Alana Lajoie-O’Malley

Alana Lajoie-O’Malley is the key champion of The University of Winnipeg’s sustainability vision. Her tireless efforts to green the campus has allowed the University to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 32 percent — even with the addition of five new buildings.

Between 2003 and 2006, Lajoie-O’Malley was a founding member of a student group that lobbied UWinnipeg to establish a sustainability initiative and set clear greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. She later played a key role in developing the concept paper that framed much of the University’s approach to sustainability and community engagement in the decade that followed.

After spending two years in England on a Rhodes Scholarship, Lajoie-O’Malley returned to UWinnipeg in 2009 to assume her role as a campus sustinability leader.

Lajoie-O’Malley is a frequent guest speaker on climate action, sustainability planning, and environmental advocacy in classrooms and conferences. She is an advocate for the value of education in advancing social change.

Whether public speaking or participating in dialogues and consultations, Lajoie-O’Malley never shies from pushing the envelope and challenging groups to reconsider what is possible. She holds strong in her commitment to clearing the path for young people to speak louder, clearer, and more intelligently about issues that matter to them.

Lajoie-O’Malley has acted as Manitoba Eco-Network’s Board Champion to increase the capacity of the Environmental Youth Network, and she is a member of 50by30 — a group of Manitoban’s working to see the share of renewable energy in our province increase to 50 percent by 2030.

She holds a Bachelor of Science in Physics and a Bachelor of Arts (Hons). She also holds an Master in Philosophy in Modern South Asian Studies from The University of Oxford. Lajoie-O’Malley is an Ashtanga yoga practitioner and has spent six years teaching Sanskrit and yoga philosophy, which compel her to focus on the human dimensions of our current environmental challenges.