Fleming College
IN-1: Innovation 1

In 2011, Fleming College became the first college in Canada to ban bottled water. The initiative began in 2009, when the student run environmental group Frost Initiative (FI) first lobbied and successfully achieved a bottled water ban at Student Administration activities. From there, Fleming FI began to collect empty bottles from around campus while at the same time collecting signatures on a petition to present to the College Executive. Over the course of a school year, 300+ signatures were collected, a variety of visual demonstrations were presented, and a formal proposal was created. The lead coordinator of the FI presented the idea of having a bottle water free campus to the Fleming College Executive Leadership Team (ELT). The ELT was receptive to the proposal, Fleming became a Bottle Water free campus on Earth Day, April 2011! Fleming continues to work closely with it's 3rd party Foodservice provider to ensure the bottle water ban is upheld.