Date: Thursday, April 30, 2026 | 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM ET
Cost: Free (Zoom Webinar)
*Please note, all registrants will be provided with a link to the recording and presentation slides following the sessions. The recording will be available for 60 days.
Last summer, 15 ENGO leaders became the first environmental professionals in Canada to earn Responsible AI credentials. What did they learn? What changed in their organizations? And where is this heading next?
Join us on April 30 to hear directly from three ENGO leaders who experienced it — and to learn what Sustainability Network and Skills4Good AI are offering Canada’s ENGO community this year.
AI is already integrated into how many environmental organizations research, advocate, write grants, and communicate with funders and governments. This year we move from Responsible AI Literacy to the Responsible AI Audit, a systematic approach for identifying AI errors before they cause significant harm.
During the webinar we'll:
We’ll screen recorded presentations from:
Hosts and Presenters
Josephine Yam is the CEO and Co-Founder of Skills4Good AI. An AI lawyer and AI ethicist with three graduate degrees (JD, LLM, MA Phil. in AI Ethics), Josephine developed the Responsible AI Audit as a complete AI risk management system — powered by the trademarked Responsible AI Literacy = AI Skills + Human Skills framework. Skills4Good AI delivers CPD courses and training validated across governments, professional associations, and organizations in 15+ countries. Skills4Good AI is a Government of Canada AI Training Provider, State Bar of California MCLE Approved Provider, and ASAE Registered Provider.
Paul Bubelis is the Executive Director of the Sustainability Network, Canada's hub for environmental nonprofit leadership. Under Paul's leadership, Sustainability Network became the first sector network in Canada to systematically invest in Responsible AI training for its members — launching the pioneering Responsible AI Literacy initiative for ENGOs in 2025 and expanding to the Responsible AI AuditTM Standard in 2026.
The DEFNP workshop series will offer tailored programming designed to match ENGOs on their decolonial (un)learning journeys. In Spring 2026 members of the ENGO sector will be able to choose one of three workshop tracks: Introduction to Decolonization in the ENGO Sector, Advanced Decolonial Theory and Application or For Indigenous Ears Only - A Space for Reflection and Action. Each series consists of four three-hour sessions.
Collectively, Decolonizing ENGO-First Nation Partnerships fosters:
Awareness of settler colonialism and the ways it potentially harnesses civil society;
Understanding about how Canadian law such as the Indian Act and the Income Tax Act has suppressed Indigenous governance systems;
Awareness that Indigenous peoples have unique inherent political and legal systems, with which ENGOs may want to form partnerships;
A better understanding about how to navigate partnerships with Indigenous communities that promote decolonial environmentalism;
A stronger sense about how to identify and explain individual and organization social locations (i.e. positionalities) as part of ethical partnership development;
Promoting the resurgence of Indigenous self-determination in the Canadian ENGO sector.
Cost: $100 (Register 2 spots, get the 3rd free)
70 participants max.
All registrants will be provided with a link to access the recordings and presentation slides for 60 days following each session.
Session 1: Settler Colonialism 101
Introduce ENGO representatives to the fact that colonization is a structure and not an event. Identifies key ways that colonialism moves through individuals and organizations.
Session 2: Positionality
ENGO representatives learn how to articulate their social location within a settler colonial state, and in relation to potential Indigenous partners.
Session 3: Inherent Indigenous Governance 101
Introduce the fact that Indigenous nations have their own sources of political authority that they can (and do) draw on when addressing environmental issues. Examples provided.
Session 4: Building Better Relations
ENGO representatives will road test ways they can implement previous workshop key points to re-imagine partnerships with Indigenous nations.
Cost: $100 (Register 2 spots, get the 3rd free)
All registrants will be provided with a link to access the recordings and presentation slides for 60 days following each session.
Session 1: Diagnosing Settler Colonialism in the Enviro Sector
Participants will be asked to share ways in which they have diagnosed and traced power in social justice movements and/or in the ENGO sector. This workshop will make space for discomfort as part of promoting decolonization.
Session 2: Inherent Indigenous Governance
A mix of advanced and introductory theory, this workshop delves into legal and political pluralism, naming the fact that Indigenous nations have their own sources of political authority that they can (and do) draw on when addressing environmental issues.
Session 3: The Nonprofit Industrial Complex
ENGO participants are introduced to theories and examples describing the Nonprofit Industrial Complex and the “Shadow State.” Purpose is to show how settler colonialism structures civil society.
Session 4: Decolonizing ENGO-First Nation Partnerships
This workshop delves deep into how ENGOs can partner with Indigenous nations beyond the Nonprofit Industrial Complex while promoting deference to inherent Indigenous political leaders.
Cost: Free
The Indigenous only space will be collaborative in nature but critical in approach. This track is a space for Indigenous folks within the ENGO sector to come together to discuss their experiences and work, with an eye to taking a position on what the sector might need to do in order to promote decolonization. Participants will use the first session to define our goals for the remaining three meetings. Therefore, session topics named here are proposals only.
Session 1: Naming the Cannibal: Settler Colonialism in the ENGO Sector
Session 2: Proposed topic: Reflections on working in the ENGO Sector
Session 3: Proposed topic: Centering Indigenous Thought in the ENGO Sector
Session 4: Proposed topic: Visioning a Decolonial Environmental Sector
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