About – ORIAS

The Oak Ridges Institute for Applied Sustainability (ORIAS) has its roots in the Oak Ridges Moraine (ORM), a peri-urban, protected, working landscape north of Canada’s largest city, Toronto. For ORIAS, the ORM is a living laboratory for exploring the deep systemic changes required for dealing with our most pressing sustainability-oriented issues. The ORM is a nexus for conservation, livelihood, agricultural and food systems, reconciliation, diversity as well as planning, policy and governance issues.

ORIAS was founded in 2008 as a sister organization to Save the Oak Ridges Moraine Coalition (STORM) that would allow STORM to focus on environmental advocacy. Through a series of workshops, planning sessions and a conference hosted by ORIAS it became apparent that regional civil society networks needed to work concurrently at multiple scales and across multiple problem domains – continuing to champion environmental issues while also fostering synergistic effects to promote systemic change towards sustainability. ORIAS’ mission is to conduct, interpret and disseminate community-based research on resilience, social innovation and sustainability to inform policy development and decision making within linked social and ecological systems, such as the Oak Ridges Moraine.

In 2018 ORIAS partnered with the University of Waterloo, Queen’s University and Mount Wolfe Farm – a sustainable farm on 90 acres within the ORM – to explore sustainable agriculture in southern Ontario while simultaneously promoting sustainable livelihoods, rural skills, meaningful connection to the land, and exploring innovations in land use planning. ORIAS will facilitate and foster sustainable and resilient systems change across scales and across problem domains.

Goal and Objectives

Our Goal:

To conduct, interpret and disseminate community-based research on resilience, social innovation and sustainability to inform policy development and decision making within linked social and ecological systems, such as the Oak Ridges Moraine and Greenbelt.

Our Objectives:

To conduct and interpret community-based research on the resilience and sustainability of linked social and ecological systems specifically to foster social innovations.
To promote coordination and collaboration between researchers, practitioners, students and citizens working on the Oak Ridges Moraine through the development of a Moraine Research Coalition
To disseminate and apply the learning outcomes in a collaborative and place-based manner to inform and enhance formal and informal decision-making.

Goal and Objectives

Our Goal:

To conduct, interpret and disseminate community-based research on resilience, social innovation and sustainability to inform policy development and decision making within linked social and ecological systems, such as the Oak Ridges Moraine and Greenbelt.

Our Objectives:

To conduct and interpret community-based research on the resilience and sustainability of linked social and ecological systems specifically to foster social innovations.

To promote coordination and collaboration between researchers, practitioners, students and citizens working on the Oak Ridges Moraine through the development of a Moraine Research Coalition

To disseminate and apply the learning outcomes in a collaborative and place-based manner to inform and enhance formal and informal decision-making.