About us

Shared intelligence for Canada’s environment

A strong environmental movement needs effective public engagement to advocate for serious action. Key to this is a steady flow of relevant and rigorous research on the opinions and knowledge of targeted groups of Canadians, and the barriers that may inhibit the engagement of diverse groups on a range of critical issues: air and water quality, toxics, plastics pollution of oceans, loss of biodiversity, climate emergency, etc.

Charities and nonprofits often lack access to the best data and analysis, as governments no longer provide it and private surveys can be expensive, narrowly focused, and difficult to interpret. EcoAnalytics fills this gap: an innovative joint venture of leading charities, non-profit organizations, and university researchers from across Canada, we conduct public opinion research on a wide range of environmental issues. Using both quantitative and qualitative research tools, and allowing collaboration to make the best use of the research data, EcoAnalytics offers analytical briefs, webinars, and communications guidance to its members and subscribers.

Research

This graph shows the distribution of blame across perceived culprits of the climate crisis (population average). Source: Climate of Change 2020

Members and Subscribers have access to a diverse pool of research that has surveyed the general population as well as environmental supporters, gaining insights into public concerns and barriers to participation. In the five years since its launch, EcoAnalytics has fielded and reported on nine in-depth national surveys, as well as focus groups, examining a broad range of environmental issues to answer questions about the relationship between knowledge and opinions, experience and attitudes, or perceptions and behaviours.

To reveal the different strands of public opinion, EcoAnalytics data are segmented to by age, gender, and region, ethnicity, language, income, education, for example, revealing the degree to which issues are polarized or and understood through an ideological lens. Recently our research has also begun to examine attitudes related to environmental racism and the inequitable distribution of climate change impacts.

EcoAnalytics climate change research derives from datasets reaching back over a decade. This offers a valuable historical perspective and the ability to understand trends. Recent mixed-mode research -- i.e., repeated focus groups with the same group of participants, coupled with national surveys -- have allowed Members and Subscribers to understand the impact of events such as the COVID pandemic on Canadian attitudes about environmental protection. Learn more about EcoAnalytics research.

Members and Subscribers

EcoAnalytics is a cooperative enterprise supported by its Members and Subscribers, as well as Canadian funding partners: The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, North Family Foundation, Trottier Family Foundation, Echo Foundation, and Sitka Foundation.

Members include the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Conservation Council of New Brunswick, David Suzuki Foundation, Ecojustice, Ecology Action Centre, Environmental Defence, Greenpeace, Nature Canada, Pembina Institute, and West Coast Environmental Law. Subscribers include the West Kootenay EcoSociety, Nature Conservancy of Canada, and WWF-Canada.

Products & privileges	Subscribers	Members
Detailed cross-tabulated results (Excel, PDF)
Final analytical reports and research notes (PDF)
Advanced webinars analyzing all research results
Opportunity for feedback to researchers
Use of EcoAnalytics infographics
Input on survey questionnaires, focus group scripts, and other research tools
Bimonthly EcoA Tips newsletter and Nutshell summaries of research
On-demand cross-tabulations and figures
Expert support for research translation
Decision-making role in shaping research tools and content
Chair on the Steering Committee

Join us as a Member or Subscriber today

Photo credits:

Scott Webb

Team

James Boothroyd

Project Director

James is co-author of EcoAnalytics, a former journalist and communications consultant with broad experience in Canada’s environmental movement and international public health. As Principal of Boothroyd Communications (2012-) his clients have included many of Canada’s leading environmental groups. He has also served as Director of Communications for the David Suzuki Foundation (2010-2012) and as a writer & researcher for the World Health Organization and Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (2005-2010). Read more about James

Louise Comeau

Research Associate

Louise is a researcher and instructor at the University of New Brunswick, and proprietor of Iris Communications, whose work focuses on advancing solutions to climate change. She has a PhD in Environmental Management (UNB, 2014) and master’s in environmental education and communication (Royal Roads University, 2008). Louise’s research covers climate change mitigation and adaptation policy; environmental education and communications; environmental ethics; pro-environmental behaviours; and the sociology of energy, energy literacy and climate change (including gender, health effects, and just transition). As well she has extensive experience in the non-profit sector, is a former Executive Director of the Climate Action Network Canada and has served on federal and provincial climate change related committees and delegations, including the Expert Panel on Climate Change Adaptation and Resiliency. Louise has also been honoured with two Queen’s Jubilee citizenship medals.

Erick Lachapelle

research partner

Erick is Associate Professor of Political Science, at the Université de Montréal. As well as teaching environmental politics and research methods at UdM, Erick is the lead researcher for several major international and Canadian public opinion surveys addressing climate, energy and environmental issues. The focus of his research is on public attitudes toward risk and environmental issues, political communication, and the way in which public attitudes influence the development of public policy. Erick’s research has appeared in such journals as Environmental Politics, Climate Policy, Energy Policy, Global Environmental Politics and the Policy Studies Journal Read more about Erick

Marjolaine Martel-Morin

Research Associate

Marjolaine is a PhD candidate in political science at l'Université de Montréal, and co-author of several EcoAnalytics reports. Her research interests focus on climate change communication and psychology, with a special concern for assessing how distinct audience segments respond to different framing strategies in Canada. As part of this work, she has a keen interest in quantitative analysis and in applying social marketing principles, such as audience segmentation, to climate change communication.

Kate McMahon

Project Manager

Kate works with Members and Subscribers to translate public opinion data into communications guidance that mobilizes key audiences. An expert in interpretive planning for museums, science centres, national parks and conservation organizations she knows how to shape narratives and design to engage specific segments of the public. In her spare time, Kate also leads Burnaby, B.C.’s, local chapter of For Our Kids, a national parent/caregiver-led climate organization. She has a BA in History and Anthropology from the University of Victoria and an MA in Museum and Heritage Management from England’s Nottingham Trent University.

Mark Purdon

Research Advisor

Dr. Mark Purdon is an Assistant Professor at l’École des sciences de la gestion, Université du Québec à Montréal where he was recently appointed Chair of Decarbonization. He has done postdoctoral research at the London School of Economics, and directs the SSHRC-funded Joint Clean Climate Transport Research Partnership. Expert in comparative environmental politics, he is interested in the relationship between climate change politics and political economy and has extensive research experience in developing and developed countries. He is also the Executive Director of IQCarbone, an organization for research on decarbonisation and climate change mitigation. Read more about Mark

Melanee Thomas

Research Advisor

Melanee Thomas is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Calgary. Her research focuses on the causes and consequences of gender-based political inequality, with a particular focus on political attitudes and behaviour. She develops this research in several streams, focussing on – among things – how anti-Indigenous racism, public opinion, elite narratives, and federalism shape Canada’s efforts to transition off fossil fuels to renewable energy. Read more about Melanee

Lori Thorlakson

Research Advisor

Lori Thorlakson is Professor of Political Science, University of Alberta. Lori Thorlakson holds an MSc and PhD from the London School of Economics. Dr. Thorlakson is currently a co-PI (with Melanee Thomas at the University of Calgary) of a Future Energy Systems project, Political Pathways of Energy Transition. She also leads an NSERC-funded project on political aspects of electricity grid transformation. Dr. Thorlakson's research focuses on issues of party competition and representation in multi-level systems, including federations and the European Union. She studies party organization, party system change and voter behaviour, and how these three dimensions of political competition combine to shape the nature of representation in democratic states. She is also involved in research that assesses the impact of the EU on democratic development, particularly in post communist states, and research that examines the development of the European Parliament and representation in the EU. Read more about Lori

David Tindall

Research Advisor

David B. Tindall is Professor of Sociology at the University of British Columbia. He studies contention over environmental issues, including topics such as forestry, wilderness preservation, fisheries, and climate change. A major focus of his research has been environmental movements in British Columbia, and Canada, and the interrelationships between social networks, movement identification, and participation. His current research focuses on sociological aspects of contention over climate change in Canada, including perceptions about climate change and climate justice, and social processes affecting policies. He was also an advisor to EcoAnalytics on its successful SSHRC grant in 2018. Read more about David

Ingrid Waldron

Research Advisor

Professor Waldron is Professor and HOPE Chair in Peace and Health, Global Peace and Social Justice Program in the Department of History, at McMaster University. The founder and Director of the Environmental Noxiousness, Racial Inequities Community Health Project (The ENRICH Project), she is well known as the author of There’s Something in the Water: Environmental Racism in Indigenous and Black Communities, the book behind the 2020 Netflix documentary, which she co-produced with actor Elliot Page. With MP Leonore Zann, Waldron also spearheaded the push for a National Strategy Respecting Environmental Racism and Environmental Justice (Bill C-230).