Environment Canada Cambio Scholarship Winners and their Projects

New Brunswick

Raphael Shay (Fredericton)
Youth Environmental Symposium (Yes)

The ultimate goal of the YES project, which took place in February 2005, was to empower, educate, stimulate and engage youth from the Maritimes. This was done by bringing high school students and university students together with community activists and elders as well as Francophone and Anglophone delegates. YES, which was the first ever conference of its type in New Brunswick, included a storytelling session, workshops, keynote speakers, and action planning. The turnout was a huge success and other universities in the Atlantic region, namely Université de Moncton andMount Allison University, already showed interest in hosting YES II.

Quebec

Louise Hénault Éthier (Montréal)
Compost Concordia

The objective of the Compost Concordia project was to make ConcordiaUniversity , a community of 40,000 students and workers, more compatible with sustainable development, ecologically, economically as well as socially. The first goal was to reduce the amount of waste and therefore reducing transportation and landfill by composting organic matter. Initiated on a small scale, the project will be implemented all over the campus over the next three years. Many workshops on worm composting already took place while the university newspaper, pamphlets and web site provided more publicity. More than 10 individuals participate in the project which will reduce waste by 7 to 10 tonnes that will be transformed into three tonnes of compost used for campus landscaping. Within five years, annual collection will reach 50 tons. Saving costs ($100 per ton) on transportation and landfill should allow the project to pay for itself.

Ontario

Kristina Inrig (Russell)
Environmental Action atRideauParkUnited Church

The project was first developed for introducing environmental policies to this congregation in Ottawa. The focus is on educating the youth and church members, totalling over 850 families, about Climate Change and other issues. Kristina has organized numerous activities such as a World Environment Day celebration to launch the project, a Youth Environment Service, a Sunday School session, and many info booths in order to increase awareness about Climate Change and encourage action. The project expanded into other faith groups, then across the city and ultimately throughout Canada with the help of partnerships developed with environmental organizations. Today, about 25 people, including 15 youth, support the project and are active in the learning sessions and activities of the group.   

Brian Kolanda (Toronto)
Energy Efficiency atTrinityCollegeresidences

Brian Kolenda and his partner Matto Mildenberger noticed a lack of energy consciousness among the Trinity College residence students. Their project tried to fill a large knowledge gap in the determinants of energy behavioural change in Canada, while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, by offering students practical solutions to change their personal greenhouse gas emissions. The pilot first involved 80 students, then all 1,600 students at TrinityCollege were engaged in a public debate on personal energy use. Daily feedback coupled with tips on energy savings helped to produce sustained energy consumption reductions of about 5%.  With their success, Brian and Matto are now working at the University of Toronto Sustainability Officeto implement their work into a campus-wide initiative that will seek to decrease GHG emissions that are the result of personal energy use choices by some 50 000 students and office staff. Brian and Matto were honoured with a 2005 Natural Resources Canada “Energy Ambassadors” Award for their project.

Jocelyn Land-Murphy (Ottawa)
The Otesha Project

The Otesha Project is a youth-run charity which works to enable and empower youth to take action towards a sustainable future. The printed materials and theatre-based education programs focus on re-evaluating daily choices so that they have positive impacts on the planet and all of its inhabitants. With its programs, bike tours, books, web site and engaging presentations delivered at middle and high schools, community events and conferences, Otesha reached nearly 300,000 people throughout the world. But the most concrete impacts of Otesha’s work comes through the over 1500 postcards that they have received from youth detailing the changes they have made in their lives after experiencing Otesha.

Jennifer McDowell (Guelph)
Bullring Café Wind Project

Involving more than 15 students at theUniversity of Guelph, the main project is a campaign targeted at the university’s administration toward completing a campus-wide energy retrofit to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and inefficient electricity consumption. As part of the campaign, the students were asked to contribute 15 cents a semester towards buying enough wind-generated electricity to supply our Bullring Café for a year. The students voted 77% in favour of this initiative, and the Bullring is now powered on 100% wind energy, making the Universityof Guelph the first Ontario post-secondary institution to succeed in compensating for 100% of a student building’s emissions by buying wind energy. Aimed at both educating and empowering the students at the university about alternative energy sources inOntario, the Bullring Café Wind Project also demonstrated the city of Guelph how easy it is to do one’s part in reducing GHG emissions.

Matthew Soltys (Guelph)
“Healing the Earth” Radio Show

Matthew Soltys produces a weekly radio show on Guelph’s community radio station, called “Healing the Earth”.  He discusses environmental news, interviews scientists, ecologists, activists and writers and promotes local environmental projects and events. He also focuses on the psychological and spiritual issues behind our culture’s disconnection from the natural world and explores ways that healing can occur. With his show, Matthew inspires people to engage in a healthy, supportive relationship with the natural world around them. CFRU broadcasts throughout Guelph, most of Kitchener/Waterloo, and the surrounding area, which includes approximately 400,000 people. Other radio producers also broadcast his work on their shows as far as British Columbia, California, and Australia.

British Columbia

Brian Suen (Vancouver)
Biodiesel Project atUniversityof British Columbia

The project was initiated by the Environmental Youth Alliance. Its goal was to provide a small community with an environmentally friendlier source of transportation fuel: biodiesel. On campus, biodiesel is made with the used French fry grease provided by the cafeterias and it is sold back to the maintenance department to use in any of their diesel engines. Every litre of biodiesel used at UBC reduces greenhouse gases (GHG) by 78% as compared to regular diesel. With the assembly of the first biodiesel facility in BC, the project showed that young people can lead the way to innovation in the field of sustainability, but most importantly, 7 tonnes of used vegetable oil were diverted, and 5.8 tonnes of GHG were eliminated.

Alysia Garmulewicz (Victoria)
Canadian Youth Conference on Climate Change (YC3)

The Canadian Youth Climate Change Conference (YC3) took place in July in Victoria, BC. It brought together 85 youth delegates of 14 to 23 years of age and over 20 speakers and mentors from across Canada and abroad with inspiring leaders in climate change and sustainability.  YC3 gave youth the skills, knowledge, support, and empowerment to lead the challenge of climate change in their own lives. With the support shown by youth as well as the environmental and business communities, YC3 provides hope that youth action for sustainability has enormous potential to change the world. The event gave birth to an active network of youth through the YC3 web site which highlights action projects, current climate change news, etc.

Yukon

Jessica Thiessen (Whitehorse)
Artic Youth Network

The Arctic Youth Network (AYN) is a project that endeavours to connect, using the internet, youth of the circumpolar north to others who face similar physical and social environments, and to engage them in activities that raise their awareness of pertinent global issues. So far, the AYN has around 200 members that live in Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut (Canada), Russia, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Greenland (Denmark). The brand new network has taken climate change on as its first major focus. It has created a Declaration on Climate Change that is being circulated throughout the circumpolar north. Their aim is to engage aboriginal youth on an equal footing with non-aboriginal youth who will then translate their experiences with AYN to their communities.