Growing up in Brooklyn, Cameron Toy Kluger didn’t see a lot of wildlife beyond pigeons and squirrels, and environmentalism was not front of mind.
A first job at the Prospect Park Zoo introduced him to conservation and sustainability, starting the 20-year-old McGill undergraduate down the path of environmental activism that landed him on Corporate Knights’ 2024 list of top 30 Under 30 sustainability leaders in Canada. He’s the youngest of this year’s honourees. Corporate Knights is a Canadian-based media and research company focused on advancing sustainability.
“I also had seen parts of my neighbourhood badly damaged due to Hurricane Sandy, which was my first experience with a climate disaster,” Toy Kluger said
Those early experiences inspired him to come to McGill to pursue an Honours BSc in Environmental Science, deepening his engagement.
“I wasn’t too familiar with sustainability prior to entering McGill and initially didn’t think environmental science went beyond the world of research and fieldwork,” said Toy Kluger. “However, my courses, extracurriculars and mentors have really shown me that sustainability is an area in which every discipline and industry has a stake.”
Joining Toy Kluger on the 30 Under 30 list are Owen Dan Luo (MDCM’23), an internal medicine resident physician at the McGill University Health Centre, and recent grads Fellipe Falluh (BEng’19), Mitch McEwen (MMgmt’20) and Leïla Cantave (BA’21).
Sowing the seeds of change
Toy Kluger is being honoured for his involvement in McGill’s Sustainability Projects Fund, where he is a member of the Governance Council, and for co-founding Student Education for Environmental Development, or SEED, an initiative that brings free environmental education to schools.
Since its inception in 2022, SEED has reached almost 400 students in Canada and the United States. SEED was selected as one the 15 winning initiatives out of 3,000 international projects in the Under the Starry Skies competition, sponsored by the World Federation of United Nations Associations.
“Our work is important because it provides under-resourced schools with the opportunity to teach sustainability while allowing students to learn from educators who are students themselves,” Toy Kluger said.
It also teaches students – and has taught Toy Kluger himself – that it is possible to make change, no matter how daunting the issues faced.
“SEED gives young learners a chance to explore issues like climate change from a more hopeful, solution-oriented perspective,” he said.
“Change is gruelling and sometimes excruciatingly slow, but never impossible,” Toy Kluger said.
“A mountain always looks biggest when you haven’t started climbing but taking that first step can trigger a huge change.”
Other members of the McGill community on the 2024 30 Under 30 list:
Owen Dan Luo (MDCM’23), internal medicine resident physician at the McGill University Health Centre
Founded Project Green Healthcare/Project Vert la Santé, which provides funding and facilitates mentorships to launch sustainability projects in Canadian health care.
Leïla Cantave (BA’21)
Co-founded Black Eco Bloom, an organization that empowers Black women to take on leadership roles in the fight against climate change.
Fellipe Falluh (BEng’19)
Founded Retrofit Construction, a company that tackles retrofits of older buildings to make them more energy efficient.
Mitch McEwen (MMgmt’20)
Spearheaded the $500-billion Sustainable & Decarbonization Finance Target at TD Bank Group and leads the TD Sustainable Bonds program.
These young leaders “remind us what it means to be fearless and relentless about challenging the status quo,” Corporate Knights said.
Consult the 30 Under 30 sustainability leaders list