Flora Dickison and Sarah Cianfarani

It’s not easy being green, but young sustainability champions Sarah Cianfarani and Flora Dickison are certainly trying.

Seven years apart in age, the two are graduates of Dufferin County’s Youth Climate Activation Circle, a program for 16- to 25-year-olds who volunteer to take part in a 10-month program to learn more about climate solutions and to engage the public via outreach and restoration activities.

In 2023–24 Cianfarani, 25, participated in the program’s inaugural year, playing a formative role in the initiative’s successful startup. Dickison, 18, kept the energy going in 2024–25.

Both made an overwhelmingly positive impression on Kylie-Anne Grube, Dufferin County’s climate engagement specialist, who organizes the YCAC. The two were strong leaders in their cohorts, Grube notes, and their work motivated peers and impressed county councillors.

Cianfarani, a 2021 Wilfrid Laurier University graduate in environmental studies, says, “My proudest YCAC achievement included a series of well-received workshops focused on climate-friendly landscaping.” Topics included planting pollinator-friendly habitats, regenerative gardening at home and landscaping for energy efficiency.

Dickison’s legacy is a community planting day. Held in Orangeville this past June, the initiative focused on native plants. “I was in the gardens all day, encouraging passersby to participate by planting a native species,” she says. “I really enjoyed the public engagement aspect – I believe education is the root of solving a lot of environmental issues.” This September she enrolled in Trent University’s environmental science studies program.

Bookending their YCAC contributions was experience at two Orangeville stores. In 2022, while still in high school, Dickison started to work at the now-closed Village Refillery part-time and helped train Cianfarani, who became manager in early 2023. Cianfarani is now manager at The Sustainable Shop, which opened in 2024, and Dickison works there on occasion. Cianfarani’s job involves raising awareness of sustainable living via social media and conversations with customers. As the two worked together, Cianfarani shared her experiences with the YCAC and encouraged Dickison to both participate in the program and to study geography or environmental sciences at university. After investigating, Dickison chose environmental sciences. “I started in September,” she says, “and I’ve enjoyed serving as my college’s ‘minister of sustainability.’”

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Fast friends, the two cite the power of community and their desire for action as key drivers behind their involvement not only in the YCAC, but also in providing input into the county’s planned Community Resilience Hub, to be located in Orangeville. The outdoor structure will be designed to meet the everyday needs of residents while also building capacity to respond to climate change impacts and emergencies.

Through the YCAC, Dickison provided feedback on the hub’s design, and Cianfarani sat on the hub’s community advisory committee. “I really enjoyed that volunteer role,” she says. “It cemented my interest in looking at climate change solutions through an urban planning lens. I have always wanted to see more happening at the community level, and to participate in the county’s climate change project with an emergency preparedness and resilience angle was amazing.”

As the world grapples with the effects of climate change, the enthusiastic activism of these two Gen-Z powerhouses – and others like them – inspire hope that sustainability will become the watchword of the future.

Clarification: An earlier version of this story may have implied that the Village Refillery and The Sustainable Shop were the same business. They are not. We have updated the article to reflect this distinction.