Dalhousie University
PAE-15: Employee Sustainability Educators Program

Dalhousie delivers The Rethink Sustainability on Campus Program. This rethink program focuses on friendly, educational and participatory challenges taking place throughout the year between rethink teams, individuals, departments, and residences. As part of this program are employee and student Sustainability Teams. Each team receives training from the Office of Sustainability and a manual of activity ideas and resources. Teams run activities in their home departments/buildings ranging from lunch and learns, hands on audits, and posters presentations etc. The Rethink programs are open to all employees on campus. Rethink team members can also sign up for training such as the Sustainable Procurement Train-the-Trainer Session. Through challenges, teams, activities, and events over 400 employees directly participated in programs. This workshop is designed as a “train-the-trainer” course for those involved in procurement at Dalhousie. The Dalhousie Office of Sustainability hosts this workshop to train “Trainers” who will conduct their own sessions to pass on what they have learned. This strategy enables the Office to reach a broader number of people on campus. The workshop uses adult education techniques to engage participants in discussions and to contribute their own experiences with procurement.

Goals- To have participants: 1.Gain an awareness and understanding of sustainability; and 2.Learn about and practice using tools to help with sustainable procurement decisions. Part 1: Introduction Exercise #1 15 min. 8: 30 – 8:45 Participants will collect an item from a bag as they enter. The moderator will introduce facilitators and instructors, and participants will introduce themselves by incorporating a feature of the item from the bag into a description of their role in sustainability or purchasing. Part 2: Sustainable Procurement Exercise #2 30 min. 8:45-9:15 “Sustainable procurement” and trends will be outlined along with an introduction to the role of the Office of Sustainability using the power point file. Attendees will become acquainted with the policies and mandates involved in becoming a sustainable organization and the impact procurement makes. Exercise #3 45min. 9:15-10:00 Sticky note activity: Ask participants in groups of five to compile a list of goods and services they procure. Ask groups to categorize the list into key headings. Ask each group to write the key headings on a post-it-notes (post-consumer). Have the moderator group the sticky notes into major purchasing areas to see similarities and difference and to prioritize further effort. Break 10:00 – 10:15 Part 3: Social Side of Sustainable Procurement and JUST US Video Exercise #4 35min. 10:15-10:50 • Slides from power point followed by Myth #1: The bottom line should make your decision (fair trade coffee) • Show JUST US coffee video Exercise # 5 40 min. 10:50-11:30 Mythbusters! Myth #2: It is more expensive to be sustainable (energy star computers). Groups will use the purchasing checklist to discuss a particular commodity of interest and report back to the group. Part 4: The Tool Kit Exercise #6 20min. 11:30-11:50 Where to find it and what’s in it. All material is online for training their colleagues. Part 5: Evaluation 10 min. 11:50 -12:00 Discussion and written feedback.

Dalhousie's Office of Sustainability supports the Sustainable Procurement Train-the-Trainers Workshop.