Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 72.00
Liaison Jessica Krejcik
Submission Date Dec. 22, 2021

STARS v2.2

Concordia University
EN-1: Student Educators Program

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.03 / 4.00 Cassandra Lamontagne
Sustainability Coordinator
Office of Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Number of students enrolled for credit:
46,829

Total number of students served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program:
46,829

Percentage of students served by a peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education program:
100

Name of the student educators program (1st program):
Sustainability Ambassador Program - Concordia's University's Centre for Creative Reuse (CUCCR) Campaign

A brief description of the student educators program (1st program):

CUCCR is dedicated to diverting materials from Concordia’s waste-stream and offering them to the general community free of cost. The space features diverse materials coming out of campus offices, departments, studios and labs. A variety of wood, glass, metal, fibers, office supplies, plastics, paper, tools and equipment, and arts & crafts supplies fill the shelves. Located in the Grey Nuns building, CUCCR’s new space has material sorting and display, as well as skill-share tables. As a Sustainability Ambassador in CUCCR, you’ll educate people both within and outside of the Concordia community.
Volunteering opportunities include educating CUCCR members about sustainability while: welcoming new members; helping them check out items; mentoring newer SAs; promoting donation of reusable items; helping research and plan workshops; creating educational online content; and teaching simple skills.

The SHED space is a new, key component of CUCCR created to facilitate the transformation of reused materials. The space provides access to tools, space to use them, and support. Volunteering opportunities include educating SHED members about sustainability while teaching tool literacy/safety and facilitating a supportive, DIY community.


A brief description of the student educators program’s target audience (1st program):

The target audience of the the Sustainability Ambassador program for CUCCR are people both within and outside of the Concordia community. This includes CUCCR and SHED members.


Number of trained student educators (1st program):
15

Number of weeks the student educators program is active annually (1st program):
33

Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained student educator (1st program):
2

Total number of hours worked annually by trained student educators (1st program):
206.63

Website URL where information about the student educators program is available (1st program):
Name of the student educators program (2nd program):
Sustainability Ambassador Program - Waste Not, Want Not Campaign

A brief description of the student educators program (2nd program):

The Waste Not Want Not Campaign hosts several events during orientation where student educators are teaching other students about how to properly use waste bins (compost and recycling). These activities were done through tabling and standing by waste bins with special signs.

The Waste Not Want Not Campaign student educators have also been at several large events on campus including the President's breakfast to teach other students about proper waste bin use.

The Waste Not Want Not Campaign also has an online component to its campaign by taking professional photographs of students, staff and faculty holding up self-made signs with information about compost on them. These pictures were posted on the campaign social media page to encourage awareness around compost and encourage other students to get involved.

Please note, for the Sustainability Ambassador Program - Waste Not, Want Not Campaign students were only expected to work 5hrs/semester.

Waste Not, Want Not left the Sustainability Ambassadors program to become its own self-sufficient campaign in 2019.


A brief description of the student educators program’s target audience (2nd program):

The Concordia community at large.


Number of trained student educators (2nd program):
47

Number of weeks the student educators program is active annually (2nd program):
33

Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained student educator (2nd program):
1

Total number of hours worked annually by trained student educators (2nd program):
371.25

Website URL where information about the student educators program is available (2nd program):
Name of the student educators program (3rd program):
Sustainability Ambassador Program - Residences (Loyola & Grey Nuns) Campaign

A brief description of the student educators program (3rd program):

Opportunities to volunteer with Concordia Residence Life as a Sustainability Ambassador are internal to students already living in the buildings. This campaign promotes knowledge-sharing about sustainability behaviours that are specific to the needs and wants of these small communities. SAs can help by teaching their peers waste education, skill-shares relevant to dorm life, starting their own educational campaign, and helping to promote and implement an end-of-year Reclaimathon. The Reclaimathon, performed each year in partnership with CUCCR, aims to collect any and all reusable items that residents are leaving behind as they move out in May. This begins with education about the hazards of single-use consumption and the benefits of reuse. Promotion is followed with a collection period, where SAs help monitor bins, sort items for varying charities, and weigh the donations for metric
purposes.


A brief description of the student educators program’s target audience (3rd program):

Students living in residence.


Number of trained student educators (3rd program):
15

Number of weeks the student educators program is active annually (3rd program):
7

Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per trained student educator (3rd program):
7

Total number of hours worked annually by trained student educators (3rd program):
62

Website URL where information about the student educators program is available (3rd program):
A brief description of all other student peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education programs:

(2018-2019) Sustainable Event Certification (SEC): This campaign is a collaboration between different Concordia departments, fee levy organizations, and student groups. Its aim is to promote sustainable event organizing by providing a simple sustainable event planning guide and auditing program at Concordia. Sustainability Ambassadors assist by providing useful feedback about campus resources and briefly attending events to audit the sustainable event certification alongside the event host.

(2019-2020) The Dish Project: The Dish Project is a student-run waste reduction initiative that lends out an inventory of reusable tableware to make it easy for the Concordia community to host sustainable events. Volunteer opportunities include educating members about sustainability while: introducing users to the Dish Project space and working to pack, facilitate, and clean orders; providing resources, tips, and info for organizing a sustainable event; and collaborating on the development of Zero Waste Projects (including workshops and events). These opportunities are currently focused on Concordia’s SGW campus but will be expanding to Loyola in early 2020.

For more information please see: https://www.concordia.ca/content/dam/concordia/services/sustainability/docs/EHS/SAP_Handbook_2019.pdf


Number of trained student educators (all other programs):
6

Number of weeks, on average, the student educators programs are active annually (all other programs):
16

Average or expected number of hours worked weekly per student educator (all other programs) :
1

Total number of hours worked annually by trained student educators (all other programs):
115.50

Grand total number of hours worked annually by trained student sustainability educators (all programs):
755.38

Hours worked annually by trained student sustainability educators per student served by a peer-to-peer program:
0.02

Website URL where information about the student sustainability educators programs is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

Sustainability Ambassadors receive a general training of three hours and specific training for different campaigns through mentorship. For the 2018-2019 academic year 105 hours of training was completed. These hours were added to the "Additional Program" hours.

About the Sustainability Ambassador Program in General
The Sustainability Ambassador Program (SAP), physically located in the Office of Sustainability, is a collaboration between Sustainable Concordia and the Office of Sustainability. It houses a network of sustainability learning and engagement opportunities. Students who volunteer with SAP become peer to-peer educators, known as Sustainability Ambassadors (SAs), working in different roles across Concordia to encourage awareness and develop more sustainable behaviours on campus that align with Concordia’s Sustainability Action Plan. The SAP network strengthens relationships between staff, faculty, students, and community members that are interested in participating in a sustainable future through knowledge-sharing and partnerships. Autonomous sustainability-related campaigns that have signed up to become SAP campaigns benefit from SAP knowledge, networks, and coordination. SAP partners with Campaign Coordinators to oversee volunteer training, coordination, and development so that Sustainability Ambassadors can choose to participate in a variety of campaigns throughout their academic career.

Student Ambassador Program Handbook: https://www.concordia.ca/content/dam/concordia/services/sustainability/docs/EHS/SAP_Handbook_2019.pdf

The facts and figures for these programs are from the 2018-2019 academic year. This timeframe was chosen to reflect participation rates not impacted by restricted in-person activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


Sustainability Ambassadors receive a general training of three hours and specific training for different campaigns through mentorship. For the 2018-2019 academic year 105 hours of training was completed. These hours were added to the "Additional Program" hours.

About the Sustainability Ambassador Program in General
The Sustainability Ambassador Program (SAP), physically located in the Office of Sustainability, is a collaboration between Sustainable Concordia and the Office of Sustainability. It houses a network of sustainability learning and engagement opportunities. Students who volunteer with SAP become peer to-peer educators, known as Sustainability Ambassadors (SAs), working in different roles across Concordia to encourage awareness and develop more sustainable behaviours on campus that align with Concordia’s Sustainability Action Plan. The SAP network strengthens relationships between staff, faculty, students, and community members that are interested in participating in a sustainable future through knowledge-sharing and partnerships. Autonomous sustainability-related campaigns that have signed up to become SAP campaigns benefit from SAP knowledge, networks, and coordination. SAP partners with Campaign Coordinators to oversee volunteer training, coordination, and development so that Sustainability Ambassadors can choose to participate in a variety of campaigns throughout their academic career.

Student Ambassador Program Handbook: https://www.concordia.ca/content/dam/concordia/services/sustainability/docs/EHS/SAP_Handbook_2019.pdf

The facts and figures for these programs are from the 2018-2019 academic year. This timeframe was chosen to reflect participation rates not impacted by restricted in-person activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.