Concordia University
EN-2: Co-Curricular Activities

Climate Emergency Committee is a group of undergraduate and graduate students as well as professors from Concordia University that have come together to take action against the global emergency that is climate change. Their campaigns range from installing green roofs on campus, changing Concordia's main search engine to Ecosia, running educational jeopardy-style games for students, and a eco-anxiety support group They pursue the following three objectives:
- Increase awareness and understanding in Quebec of the growing global climate crisis through education;
- Develop, propose, and encourage Geography, Planning and Environment department policies to tackle climate change;
- To inform and collaborate with interested parties about ways to reduce environmental impacts (greenhouse gases, plastics, impacts related to food, etc.).   https://www.concordia.ca/artsci/geography-planning-environment/climate-emergency.html

QPRIG Concordia (Quebec Public Interest Research Group at Concordia) is a student-run and governed is a  fee-levy group and resource centre for student and community research and organizing. QPIRG strives to raise awareness and support grassroots activism around diverse social and environmental issues. Our work is rooted in an anti-oppression analysis and practice. We seek to make campus-community links and inspire social change through engaging, inclusive and non-hierarchical approaches.

QPIRG Concordia is committed to being inclusive and accessible to all, and actively opposes all forms of discrimination and oppression. The group has been an important link between campus and the community on issues related to social and environmental justice and progressive social change. https://www.qpirgconcordia.org/

Campus Sustainability Month is a community-wide celebration of all things sustainable at Concordia, through a variety of in-person and virtual activities and events taking place on both campuses. Each year, campus groups and organizations host nearly an event or activity for each day in October. https://www.concordia.ca/sustainability/events/campus-sustainability-month.html

The Sustainability Ambassadors Program (SAP) provides students with leadership experience, engagement opportunities, skills, and competencies that support a culture of sustainability on campus.       Students connect with a nexus of changemakers to design and implement projects that educate and inspire peers to take sustainable action. https://www.concordia.ca/sustainability/get-involved/student-ambassadors.html

In 2022, we employed a Social Justice and Program Indiginization intern and the role was given to a student. In 2023, we employed multiple students: a Carbon Offsets Research intern, a Living Lab Funding Program coordinator, a Sustainable Events intern, and a short-term Communications Coordinator (some of these contracts extended into 2024).

"The Hive Café (student-governed):

The Hive Café aims 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.                                                                                                      The Hive also operates a Free Breakfast and Lunch Program, which offers a FREE breakfast and lunch every weekday at Loyola campus. The Hive Free Lunch & Breakfast provides an essential service to students, faculty and staff at Loyola campus, which is a food desert with very few dining or grocery options. The HFL also provides a unique opportunity to foster a sense of community around food, and everyone works hard in creating a safer space to share and learn cooking skills together. The HFL aims to provide quality, nutritious food while considering the social and environmental impact of the food we consume."

The Sustainability Volunteer Program connects students to sustainability opportunities run by the many initiatives in our sustainability ecosystem on campus, from student groups to university offices to academic departments