Alexandra Chow wanted to learn more about the science of climate justice, so she landed an internship where she gets to work on forest restoration, including work with drones that plant trees.

The first-year Artsci student has been passionate about sustainability and climate justice since childhood. Growing up, her family always had a flower and vegetable garden. Caring for the plants made her notice changing weather patterns and how it impacted plants.

“It instilled a sense of responsibility and normalized these types of [sustainable] practices for me,” Chow said.

In high school, Chow was a Workshops Coordinator with the Vancouver School Board Sustainability Connection, and at McMaster, she took on roles as a Resource Centre Volunteer at OPIRG McMaster and MacChangers Fellow.

Still looking for a fresh challenge, Chow also connected with Experience Ventures, which places McMaster students with startup companies at the Forge business incubator.

Her work in climate justice so far had been focused on advocacy, Chow said. Interested in learning more about what the “science” side of that would look like, she applied for a position with startup MiON Forest Inc.

Recently selected as one of the Top six ventures for McMaster University’s Student Seed Fund program, MiON Forest is working on innovative technologies that make reforestation more efficient and scalable.

Their biodegradable MiON Pot contains soil microbiome activators to enhance survival rates of seedlings, and developed AI-driven smart planting and drone-based tree planting.

As an ecology intern, Chow designed a detailed plan for MiON Forest’s Newcastle research site this summer. The site will test the MiON products against industry standard practices, and also establish a nursery to start seeds.

Chow’s plan covers the species to be planted, planting density, spatial patterns and more, based on information about the climate, soil, and nearby vegetation. She also created a budget and a map of where the seedlings, supplies and resources would be located.

The internship has taught her a lot of technical knowledge about reforestation, Chow said. “It’s a very specialized topic. You wouldn’t necessarily learn about it in class.”

During the internship, she also reached out to several industry partners to lay the groundwork for future collaborations with MiON. Her outreach led to interviews with seven companies working on various aspects of reforestation, including seed collection, strategic forest management and on-the-ground planting.

She also got to collaborate with other interns, who had more hands-on experience in different aspects of reforestation.

It was “really cool to hear the different perspectives and work together, because we all came from different backgrounds.”

The experience drove home the need for collaboration between partners and stakeholders from a range of disciplines and fields.

“Often, I think climate justice can be intertwined with many other subjects,” Chow said.

“For example, if you’re interested in fashion, then you can look at fast fashion… it really does connect with everything.”

And you don’t have to work in the environmental sector to bring sustainability into your role.

“There are always ways to bring in sustainability to everything that you’re doing, which I think is one of the really cool things about sustainability. You can tie it into everything.”