Nova Scotia Community College
EN-3: Student Life

FULL CIRCLE CUISINE
The project takes food waste generated at Marconi campus and uses it to produce compost for the campus community garden. The gardens are fully grown over the summer months and ready for consumption by the beginning of the school year. The produce from the garden will be divided out and placed into meal kits and made available free to students facing food insecurity. A portion of the kits will be set aside for staff purchase to cover some costs of the project. The kits will contain healthy plant-based meal recipes which have been put together by the culinary students on campus to encourage the usage of all ingredients in the kits. Raised garden beds and a collapsible greenhouse were built by the carpentry department on campus to ensure the garden is protected from the elements. The project will be fully implemented this summer on a trial basis with the goal of distributing 150 meal kits over September and October.
In March 2022 the Team ranked 2nd among 68 competitors in the Enactus Climate Action Pitch competition.
https://www.facebook.com/EnactusMarconi/

ZIP GARDEN
NSCC’s Digby learning center was provided with the funds to purchase a indoor highly efficient hydroponic garden. This garden was planted with leafy greens and herbs in a public space at the learning center, the garden was tended by staff and student and upon harvest the produce was distributed to students with a salad recipe to make the most of the ingredients.

MUDDY MONDAY
Each year, the sustainability committee at Akerley Campus hosts a Muddy Monday. This events is focused on educating students on the opportunities to grow their own food. Muddy Monday provides an experience that supports wellness and learning around food security, gardening, sustainability, and nature. Session were planned to educate participants on seed saving and starting garden at home. Prizes were awarded and included a home greenhouse with grow light and gardening guides. 60 houseplants, 32 seedlings, and over 50 packages of seeds were given away.

CAMPUS GARDENS-
Our Akerley, and Kingstec campuses also have community gardens onsite and students are encouraged to participate in weeding and tending the gardens throughout the year. The gardens at the Akerley and Kingstec campuses are run by the culinary programs. The students and faculty in these programs tend the gardens and use vegetables grown in their culinary programs.

The NSCC Akerley Campus' Culinary, Baking and Pastry Art, and Hospitality Management programs teach students the fundamental techniques of managing and running a restaurant. Throughout the academic year, the students in these programs learn many sustainability-related methods and skills. For example, the Culinary and Bakery students run the Fresh Café. Everything made during class time is packaged and sold in this cafe to students and staff and which helps minimize food waste. The program strives to have as little food waste as possible and benefit other NSCC students.

The Hospitality Management students work with the Culinary students for the Restaurant Showdown in our Fresh 21 Restaurant on campus. For this, students manage the restaurant, order the food, develop the menus and compete for the most successful service. The students will often choose themes related to sustainability, such as local menus. They have partnerships with many local wineries and breweries in Nova Scotia. The students work together each year on themed projects. Through these projects, the students learn about local purchasing and sustainable dining. The dining room uses reusable dishware, cloth napkins, and paper straws. It does not serve bottled beverages; still and sparkling water is served on tap. The students also make homemade sodas to serve.

Enactus Retreat
Enactus is dedicated to creating a better world while developing the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders and social innovators. The Enactus network of global business, academic and student leaders are unified by one vision—to create a better, more sustainable world. This year, NSCC hosted an Enactus retreat for all Enactus students across the College.
The purpose of the Enactus Retreat was to bring staff and students together for a day of learning, sharing, and networking. NSCC Enactus is comprised of 7 teams – 4 existing and 3 new teams at campuses throughout the province that include Truro, Pictou, Ivany, Marconi, Annapolis Valley, Strait Area, and Burridge.
This was the 5th annual retreat and was the first in-person experience following the pandemic. Students and staff found great value in meeting in person to network, share resources and experiences and learn from industry professionals. This interaction has assisted them with their project work and to prepare for the various competitions that they will take part in throughout the year. The objective of the retreat was to increase employment skills for students and develop relationships with industry partners, create new research opportunities and partnerships for NSCC and other industry members and build awareness for social entrepreneurship. 44 students and 22 staff members engaged in this year’s retreat.

Challenge NS
Challenge NS is a collegewide competition that allows students to provide solutions to issues facing our province through connections to industry and community. This competition allows students to have a voice in issues that are relevant to them while making connections to their community and local industry in the process. Long after the competition is complete the skills developed, connections made, experiences had, and networks created remain active both personally and professionally.
This year the competition was delivered in person and virtually for ECampus, the first time after two years of virtual delivery. Students were happy to return to an in-person format but were able to take the benefits of online tools to access virtual connections where appropriate. This allowed students access to a broader network and exposed them to new tools, skills, and experiences along the way.
The question that students were challenged to address was “What initiatives could you propose to support our unhoused community members? Students were urged to consider the additional barriers faced by those living in rural communities. More than 250 students tackled the problem and a panel of judges awarded prize funds to the top three solutions.
First place response video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or2gH4FO75U

NSCC holds numerous cultural events at campuses across the province. For example, at many of our campuses we celebrate Mi'kmaq History Month. Throughout this month many activities celebrating diversity and Nova Scotia's First Nations are held. There is a Mi'kmaq craft show and a teepee-raising ceremony that is displayed on campus grounds. There are numerous Mi'kmaq art installations at NSCC campuses as well.

Every campus also has established smudging rooms to embrace indigenous cultural practices at NSCC.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/nscc-smudging-rooms-nova-scotia-mi-kmaq-1.5402086


Sustainable Art installation

NSCC recently contracted a local artist to create a visual graphical representation of the Sustainable Development Goals. The artwork which was completed by Kate Phillips takes a creative approach to representing the goals through an everyday lens. The artwork is currently mounted in a main hallway at our Annapolis Valley Campus with QR codes that send viewers to more information about the portrayed Sustainable Development Goal.

NSCC retains the license to reprint the artwork and is intending to plan additional installations and travelling exhibits in the future.

Geology Field School Course:
The Environmental Engineering Technology program's Geology Field School course has been offered for 30 years. During this field school course, students follow Leave No Trace principles. Rock hammer use is limited for beach rock to minimize the impact from regular student visits on the rock outcrops. During the 30 years this course has been running, faculty and students have noticed many changes to the coastal rock formations from erosion. The degree of coastal erosion is partly attributed to climate change, as the frequency and intensity of storms have increased and, in part, to the geology and geomorphology of the coastal environment. Some attempts to mitigate the process of coastal erosion have been implemented at the sites visited, providing temporary relief as the relative sea level continues to rise. The students get the opportunity to assess the benefits of these measures.

In the 2021/22 academic year, the sustainability office ran a weekly SDG awareness campaign. Where the sustainability team delivered 17 SDG posters on a weekly basis to the campus sustainability committees to be promoted on the campus sustainability board. This year, during the 2022/23 academic year, we built on this momentum and engaged more students in SDG programming through our new SDG Spotlight Campaign. This campaign focused heavily on the involvement of students through an assortment of activities that worked to educate, inspire and involve students but was also be promoted to staff. A blend of college-wide and campus-specific events were used to build collaboration and communities of practices both on and across the campuses. Students were also incentivized to participate through a $500 tuition credit. This program ran for six months of the academic year.

The Campaign featured a different SDG each month throughout the academic year and will create three different engagement opportunities:

• Webinar sessions (College-wide) - promoted as “Lunch and learn” events and were 45 minutes sessions over the lunch break that explored one of the Sustainable Development Goals. Sessions were hosted by the sustainability campaign coordinator and aimed to host a guest speaker from the College to present how NSCC is advancing that SDG.
• On-campus events or exhibits (Campus specific) - opportunities for students to engage in person with the campus community. These events varied in scope and collaborated with existing NSCC events where possible (Wellness week for example). Included public waste audits, literature features, discounted meal days.
• Print resources on the campus sustainability boards (Campus specific)- Campuses were sent monthly features that were to be printed and promoted on the campus sustainability board.

The Pilikan House at the Annapolis Valley Campus represents a new way of thinking about healthy, sustainable residential development. It is designed to be an affordable and practical home to show homeowners how sustainable design and energy-efficient options can be within their reach. This house was constructed as a "living lab" and demonstration site where the next generation of residential construction professionals can learn how to incorporate sustainability into their work.
Pilikan is a hands-on learning tool for students in NSCC's Energy Sustainability Engineering Technology (ESET) program and a research tool with 30 monitoring and control points to track energy consumption. The house is often open for tours to the public and students so they, too, can learn about sustainable living.

Our Central Facilities Management office conducts waste audits at all 13 campuses every academic year. The audits track each campus' performance in waste sorting, and results are presented in the NSCC annual sustainability report. When the audits are conducted, invitations are extended to all staff and students to assist. Staff and student volunteers participate from different campuses, allowing them to obtain hands-on learning experience in proper waste management and auditing.

Free Bike Sharing programs are active at several NSCC campuses. This program benefits the students living on campus, in particular. It shows students how to live using a bicycle for their transportation. Providing the students with free bikes teaches them valuable active transportation life skills.

In 2023, NSCC's Facilities and Engineering department hired a student on a co-op program as Environmental Engineering Technical Support to assist with our greenhouse gas emissions inventory, under the guidance of our staff Environmental Engineer.

Job description:
Supporting the college's upcoming submission for STARS in March 2023, completing NSCC's Annual Greenhouse Gas Inventory for Scope 1 and 2, as well as select scope 3 emissions.

• Prepare technical report on GHG's annual emissions for 21/22 Academic Year

• Research carbon offsetting and renewable energy options, and modeling total need based on NSCC's emissions inventory and carbon goals with assistance of software programs such as RETScreen.

o Technical tasks that to support the inventory of Scope 1 and 2 emissions
 Adding data to NSCC's Portfolio Manager database past August 2022
 Updating campus profiles to reflect changing square footage and usage details
 Data quality analysis for errors and omissions
 Creating new energy meters for building additions or changing fuel types
 Updating the Goals tab on ESPM for each site to reflect our energy and GHG targets
 Creating custom report formats for energy, GHG and other ESPM data