Humber College
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

Humber Journalism students cover stories about the Office of Sustainability and other sustainability issues for the student newspaper Humber Et Cetera.

Humber Film students create videos about the sustainable features on campus including the campus apiaries, Humber Arboretum and sustainable events and initiatives for Humber TV.

The Office of Sustainability hired a videographer student intern for the winter semester who helped create videos about sustainable topics such as waste.

Sponsored by Humber Office of Sustainability and Student Success and Engagement, the Post-graduate PR students were given a budget of $3,000 to develop and coordinate a Sustainability themed event. It features food, entertainment, games and activities in a fair-type event with a vendor-style format. The key objectives for the event was to: raise awareness about current sustainability issues, provide information an access to getting more involved on and off-campus, generate awareness and excitement about the event and maximize event attendance. The first event in Fall 2018 was a huge success, overflowing with students, staff and faculty over the full event.

Humber Food Learning Garden hosts public workshops run in collaboration with a variety of community partners.

The Humber Arboretum serves the North Etobicoke community as both a public park and a supporter of local organizations and initiatives. In the past, environmental education and leadership opportunities have been provided for youth and families from Ernestine’s Women’s Shelter and Youth Without Shelter. The Humber Arboretum also enjoys an ongoing relationship with the Toronto Public Library branch and schools (Humber Downs Jr Middle School and Holy Child Catholic School) inside the Humberwood Community Centre, which sits beside Arboretum land. Public events for families offer a special opportunity for local residents to enjoy the Arboretum grounds.

The design and construction of the Nx building retrofit incorporated ideas from students in the Sustainable Energy and Building Technology program. The objective of involving those students was to develop an aesthetically pleasing new design for the NX Building, and to meet the stringent targets set out by the Passivhaus Institute in order to achieve Passivhaus (Enerphit) Certification. The students were able to get input from both faculty and industry partners for their research which proved to be an excellent opportunity for them to develop professional skills and research advanced solutions centered on sustainability.

The main goal of the NX retrofit was to increase the energy efficiency of the building through tackling heating, cooling, air and water leakage. The initial goal was to reduce the building’s energy consumption by at least 50%. The scope of the work included the recladding of the facilities and renovation of the existing mechanical systems. The students were able to get input from both faculty and industry partners for their research which proved to be an excellent opportunity for them to develop professional skills and research advanced solutions centered on sustainability.

The Humber Food Learning Garden is a new demonstration garden and outdoor classroom that opened in 2018. The Food learning garden:
-Supports the learning of Humber College students in a variety of programs such as landscaping, horticulture, culinary arts, and Early Childhood Education as they learn how to tend, harvest, and teach in the space
-Provides fresh, locally grown ingredients for use in dishes at The Humber Room, Humber College's student-run restaurant
-Helps children taking part in the Humber Arboretum's Nature Day Camps or school programs understand where their food comes and connect with the joy of growing and eating fresh herbs and vegetables

Humber culinary students also turn sap collected in the Humber Arboretum into Maple Syrup.

Arboretum is as an educational, research and recreational centre and consists of botanical gardens and natural areas surrounding the Humber River. This unique site is home to the Carolinian bioregion, the most diverse ecosystem in Canada, and boasts over 1,700 species of plants and animals. Its purpose is to facilitate research and education, establish and maintain living plant collections, promote conservation and restoration practices, and provide a quality visitor experience. It is a joint venture of the City of Toronto, Humber College, and Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. Students contribute to the Arboretum in the following projects:
-Humber Landscape students create and maintain plant beds within the Humber Arboretum grounds.
-Humber Landscape students practice their plant ID skills by identifying the plants and trees located throughout the Humber Arboretum.
-Humber Arborist students practice their tree climbing and safety skills on the tree located in the Humber Arboretum.
-Humber construction student’s applied their construction knowledge by building a retaining wall for flower beds located in the Humber Arboretum.
-Humber construction students learned how to build outdoor structures when they created a deck and gazebo in the Humber Arboretum.
-A Humber student assisted with a research project that evaluates the growth of plants with various types of soil compaction. Research plots were created and tested in the Humber Arboretum.
-A Humber student assisted with the research of a project that evaluates how plot plant diversity is affected with the removal of deer.
- Humber students assisted with a research project that evaluates native seed mixes for roadside plant diversification.
-Humber surveying students conducted field projects in the Humber Arboretum.

The Humber Food Learning garden provided hands-on learning opportunities for students who assisted in the construction of the garden, either as part of the Landscape Technician Diploma program or workstudy.

Humber film and photography students featured Plug ‘n’ Drive on an episode of “Life at Humber.” Students drove an electric vehicle and shared a review of the car.

Humber student volunteers helped organize a Transportation Hub during Humber Earth Week. External partners such as Metrolinx, Smart Commute, City of Brampton and Enterprise CarShare were invited to highlight sustainable transportation options available to students and staff on campus.

Humber’s Athletics department hosted the first “Trash Walk” – students, staff and faculty clean up the campus during the lunch hour and educate participants about waste reduction and management.

Student volunteers helped organize and run a waste-sorting challenge during Humber Earth Week. Participants who were staff and faculty were asked to sort five items in recycling, garbage and compost for a small prize.

Criminal Justice student research project conducted:
- on designing smoking areas on campus to reduce litter on our Lakeshore campus.
- to reduce cigarette littering at Annex building and L- Building Lakeshore campus.

Students from Bachelor of Creative Advertising program proposed creative marketing campaigns that focused on water conservation and plastic waste reduction. The winning team had their plan and designs implemented and displayed as decals around the campus water refill stations.

Students in Humber’s Game Jam club (who are also students in the Programming Advanced Diploma) created an engaging phone app to teach students, staff, and faculty how to sort their waste effectively at Humber. Leveraging User Experience principles, the student created an exciting game that challenges users to increase their score and better sort their waste.

The planning and design of the NX Building retrofit also involved students from the Project Management and Supply Chain Management programs who used their expertise in the planning and coordination stages of the project. Due to the building’s confined location on Humber’s North campus, the idea of constructability had to stay front and center when choosing cladding and materials. The students were able to get input from both faculty and industry partners for their research which proved to be an excellent opportunity for them to develop professional skills and research advanced solutions centered on sustainability.

Physical spaces are used in art classes by taking the students outside so they can learn to appreciate the natural environment. Studio practice courses provide a structure and practice of drawing which is based on both observation of the visual world (in the local natural environment, parks, nature) and a growing awareness of visual language. Students embark on a regimen of academic and experimental drawing exercises in a contemporary and conceptual approach to
seeing and observing. Working with a disciplined approach to observation and rendering and transiting ideas, students will work to create contemporary and experimental drawings. Students will apply the possibilities on extending traditional concepts concerning the parameters of Drawing and art making.