Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 74.59
Liaison Chris Adam
Submission Date Sept. 7, 2020
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Dawson College
EN-5: Outreach Campaign

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 4.00 / 4.00 Chris Adam
Coordinator
Sustainability Office
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Has the institution held at least one sustainability-related outreach campaign during the previous three years that was directed at students and yielded measurable, positive results in advancing sustainability? :
Yes

Has the institution held at least one sustainability-related outreach campaign during the previous three years that was directed at employees and yielded measurable, positive results in advancing sustainability?:
Yes

Name of the campaign:
Dawson Rising - Climate Action

A brief description of the campaign, including how students and/or employees were engaged:

The Dawson teachers union, support staff union and Student Union all planned and participated in a Climate Action Campaign that included the Climate March in September 2020. The College was asked to consider closing that day in support of sustainability and defer classes to an extra day later in the semester. For the first time in Dawson's history, the Board of Governors agreed as this initiative mirrored the College mission and values. Teachers and staff had the opportunity to march with the students that day and had many workshops to choose from in the morning before the march regarding different sustainability themes.


A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign:

The impact of Quebec's largest college declaring early in the planning process that it would stop classes that day to support Climate Action with no penalty to students or staff was significant. It demonstrated the meeting point of knowledge and action and inspired many in the college network within the province to do the same. Over 15 media features were made and 4 national televised news items broadcast about the event that included Dawson staff and students. A national TV series "The Nature of Things" came to film as well. All of this inspired College staff and validated their sustainability work. This collective pride was then translated into more involvement in sustainability at the college. Teachers and non-teaching staff visited the sustainability offices daily and put pressure on the college to extend support positions to keep up with the demand for sustainability projects within and outside of courses. Students project topics included work on carbon offset research, biophilic design, off-setting company research, establishing a weather station on the rooftop for constant "cloud" data collection and mining and research into alternative energy investments.
Collective union briefing note:https://www.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/news/announcements/joint-statement-from-the-dawson-teachers-union-the-dawson-support-staff-union-and-the-association-of-dawson-professionals/


The website URL where information about the campaign is available:
Name of the campaign (2nd campaign):
Living Schools Symposium

A brief description of the campaign, including how students and/or employees were engaged (2nd campaign):

A cross section of Dawson employees were invited to comment on Living School Attributes and discuss suggestions. Attributes were 'weighted" by group opinion and attributes considered most influential were identified. The symposium results were given to Dr. Catherine O'Brien, who published the ultimate results of her Living School Attributes results.


A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign (2nd campaign):

This led to the publishing of the attributes in a book and several other academic venues. It is now used as part of a masters class in the sustainability, creativity & change graduate program within Cape Breton Universities Education Dept.


The website URL where information about the campaign is available (2nd campaign):
A brief description of other sustainability-related outreach campaigns, including measured positive impacts:
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The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

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