extensive environmental projects, activities, and research touch on a wide range of environmental issues, including climate change, endangered species, and the protection of natural resources.
The Environmental Defence was created in 1984, more than 30 years ago. To give the residents a green and healthy environment, it has worked on environmental issues.
The organization has also contributed to the creation of livable communities by lowering the number of dangerous chemicals that people are exposed to in their daily lives, advocating for a clean economy, and minimizing plastic pollution.
Both the conservation of Canada’s freshwater and the protection of Ontario’s environment fall under the scope of this remarkable environmental organization.
The group was able to handle the environmental difficulties that Canada and its communities were facing as a consequence of coming up with creative solutions. The organization’s developed solutions are implemented and disseminated to the local community.
5. Pollution Probe
A group of University of Toronto students started Pollution Probe as a nonprofit organization in Ontario in 1969 to address environmental problems. Pollution Probe is one of the climate change organizations in Canada.
The major goal of the Pollution Probe organization, which is located at 130 Queens Quay East, Suite 902 West Tower, Toronto, is to enhance Canadians’ health and well-being by promoting legislation that leads to real, beneficial environmental change.
Its goals are to be trusted when it comes to environmental policy, to be known as a top source of knowledge on environmental matters, and to work credibly in partnership with the government and businesses to find solutions to environmental difficulties.
One of the first environmental non-governmental organizations in Canada, the foundation started out concentrating on air pollution only in the province of Ontario but over time broadened its scope to include other types of environmental degradation as well as going international.
Pollution Probe lobbied for legislation to limit the amount of phosphates in detergents in 1970, to establish recycling programs in Ontario in 1973, and to curb acid rain-causing emissions in 1979.
They have assisted in the fight against numerous climatic and environmental issues across Canada as one of the largest climate change organizations in the country.
6. Ontario Nature
On the ancestral lands of numerous Indigenous Nations and Peoples spread throughout the area that is now known as Ontario, Ontario Nature operates. They pay respect to the original caretakers of these lands and rivers and express appreciation to them.
Their goal is to preserve wild animals and wild areas through conservation, public outreach, and education, and they are located at 720 Bathurst Street, Toronto, Ontario.
Ontario Nature is a registered charity with 150 member groups from throughout Ontario, more than 30,000 members and supporters, and a registration number of 10737 8952 RR0001.
Ontario Nature has fought for the environment ever since it was founded in 1931 as the Federation of Ontario Naturalists. Their goal is straightforward: to create an Ontario where the natural world inspires and supports future generations.
Goals
- To halt the decline in biodiversity in Ontario, protect and restore nature.
- With the help of the Nature Network, increase local capacity and a voice for conservation of nature.
- Create connections between people and nature to foster a lifelong commitment to stewardship and environmental conservation.
- Increase effect by strengthening capability.
7. Ontario Environment Network
The Ontario Environment Network (OEN), which is located at Ste 11 – 2675 Bloor Street West, Toronto, is a not-for-profit corporation registered in Ontario that works to support and advance its members’ efforts to safeguard, conserve, restore, and promote a safe, healthy, and sustainable environment for the benefit of the present and future generations.
Through programs including newsletters, conference calls, webinars, workshops, and other activities, the network promotes collaboration among its members and others. They facilitate their cooperative actions and provide a directory of environmental organizations on their website.
Although, as a network, the OEN normally abstains from expressing official opinions, in doing so the OEN may reflect a consensus of its members. The OEN shares information on national and international issues with them and other provincial organizations as a member of the Canadian Environmental Network.
8. Citizen Environment Alliance
A multinational, non-profit, grassroots organization dedicated to teaching and research is called the Citizens Environment Alliance (CEA). They are dedicated to using an ecosystem approach to plan and manage the environment.
Citizens who were worried about spills from the (Sarnia) Chemical Valley into the St. Clair River (the Toxic blob) and how they damaged the area’s drinking water founded the CEA in 1985. Later, the CEA started to concentrate on the issues of toxins in the Great Lakes and the quality of the air in the transboundary region.
The problems of concern have expanded along with the group. These currently include energy consumption, waste management, wetland and natural area protection, environmental land use planning, and the long-term environmental effects of economic growth.
Since its foundation, the Alliance has worked to raise awareness of the region’s ecosystems and the effects that humans have on them.
They belong to Green Infrastructure Ontario and Climate Action Network Canada. The CEA, which is located at 101-1501 Howard Ave., Windsor, is listed as a charitable organization with the Department of National Revenue.
The Windsor-Essex-Kent Region of the Great Lakes Basin, the Detroit-St. Clair River corridors and the western basin of Lake Erie are the three areas where the Citizens Environment Alliance will work to safeguard, improve, and preserve the local environment’s quality.
9. Ontario Environment Industry Association
The business organization ONEIA, which is located at 192 Spadina Ave. #300, Toronto, was founded in 1991 to serve the interests of Ontario’s environmental industry.
Key figures from environmental technology, product and service companies, legal, investment, and insurance organizations, institutions, colleges, and governments are among the hundreds of contacts in the network.
Ontario’s environment industry offers market-driven solutions for society’s most serious environmental concerns through its ingenuity and experience in Ontario and around the globe.
ONEIA offers a space where a variety of businesses, entrepreneurs, and other groups in the environment field may come together to work on shared concerns, share information, and explore business prospects despite the diversity of our industry.
Through ONEIA, people may contribute to the development of a culture that recognizes and supports the role that market-based solutions play in resolving our environmental issues.
Key stats on Ontario’s Environment Industry (according to Statistics Canada 2019)
- Offers top-notch technology and environmental services;
- Comprised of more than 3,000 environmental businesses in Ontario;
- Has almost 134,000 highly skilled workers.
- Adds $25.4 billion to Ontario’s annual GDP
- Produces exports with a value of about $5.8 billion
10. Conservation Ontario
The 36 conservation authorities in Ontario are represented by Conservation Ontario, a nonprofit organization located at 120 Bayview Parkway, Newmarket.
To protect people and property from flooding and other natural hazards and to conserve natural resources for economic, social, and environmental advantages, conservation authorities and community-based watershed management organizations are required to implement watershed-based initiatives.
The Conservation Authorities Act of 1946 contains the legislation governing conservation authorities.
A six-member elected Board of Directors, comprising representatives from each of the 36 Conservation Authorities’ Boards of Directors plus Conservation Ontario’s staff, rules and guides the organization.
Levies collected from members of Conservation Ontario’s membership and project funding and contracts serve as the organization’s primary financing source.
11. International Institute of Sustainable Development (IISD)
One of Canada’s groups fighting climate change is the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), a nonprofit, autonomous organization with an office at 192 Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Ontario. It was created in 1990.
More than 200 specialists from various fields and countries make up the IISD personnel. Their work has an impact on people’s lives in close to 100 nations, with offices in Winnipeg, Geneva, Ottawa, and Toronto.
IISD Reporting Services (IISD-RS) offers unbiased reporting on intergovernmental efforts to adopt environmental and sustainable development policies. This coverage includes daily reports, analyses, and images of the global environment.
Before the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), IISD released the Earth Negotiations Bulletin, which has been reprinted in several follow-up negotiations since then.
As one of Canada’s institutions addressing climate change, the International Institute for Sustainable Development works to protect the environment and all of its constituent parts.
12. GreenUP
GreenUP which is located at 378 Aylmer St N, Peterborough, Ontario has served as the main agency for community resilience, environmental education, and climate action in the Peterborough region for more than 30 years.
Their goal as a non-profit charitable organization is to encourage and equip people to take ecologically responsible and sustainable action.
They run compelling initiatives that highlight the potential for green, healthy, and active neighborhoods, conduct effective hands-on environmental education programs, and plan activities and campaigns that encourage group action and civic engagement.
13. Friends of the Earth Canada
Located at 1404 Scott Street, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Friends of the Earth Canada actively defends Mother Earth and her inhabitants by taking action against polluters, holding governments accountable for their commitments, and demanding that laws be upheld.
They maintain that every single Canadian citizen is entitled to a healthy, safe environment and can use their legal options to ensure that this is the case.
To combat the effects of climate change and harmful pollution, they stand in solidarity with weaker individuals and communities.
From a tiny group of volunteers in 1978, Friends of the Earth Canada (FoE) has expanded into one of the nation’s most significant environmental advocacy groups.
They are a part of Friends of the Earth International, the largest grassroots environmental network in the world, which has 5,000 local action organizations worldwide and 75 national member organizations.
By conducting research, educating the public, and advocating for environmental causes, Friends of the Earth gives the environment a voice on a national and international scale.
Conclusion
The top environmental organizations in Canada are listed in this article clearly and concisely. Although there are many non-governmental organizations in Canada, this article just focuses on the best ones that keep track of the changes in the environment.
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A passion-driven environmentalist by heart. Lead content writer at EnvironmentGo.
I strive to educate the public about the environment and its problems.
It has always been about nature, we ought to protect not destroy.