Like many people who embrace environmental causes as adults, Glen Simpson learned to love Nature as a child. The lawyer and commercial leasing manager grew up in the ravine-laced Beaches area in east Toronto and has long been concerned about environmental issues.

But it’s only recently that Simpson, who works for Missis-sauga. Ont.-based Morguard Investments Ltd., has begun using his professional skills to support the efforts of a non-profit organization devoted to green causes. Since 2003, Simpson has acted as treasurer for the Toronto Parks and Trees Foundation, an eight-year-old group dedicated to doubling the tree canopy in Toronto and upgrading the city’s parks, public gardens and urban forests.

Simpson learned of the foundation job by chance, after his wife was asked by a member of the foundation’s board whether she knew anybody who had the skills and the interest to fill the position. From the beginning, it seemed a natural fit, considering Simpson’s business skills and his passion for the outdoors. “I had been interested in the environment for a long time,” he recalls. “I was a member of Ontario Nature, formerly the Ontario Federation of Naturalists, for more than 30 years.”

And just as he had come to love the outdoors while wandering through areas such as the Glen Manor ravine in the Beaches, Simpson spent many hours with his own children outdoors, taking them on extended hiking trips along the Bruce Trail near his Burlington, Ont., home or on skiing and skating outings with the Halton Outdoor Club.

On the business side, Simpson had spent 20 years looking after the books for his two-person law firm and then, for the past 14 years, reviewing and negotiating complex leases for real estate investment giant Morguard. The result is an ideal mix of skills for overseeing the flow of donations into and out of a foundation dedicated to making a dense urban environment more livable.

Indeed, the Toronto Parks and Trees Foundation itself has an intriguing structure. The brainchild of Toronto deputy mayor Joe Pantalone, the foundation was created as a way to supplement Toronto’s meagre municipal resources for improving the city’s trees and parks. The organization’s part-time executive director and assistant are full-time employees of Toronto’s parks department, and the foundation is based in a city-owned office. All other positions are unpaid. The part-time use of city staff and space helps keep overhead low, so donors know their funds are being used almost entirely for trees and parks.

Simpson, a man who exudes a calm and quiet presence, emphasizes that the foundation guards its independence — despite its connection to the city. Most of the foundation’s activities involve making grants to community groups and fundraising through activities such as a “tree” calendar and an annual fundraising bash at Casa Loma. “We are linked to the city, but we do our own thing,” Simpson says. “We are kind of touchy sometimes about that; we don’t really want the city telling us what we should be doing. And they don’t, really.”

Simpson’s years of dealing with documents, money and negotiations of various kinds have proven useful when it comes to his duties as treasurer for the foundation. As manager of lease administration for Morguard Investments and sister company Morguard Real Estate Investment Trust, Simpson spends a lot of time negotiating and drafting office and industrial leases. The companies have about $9 billion worth of real estate under management across the country.

Simpson says Morguard also takes the environment seriously. It recently opened a building in Burnaby, B.C., that has been awarded a platinum Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design designation, which is conferred by the U.S. Green Building Council. It is only the second building in Canada to receive that distinction.

Morguard also manages and oversees construction on other LEED buildings, including the new Corus Entertainment Inc. building on Toronto’s waterfront and the new Ontario Archives building on the campus of York University, also in Toronto. Morguard is taking a variety of environmentally conscious steps in its buildings, such as installing “living walls” — walls that support live plants — in the lobbies of renovated buildings and using energy-efficient lighting and recycled materials. Such moves, Simpson says, “fit in nicely with my contribution to the environment as a director of the foundation.”

@page_break@With total contributions to Toronto’s parks just surpassing the $1-million mark last year, the foundation is growing but still modest in size. That may change over the years, as the foundation does more and more to help Toronto neighbourhoods, particularly those defined by the city as being “priority” areas requiring special support.

Among the projects the foundation has supported is a massive bulb-planting project, which enlisted the assistance of youth in such neighbourhoods. “They planted bulbs in the fall — daffodils, gladioli,” Simpson says. “Then they would see the results of their work in the spring. They really enjoy that, and it’s been a really successful program. We started that on our own. Then, last year, we partnered with the Evergreen Foundation and the city, and we hope to continue that this year.”

Igniting a love of Nature in children, after all, may be one of the best ways to inspire commitment to the environment in the decades to come. IE