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The Learning City
Project File : Canada
Sierra Youth Coalition
Partnering
- Works to increase sustainability performance of universities Canada-wide
Serving
- Campus Sustainability Assessment Framework supports solutions to problems with sustainability at all levels on campus, from a student-led base
Designing
- Audits design and infrastructure components of campus sustainability, among others
Teaching
- Has spurred creation of sustainability-related courses at several campuses
Greening the Ivory Towers Project
The Sierra Youth Coalition (SYC) began in 1996 as the youth arm of the Sierra Club of Canada. Its mission is to address globalization, consumption and climate change through grassroots action and a solutions-based approach of promoting education for sustainability. The SYC was actively engaged with the Canadian Secretariat of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development to identify sustainability in education at all levels as a priority theme for discussion and action, nationally and internationally. As part of the work for sustainable campuses, the SYC launched the Greening the Ivory Towers Project (GITP), subtitled ‘Academia to Action' in 2003. The goal of GITP is to increase the sustainability performance of universities nation-wide through improved understanding of their ecological and social impacts, and consequently to develop a more coordinated, focused and holistic action plan for improvements.
GITP participants developed Canada's first Campus Sustainability Assessment Framework, the purpose of which is, according to the SYC website: "to offer support, resources and assistance in developing solutions that address overarching structural problems in society, as well as striving to facilitate institutional lifestyle changes." SYC aims to encourage uptake of GITP as student-led collaborative initiatives by campuses across Canada; Concordia University is the first university to have completed the assessment framework. Completed assessment frameworks will be used to give a realistic image of the state of campus sustainability across Canada, compiled regionally and nationally in order to design improvements to social, environmental, and economic sustainability and responsibility. The assessment framework itself has ten subsections: knowledge, community, health and well-being, governance, economy and wealth, air, water, land, materials, and energy. The subsections are comprised of 35 elements.
Developing the GITP involved collaboration on many levels, between students, faculty, staff and support networks among students at various universities. The tool-kit and framework on which the project is based requires a multi-stakeholder approach in all aspects of the assessment. For example, collaboration is required between student groups and faculty in aligning the assessment framework with curriculum requirements for student credit. In addition, a large component of the project training workshop focuses on the detailed skills needed to bring together a multi-stakeholder campus committee with the mandate to address sustainability issues.
The major innovation of this project is that it actively engages the research mandate of the university to use the campus as a living laboratory for student assessment of social and ecological well-being. GITP is the first Canadian project to utilize a framework of sustainability indicators that attempts to give a true representation of the impact a university has in the political, social, economic and ecological reality it occupies. GITP goes beyond traditional environmental audits of energy efficiency and water conservation to include social aspects such as institutional governance, knowledge and health and well-being. By design, GITP will only be successful when students, faculty and staff are working together as a cohesive community toward a common goal. The SYC also offers support through the tool-kit, training workshops, staff support and specialized professional advice on demand.
In addition to enabling the assessment of the curriculum's focus on sustainability, GITP has opened the door for universities to develop a number of sustainability-related courses. For example, undergraduate commerce courses have been developed to assess the investment practices of the university for sustainability, biology classes have assessed the ecological health of campus lands, and engineering classes have assessed campus greenhouse gas emissions. At Royal Roads University, one upper-level, 8-month Environmental Management course has turned the GITP into the major class project.
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Website: www.syc-cjs.org/gitp 
Source: Kerri Klein, SYC British Columbia Coordinator, interview 2 March, 2004.
University of Toronto/York University
Partnering
- CURA funding enabled multi-stakeholder partnership for 5 years
Serving
- Community groups act as catalysts to the process, including Sustainable Toronto Roundtable and sustainable budget process
Teaching
- Projects have included curriculum development, emphasizing experential learning
Sustainable Toronto
Sustainable Toronto, a collaboration among the University of Toronto (U of T), York University, and major local government and nongovernment partners, was created through SSHRC Community University Research Alliance funding in 2000. Its vision is adopted from the City of Toronto Environmental Plan and its mission is broad: "[to] promote community sustainability and facilitate the transition to a sustainable society by challenging and working with all sectors including governments, researchers, educators, businesses, non-profits and other community members."
The group aims to foster the application of sustainability practices by the joint efforts of university partners at the Environmental Studies Program of Innis College at U of T, the York University Centre for Applied Sustainability, partners at the City of Toronto, and community partners at the Canadian Institute for Environmental Law and Policy and the Toronto Environmental Alliance. According to project coordinator and Professor of Environmental Studies Beth Savan, Sustainable Toronto works from the understanding that meaningful societal change can only come about if it is community-led and government-supported. Community groups are thought of as catalysts, informed and supported by university partners and researchers and working in collaboration with the City. Building skills, improving the knowledge base, and connecting better with one another, together these groups can transform local governance and national governance. Through specific actions and synergistic ripple effects, the group wagers that a critical mass of people will see their power and responsibility to make the necessary changes to society to ensure its survival.
Sustainable Toronto builds the coalitions that connect community action with diverse groups of businesses, non-profits, governments, researchers, educators and concerned individuals through participation in collaborative projects that promote community sustainability. Sustainable Toronto's triadic partnership model has multiple benefits: it builds legitimacy in the community groups involved, raises the universities' profiles in the city, and diversifies students' exposure to work and career paths. In retrospect, according to Savan, the partnership-forming process could have been more strategic in order to include social and economically-focused groups in addition to environmental groups. Still, a major outcome of the project has been the development of networks among groups involved, who have been able to articulate and work together on clear common goals.
Sustainable Toronto has developed a set of ten complementary projects, ranging from the small-scale, such as a single new integrative sustainability course or a single student research paper, to the much larger task of exploring the "hidden curriculum" of university practices and procedures (Savan & Bell 2002, 309). Experiential learning is the favored means for teaching sustainability, through student and volunteer placements with organizations and community-based research. These experiences are integrated into the curriculum.
Sustainable Toronto's original funding terminated in 2004. Funding searches continue, primarily in Ontario, for the future of the project. While recognizing this project, like any other, is "a drop in the bucket," Savan says one of the project's major outcomes was the creation of a Sustainable Toronto Roundtable, in partnership with the City, which provides a continuing focus on urban sustainability issues. Also, the sustainable budget process developed by Sustainable Toronto has affected the transparency of the city budget process. Some project partners have gotten serious about sustainability as well. U of T, for example, is considering making an institutional commitment to greenhouse gas reduction and has expressed interest in a university chair in sustainability. York University has introduced a Bachelor's Degree in Urban Sustainability within its Faculty of Environmental Studies (www.yorku.ca/fes/home.asp) and has developed a President's Task Force on Sustainability report. Sustainable Toronto provided "critical infrastructure and academic leadership" to the effort toward sustainable development education at the U of T and York, "bringing a dedicated collaborative team to the support of experiential learning initiatives" (Savan & Bell 2002, 318).
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Website: www.sustainabletoronto.ca
Source: Beth Savan, Professor of Environmental Studies, University of Toronto, interview 1 March 2004 . Photo credit Beth Savan.
WATGreen and University of Waterloo
Designing
- Landscape plan, management guidelines, regional creek plan, environmental design plans all under development
Teaching
- Working to develop campus-wide sustainability course offerings
WATgreen and University of Waterloo Sustainability Project (UWSP)
WATgreen, subtitled "greening the campus," was established in 1990 to assist the university in "transforming itself into a showcase of sustainability, a true ecosystem in harmony with its environment", by improving environmental quality while decreasing institutional operating costs, creating research and teaching opportunities in the process. At U of W, the opportunity for innovation here is related to the campus's existing success in innovation: "UW in the 21st century could do for the environment what it did for computers in the 20th century."
The program targets all of U of W's 30,000 students and 3,500 staff and faculty. Immediate goals at the level of design include the development of a landscape plan for the campus, landscape management guidelines, a plan for the regional creek, and guidelines for environmentally responsible design. At a curriculum level, the program builds from the unique experience of Canada's first Environment and Resource Studies Department at U of W, and has included the development of a new, experiential-learning based course, "Greening the Campus and Community" which students in all faculties are encouraged to take. An additional campus-wide campus sustainability course is also under development. At the partnership level, the program aims to broaden the involvement of all faculties and to provide a mechanism for students, staff and faculty to study and evaluate university systems for environmental improvement.
Among the project's results are the establishment of a committee that vets student projects and environmental issues facing the university, which to date has completed review of 238 projects. Project topics range from looking at excess water use in the biology lab, to recycling heat at the physical activities complex, waste and environmental audits, and a Climate Change Education and Awareness Campaign. In 2002, the Solar Technology Education Project (http://www.step.uwaterloo.ca/) began as a student volunteer project working to install a solar power demonstration project and the Yellow Bike (http://yellowbike.uwaterloo.ca/ ) bike-share program began to provide more transportation alternatives to students.
The UWSP office is run by student volunteers; the program itself operates with no funding from the university. Environmentally-oriented partners in this initiative are numerous, including the campus solar car project and the waste management division of regional government. Others involved include the Waterloo Public Interest Research Group, the local health department, the public school board and regional universities, and local corporations.
The Waste Management Coordinator, in place throughout the WATgreen's life, is the only staff for both WATgreen and UWSP programs. The coordinator, Patti Cook, has a slate of responsibilities that includes maintaining web pages, hiring and supervising students (about 80% of Cook's time), addressing waste management as well as all other campus environmental issues, and overseeing the activities of the WATgreen committee. With the assistance of a fourth-year student, measures of success for the program are currently under development (http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infowast/watgreen/soer.pdf). Cook feels that work is moving forward adequately, given the limited resources at the group's disposal. Much more needs to be done. In particular, more participants need to be attracted to the WATgreen and UWSP efforts.
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Website: www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infowast/watgreen
http://watserv1.uwaterloo.ca/~uwsp
Source: Patti Cook, Waste Management Coordinator and Co-Chair, WATgreen, interview 24 February 2004.
Sustainable Concordia Project
Partnering
- Piloted the SYC Greening the Ivory Tower project
Serving
- Works to engage and empower all campus community members
Sustainable Concordia Project
The Sustainable Concordia Project (SCP) began in July 2002 as an attempt to address all the components of sustainability at Concordia University, at the urging of the student union and a working group of the Quebec Public Interest Research Group. The first step of the project was the creation of an advisory committee made up of faculty, students, administration and staff. Attempts were made from the beginning to obtain broad representation among staff, administration, faculty and students, identifying strategic members of groups that would be most sympathetic to Sustainable Concordia. Shortly after the creation of SCP, the Sierra Youth Coalition (SYC) developed its Campus Sustainability Assessment Framework, giving the SCP more focus and specific direction. The SYC and SCP decided that Concordia would pilot the assessment framework.
The Sustainable Concordia Project aims to make Concordia a more sustainable university by empowering community members to actively and passionately engage sustainability issues. The project takes a multi-stakeholder approach within the campus community, working to establish mutual trust and understanding through dialogue and persistence, enabling effective communication and creative problem-solving. The SCP is committed to non-hierarchical, respectful exchanges. Through facilitating input and access to resources, the SCP acts as a nexus for campus community members to address challenges faced by the community, as a community.
The first goal of the project, recently completed, was to produce a campus sustainability assessment. The 390-page assessment is a comprehensive and detailed description of the sustainability status of a wide range of themes on campus. The assessment begins with an introduction to sustainability via the story of a hypothetical day in the life of a "sustainable" Concordia student. It then groups into ten chapters recommendations on how to improve campus sustainability in each of the ten subsections recommended by the Sierra Youth Coalition's assessment framework, profiled above. Recommendations are grouped into aspects of sustainability with either adequate progress, short- or long-term needs for change, and are called maintainable, preventive (long-term), or innovative (immediate) actions.
The next stage of the project involves developing implementation strategies for the recommendations and planning for the measurement of progress toward sustainability goals. To overcome the challenge of student graduation turnover, progress reporting will need to be done yearly.
The key feature of the SCP is its application of tangible applied learning about community sustainability via active course work and student volunteers. Over 100 student volunteers have worked on the assessment with support from many Concordia staff, administration and faculty. Over 60 students have done the work for course credit. This process has empowered students and raised awareness about how participants can interact in a collaborative community and influence the sustainability of the campus. This grassroots approach, that remains reflexive and adaptive to external, constantly changing stimuli, is unique. The project has always been about inclusiveness, as the process itself is seen as the most beneficial part of the project. Maintaining an open spirit of learning and inquiry among the many diverse participants is not easy but has been very rewarding.
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Wesite: http://web2.concordia.ca/sustainability/
Source: Melissa Garcia-Lamarca, Sustainable Concordia Project Co-ordinator, interview March 8, 2004.
Université de Sherbrooke
Partnering
- Broad-based contact network and steering committee comment on all new courses
Teaching
- Development of competencies in different areas is required for graduation
Environmental Training Centre and Environment and Sustainable Development Observatory
The University of Sherbrooke's Environmental Training Centre began in 1974, initially offering a Master of Environmental Studies program with the intent to prepare students for entry into the new array of environmental occupations. This program transformed into multidisciplinary environmental programming in 1994, following a major revision to update programming in keeping with rapid changes in the professional environmental fields at regulatory, administrative, and conceptual levels. Between 1994 and 2004, the Centre expanded its scope again to an interdisciplinary approach, demanding of students not simply study in more than one discipline (the multidisciplinary approach) but the development of competencies from different disciplines and their integration in research. This shift reflects the needs of employers for graduates with not only specific technical skills but also a degree of holism in the perspective they bring to problem-solving and an ability to see the contributions of different approaches. This major revision has expanded the Centre's draw to approximately 300-350 active students from fifty disciplines, from communications and geography to law and biology. The Centre now offers professional diplomas and "microprograms" from its campuses in Longueuil, Québec, Saguenay, and Gatineau and in private and government workplaces in addition to traditional masters and PhD degrees and new international masters degrees. The Centre's major innovation is its interdisciplinary approach to programming with the goal of applying sustainable development ideas to the professional world.
In addition to these curricular innovations, the Centre has an advanced collaborative system for program development. Because it is crucial to ensure continued relevance of programming to employers, the Centre works with a contact network of a thousand members, each of whom is given the opportunity to review all new and revised courses. Like the contact network, the program steering committee is drawn from not just members of each of the seven faculties involved but also representatives of all levels of government and of professional groups ranging from engineering and biotechnology to law and public administration. The Centre's instructors as well are drawn primarily from professional rather than traditional academic fields. This dynamic and integrated connection with environmental and sustainable development work throughout Quebec and in Ottawa is key to the uniqueness of this initiative.
A new laboratory and institute for environment and sustainable development research at the Université de Sherbrooke and its partner Bishop's University, the Environment and Sustainable Development Observatory, was launched in 2003. At an administrative level, the Observatory will assist in the integration of the seven faculties involved in the Centre by centralizing the sustainable development-related research of all these faculties. Although the Observatory has an initial emphasis on research in the natural sciences, new collaborations are being planned to fully engage what director Olivier Thomas sees as the three pillars of sustainable development research: the natural and physical sciences, social sciences and humanities, and technological, economic, and industrial applications.
Like the Centre, the Observatory emphasizes inter- and transdisciplinarity in projects, mobilizing the required competencies to address practical and theoretical research issues throughout Quebec and in Ottawa. Its critical mass of 85 faculty researchers from both universities aids critically in this refashioning of the research endeavour. It also helps, according to Thomas, that the Observatory is located in the medium-sized city of Sherbrooke, which enables the centre to take a holistic approach without being overwhelmed by perpetual osmosis with the cultural, natural, economic and political fibre of the city. The Observatory's major innovation is its capacity to render the results of academic research into useful applications and in so doing to advance sustainable development on the ground.
Environmental Training Centre
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Environment and Sustainable Development Observatory
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Website:
www.usherbrooke.ca/environnement/
www.usherbrooke.ca/observatoire/
Sources: Michel Monpetit, Director of Environmental Training Centre, interview 20 February 2004. Olivier Thomas, Director of Environment and Sustainable Development Observatory, interview 20 February 2004.