Concordia University
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

Bâtiment 7: Concordia students and faculty are learning from and with the community, through an innovative presence at Bâtiment 7, a former CN train shop in Montreal’s Pointe-Saint-Charles neighbourhood. While students learn and advance their research, they are also directly contributing to the evolution of a site that’s equal parts arts collective, grocery co-op, brew pub and social movement. The project is aimed at combatting gentrification and profit-driven development. Concordia's contributions are funded jointly by the Office of Community Engagement (OCE), the Office of Research and SHIFT, Concordia’s social innovation hub. The project is designed to ensure that the new collaborative model prioritizes direction from the community, rather than being driven by external researchers. Web URL: https://www.concordia.ca/news/stories/2018/11/20/concordia-joins-forces-with-batiment-7-for-a-new-kind-of-community-research-partnership.html
https://www.concordia.ca/news/stories/2019/09/09/concordia-students-team-up-with-batiment-7-in-the-name-of-sustainability.html

A twelve-week supervised property management student internship was organized for Fall 2021. The intern assisted with data collection relating to water and energy use at Concordia. Their main responsibilities were to update select energy budget calculations and assist in coordination of a Concordia building's BOMA Best green building certification. Another responsibility was to update Concordia's water use study for the whole university. The study will be used for Concordia's STARS report. Student learning can be assessed through the final report and presentation of results the intern will be doing.

In 2020-2021, a PhD student's research from the faculty of Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science was on occupant-centric modeling for urban building energy simulation. The building sector contributes to 30- 40% of the global energy consumption. To achieve today’s ambitious climate goals, the building sector, as a significant energy consumer, possess immense potential for energy savings by several means. Knowing the key roles of occupants in a building’s energy use, the student's research focuses on proposing stochastic-based occupant-centric controls and operations of building energy systems at the urban scale. Providing a realistic occupancy model that dynamically simulates the occupant-centric schedules connected to the building energy simulation tool could provide relatively accurate simulation results and pave the way to identify energy-efficient strategies. The primary stakeholder involved in and affected by this research is Concordia University, the EV Building being the case study for this research.

The Administrator, Food Services Sustainability and Quality collaborated with a Concordia undergraduate Geography and Marketing course in 2020-21 to develop strategies for increasing plant-based consumption in the dining halls. Their strategies, including a plant-based menu indicator created by a marketing student, were implemented in fall 2021 for Campus Sustainability Month.

The transformation of a section of the Loyola Campus grounds into a community garden is an ongoing project that started with a Master in Art student's research. In the context of her MA research, she is investigating how environmental communication pedagogy and practices inform current environmental education and how including aesthetics of care promotes long-term environmental advocacy in students. Through her work, she will explore how consciousness and critical appreciation around food production and soil health are promoted in order for students to acquire the skills to critically reflect upon the environment as informed individuals who care deeply and act in transformative ways. Transforming the landscape of the Loyola Campus with attractive edible gardens!

A new student-planned garden at the Loyola campus was created in summer 2021. Working in groups, students in an Ecology of Urban Environments class were invited to pitch a campus gardening project in line with the university’s Sustainability Action Plan. The class selected the top three proposals in December, and the students worked together with campus staff to plan the final garden. Shovels finally hit the ground in July for the innovative green space.

Concordia University's Centre for Creative Reuse (CUCCR) is a zero-waste initiative. In addition to reclaiming items and operating a material depot, they organize events, internships, artist residencies, and collaborations with other sustainability-focused initiatives in an effort to change the culture around waste and promote zero-waste practices.

The Material Lifecycle Research Residency is their 3-year research program, funded and organized in partnership with Sustainable Concordia. The goal of the program is to enable investigation into the lifecycle of materials commonly found in CUCCR’s depot, communicate findings to the community in campaigns that both illuminate these impacts and question our complicity in them, and propose changes to university policies and practices.

In November 2019, a student was selected for the second iteration of the residency and given the option to choose an item commonly found in Concordia's depot to research. The intern chose to focus on cotton T-shirts, and "swag" event merchandise more generally. The intern researched the environmental impacts of cotton T-shirts, interviewed student leaders to research conditions surrounding their annual annual appearance in CUCCR's depot and presented the findings in two educational posters.

See: http://madelyncapozzi.com/projects/cuccr

Concordia University's Centre for Creative Reuse (CUCCR) is a zero-waste initiative. In addition to reclaiming items and operating a material depot, they organize events, internships, artist residencies, and collaborations with other sustainability-focused initiatives in an effort to change the culture around waste and promote zero-waste practices.

The Material Lifecycle Research Residency is their 3-year research program, funded and organized in partnership with Sustainable Concordia. The goal of the program is to enable investigation into the lifecycle of materials commonly found in CUCCR’s depot, communicate findings to the community in campaigns that both illuminate these impacts and question our complicity in them, and propose changes to university policies and practices.

In November 2019, a student was selected for the second iteration of the residency and given the option to choose an item commonly found in Concordia's depot to research. The intern chose to focus on cotton T-shirts, and "swag" event merchandise more generally. The intern researched the environmental impacts of cotton T-shirts, interviewed student leaders to research conditions surrounding their annual annual appearance in CUCCR's depot and presented the findings in two educational posters.

See: http://madelyncapozzi.com/projects/cuccr

In 2019-2020, a Bachelor of Science student's research involved creating a laboratory scale biofilm reactor for nitrogen removal from wastewater. The objective of this research project is to test a modern biological reactor, with respect to biofilm formation for nitrification and denitrification processes. Hence, the goal was to confirm if sufficient nitrogen removal from wastewater was achieved with a system developed in the Environmental Engineering Laboratory in EV Building at Concordia University.

In 2019-2020, a Master of Science student's thesis examines the networking capabilities built into the solidarity cooperative model, its potential to mitigate the effects of capital on the social economy, and its emergence within Quebec’s unique socio-political context. A case study of a solidarity cooperative, The Hive Cafe (student-run co-operative), which operates out of Concordia University in downtown Montreal, is used to analyze the impacts of this model on worker self governance and to extract insights useful to those seeking to build socially-oriented economic alternatives.

The Geography course GEOG 498 Geographies of Justice: divestment of oil and gas at Concordia University offers students the opportunity to participate in all aspects of a collective research project to benefit a community-based organization. Students learn new theories, advanced research and teamwork skills, and see first-hand how research can contribute to struggles for social justice. The class collaborates with Divest Concordia, a grassroots volunteer organization that demands, in the name of climate justice, that the university divest from oil and gas.

In 2018-2019, five students conducted research on national strategies for Divest Concordia. The project aimed to contribute to the reinvigoration of Divest Concordia and enhance solidarity between university fossil fuel divestment groups. The group's objective was to achieve three main outcomes: Strategizing for Divest Concordia, Contributing to an upcoming high stakes presentation at University Senate, and Creating an interactive map for Canadian Divestment Campaigns to increase solidarity and public presence.