Today@Dal

The School for Resource and Environmental Studies (SRES) is saddened by the passing of Dr. Gordon E.E. Beanlands, a longtime SRES faculty member and former director who died peacefully at home on January 10, 2024.

Born in Halifax in 1940, Dr. Beanlands earned a PhD in ecology from Dalhousie University in 1971 before moving to Alberta to work with CBC Edmonton and then the Alberta Environment Conservation Authority. He soon returned to Halifax in 1973 to take a position with Environment Canada and teach a course on environmental impact assessment (EIA) with Dal’s newly-established Institute for Resource and Environmental Studies (now known as the School for Resource and Environmental Studies).

After taking leave from Environment Canada in summer 1980 to work full-time at Dal, Dr. Beanlands and research associate Peter Duinker (now Professor Emeritus at Dal) travelled throughout Canada to hold workshops with EIA practitioners and inquire of them how to improve the scientific underpinnings of the EIA process. The final report of that study, co-authored by Drs. Beanlands and Duinker, has become the pioneering framework for environmental assessment policy in Canada and a standard reference work for students of EIA worldwide.

When the study ended in 1983, Dr. Beanlands stayed on at the School to manage the newly formed Canadian Environmental Assessment Research Council. In 1987, he was appointed Associate Professor and Director of the School. He retired from Dalhousie in 1998 and continued his career in the private sector, establishing his own environmental consulting firm and working with numerous international governments, private sector corporations, and international development agencies, including the World Bank, the World Health Organization, and the Canadian International Development Agency.

Dr. Beanlands’ obituary can be found on the Saltwire website.

A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, January 27 at 1 p.m. in the Atlantic Room of the Westin Nova Scotia. All are welcome to attend. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Dr. Gordon Beanlands Memorial Fund or to a charity of your choice.