Andrew S. Wright has a multifaceted career. His resume spans a PhD in Microwave Engineering, founding and selling a telecommunication company in only 5 years, and documenting remote ecosystems all over the world for conservation photojournalism. His latest endeavour is at the Pacific Water Research Centre as an adjunct professor.

It is impressive for one person to have such a wide array of interests and manage to build a career that includes them all. It all began when Wright was growing up in rural Wales, England. He split his time between his two passions: building radios and wildlife photography. While he was eventually encouraged to study engineering rather than art, he did not lose his love for photographing diverse landscapes and the plants and animals that populate them.

When his company, Datum Telegraphic, was acquired in 2000, Wright took the opportunity to create the Willow Grove Foundation. His focus with this foundation is two fold: inner city school education and environmental conservation. His ecosystem stewardship work spans multiple well-known organizations and projects such as the Raincoast Conservation Society, Island Conservation and the Great Bear Rainforest agreement. In his words, “my involvement in the conservation projects gets kicked off because my camera gets me into trouble basically.”

One of his most notable photojournalism projects is Ground Truth. Wright was listening to a news report about the proposed Northern Gateway oil pipeline when he heard something that didn’t sound right to him. A spokesperson proclaimed that there was “biologically speaking, nothing special” about the route that brought the pipeline from the tar sands in Alberta to the coast of the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia. Wright decided to challenge this statement by getting his boots muddy and photo-documenting every ecosystem along the 20,000km route. The result was a 50 foot-long exhibition at Science World with photos and stories of the project stakeholders embedded throughout the map. The piece was meant to be displayed for 6 weeks but was so popular it stayed up for 6 months. Watch an interview with Wright by Global News for a closer look at the project here.

His interest in energy projects has now spilled over from his work with Willow Grove to his position at SFU where he can marry his past experiences. He is bridging his technical knowledge with his passion for climate change solutions and environmental protection. Wright and Research Associate Nastaran Arianpoo, are studying energy modelling, with the goal of integrating food, water, energy, natural security and cultural security into policy planning. Natural security refers to biodiversity and ecosystem health, while cultural security recognizes the intangible value of a place. Their work hopes to one day provide a framework for evaluating adaptive policy based on these factors and prevent the development of unjust and unsustainable projects.  

This topic is incredibly complex but Wright knows it is not answers that we need to work on, it is how to work together to implement them. He believes that, “it’s people systems that are the problem, not technology systems or solutions. We’ve got all the tools in the toolbox, we just can’t agree on how to use them.” However, he is committed to making an impact and pushing past this collaboration barrier. Wright’s ambition is high for the project and in his words, “We are either going to fail or we are going to do something seriously important because I am not interested in intermediate pedestrian progress.”  

How we generate and use energy is going to dictate Canada’s ability to meet our climate commitments through the Paris Agreement. Fossil fuels are in excess of 75% of the primary energy supply in Canada. This demonstrates a massive opportunity for emissions reductions from a shift to renewable and green energy options. The work of Wright and Arianpoo will be able to guide this transition in a considered and responsible manner. We are excited to observe their progress and support a cleaner and more conscious future for energy in Canada.  

Browse through Wright's photojournalism pieces published at The Tyee and the National Observer and view his photography at this special feature for Earth Day 2020. 

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We respectfully acknowledge that the PWRC operates on the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.