Stories from the Field: The Canvas in Sustainability and Entrepreneurship Education

Flourishing Business Community
Speakers Series: Stories from the Field #13

The Canvas in Sustainability and Entrepreneurship Education with Panos Panagiotakopoulos, Peter Forint and Doug Leitch

Date: Tuesday May 14

Time: 15h00 UTC – 08h00 PST, 11h00 EST, 16h00 BST, 17h00 CEST, 00h00 JST (+1 day).  To convert UTC to your timezone click here

Duration: 1 hour

Registration: Required via Eventbrite at

For our thirteenth monthly flourishing business community speaker series: stories from the field, the community is delighted to welcome Panos Panagiotakopoulos, Peter Forint and Doug Leitch from Seneca Polytechnic, in Toronto, Canada.

With a strong emphasis on practical, hands-on learning, Seneca Polytechnic offers over 300 full-time, and part-time programs in arts, business, science and tech, including 25 full-time degrees and more than 60 graduate certificates, taught online and in-person.  Its five Greater Toronto Area campuses serve 39,000 full-time and another 48,000 part-time students.  Seneca prides itself on its industry-aligned curriculum and supportive environment that prepares students for the workforce or further academic pursuits.

Panos, Peter and Doug are all leaders in Seneca Polytechnic’s Faculty of Business.  Each has decades of practical experience in industry and deep experience in teaching and education.  They have used the Flourishing Business Canvas (FBC) extensively in their teaching and consulting practice and have all appreciated the usefulness of creating flourishing businesses and the opportunities it provides to students, entrepreneurs and business leaders alike.

 In their talk, they will:

• Business, sustainability and entrepreneurship course design and the FBC
• Alternative assessment strategies using the FBC
• Differences between teaching using the Business Model Canvas and the FBC, including how have students reacted to the FBC?
• The mental health aspects of entrepreneurship
• What is exciting and challenging about the Canvas?
• What does Seneca Polytechnic hope to gain from participating in the Flourishing Business Community and what can they offer to the community?

At the end of their talk, Panos, Peter and Doug will take questions from members of the community.

After the event, a video of the talk plus slides will be shared in the “Speaker Series” space of the Flourishing Business Community. Please join other flourishing business leaders and become a full member to access.

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About Panos Panagiotakopoulos

Panos is one of Seneca’s GenAI Thought Leaders. He has also been working in sustainability for over 15 years, helping various organizations adopt sustainable practices. He has experience in different sectors, such as finance, agriculture, real estate, construction, and retail, where he has helped develop and implement sustainability strategies. He is the founder of Close the Loop, a consulting firm that focuses on climate change, life cycle assessment, and business modeling. He also co-founded Carbon One, an innovative Canadian climate tech company that helps businesses calculate the carbon footprint of their food and beverage products. Panos has a Ph.D. in Corporate Sustainability from Heriot-Watt University in Scotland and has published several academic papers on sustainable business design. In addition, Panos is a professor and coordinator of the Sustainable Business Management program at Seneca College and teaches sustainability and business design at OCAD University.

About Peter Forint

Peter worked in the private sector for two decades in organizations ranging from three-person start-up to Fortune 500 tech firms.  He then transferred the skills he garnered in “consultative sales” to “consultative teaching” as a business professor and program coordinator at Seneca Polytechnic.  He is the lead professor for the first semester “Intro to Business” and final semester “Entrepreneurship” courses, does outside consulting with owner-managed businesses, and weaves sustainability and financial literacy into all his does.

About Doug Leitch

Doug Leitch is a Professor at Seneca, teaching Business Plan Development, and a seasoned business consultant. Over the past decade, he has assisted over 300 business owners in creating their own business plans. Doug’s expertise extends to using the Business Model Canvas, and he swiftly adopted the Flourishing Business Canvas (FBC) when he began teaching at Seneca in 2021. Students learn the value of this tool through graded assignments, integrating it as a foundational component in their business plans throughout the course. Doug also introduces the FBC to his clients during the planning process. Before his academic role, Doug spent 30 years at IBM Canada, holding various customer-facing positions, including sales, sales management, and executive roles. His hands-on experience spans small businesses, global corporations, not-for-profits, and government entities. Additionally, Doug actively contributes to the community through volunteer work, often serving in senior roles on organizational boards.