Hunter's parents founded Greenpeace Canada in the 1970s. As a UTSC student she took an environmental science course in Ecuador on the Amazon and an archaeology course in Siberia, graduating with a BA in 2011.
Her career took her to Greenpeace in Washington for digital and grassroots campaigning, then to building local organizing capacity for Greenpeace Canada in Toronto, and on to Auckland, where she led a national oceans and plastics campaign for Greenpeace New Zealand. Her husband, meanwhile, grew the Toronto Tool Library into a model since adopted on four continents; the couple now have two children.
Six years after starting in a junior role, she is now senior program manager for Ontario Climate at Environmental Defence Canada, campaigning for the energy transition and against gas-fired power — work she calls the practical, optimistic kind.
Reported from Lessons in eco-activism from climate warrior and U of T alum Emily Hunter, by Ravisha Mall (U of T Alumni News, August 28, 2026).
More from the original reporting: alumni.utoronto.ca/news/-lessons-eco-activism-climate-warrior-emily-hunter