Jennifer Lynes

Director of the Environment and Business Program University of Waterloo School of Environment

  • Waterloo ON

Jennifer Lynes's expertise intersects business and the environment, where she focuses on investigating the marketing of sustainability.

Contact

Social

Biography

In the early 1990s Professor Jennifer Lynes had the idea to combine a business degree with an environment degree long before sustainability went mainstream. Two decades later she continues to demonstrate leadership in sustainability through her research, teaching and long-standing support of community initiatives. As past Chair of REEP Green Solutions and director of Canada’s leading undergraduate program in environment and business at the University of Waterloo, she has a reputation for turning ideas into action.

Prof Lynes's research focuses on the intersection of sustainability and marketing. Her main project at the moment involves developing the business case for sustainability in the music industry (and more specifically, concert venues). She is a co-founder of the North American-based Sustainable Concerts Working Group which consists of a variety of music industry stakeholders including musicians, booking agents, promoters, venue managers and owners, NGOs, government agencies and academics.

Industry Expertise

Education/Learning
Research

Areas of Expertise

Marketing
Social Marketing
Community-Based Social Marketing
Green Marketing

Education

Griffith University

Ph.D.

Environmental Planning

University of Waterloo

MES

Environment and Resource Studies

University of Guelph

B.Comm.

Marketing

Affiliations

  • Associate Professor University of Waterloo School of Environment

Languages

  • French
  • English

Media Appearances

Volkswagen committed the cardinal sin of greenwashing: Lying

Globe and Mail  online

2015-09-24

Are you one of millions of Volkswagen owners who just can’t look your bug or Jetta in the headlights any more?

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Volkswagen deception prompts scrutinizing of testing, regulation

CBC  radio

2015-09-25

In the space of just one week, the reputation Volkswagen had spent decades building up, has been laid low. News that some of their so-called "Clean Diesel" engines were engineered to "out smart" emissions tests... has dirtied the brand's reputation.

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Is buying green too much work for you?

Waterloo Stories  online

2013-05-23

“My hope is to make it easy for consumers to buy green,” says Jennifer Lynes, the study’s author and program director of Environment and Business at Waterloo’s School of Environment, Enterprise and Development. “I want it to be the norm, rather than an alternative. I want to put it on the radar at the retail level so sales associates are talking about it upfront as a priority and not as an afterthought.”

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Articles

Back to Simplicity

Alternatives Journal

2015

Look down at the clothes you have on right now. I'll give you 10 points If you can tell me where each item was manufactured--and don't forget your socks and undergarments. Ten more points If you know the type of material each piece of clothing Is made from and another 10 if you know the sustainable features of every Item.

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Strut Lightly

Alternatives Journal

2015

Abstract According to Elizabeth Cline, author of The Good Closet and Overdressed, in 1930, the average woman in the United States owned a total of nine outfits. Learn which textiles have a lower environmental impact-organic cotton, recycled polyester, linen, bamboo and wool, for Instance-and which should be avoided (see "The Footprint of Fabrics," page 24, and" Little Monsters," page 36).

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Sustainability in Style

Alternatives Journal

2015

In this way, fashion is implicated in modern systems of power and control-indeed the industry has been described as" a velvet glove of seductive surface covering the hard fist of economic expediency."[...] if we are to begin to envision alternative fashion systems, we must be prepared to think and engage with existing patterns of power, economic logic and social conditions.

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