Sheridan College (Ontario)
EN-1: Student Educators Program

Mission Zero is a program created by the Office for Sustainability at Sheridan College. It aims to support the promotion of sustainability initiatives and the implementation of community engagement events at Sheridan. The student volunteers were involved in a variety of outreach activities during the Orientation Week and throughout the semester. They worked at the Mission Zero booth set up outside the Cafeteria or in busy hallways during lunch. They informed their peer students about how to reduce waste and how to conserve energy. They also guided people how to sort waste at the Zero Waste stations. As well, they encouraged our community members to participate in the various Mission Zero events, including Spring Campus Cleanup Day, Tour de Sheridan Bike Event, Nature Walk, planting events, among others. The volunteers mainly worked at their own campus and occasionally supported the teams in other campuses voluntarily as needed.

The first group of volunteers were recruited at the beginning of the semester and another group of volunteers joined the team around mid-semester. They were recruited through the flyer posted around the campus, the Office for Sustainability’s website and social media, Co-curricular Office, and Student Union’s website. It was also promoted by the volunteers with the potential audience through the Mission Zero booths and to their peers. The volunteers who applied to join the team would be advised to complete a minimum of 12 hours of volunteer work and that they would be required to work as a team from the beginning of the program. The students who agreed to meet these requirements were welcome to join the program. There were 42 Mission Zero volunteers during the 2016/2017 fiscal year.

All the Mission Zero volunteers were invited to two training sessions each semester: one held at the beginning of the semester and another during the Reading Week at mid-term. During the orientation session, all the volunteers were introduced to each other and a presentation was given to provide an overview of the Mission Zero program, the Zero Waste initiative and the upcoming outreach events. The volunteers also learned about how to sort waste and how to approach and interact with people at the Mission Zero booth. We also discussed the scheduling of the volunteer time and how to meet the co-curricular requirements. At the mid-term session, a quick program overview was provided to the new volunteers and the returning volunteers were asked to share their feedback about their volunteer experience for the first campaign (waste sorting). A presentation was then provided to prepare the volunteers on the new campaigns, i.e. using coffee mugs (avoiding paper cups) and how to conserve energy. The presentation files and tip sheets were posted online for the volunteers to review in their time after the training session.

This program was created and led by the Office for Sustainability. A Mission Zero Co-op student is hired each semester to support this program and coordinate the volunteers across all three campuses.