Concordia University
EN-3: Student Life

Sustainable Concordia (student-governed): Sustainable Concordia (SC) is a nexus that engages students, staff, faculty, and administrators to work together in non-hierarchical, consensus based decision-making processes to address issues of sustainable development on campus. We are founded in the belief that our community stakeholders must communicate and work together to create viable solutions to sustainable development challenges on campus. Bringing the perspectives of each stakeholder group together in dialogue allows us to see the University as a system where solutions reach across sectors and departments.

City Farm School: The City Farm School is an initiative to develop partnerships and expertise in urban agriculture on the island of Montréal. With the support of Concordia University, The City Farm School (CFS) offers seminars, discussions, internship placements, volunteer opportunities and popular education style teach-ins on permaculture, organic crop planning, producing seedlings, mushroom cultivation, composting, pest management, organic plant nutrition, rain water harvesting, and other topics of great public interest, promoting a strong focus on experiential learning and the cultivation of a can-do spirit.

The Hive Café (student-governed): We aim to empower students by using a student-lead, non-profit, cooperative model all the while helping to inspire and cultivate an alternative food system at Concordia that is socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable. Located both at the heart of Concordia University’s Loyola campus and Downtown campus, the Hive Café’s mission is to provide healthy, varied, affordable, organic, and locally produced food options, while highlighting sustainable practices, employing dignified working conditions for suppliers and worker-members alike, nurturing a community-run space, and fostering an alternative food system to the one currently dominated by corporate institutional providers. The Hive Café Solidarity Cooperative adopted a non-profit cooperative economic model due to our shared desire for fostering a healthier and more sustainable food system, our passion for community-building, and our strong commitment to values such as; Anti-racism Anti-sexism Queer positivity Anti-poverty Anti-oppression Egalitarianism Fair labour relations Social, environmental, and economic sustainability.

Sustainable Action Fund (student-governed): The Sustainability Action Fund is funded by a 25-cent per-credit undergraduate student fee levy, and a $1.25 per term graduate student fee levy. It totals approximately $150,000 per year. This money goes to support projects to develop sustainable infrastructure, urban agriculture, community-building, and education surrounding environmental and community issues, with the goal of inspiring and developing a culture of sustainability at Concordia University.

INTEGRATED is a symposium on teaching and learning environmental, social and economic sustainability. It’s designed to highlight the excellent work of undergraduate students at Concordia and beyond. This symposium gives students the opportunity to learn from one another’s project and initiatives. It also provides attendees the opportunity to contribute to the larger conversation surrounding teaching and learning sustainability-related issues in higher education. The first INTEGRATED conference was hold on March 26th-28th 2015. This conference was organized by the Sustainable Curriculum Project, a project that is jointly supported by the Sustainability Action Fund, The Concordia Council on Student Life, and the Concordia Academic Plan 2012-2016.

The "Whalebone Collective" is a group of young socially-engaged activists using art as a medium to generate conversation and positive change. From their website: "as a collective, the Whalebone seeks to align itself with campaigns that work to foster sustainability, be it environmental, economic, or social".

Concordia Outdoors student club (student-governed): The objectives of the group shall be as follows: - To help bring students and other members of the Concordia community (“the Community”) to the outdoors year round; - To introduce members of the Community to new outdoor recreational activities, and to provide a safe and welcoming environment for ‘beginner’ outdoors enthusiasts to encounter new activities; - To make outdoor recreation more affordable for the Community by providing subsidized outings and courses, local discounts, affordable rental equipment, ridesharing resources, and Community knowledge-sharing; - To familiarize the Community members with the landscape and geography of Quebec and surrounding regions; - To promote respect for the environment among Community members, to ‘take nothing but photographs and leave nothing but footprints’; - To connect like-minded Community members through meetings and social events;

Sustainable Community Guide: This is a guide to living sustainably for Concordia University Community members – on campus and at home. It was created in collaboration between the Sustainability Action Fund and Sustainable Concordia. The cumulative effect of all the actions outlined in this guide have the potential to reduce our collective environmental footprint. By becoming a leader in sustainability we can encourage and inspire other individuals and communities to become healthier and resilient. The guide will be updated online on a yearly basis so check back to see how this evolves. In addition, the student group Sustainable Concordia organized and supported in 2014-15 many workshops for students related to the development of sustainable life skills, for example: - Winter biking workshop - DIY Organic Body Products workshop - Cider-making workshop - Organic lunch-in-a-jar workshop - DIY bread-making workshop - Food preserving workshop

Many sustainability-related students projects have been funded by the Sustainable Action Fund. A complete list of funded projects is available in the URL below.