An easy way the draw the ire of university students is to mention course textbooks. Being students ourselves, we originally approached the research project of textbook sustainability with personal biases and assumptions. At first, we sought to eliminate all printed textbooks as we believed that most students thought that they were an outdated method of learning. We thought that electronic texts were a more efficient learning resource than their printed counterparts. However, after conducting two textbook sustainability surveys, one for students and the other for professors, we realized that this sustainability issue was not as simple as we first believed as approximately 60% of undergraduate students at the University of Saskatchewan prefer printed textbooks. We also faced multiple challenges as we progressed with our project. While contacting students was difficult, the real challenge came with communicating with professors and convincing them to participate in our survey. Certainly, our biggest struggle came from the vastly different perspectives of each stakeholder we spoke to. Through the completing of multiple interviews and reflection, we realized that the main problem surrounding textbook sustainability at the University of Saskatchewan was a lack of knowledge and communication between major stakeholders (i.e., students, professors, textbook manufacturers, etc.). We quickly understood that our original goal of eliminating printed textbooks was not only a misguided pursuit but also a detriment to many students. As a result, we revised our goal of raising awareness of textbook sustainability on campus and in turn promoting an increased role for students in selecting textbook formats which suit their educational needs. We believe that by providing enhanced transparency and communication between students and other stakeholders that textbook sustainability will be enhanced.

Food waste is a global issue that contributes to over 70 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, having negative effects on the environment. In fact, if food waste were a country, it would have the third highest impact on climate change, behind the United States and China. Our group’s project is working to improve the composting system that is currently in place at the University of Saskatchewan. We have been targeting the restaurants on campus because they are high waste locations, and to redirect that waste to the compost piles which are already set up. We are also looking into having this food waste sent to the food dehydrator located in Marquis Culinary Center, which speeds up the composting process. The problem on campus is that the compost system currently in place is not reaching its full potential. There are still massive amounts of organic wastes being sent to the landfill when they could instead be recycled as compost, both helping the environment as well as saving money for the university. We are working to expand the composting system on campus in order to increase the amount of organic wastes being composted. By improving these practices on campus, we hope to make composting more commonplace in people's daily lives, encouraging them to take it up themselves.

As students who have formerly lived in the University of Saskatchewan residence buildings, we have noticed that there is room for improvement in the current residence recycling program. When discussing project ideas, it was important to us that our project would have deliverables that can be attained before the end of the winter semester. We also envisioned a project that was affordable for the school and for the students. The focus of our project is to revamp the recycling program in the Voyageur Place residence. We will take a staff-led tour of the residence halls, and document the presence and placement of recycling bins in hallways and common rooms. A survey will also be conducted with the goal of finding out the opinions of residents on the current recycling program and how it can be improved. After our tour and survey, we will put together a plan that outlines where recycling bins are needed in the buildings, where they can be brought up to code, and where educational signage may be beneficial. The proposed signage will encourage recycling while also informing students about what can and cannot be recycled in single-stream. Another component of the project includes working with residence staff to implement a brief recycling information section in the orientation meeting with new student residents in the fall. The Office of Sustainability and the Manager of Residence Operations have both been very helpful and open to collaborating with us in this project. We both hope to graduate having made University of Saskatchewan more sustainable and conscious of recycling.

Enhancing eco-literacy in children is vital for shaping how the next generation understands the interdependencies that connect people and the environment. The Office of Sustainability at the University of Saskatchewan has been running the Green Seal program for summer kids camps for several years. The purpose of the program is to encourage sustainable practices in the running of summer camps. The program has different tiers that can be achieved based on camps’ efforts towards sustainable practices, including registration, camp activities, and food and beverages. According to the Office of Sustainability, there is currently a low uptake of the Green Seal program by camps on campus. There is a lack of educational resources developed primarily for the program, leaving a gap in knowledge transfer to the camp coordinators and the kids participating in the camps. For these reasons the Green Seal program in its current format lacks effectiveness in facilitating eco-literacy across the summer camps.

The goal of this project is to better understand what challenges that camp coordinators face in adopting the Green Seal program. This will be done through semi-structured interviews with coordinators. We also plan to interview former Office of Sustainability interns who were in charge of running the Green Seal program to understand challenges from their perspective. The goal is to create a report based on the data collected to provide recommendations to the Office of Sustainability on how the program can be improved to increase uptake by the summer camps. We will design a basic “Roadmap to Sustainability” that can be used for the education of camp staff, as well as kids activities and accompanying lesson plans that camps can use for educating the campers. Challenges to this project include a lack of response or interest from camp coordinators, a short timeline to complete interviews and the fact that the project must be completed before the summer kids camps begin. We hope that this project will pave the way for higher participation in the Green Seal program as well as higher efficacy of the program for those already participating in it.

Our project will design and establish a fruit-bearing shelter-belt along the Meewasin Valley Trail on the University of Saskatchewan grounds. The design of the shelterbelt will take into consideration aspects of the environment, society, and economy, all of which are important in maintaining a sustainable way of life. By planting an edible shelter-belt, we aim to improve the outdoor environment by encouraging people to use Meewasin Valley Trail, provide the public with the opportunity to self-educate on urban agriculture while also increasing ecological functions of the river valley.

The shelter-belt will incorporate non-invasive species of fruit-bearing trees and shrubs. It will reduce wind intensity, water runoff, erosion, and provide protection for pedestrians and cyclists who use this section of the Meewasin Valley Trail. The variety of species planted will increase local biodiversity and create habitat for insect pollinators and birds while also decreasing the risk of invasive species. It will provide an area where people can come together to connect with nature and obtain a variety of local fresh fruits during the summer and early autumn seasons, as well as provide an aesthetic component to the area.

An important component of our project was to have our community’s support. We chose to present a questionnaire to receive feedback on our project which was directed toward university students and trail users. We have received positive feedback that has both inspired and strengthened our dedication to the project. The Meewasin Valley Authority has been in cooperation with us in the planning stages of our project, as well as the stakeholders at the University of Saskatchewan.

Bees comprise most of the pollination force that contributes to the production of Saskatoon’s native flowers, gardens, and food crops. Bees collect nectar and pollen from flowers to bring back to their nests to feed their larvae. Through this process, bees spread pollen between flowers and fertilize them, initiating reproduction. Society is becoming increasingly aware that wild bee populations are experiencing declines globally. Unfortunately, most people know little about our native bees and what they can do to help restore their populations. The first goal of our project was to produce an informational pamphlet and poster about native bees that is publicly accessible. This pamphlet lists ecological information on select species of the roughly 300 bee species native to Saskatchewan, and strategies citizens can implement in their backyards to help these bees. Our second goal was to apply these strategies in a public location to show the positive effects these simple changes can create. We have partnered with the Executive Director of the Native Plant Society of Saskatchewan to create pollinator-friendly gardens for the new revitalization plan of the Saskatoon Forestry Farm Park and Zoo. Together, we hope to create gardens with a variety of flowers that bees prefer, and will provide a constant supply of resources for pollinators throughout the growing season. With our current knowledge and additional research, we created informational signs that will be placed around pollinator gardens at the zoo to teach the public about native bees. The pamphlet and poster will be available for distribution via the information centre and gift shop at the zoo, the Native Plant Society office and events, and will be published on the City of Saskatoon’s Environmental Initiatives webpage, as well as through other outlets in the city such as schools or local businesses. A future extension of this project could be to implement these same pollinator-friendly strategies in urban park planning to create more pockets of the desired habitat. Through this project, we hope to increase public knowledge of native bees as well as implement strategies that promote conservation and pollinator diversity within the Saskatoon Forestry Farm and Zoo.

Waste production is a complex sustainability issue that we as students have been taught to combat by reducing, reusing, and recycling. Food vendors at the University of Saskatchewan primarily use polystyrene containers, which are neither recyclable nor suitable for leftover storage thus making it an incredibly wasteful product. Green To-Go with US is addressing this waste problem by targeting the highest waste-contributing building on campus, the Place Riel Student Centre, as it houses the largest number of food vendors. As a group, we are working towards installing a vending machine that will distribute reusable food containers in Lower Place Riel, providing patrons of the food court with an alternative to disposable polystyrene containers. These reusable containers are durable and sturdy, so users can be confident that their leftovers will not leak out, which will help curb food waste. There are many challenges to implementing a new system, however, Green To-Go with US is working to overcome these challenges over the course of the term by conducting surveys with potential users and food vendors, interviewing with universities who have adopted similar systems, and working with necessary support staff. This information will be used to engage the public and create change, thereby allowing for a greener university.

 Lunch Break

Our group is working with CHEP Good Food Inc. to extend the growing period on their Askîy Project garden site. CHEP is a Saskatoon-based non-profit committed to advancing food security in Saskatoon through outreach education and subsidized food programs. The “Askîy Project” is a youth urban agricultural internship organized by CHEP which encourages education, cultural exchange, and community-building. The project garden site is located across from Station 20 West (a community centre on the west end of 20th Street West in Saskatoon), in a contaminated lot which spans a vacant area between 19th Street West and 20th Street West. A short growing season (due to raised bed rain-barrel growing set-up), crop damage from pests and a lack of germination infrastructure are a few of the major issues that had been identified by the Askîy coordinator as recurring issues on the garden site. In order to address these issues, our group is venturing to implement an indoor germination station and a set of low tunnels extending over some of the existing raised bed rows which would serve to elongate the growing season and protect crops from pest invasion.

Since the main purpose of the Askîy site is community outreach and public education on the functions and possibilities for urban community gardens, we intend to incorporate an educational component to the project so that it can offer an experiential learning opportunity. We are anticipating the acquisition of funding and materials to be the major challenge in completing this project. To address this obstacle, we will apply for grant money and approach local businesses to discuss potentially making monetary or material donations that would aid in our project implementation process. CHEP has agreed to provide our group with a letter of approval which would help us to acquire finding.

The purpose of this project is to interact with and educate the public on sustainable practices involving small-scale gardening. Food security is an ever-present problem in our world today, especially on the University of Saskatchewan campus, by educating students and other members of society on how to easily grow food for themselves people will become more independent when it comes to their food security. The rationale behind this initiative is to promote urban agriculture, food security, and overall health. This project seeks to better utilize available space for food production in the Agriculture Building Atrium on the University of Saskatchewan campus. The physical implementation of our project will culminate in our group growing micro-greens in the Agriculture Atrium. The micro-greens we produce in the Agriculture Building Atrium will then be given away to students who will be required to fill out a survey which will inform us about how interested students would be to get involved with producing food on campus as well as informing them about food security issues here on campus.

When consumers shop, most of the clothing and accessory options offered contain synthetic fibres. Every time synthetic materials are washed, microfibres are released. These synthetic microfibers cannot be filtered out of the water due to their size and become leading polluters in waterways, oceans, and beaches. Once in waterways, they attract toxins and pollutants to their surface. Therefore, the lowest levels of the food chain are ingesting toxic pollution that has the ability to bioaccumulate. These chemicals and toxins found in synthetic microfibres are endocrine disruptors. As plastic pollution increases, symptoms of endocrine disruptions present themselves in animals and humans. A partial solution to this problem, which is my goal, would be to introduce an affordable sustainable clothing line at the U of S. This clothing line would include natural-fibre clothing, plus natural-fibre embroidery or water-based ink screen-printing. A Canadian company will be sourced. The products would be made sweatshop-free, made in safe working environments and be ethically produced. The high-quality products would only have nontoxic dyes and natural fibres. The challenges anticipated include finding a company with an adequate fit for the U of S Retail Services’ business model needs, getting a sustainable line accepted by consumers at the University bookstore and affiliate stores and to have these products successfully compete with or replace other products. Also challenging will be finding clothing that is sustainably and ethically produced with high-quality natural fibres that are affordable for consumers and yet profitable for the university.

Food security and food sovereignty are increasingly important concerns in our modern world, and there is growing interest in local and individual food production in back yards and community gardens within urban areas. A recent study by U of S researchers (Olauson et al, 2017) state that 39.5% of students who completed the survey reported being “food insecure”, and 7.5% reported experiencing “severe food insecurity”. Community gardens are a way for people without their own yards to learn about gardening and grow some of their own food, reducing their food insecurity and increasing their access to nutritious food. Although there are currently several community garden plots on the University Saskatchewan campus, all are fully subscribed or can only provide limited access to students, staff and faculty. The goal of this project is to provide additional community garden space to the university community.

The first step of this project is to measure the interest in garden space on campus by surveying the University community, including students, staff and faculty. Solid numbers of interested gardeners will be used to support the request for space from Facilities Management. Discussions with College of Agriculture faculty have provided site recommendations. Developing partnerships with University clubs or organizations who are able to take an ownership role in a new garden space will be required. Workshops and other training events will be organized to help new gardeners successfully grow food. An application for funding to cover start-up costs such as the purchase of seeds, starter plants and hand tools may be made.

Ideally, this new community garden space will be limited in size but may be scaled up from year to year as gardeners are able to successfully grow food. Increased size will encourage the development of additional food programs, such as donations to food banks, meals for students, or sale of vegetables at farmer’s market events on campus.

In early 2018, the University of Saskatchewan made headlines due to a study which revealed that nearly 40% of our students face some degree of food insecurity. International students and Indigenous students along with students who are parents and those who rely on student loans are among the most impacted. Physical and economic access to food is the most immediate barriers for many students. Rising tuition costs, unaffordable housing, and income restrictions may cause students to skip meals to meet financial commitments. In addition, the University exists within a food desert, with grocery stores not readily accessible and very limited dining options on campus that may not be economically or culturally appropriate for many students.

We need to challenge the notion of the starving student. Experiencing food insecurity directly influences educational outcomes and impacts both mental and physical health. As such, our project has focused on understanding the drivers of student food insecurity at the U of S and identifying potential solutions. We have conducted individual interviews and hosted a stakeholder roundtable to bring more exposure to the issue. Going forward, it is our goal to mobilize an ad-hoc committee dedicated to addressing student food insecurity. Integrated and relevant solutions must come from a diverse group of participants comprised of students, staff, faculty, and administration. We have gathered national support and innovative tools to facilitate this work.

According to the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 68% of the population is projected to reside in urban settings by 2050. Imports of fresh, nutritious food from external sources to feed a growing urban population have associated transport costs and environmental burdens. Especially dense urban centres may not have the necessary area to support intensive agricultural practices. Alternative forms of small-scale production are expected to be increasingly important in addressing sustainable food production and distribution.

Aquaponics is an emerging means of urban agriculture that can be utilized to grow local produce and protein in a sustainable way. This self-sustaining production method recirculates nutrient-laden water from aquaculture into a hydroponic vegetable production system and reduces inputs of biocides and fertilizers. This ultimately leads to the sustainable production of high-quality, locally-grown vegetables and fish.

Our goal for this project is to demonstrate the feasibility of aquaponics within the city of Saskatoon. In order to do this, we have pursued two separate avenues: 1) create a partnership with the Core Neighborhood Youth Co-op and 2) showcase a small-scale, portable aquaponics system at the Saskatchewan Blue Cross Gardenscape trade show and the University of Saskatchewan “Our Common Future” Symposium. By working with local organizations and participating in various conventions, we hope to facilitate public dialogue surrounding alternative agriculture practices and demonstrate the feasibility of small-scale aquaponics systems within the urban setting of Saskatoon.

This project addresses an important aspect of cultural sustainability at the University of Saskatchewan. While there is a large Indigenous community on campus, there is a lack of physical teaching and learning opportunities that students can use to learn about Indigenous customs and practices, specifically regarding the traditional use of plants. Vegetation is an incredibly important part of the Indigenous culture and learning about the traditional uses of native plants and what they mean to the Indigenous peoples is integral to sustaining the values and teachings of their culture. We have noticed a lack of space on campus dedicated to the growth and teachings of these traditional plants, including at the Gordon Oakes Red Bear
Student Centre. The Centre is an intercultural gathering place that brings together the teachings, traditions, and cultures of the peoples of Saskatchewan, and functions as the University’s hub for on-campus Indigenous initiatives and engagement. We believe the building, and those who utilize it would benefit enormously from the addition of such a space.

To address this issue, we will be installing an indoor green feature within the Centre that showcases native plants, alongside information regarding their botany, habitat, and traditional Indigenous uses. We have created this feature to be self-sustaining, moveable, and low maintenance, and we consulted with the Elders and native plant experts to choose the optimal plant species for this feature. We would like this feature to be used predominantly as an educational tool. We will also be enhancing the Centre's outdoor planter through the addition of native plant species. An informational feature will also be created for the outdoor planter to highlight the habitat, botany, and traditional uses of the vegetation within the planter. Our project is tailored towards enhancing cultural sustainability through education, and these features will give students, staff, and community members an opportunity for hands-on visual and physical learning about the Indigenous culture. There are personal benefits, such as increased cultural awareness and respect, that result from learning about traditional Indigenous knowledge, and we believe that the transfer of this information is incredibly important for maintaining and protecting cultural sustainability.

The purpose of this presentation is to share our experience and introduce this project. The first part of the presentation is about the original intention. The original intention will be explained by talking our story about how we got scammed when we brought Greenciles and how we found the greenwashing company named Terracycle. The goal of the project will be introduced with the second part. The second part is about the main elements of the project, which are posters, Facebook homepage and the website, also other small efforts. There will be highlighted in two parts: the function and the content.