Humber College
EN-2: Student Orientation

All new students are invited to participate in Orientation activities on campus. This includes First-Year students, Transfer students and entering graduate students. Programming includes a Services Fair where the Office of Sustainability is able to present on their resources and services and invite students to learn more by engaging with their activities throughout the year.

Students are also invited to participate in a campus tour, which runs from 40-60 minutes. These tours include a focus on Sustainability services and resources that enable students to support sustainability on campus. These tour stops include water bottle refill stations, many of which have information on using reusable water bottles; the Arboretum, a 250 acre botanical garden and natural area on campus; our greenest employer award, which we have won for the 5th year in a row; energy efficient buildings like the new Centre for Technology Innovation and the Passive House retrofit on the existing Nx building; the solar panels on the parking garage which power the Barrett Centre for Innovation and Technology building next door, which is the largest installation on any Ontario institutional building; our bike repair stations; EV charging stations; and the fair-trade certification; as well as where Fairtrade is available on campus.

Humber’s Orientation team removed the “We Got You” bags from Orientation Week (including all flyers and paper materials that usually went in them). This is roughly 7-8k units that were given away during orientation. Since 10k bags were already purchased in the past fiscal, we plan to redistribute these bags during Welcome Week, empty, as a re-usable lunch tote.

All Humber students are invited to participate in a pre-arrival Online Orientation, which comprises videos on Humber resources and services as well as mini-challenges. The Office of Sustainability is featured here, along with links where students can discover more ways to get involved.

In the past, our team has included information about sustainability at Humber in our email communications to new students in July/Aug about the multi-dimensional sustainability at Humber, specific to 1st semester students, and a link to where they can get more information.

The Orientation Team has co-organized and promoted events run by the Office of Sustainability, including the following examples:

- In 2021, the Sustainability team conducted a workshop and training with new Residence Life Staff and collaborated on orientation events related to ‘how to recycle’ at North and Lakeshore campuses.

- In Winter 2021, the Orientation Team promoted a discussion, hosted by the Athletics Department, on “why sustainable living matters to you and your health”

- In Fall 2021, the Orientation Team organized a Sustainable Halloween Costume Contest, encouraging students to wear and share images of reusable, creatively-crafted, and sustainable costumes to promote sustainability efforts and reduce single-wear purchases.

- In Fall 2022, the Orientation Team will promote informational events run by the Office of Sustainability around subjects such as reusable containers (e.g.,Friendlier and O2GO), Fair Trade coffee, and local public transit

Finally, in addition to promoting services at the beginning of the term, the Orientation Team also organizes Services Fairs in October and March to further engage students throughout the year. The Office of Sustainability is featured at these events and many students join us to learn more about what services have to offer. As an example, our Winter 2022 Services Fair engaged over 600 students at North and Lakeshore campuses across two days.

Some post-graduate programs are invited to Orientation ( included under graduate students)