20 Under 40: Sadaf Taimur

Meet Sadaf Taimur, 38, director of strategic partnerships, Centre for Building Sustainable Value, at Ivey Business School and one of our 20 Under 40 Class of 2026 recipients

SADAF TAIMUR IS a sustainability scientist whose career spans academia, NGOs, international organizations and industry. Formerly director of sustainability and circularity at Goodwill Industries, Ontario Great Lakes, she has also held roles with Mondetta, McGill and the University of Tokyo. A Salzburg Global Fellow and G20 Global Changer, she has advised global sustainability bodies and earned international recognition for advancing regenerative, inclusive systems change through research, policy and practice.

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What is your biggest career achievement so far, or the thing that you’re most proud of?

Being trained on building bridges between research, policy and practice to enable real systems change. I am most proud of translating sustainability science into action, whether shaping transformation pathways, advancing circular economy strategies within large organizations, or co-creating tools, and learning processes that empower diverse actors. From contributing to global policy spaces such as the G20 and Salzburg Global Seminar, to leading applied initiatives across sustainability, circularity and environmental justice, my work has focused on enabling actions and transformations.

What’s one unexpected thing you like to tell people about your job?

I like to tell people that my job is as much about listening and relationship-building as it is about strategy or research. Real sustainability work happens in conversations, trust-building and helping very different actors find shared purpose and move together.

On a desert island, what’s the one gratuitous item you’d have to have?

My makeup box. Totally impractical for survival, but meaningful.

You’ve got an open ticket to your dream vacation — where are you heading?

If I had an open ticket, I would head to Seychelles — for the ocean, the quiet and the chance to slow down completely.

What’s left for you to do, professionally or personally?

Professionally, I want to keep building bridges between research, policy and practice at scale, especially shaping systems that reward sustainable and just outcomes. Personally, I want to slow down a little, protect space for reflection and stay grounded in joy, community and purpose as the work grows.

If you couldn’t work in your current field, and money was no object, what job would you have?

I would be a writer-in-residence and slow-travel ethnographer. I would spend extended time in different communities, especially in the Global South, listening, observing and documenting how people live with land, food, care and each other. The work would be about storytelling: capturing everyday wisdom, intergenerational knowledge and quiet forms of resilience that rarely make it into policy reports or headlines. Interview by Kieran Delamont / Photos by Reid Lucier