University of Alberta
PAE-15: Employee Sustainability Educators Program

Staff, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and faculty are invited to express interest in this program and a cohort is made with a maximum of 25 people. We offer multiple cohorts to fill demand. Undergraduate students at Augustana campus are invited to participate. ecoREPs require permission from their supervisors to participate.

The Office of Sustainability’s ecoREPs program builds sustainability leadership skills and gives tips for implementing projects in work units and personal work space. REPs stands for Reach, Education and Peer-to-Peer. Sustainability champions or ecoREPs meet other like-minded individuals on campus in their cohort while accessing more information about sustainability, hands-on-activities and useful resources. The requirement to be an ecoREP is to participate in sessions covering: - Sustainability at the university - Personal perspectives on sustainability - Tips on engaging people and implementing sustainability projects - Presentations, panels or tours as identified by the current cohort

The ecoREPs program is provided through the Office of Sustainability's (core operating funding). In addition to this funding, an ecoREPs graduate has streamlined access to the Office of Sustainability's Green Grant program. Green Grants are awarded to projects that demonstrate a commitment to building a sustainable future on campus.

As reported on in PAE Credit 6, there is a program related to social justice (pertaining to this credit). These are managed through committees. The Equity committees and Health Workplace committees are comprised of members from the university community (employees representing the various collective agreements, undergraduate and graduate students). The specific mandates differ from unit to unit but each have a core desire to create healthy, respectful, equitable work, study, and living environments. Typical activities include building awareness of inequities and strategizing to remove barriers to full participation for all university members, especially those from equity seeking groups (members of sexual minorities, racialized communities, the four Federal Contractors Program (FCP) designated groups – women, Aboriginal people, members of visible minorities, persons with disabilities). The employment equity advisor, representatives from Health Promotion and WorkLife Services (HPaWS), the safe disclosure and human rights advisor, and others provide advice, coaching, and training to the various committees. Committee members are either elected by their peers or volunteer, depending on the respective Terms of Reference. To support the work of these committees and other social justice initiatives undertaken by the various academic and administrative units, a central fund (Employment Equity Discretionary Fund) exists to provide financial assistance; an annual amount of $20,000 is available to support department and faculty initiatives in addition to other sources of funding such as the support provided to the Healthy Workplace Committees/designates by HPaWS. Like all other aspects of the University of Alberta, due to the size of the institution, Employee Sustainability Education in the area of social justice is not managed centrally. Central administration provides some support and funding and the development of individual committees and initiatives in departments and faculties are at the discretion of chairs and deans.