Fanshawe College
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

Professor Jennifer Sanders, faculty member in Fanshawe’s School of Design was involved in a global community engagement project which explored sustainable living practices in developing countries. The project combined home design, residential construction and experiences with Fanshawe’s Women in Carpentry initiative with a hands-on building project that promoted female empowerment and involved local mothers and daughters within the community. The project grew to include a focus on specialized areas of home design, including WELL building practices and universal design, intertwining the respective backgrounds of professors Julie McIntyre and Elayne Wood-Lauersen.

In May 2023, Jennifer, Julie and Elayne visited the village of Muñoz, Dominican Republic to take part in a reciprocal learning opportunity in collaboration with Niagara University and residents of the Muñoz community. Through exploratory field studies and home visits throughout the village, the team worked to gain ideas about how to improve the living conditions of homes with a collective benefit to use data from this study to expand teaching practices and incorporate findings into classroom assignments and Signature Innovative Learning Experience (SILEx) opportunities.

Each year in the Fall Professor Stephen Argall teaches a course in the Environmental Technology Program where students measure the concentrations of several pollutants (ozone, NO, NO2 and CO) in the ambient (outside) air at the college. The students then prepare a report which includes how the pollutant is formed and removed from the atmosphere, as well as an intercomparison with measurement made by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks.

Kestrel Court Project is a project of Building Technology students at Fanshawe College, which involves transforming Kestrel Court, a 25-year-old campus residence townhouse complex, into a net-zero building.

The Kestrel Court complex contains 68 units, 11 of which are currently being retrofitted to ensure the energy efficiency of the whole residence itself, from its aesthetic aspects down to its mechanical systems.

Led by Prof. Tom Davis, this retrofit of Kestrel Court started as a research project with students. Throughout its development, both the faculties and the students from over 20 programs across Fanshawe College are working together with industry partners for its success. Its multidisciplinary approach aims to have as much student involvement as possible. The hands-on experience has taught students about the future of sustainable building technology, which they can incorporate into their career and personal life. The project seeks to make the students feel that everyone has a role in sustainability.

This project is Fanshawe College's cooperation to the federal government's goal of net zero emissions in Canada by 2050. In support of the Kestrel Court project, the federal government doled out in 2022 a funding of over $1.3 million from Natural Resources Canada.

A case study and webinar can be viewed here: https://www.rdh.com/resource/net-zero-ready-deep-energy-retrofits-kestrel-court-case-study/

2022 Annual Environmental Design Compeittion Theme: Growing Green Cities

Subthemes:

• Greening the city: Immersing yourself in green 
• Feeding the city: Sustainable food production by and for cities 
• Energizing the city: New sources of energy;
• Healthying the city: Feeling healthy in a healthy city.

The themes are selected in response to the growing pressure on urban spaces across the world to accommodate larger populations. At the same time we need to “green” our urban environments in response to climate change; food insecurity; renewable energy opportunities; and places to foster health. The themes are consistent with the themes for EXPO 2022 Floriade Amsterdam-Almere the Netherlands. The EXPO starts April 2022 and ends October 2022.

Individuals and student groups of full-time, post-secondary students are invited to submit and present environmental designs illustrating the design analysis, ideation and visualization of Greening Cities. The competition is a learning challenge for post-secondary students in landscape architecture, urban design, architecture, environmental design and all related design programs, to imagine our future urban environments. Faculty of the students are encouraged to use the competition theme in their course curriculum.

https://www.theinterrobang.ca/article?aID=16252

The Chef's Table at Fanshawe College is a student supported restaurant, café and event centre by students of Fanshawe’s School of Tourism, Hospitality & Culinary Arts. It provides an authentic learning experience and serves up locally sourced food and international flavours as students get experience cooking, serving, and working with money.Products are sourced locally as much as possible, and during the growing season students produce herbs and vegetables on campus community garden.

Fanshawe College main campus and Cuddy Gardens have been designated a Botanical Garden. Landscape Design students, faculty and the public are encouraged to enjoy and learn about various plants by visiting both sites. Horticulture Technology and Technician students maintain all gardens on main campus and at Cuddy Gardens. This is integrated into curriculum and where students learn how to build and maintain landscapes, gardens and indoor spaces. Students study arboriculture, landscape materials, field construction, equipment maintenance, landscape design, plant identification, plant production, and even business management. All of these topics are covered hands-on when working on campus grounds.

William Pol, MPA, MCIP, RPP, Land Use Planner, is a professor in the Bachelor of Environmental Design and Planning and the GIS and Urban Planning programs at Fanshawe College London. His passion is unlocking student potential to understand, interpret and visualize, planning design projects that build community. Through active learning including field trips, design charrettes and competitions, he guides students to professional positions where they can design solutions to existing and future land use problems. He is also the co-director of the Urban 360 Lab, where summer work-study students undertake community based land use planning design projects.

Professors Andrew Wilson and William Pol led a project for students from School of Design. The topic for the 2023 TD Environmental Design Competition focused on Fanshawe's Campus Master Plan.  The charrette is an opportunity for students to complement the traditional approach and share student ideas for the next 5 - 20 years.  The theme was "Unlocking Potential" creating a sense of place, a sense of community and a sense of responsibility.  Students are encouraged to select particular areas of the Campus to design the outdoor space and relation to indoor space, keeping in mind the need for movement.  

Submissions focused on sustainability through storm water management, plant use, pedestrianization and the design and improvement of social spaces with particular attention paid to the main entrance area at Innovation Village.

Research and Evaluation program students ran a Compost pilot study at residences to ascertain the feasibility and effectiveness of implementing a composting program in a high-density residential complex, specifically Fanshawe Residences, and identify to what extent could such a program reduce the amount of organic waste sent to landfills. The project was launched during fall 2022 and concluded in summer 2023.

Coop students of Research and Evaluation program gathered and analyzed data for a sustainability report and STARS submission during summer of 2023.

Mend Massage Clinic, where massage therapy students get hands-on experience. This clinic is open to the community and charges a very reasonable, low fee. This clinic allows Fanshawe to promote and make available a form of natural, alternative medicine.

All studnts studying at Fanshawe will encounter five unique types of Signature Innovative Learning Experiences (SILEx):

Applied Research: Demonstrate research skills through an applied research project with an external partner. 

Entrepreneurship: Demonstrate learning related to entrepreneurship, small business development/management or intrapreneurship. 

Global Projects: Work with a Canadian or international organization to address a global problem or opportunity. 

Live Client Interactions: Interact with external partners to demonstrate learning in a vocational area. 

Multi-disciplinary Projects: Collaborate with students from other programs to demonstrate learning in a vocational area.

For details on the 2023 TD Design Competition: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.fanshawec.ca/sites/default/files/2022-11/TDEDC%20Brief%20Branded_accessible_revised.pdf

A case study and webinar of the Kestrel Court project can be viewed here: https://www.rdh.com/resource/net-zero-ready-deep-energy-retrofits-kestrel-court-case-study/